meet The Spiders From Mars, Ziggy Stardust’s backing band. they were originally were called David Bowie & The Hype (only with later manager Tony Visconti on bass). when the Ziggy Stardust album came out, their name was changed to The Spiders From Mars. but, they played on all the tunes, helped craft the music, arranged the songs, created all the sounds that weren’t vocal. without this band i seriously doubt david bowie would have ever had the career he subsequently had.
MOST ESPECIALLY, the band included the guitar work of Mick Ronson, one of the truly greatest rock guitarists of the last half century. the simple fact is, that this is the band that made david bowie famous and played on those incredible albums up until the thin white duke went out solo in a drug addled puff of blue coke smoke. even after bowie got clean and functioning, he brought back Mick to help him craft his music.
one of the many many many things that the over-hyped rocknrollhalloffame does all wrong is that it celebrates the lead singers at the expense of the band. instead, they may enroll indivisuals fromt hat band intot he HoF (like elvis’s band or the beatles individually, etc.) but the bands that made the music that propelled the singer to stardom has generally been ignored. just ask the E-Street Band.
it became such a problem that the ‘famous’ singers were insisting on including the band rather than “just” the singer. Alice Cooper, Patti Smith, Joan Jett, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, etc. etc. all insisted on the whole band (the HoF said ‘no’ to Patti, for instance, yet she still plays with the same band pretty much). eventually, the presusure got so bad and so CORRECT that the place began to enroll the bands as SEPERATE ENTITIES from their lead singers.
thus, the Blue Caps get enrolled seperately from the singer, Gene Vincent. the Comets get enrolled seperately from their singer, Bill Haley. The Miracles get enrolled seperately from their singer, Smokey Robinson. the Famous Flames get enrolled seperately from their lead singer, James Brown (this created an even more complex problem when James Brown’s later and equally important and famous backing band, the J.B.’s had be get enolled as a seperate entitiy through a general vote this year – and got stomped in favor of crap like Chicago.)
another complication is that now, the Mothers of Invention will have to be voted in seperately from Frank Zappa. and Big Brother and the Holding Company will have to get voted in separately from Janis Joplin and the SPIDERS FROM MARS will have to get voted in separately from David Bowie.
this is pretty crazy. and it’s just another reason why that place is a living breathing joke.
