David Bowie's Handwritten Lyrics to "Ziggy Stardust"

When we set out to determine the 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time for our 2008 music issue, we had no idea what the results would reveal. After surveying more than a hundred musicians, actors, DJs, writers, critics, and industry types, we tallied the votes and discovered which LP had been ranked number 1: David Bowie's 1972 classic, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, a rollicking, apocalyptic concept record about a hard-partying, androgynous alien rock star. "It's ironic that an album with an opener forecasting Earth's expiration and a closer tackling celebrity excess and self-destruction remains one of the most liberating, uplifting records of all time -- about as ironic as a straight man topping this list," we wrote, adding that the gender-blurring opus found Bowie "singing for every exiled, dejected, sexually confused young kid who longed for a world of greater possibilities." To celebrate that world -- and pay tribute to the incomparable legend behind it -- here are Bowie's handwritten lyrics to the album's title track, "Ziggy Stardust."