 Following the departure of Rick Wakeman on piano, the songs on "Ziggy Stardust" are considerably less piano-led than the songs on "Hunky Dory" and are more guitar-led.Along with guitar and composing the string arrangements, Ronson played piano on the album, and according to Pegg, his playing on tracks like "Five Years" and "Lady Stardust" foreshadow the skills he would showcase on Lou Reed's "Transformer" (1972).The album's lyrics discuss the artificiality of rock music in general, political issues, drug use, sexual orientation and stardom.