I like all the eras of the ever-changing David Bowie but his early to mid-seventies is my favorite. Love this song with its loud intro with Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. I knew a lot of his music as a kid because my sister liked Ziggy Stardust.
It was on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars released in 1972. Read that review if you have time…the album was one of his best to me. He wrote the song after meeting Fred Burrett a fashion designer in the early 70s. The album peaked at #5 in the UK, #21 on the Billboard Album Charts, #20 in New Zealand, and #59 on the Canadian Charts.
The original version of Moonage Daydream was released in 1971 under the name Arnold Corns, a side project Bowie used to test new material. Bowie formed Arnold Corns in early 1971. The name was inspired by the Pink Floyd song Arnold Layne. He combined Fred Burrett and Arnold Corns and wrote songs for the test band.
From Wiki…Arnold Corns included: David Bowie, Freddie Burretti (he changed his name), Mick Ronson, Mark Carr-Pritchard, Trevor Bolder, and Mick Woodmansey.
This song helped inspire Jack and Meg White to form The White Stripes. Jack was playing it on guitar and Meg started to play along and they formed their band.
Moonage Daydream
I’m an alligator, I’m a mama-papa coming for you
I’m the space invader, I’ll be a rock ‘n’ rollin’ bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut, you’re squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I’m busting up my brains for the words
Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah
Don’t fake it, baby, lay the real thing on me
The church of man, love, is such a holy place to be
Make me baby, make me know you really care
Make me jump into the air
Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah
Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah
Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah
Freak out, far out, in out
…

I like the early stuff as well. He is so different then every one else and I love his voice. Great song choice!
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That whole Arnold Corns was s mystery to me! I had read that whole series of reviews on Bowie Albums which sent me back listening to some of his albums. However I had not gotten round to this song, so thanks!
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The recording is very sparce to me….but I didn’t know about it either at all.
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I like this song very much. You Ça here and see a live version at the beginning of the documentary with the same name.
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I have yet to see the documentary….I will make that a priority soon.
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Pretty cool song. I’d never heard of that Arnold Corns project before, I thought Tin Machine later was the only thing like that he’d done.
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Don’t feel alone….I didn’t know either and it was very surprising. I really like this song.
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I recently bought the CD soundtrack of the concert movie ‘Moonage Daydream’, to go with the dvd. Both are great.
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I have to watch it. I haven’t yet but I want to.
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I am more familiar with Bowie material from late ish 70’s (Heroes) onwards. The scant that I have heard from his early days Ziggy etc and Space Oddity and the other big ones, I prefer the era aforementioned. But I liked this, some. Thanks for introducing me to it. Oh, by the way I failed to congratulate you in an earlier post on your reaching 1,000,000 views. That’s an enormous accomplishment and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
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Thanks Matt…the million views shocked me. I thought I was getting close at the beginning of the year but it snuck up on me.
I guess I like this Bowie stuff a lot because I was exposed to it more….like Life On Mars.
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After I read your achievement I had to look at my site stats and I was flabbergasted how far I’m trailing your figure. That was a humbling experience if I may say so lol. In saying that, I’m getting well over a 100 views a day (on average) to a plethora of wide ranging (mostly music predominantly Spanish and English) articles. I’m content my blog is able to muster that quantity because it makes it well worth my while to get this great art out there.
They say curiosity killed the cat, but I’ll have a go… can I ask what your blog achieves in the way of views each day? I imagine it far exceeds my tally.
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Well I built up readers at first Matt when I would post 3 posts a day…which for me it was crazy and I couldn’t keep up with it…. but usually I get around 380-550 a day. But…I don’t get the majority of them from WP…I get 250-400 from google searches.
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To quote Dylan from ‘I Shall Be Free No. 10’ – ‘Wowee, pretty scary’ haha.
Same here, nearly all of my views are from Google searches. Up to 550 is a lot! Well done.
I hope you don’t mind me prodding you more on this…
Do you do anything special in your individual posts to attract such results like with search engine query or article summarys? Or do you have an ‘outreach’ app that promotes your blog or does it just happen? Please excuse my extended interest on this matter.
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No outreach at all. I do place tags of course. For instance…if I have a Beatles post…I put John Lennon, Paul McCartney, etc…and Beatles…the song and sometimes the album it was on. Anything Matt…that I think could be hit in a search.
You know whats wild though? My most viewed post is a Burger King Commerical…I think I only have one or two songs in my top 10! lol.
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Yeh, I place tags too but perhaps not so many as you. Thanks for clarifying.
It made me smile reading how your most viewed post is a commercial. By the way I have a burger king right here near where I live. Haha I prefer their burgers over McDonald’s.
My greatest views for a long time was ‘Bright Horses’ by Nick Cave about the loss of his child which we did to-ing and fro ing in the comments. Now that song has been taken over by Kenny G’s ‘Forever in Love’ which I’m almost certain is so popular because of Nancy’s link to the parody, which I must say is almost essential viewing.
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I don’t know a ton of Bowie but I do love this album and song.
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Thanks for checking it out…Mick Ronson was on guitar for him and he had a great tone and could tear it up.
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Yep, my favourite Bowie era as well, though ‘Heroes’ and others like’China Girl’ worked well too. Mick Ronson sure helped his sound IMO.
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I do like Heroes a lot and the Let’s Dance album in general but this stuff….it’s something about it. I just commented about Mick Ronson…that sound he got help establish Ziggy.
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I love “Moonage Daydream” and the entire “Ziggy Stardust”, which is my favorite Bowie. album. I’m mostly drawn to his glam rock period. That said, I also like a good deal of songs he released afterwards.
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I am as well…the glam era had some songs that sounded Beatleish to me…like Life On Mars.
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I always felt that Ziggy Stardust should have been the one to sing with Bing Crosby…
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That would have been even something more to remember. From what I read…he came in with orange hair, ear rings, and other wild clothes but they convinced him to tone it down lol.
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Though I can’t claim to have listened to every one, Ziggy Stardust is my favourite Bowie album. Love this song too – the first verse makes no sense but it’s lyrically perfect!
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Mine is probably Hunky Dory but I like them all through this period.
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Bowie makes androgyny hot. The lyrics are a sizzling stream of consciousness. Hawt Hawt Hawt song.
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One of my favourites from Ziggy Stardust, along with the title track.
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