Aladdin Sane

Aladdin Sane
Studio album by David Bowie
Publication (s)	April 13, 1973
Label (s)	RCA
Format (s)	LP , CD
Genre (s)	Glam rock , art rock
Title (number)	10
running time	40:47
occupation	Vocals , guitar : David Bowie Guitar , piano : Mick Ronson Bass : Trevor Bolder Drums : Mick Woodmansey
production	Ken Scott , David Bowie
Studio (s)	RCA Studios, New York and Nashville Trident Studios, London
chronology The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) Aladdin Sane Pinups (1973)

Aladdin Sane is a1973 concept album by David Bowie. It was released on April 13 of that year on the RCA Victor record label.

History of origin

The compositions for six of the ten titles were created during the second half of the American tour of Bowie and the Spiders of Mars between September 1972 and January 1973. Bowie himself described Aladdin Sane as "Ziggy goes to America". Jazz pianist Mike Garson, who has been part of the lineup of the Spiders of Mars, Bowie's backing band, since the first concert at the Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio on September 22, 1972, was hired for the tour. Bowie documented the places of origin on the label of the record. (see list of titles). Bowie uses puns in some of his titles. Aladdin Sane (1913–1938–197?) , Written on the ship passage back to England, can also be read as “a lad insane” (Eng. “An insane fellow”); Bowie's half-brother Terry was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the time; he himself suffered from the fear of going mad. The first two of the years in brackets indicate the years before the outbreak of the two world wars. The Jean Genie , created on the tour bus at a jam and recorded for a single in New York in early October 1972 without producer Ken Scott, is seen as a play on Jean Genet .

After the single The Jean Genie , RCA decided not to wait until the end of the tour to record and sent producer Ken Scott to the United States. The recording began with a week-long session in the New York studios of RCA ( All the Young Dudes , Drive-In Saturday , The Prettiest Star ). The latter two recordings were used for the album. After the tour was over, production was relocated to Trident Studios in London, where a further two weeks were recorded from January 1973. Scott mixed the recordings in another 10 days.

Publication and chart success

The Jean Genie was released in a mono version in November 1972 in the United Kingdom and the United States. The single hit the UK Top 40 on December 9th, reached number 2, and lasted for 13 weeks. On the Billboard Hot 100 , she went single on December 23, 1972, reached number 71 and lasted five weeks.

The album was released on April 13, 1973. It reached the top of the British album charts and stayed in the charts for a total of 72 weeks. The album reached number 17 on the US Billboard 200 .

reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine reviewed Aladdin Sane for the music database Allmusic . Bowie gives up his obsession with futurism in favor of concentrating on the detached casualness of New York and London jazz and condensed rock music. Erlewine criticizes the album's lack of cohesion.

The album has an entry in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, published by Robert Dimery . The local reviewer Jim Harrington finds despair and alienation in the individual titles, as well as striving for self-knowledge. Herrington sees the weak point of the album in the cover version of the Stones title Let’s Spend the Night Together , which points to the follow-up album Pinups with its cover versions.

The album was ranked 274 of the 500 best music albums of all time in the all-time best list published in book form by the American music magazine Rolling Stone in 2005 . That list includes six Bowie albums.

Cover design

The record sleeve shows Bowie with the red hairstyle typical of the Ziggy Stardust phase and a two-tone lightning bolt painted on his face. Bowie was photographed for the cover in January 1973 by fashion photographer Brian Duffy. The lightning bolt was supposed to serve as a symbol for a split personality: Bowie and the fictional character Ziggy Stardust created by him. Duffy was considered an influential fashion photographer along with David Bailey and Terence Donovan. He cites Elvis as the inspiration for the lightning bolt, although this symbol was also used in a 1971 collection by Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto that inspired Bowie to create the red Ziggy hairstyle in March 1972. The self-proclaimed “Mexican Elvis” El Vez provided the cover for his EP A Lad from Spain? to.

Track list

1. Watch That Man - 4:25 (New York)
2. Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?) - 5:06 (RHMS Ellinis )
3. Drive-In Saturday - 4:29 (Seattle - Phoenix)
4. Panic in Detroit - 4:25 (Detroit)
5. Cracked Actor - 2:56 (Los Angeles)
6. Time - 5:09 (New Orleans)
7. The Prettiest Star - 3:26 (Gloucester Road)
8. Let's Spend the Night Together ( Mick Jagger , Keith Richards ) - 3:03
9. The Jean Genie - 4:02 (Detroit and New York)
10. Lady Grinning Soul - 3:46 (London)

Aftermath

The album had a significant influence on glam rock , shock rocker Marilyn Manson cited it as the greatest inspiration for his transformation to glam rock and for his album Mechanical Animals .

literature

• Paolo Hewitt: Bowie - Retrospective . Edel Rockbuch , 2012, ISBN 978-3-8419-0159-0 (British English: Bowie. Album by Album . Translated by Sonja Kerkhoffs).
• David Buckley: David Bowie . Story and songs compact. Bosworth Music GmbH, 2008, ISBN 978-3-86543-329-9 (British English: David Bowie - The Complete Guide to his Music . Translated by Marie Mainzer).
• Ken Scott and Bobby Owsinski: Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust . Alfred Music Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7390-7858-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hewitt 2012, p. 64.
2. ↑ Buckley 2008, p. 33.
3. ↑ Images for David Bowie - Aladdin Sane. In: discogs.com. Accessed January 1, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Buckley 2008, p. 35.
5. ↑ Hewitt, 2012, p. 69.
6. ↑ Scott / Owsinski 2012, p. 171.
7. ↑ Scott / Owsinski 2012, p. 172.
8. ↑ ChartArchive - David Bowie - The Jean Genie. Accessed January 1, 2013 . 
9. ↑ The Jean Genie - David Bowie | Billboard. Accessed January 1, 2013 . 
10. ↑ ChartArchive - David Bowie - Aladdin Sane. Accessed January 1, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Aladdin Sane: Aladdin Sane - David Bowie: Awards: AllMusic. Retrieved January 1, 2013 . 
12. ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Aladdin Sane - David Bowie: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards: AllMusic. In: allmusic.com. Rovi Corp., accessed January 1, 2013 . 
13. ↑ David Nichols: 1001 Albums - Music You Should Hear Before Life Is Over . Ed .: Robert Dimery. updated 5th new edition. Edition Olms, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-283-01112-3 , p. 288 (English: 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die .).
14. ↑ various authors: Rolling Stone - The 500 best albums of all time . Ed .: Joe Levy. VMB Publishers, 2011, ISBN 978-88-540-1678-1 , pp. 177 (English: Rolling Stone. The 500 Greatest Albums of all Time . Translated by Karin Hofmann).
15. ↑ Hewitt 2012, p. 63 f.