This Friday, Let All The Children Boogie: A Tribute To David Bowie will be coming to Earth—and perhaps in a few years, Mars—and The A.V. Club has an exclusive stream of Rhett Miller’s take on “Ziggy Stardust.”
Miller goes at this one alone, turning in an acoustic take on one of David Bowie’s most iconic songs sans The Spiders From Mars (or even his Old 97’s bandmates). The alt-country singer has referred to Bowie as his “North Star,” and upon Bowie’s death earlier this year recalled in a terrific Salon piece the moment where he watched Bowie have a smoke and a drink on the side of the stage during 1983’s Serious Moonlight Tour and proclaimed to himself, “I want that job.”
“Ziggy Stardust” features sparse production save for a few overdubbed vocals on the choruses, and showcases Miller’s impressive guitar playing, which often gets overlooked when compared to the frontman’s songwriting (or shaking his own God-given ass on stage). For better or worse, Miller doesn’t attempt the fake British accent heard prominently on his solo debut,1989’s Mythologies. This isn’t the first time Miller has paid tribute to his idol: Old 97’s performed “Five Years” on their 2010 Mimeograph EP, also from The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.
Let All The Children Boogie from Spare The Rock Records hits stores on Friday, November 18, and can also be purchased via Amazon and iTunes. The album will also feature Ted Leo’s take on “Heroes,” The Honeydogs and Chastity Brown doing “Oh! You Pretty Things,” and Gina Chavez covering “Modern Love.” Proceeds from the record will benefit the It Gets Better Project, whose mission is to “communicate to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth around the world that it gets better, and to create and inspire the changes needed to make it better for them.”