David Bowie Co-Producer Ken Scott Talks New ‘Ziggy Stardust’-Era Box Set

When British recording engineer Ken Scott began working with David Bowie on what became the latter’s eponymous 1969 album (a.k.a., Space Oddity), he initially regarded the still-relatively unknown musician as a gifted artist but not quite a superstar. In comparison, Scott had collaborated with more famous acts such as the Beatles, Jeff Beck and Procol Harum.

“I couldn't see it,” Scott recalls today of Bowie the newcomer. “My standards were pretty damn high at that point. And so [I thought] he was talented but would never really do much.”

About four years later, he and the rest of the world witnessed the mania Bowie unleashed under the guise of his glam-rock alter-ego Ziggy Stardust following the 1972 release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Co-produced by Bowie and Scott, the album finally catapulted the singer to stardom with songs such as the title track, “Moonage Daydream,” “Suffragette City” and “Starman.”

Over 50 years later, that crucial period in Bowie’s career is now celebrated in a new 5-CD/1 Blu-ray box set, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!, which traces the musical origins of Ziggy Stardust and its aftermath. Featuring 29 previously unreleased tracks, the collection is a treasure trove of demos, radio sessions, live performances and non-album tracks from that timeframe.

For Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!, Scott recently remixed several Ziggy-era tracks, including alternate versions of songs like “Lady Stardust” and “Hang On to Yourself,” and session outtakes such as “It’s Gonna Rain Again” and “Sweet Head.” It is the latest Bowie archival project that Scott has worked on since the 2022 A Divine Symmetry box that focused on 1971’s Hunky Dory, the predecessor of Ziggy Stardust.

“I just went in and did a couple of mixes of the original tracks, just modernized them a little,” he recalls about A Divine Symmetry. “Then it came time for Ziggy and it was wading through all of the multi-tracks because we knew that there was a lot more there than there had been on Hunky Dory. So we went through and found all these bits, and I worked on them.

“They're not exactly as they were left from the recording,” he continues. “There were some [songs] where I felt there should be double-tracked guitars. So I'd take an acoustic guitar from another take of the song and match it up in tempo and everything with the original—I tarted them up a bit. Some of them aren't quite as basic as they were originally. But I think they work.”

Among the rarities and unheard tracks include Bowie’s cover of Chuck Berry’s “Round and Round”; live performances of the Velvet Underground’s “Waiting for the Man” and “White Light/White Heat”; his historic rendition of “Starman” on Top of the Pops; and a version of The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” that’s different from the one on his 1973 album Pinups. “It was all fresh for me,” Scott says about rediscovering the deep archival material for Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!. “It was great. And I think that's something that helped me with trying to piece them together because it's not something I've been listening to for 50 years.”

In co-producing the original Ziggy Stardust album, Scott witnessed the unique chemistry between Bowie and the Spiders from Mars band: guitarist Mick Ronson, drummer Woody Woodmansey and bassist Trevor Bolder. “I don't think that [Mick] ever got the credit that he deserved,” says Scott. “He was so much a part of it for taking some of David's ideas and bringing them to fruition, especially like with the strings and brass arrangements that he did – they were great.”

Sonically, Ziggy Stardust departed from Hunky Dory for its aggressive glam rock approach. But Scott says there’s also a commonality between the two records since work Ziggy Stardust started right after the recording of Hunky Dory.

“You take a track like “Queen Bitch” off of Hunky Dory, it would fit in perfectly with Ziggy. It feels the same. And there’s a track “It Ain't Easy” we recorded for Hunky Dory, but then we chose not to use it. That finished up on Ziggy. So the albums finished up differently, but song-wise and recording-wise, there's a real sort of gray area where everything fits together. It could have been a double album easily.”

Indicative of that hard rock sound is “Suffragette City,” which one would naturally think there were saxophones present on the track. But that wasn’t the case, according to Scott. “The blaring baritone saxes weren't saxes at all. David did an interview with Redbeard, the American DJ, and they played “Suffragette City” [on the latter’s radio program]. And at the end of it, Redbeard says, ‘And that was David playing those blaring baritone saxes.’ And David agreed with it wholeheartedly. He never argued, ‘Yeah, I played the saxes on that.’

