Meanwhile, I am desperately trying to keep my old 64gb iPod in working condition (got stacks of vinyl and CDs around, too).

Mystery solved! Stacey Heydon it is.

Sun friggin Ra was the music guest for an episode!

Are we talking about the same guy — the white guy with curly brown hair, black shirt, and a red tie?

Anyone who hasn't seen or heard Klaus Nomi needs to go to youtube posthaste and watch the "Cold Song" performance he did in an opera house.

Yeah, I remember when the (great!) Nomi documentary came out that I left with the impression that Bowie had stolen the tuxedo idea from Arias and Nomi.

My favorite version too, even putting aside the striking visual presentation.

Not Earl Slick. Also not Adrian Belew or, as you note, Alomar.

Hands down my favorite SNL music performance.

I don't know of anyone who would rank that album among Bowie's best, but goddamn do I love "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud."

Why isn't Black Country Rock played all the time on classic rock radio stations?!!

I would say that song-for-song, Aladdin Sane is better than Ziggy.

Honestly, your best bet might be to get a greatest hits album, because a Bowie album from 1972 is much different than one from 1976 or 1978, even if they're equally great.

I'm choosing to believe Bowie's "death" is just an elaborate cover as he assumes his spot as leader of an international shadow organization.

I remember reading an interview with Gervais that mentioned this. He told Bowie that basic gist, and asked him to write a funny parody similar to "Life on Mars." Bowie had some clever and saracastic rejoinder about how easy it is to write songs like that. Gervais immediately realized he made a fool of himself.

There was a time when he was not nearly so universally loved, even into the mid-90s.

Besides the excellence of the song, this video exhibits how Bowie could pull things off visually that no one else could.

That's a pretty cool connection.

"Queen Bitch" was the other original, which is awesome in a totally different way.

There is a potentially interesting article waiting to be written by the AV Club about people being emotionally affected by a great artistic or sports figure.