SUSAN PHILIPSZ / ZIGGY STARDUST

Audio CD / 500 ex / 26 Min / 2004 /

Published by PS Lyd

"Ziggy really sang."

Whose song is this? And in whose voice could it be

sung? The song Ziggy Stardust was never sung in the

first person. There was always a persona, an

impression of an impossible character, conflating drag

with rock and roll clich. But even this signature

song does not speak in the voice of Ziggy himself, but

through other people.

And what could it mean to sing it again? Without

disguise? Now a womans voice, not so much playing

the part, but claiming the song quietly, momentarily,

as her own. No performance, as such, but to herself.

This has something to do with nostalgia. It is always

a case of nostalgia. Instant nostalgia for the moment

we first or last heard. And we repeat it to

ourselves, as best we can. Inadequately. That

inability to conjure that moment past contributes to

the nostalgic present.

Whose song, then? To have sung it again is to lay

some small claim to it. It is to change the song. It

never forgets its original formwe rely upon our

memory of it even as we hear it sung again. We stand

in one place, but recall another at the same time. In

this one quiet voice we hear several voices at once.

Andrew Renton

London, February 2002