“It wasn't,” Scott continues. “It was a big ARP synthesizer. Ronno played it. And that's what it is. It's a synthesizer. It's not blaring baritone saxes. But you always had to be careful with what David said, whether it was 100% honest or not. He agreed with people and had fun doing it.”

“Starman” was a last-minute addition to the album’s tracklist, resulting in the previously recorded “Round and Round” being shelved. “It was done in a couple of days,” recalls Scott. “The record company threw the album back at us, saying there's no single. And so we went in, recorded it, threw it in. We just pushed out of the way “Round.” And we kept exactly the same running order as we had at that time. He played it on Top of the Pops, and it all took off.”

Like many of Bowie’s beloved works, the album’s title track has become iconic. “We made a record that pleased us,” says Scott. “And that was what it was all about. We weren't trying to please anyone other than ourselves. We weren't doing it for a particular market or anything like that. If we felt happy listening to it a few months down the line, we'd done what we wanted to do. And other people seem to like it. I can't get into their minds, but I'm so grateful to them for liking it.”

Upon the release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars on June 6, 1972, Bowie and the Spiders became sensations especially with British youth; their popularity further heightened with their memorable appearance on Top of the Pops the following month. It would continue until Bowie retired the character during a London show on July 3, 1973.

“I can't believe this guy came from “The Laughing Gnome,”” Scott says about witnessing Bowie’s newfound fame while referencing one of the singer’s pre-Ziggy songs. ”I always likened David's growth to seeing it as a grandparent. You see your kids or grandkids every now and again, so you really notice the change in them. Whereas the parents see the kids every day, so they don't notice the changes. Well, I was more like the parent there. I would see him very slowly change over a period of time. But the people that only caught him every now and again, it was, ‘Wow, he's changed so much. What's he doing?’ kind of thing. So it didn't have quite the effect on me that it did a lot of other people.”

After Ziggy Stardust, Scott worked with Bowie on the albums Aladdin Sane and Pinups, both released in 1973. Asked which of the four Bowie albums he co-produced is his favorite, he answers: “I enjoyed all of them. Pinups was slightly strange. That was the toughest. David was at that point where he wanted to move on. He fired the band, and then he had to invite Trevor back because the guy who was going to play bass pulled out at the last minute. So that created strange vibes in the studio. That was a bit tougher, but the other three [albums] were all complete joys to work on.”

Since its original 1972 release, the Ziggy Stardust album has been reissued several times while the title track and “Suffragette City” have become staples of Bowie compilations. Today, Scott couldn’t give a definitive answer of why that album still resonates decades later. “If I knew that properly, then I'd be a billionaire by now because I would have done a whole bunch more in the same vein. I have no idea. It works. And that's all you can ever ask of any album, any live performance, whatever. ‘Did it work? Did the audience like it?’ And if they liked it, that's great.”

Rock ‘n’ Roll Star! isn’t only the latest celebration marking 50-plus years of Ziggy Stardust. This September, the original Ziggy Stardust album will be reissued in Dolby Atmos, newly mixed by Scott and Emre Ramazanoglu — and also accompanied by a new 2024 stereo mix.

“I had gotten bored with Ziggy after 50 years and hearing it,” says Scott. “I was much of the opinion, ‘I couldn't give a s*** if I never heard “Suffragette City” again.’ But then the opportunity came up to do the immersive version because I know that it’s going to be different – Atmos was how we mixed it. From that, there's also a brand new stereo as well, which will be coming out at the same time as the Atmos version. I'm so excited by it.”

He continues: “I [asked my wife], ‘Do you want to hear the stereo mix of it? The new one.’ She said, ‘No, I love the old one. It can't get any better than that.’ We're in the car one day, and one of the new stereo tracks comes up. I said, ‘Oh, I'm sorry. I'll take it off.’ She said, ‘No, it started now. Let me listen.’ I think we went through about two songs, and she said, ‘It's great. Wow, it's different, but I can't say how.’ It's a bit more modern and it works. And in Atmos, I really love it. I'm so excited about it again.”