Five Years - 2012 Remaster

This is the opening track to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. An announcement airs that the world will end in five years' time because of a lack of natural resources. The song then proceeds to describe the frenzied aftermath of the announcement.

David Bowie chose five years as the length of time following a dream he had in 1971 in which his late father came to him and told him that he had only five years left to live and that he must never fly again.

This was recorded in November 1971 at London's Trident Studios. Bowie performed it on the BBC show The Old Grey Whistle Test on February 8, 1972, five months before the album's release.