Five Years (track)
by David Bowie
Year: 1972
From the album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (track #1)
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Five Years appears on the following album(s) by David Bowie:
- The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (track #1) (this album) (1972)
- Bowie At The Beeb (track #25) (2000)
- A Reality Tour (track #28) (2010)
- Stage (track #3) (1978)
- Live Santa Monica '72 (track #7) (1994)
- Live Nassau Coliseum '76 (track #9) (2017)
- The Collaborator - The Legendary Broadcasts (track #13) (compilation) (2016)
- The Collaborator - The Legendary Broadcasts (track #41) (compilation) (2016)
- Welcome To The Blackout (Live London '78) (track #13) (2018)
- Five Years (1969-1973) (track #30) (compilation) (2015)
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Five Years ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
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Showing latest 3 ratings for this track. | Show all 1,025 ratings for this track.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Track ratings | Avg. track rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 10/19/2026 19:39 | fatpizzachef | 185 | 89/100 |
| ! | 10/11/2026 21:08 | Mafedere | 12,486 | 74/100 |
| ! | 10/07/2026 16:55 | emiro | 1,979 | 89/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some tracks can have several thousand ratings)
This track is rated in the top 1% of all tracks on BestEverAlbums.com. This track has a Bayesian average rating of 92.3/100, a mean average of 91.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 92.4/100. The standard deviation for this track is 11.8.
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Five Years comments
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I swear this song is so underrated. This is undeniably my favorite David Bowie song. Such perfect emotion. (Edited)
What a cracking start to an album never mind a single, with a superb and instantly recognisable drum beat. Although the album wasn't written as a joined storyline, us fans have invented it by joining the songs stories together - to be fair the themes of space and alienation and impending disaster does run through the songs. And this first song sets the scene and letting us know that there is in fact only 5 years left.
Bowie's vocal delivery at the end is superb. (Edited)
Space-Dementia 10/10/2015 19:58 | #151275
This is such a good opener. The way he screams "Five years!" near the end is so dope. (Edited)
arthur237 07/18/2015 22:38 | #146036
Absolutely incredible song. David Bowie was hugely influenced by John Lennon's Plastic Ono band and you can hear the song 'God' and 'Mother' in here certainly. (Edited)
GandalfORiley345 05/25/2014 15:55 | #112905
Incredble way to start an album, David Bowie´s viocein this song is incredible (Edited)
