The Perfect Beat: Arthur Baker's Baker's Dozen

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

3. David BowieThe Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars

I just love this album – Hunky Dory was before that, and I could have picked that, too, because it had the Andy Warhol song on it. But Ziggy Stardust, you know? Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am! It preceded so much… it was before The New York Dolls. He was a genius. ’Suffragette City’, ‘Five Years’, ‘Soul Love’, ‘Starman’, I mean, come on, an unbelievable album; it tells a story. And then the cover. Here’s the thing, I had never been to England at this point, but it kind of took you there. As a kid, I’d play these tracks getting ready for school. 

There’s a place in London called The Devonshire, and the first time I went I thought I had a hook up there and I didn’t, but I got in the little back room anyway, where they do steak sandwiches and had a DJ set-up. The owner wasn’t going to let me back in, but then he did as all these people there knew me. I saw the turntables, and asked if I could play, so I started DJ’ing from all the records they had there, and I played a British set of this exact time, things like ‘Suffragette City’, then T. Rex, then The Kinks. Everyone was dancing. It was great, and this album sort of encompasses that for me. 

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