The band was about to break up in 1972. Then fan and friend David Bowie gave them “All The Young Dudes”.

This song was supposed to be for the Ziggy Stardust album. And Mott turned down “Suffragette City” before picking this one.

Despite its place as a glam rock anthem to the youth, Bowie asserts that the song carries a far darker message. He said in an interview in 1973 that the song told the same story from the song “Five Years” from the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and was about the newscaster message of impending apocalypse and that Earth has five years left before its end.