In late October, 1972, when I was nineteen, two of my friends and I attended a concert by David Bowie, who was making his first tour of the United States, promoting his latest album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . The British singer, who performed in the character of Ziggy Stardust, was backed by his own band, The Spiders from Mars, with Mick Ronson on lead guitar, Trevor Bolder on bass, Mick Woodmansey on drums, and an American musician, Mike Garson, on piano. It was one of the two shows that featured David Bowie, at Winterland in San Francisco, on Friday, October 27, and Saturday, October 28, and in my mind it still remains as one of the best performances of any kind that I have ever seen. David Bowie, who started out in London as David Jones (he changed his last name to avoid being confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees), first became widely known to the public when his single, "Space Oddity," was released in 1969 and became a hit. He late...