“Five Years” by David Bowie

"Five Years" opens David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, the 1972 album built around an alien rock star, and it sets up the whole story: the Earth has five years left, and the only savior on the way is Ziggy. Bowie cut it in November 1971 at Trident Studios in London, co-producing with Ken Scott, with the Spiders behind him: Mick Ronson on piano, guitar and autoharp, Trevor Bolder on bass and Mick Woodmansey on drums.

Woodmansey's beat, a lonely, steady tread, is the backbone, and the song keeps piling on weight, moving from a child's-eye view of the end of the world to Bowie speaking straight at you, until strings surge in and he's screaming the title. Critics have long ranked it among his best, and a 2015 box set borrowed its name.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.