"Ziggy" is my alltime favorite album, with one French LP from 1979. I listened to this masterpiece hundred times.

I like the album before "Ziggy" and the album after but just this "glam" period, not the entire career of DB.

So long, David. You were one of the greatest.

Yeh i was pretty shocked and sad to first hear of his passing,theres a glut of early Bowie performances from his Anthony Newley influenced first album on Decca on Facebook,particularly on the Shindig Site,stuff like Sell me a Coat,Love You Till Tuesday,When Im Five,Let Me Sleep Beside You,among other things,i watched them all and seeing a very youthful Bowie performing those songs really filled me with happiness not sadness,he slogged hard in his early years but watching interviews with him he still seemed a nice genuine bloke even after all his craziness with drugs and looking awfully skinny as Ziggy Stardust and having huge fame for over 40 years.Unfortunately Bowie was a lifetime smoker,which i dont know contributed to his cancer,but that really doesnt matter now,i dont have a lot of Bowie cds,i have the deluxe double cd debut,the deluxe Space Oddity cd and his third album The man who sold the world,i enjoy all 3 but have never ventured pass those as from what ive heard from other albums didnt tickle my fancy,but i may purchase the Ziggy Stardust cd,which features Mick Ronson on guitar,sadly he passed away a few year back too,i have ordered his debut solo album as from samples ive heard sounds the dogs bollocks!!Cant wait to hear it!!Recorded around the same sorta time as Ziggy!!!!!David Bowie was a phenomonal talent and will be sadly missed,hes left a huge amount of music for us to enjoy and can only thank him for that,his music will still be played away in the future,probably way after i leave this mortal coil, no doubt about that.David Bowie,David Jones...Rest In Peace!!!!!

They just replayed the David Bowie episode of Extras on ABC here in Aust. Still bloody funny

Black Star to my ears is mindblowingly good theres a really dark vibe to it with moments of psyche fuzz and jazz and orchestra a superb album for the great man to sign off with

Absolutely agree Phil. There are five unissued tracks from the sessions for Black Star apparently, so I imagine they'll be a 'deluxe' version at some point none to distant!

PM

I suspect this is a hoax....

What, his death or the extra tracks?

Possibly both, certainly his death. Funeral in secret, no family or friends invited?

But why?

Artistic statement? Seems strange his final LP was released just 2 days before his death too. It wouldn't be the first time he has had a 'death' and 'rebirth'

A good conspiracy theory. Remember, you heard it first on RZ!

Any prediction on when the rebirth may occur?

just been watching the Blackstar vids on you tube amazing scenes and music didnt anyone on the making of these guess what was happening?
IMHO he orchestrated his real death down to the final detail
and skip think on this if Bowie was having treatment in USA surely some money grabbing medic would have crawled out of the woodwork with mobile phone pictures or the like
IMHO i believe he is dead but how he has managed to do it with no detail or real information other than a couple of statements from his son i dont know

Next thing you'll be telling me Paul McCartney didn't really die in 1966!

Hi Mark, Yes, I've played right through the 'Five Years' box now. The 2015 re-mastering gives these albums a great sound, a lot of clarity and separation. The 2003 re-mix of Ziggy is great, bringing some instruments out further in the foreground, thus giving the songs a different emphasis. and nice to have alongside the orignal. I enjoyed the 'Recall One' double CD a lot, I haven't heard some of those for quite a while, and a few never.

I was taken by how quietly most of these albums have been re-mastered, you really have to whack the volume up to get any sound projection. However, when you do, it's pure clarity and separation you get, so no problem. The exception is the Live at Santa Monica boot. I barely needed to switch the CD player on to get loudness from this! I have this in an older jewel case edition as well, which I haven't played to confirm, but I seem to recall that all the audience inter-action from the stage was editied out on that version; this box edition has quite a bit of Bowie talking from the stage. Also great to have the last Ziggy concert audio, which is one I never had originally.

I must say the little black hardback book is a gem. It's a bit like 'Flashback' magazine reproducing original reviews as well as press ads etc. It does as nice a job as a CD sized book can do really. The glossy box is nice (similar to the Roxy Music one of a few years back). I did think the individual sleeves were a bit cheap looking; more like cartons or cereal boxes than sleeves when compared to the Japanese mini LP CD versions of Bowies albums I have. These I think are all made in Europe. Nontheless, overall, it's a good box set and I'm glad I bought it. I hope the other two boxes will get released with attendeant live and rare tracks. The Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Station To Station, Heroes and Low albums should all be in the next one.

PM