Aladdin Sane
Aladdin Sane is the sixth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released in April 1973 through RCA Records. The follow-up to his breakthrough The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, it was the first album he wrote and released from a position of stardom. It was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott and features contributions from Bowie's backing band the Spiders from Mars—Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey—with the pianist Mike Garson, two saxophonists and three backing vocalists. Recorded in London and New York City between legs of the Ziggy Stardust Tour, the record was Bowie's final album with the full Spiders lineup.
Most of the tracks were written on the road in the US and are greatly influenced by America and Bowie's perceptions of the country. Due to the American influence and the fast-paced songwriting, the record features a tougher, heavier glam rock sound than its predecessor. The lyrics reflect the pros of Bowie's newfound stardom and the cons of touring and contain images of urban decay, drugs, sex, violence and death. Some of the songs are influenced by the Rolling Stones; a cover of their song "Let's Spend the Night Together" is included. Bowie described the album's title character, a pun on "A Lad Insane", as "Ziggy Stardust goes to America". The cover artwork, shot by Brian Duffy and featuring a lightning bolt across Bowie's face, is regarded as one of his most iconic images.
Accompanied by the UK top-five singles "The Jean Genie" and "Drive-In Saturday", Aladdin Sane was Bowie's most commercially successful record up to that point, topping the UK Albums Chart and garnering him immense popularity there. It also received positive reviews from music critics, although many found it inferior to its predecessor. The popularity continued throughout the latter half of the Ziggy Stardust Tour, which featured various setlist and stage production changes. In later decades, Aladdin Sane has appeared on several best-of lists and is viewed as one of Bowie's essential releases. It has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2013 for its 40th anniversary, which was included on the 2015 box set Five Years .
Background and writing
launched to stardom in early July 1972 through the release of his fifth studio album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and his performance of "Starman" on BBC's Top of the Pops. He promoted the record through the Ziggy Stardust Tour in the United Kingdom and the United States, writing new songs on the road that would appear on his next album.Aladdin Sane was the first album Bowie wrote and released from a position of stardom. Writing new material on the US leg of the tour in late 1972, many of the tracks were influenced by America and his perceptions of the country. The biographer Christopher Sandford believes the album showed that Bowie "was simultaneously appalled and fixated by America". The tour, combined with other side projects during the period, such as co-producing Lou Reed's Transformer and mixing the Stooges' Raw Power, took a toll on Bowie's mental health, further influencing his writing. Due to being on the road, Bowie was unsure of the new album's direction, believing he had said what he wanted to say about Ziggy Stardust, but knew he would "end up doing... 'Ziggy Part 2'". He stated: "There was a point in '73 where I knew it was all over. I didn't want to be trapped in this Ziggy character all my life. And I guess what I was doing on Aladdin Sane, I was trying to move into the next area – but using a rather pale imitation of Ziggy as a secondary device. In my mind, it was Ziggy Goes to Washington: Ziggy under the influence of America."
Rather than continue the Ziggy Stardust character directly, Bowie decided to create a new persona, Aladdin Sane, who reflected the theme of "Ziggy goes to America" and, according to Bowie, was less defined and "clear cut" than Ziggy, and "pretty ephemeral". According to the biographer David Buckley, the character was a "schizoid amalgamation" that was reflected in the music.
Recording
Aladdin Sane was mainly recorded between December 1972 and January 1973 between tour legs. Like his two previous records, it was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott and featured Bowie's backing band the Spiders from Mars – the guitarist Mick Ronson, the bassist Trevor Bolder and the drummer Mick Woodmansey. The lineup also featured the pianist Mike Garson, who was hired by Bowie at the suggestion of the RCA executive Ken Glancey and the singer-songwriter Annette Peacock; he remained with Bowie's entourage for the next three years. The pianist came from a jazz and blues background, which the biographer Nicholas Pegg believes veered the album from pure rock 'n' roll and expanded Bowie's experimental horizons. Buckley called Aladdin Sane the beginning of Bowie's "experimental phase" and cited Garson's presence as "revolutionary". Scott noted that Garson added elements to the arrangements that were not there before, including more keyboards and synthesisers. Garson later said that Scott as producer "got the best piano sound out of any of his performances for Bowie." The pianist was given a lot of attention from Bowie in the studio, who mainly wanted to see what Garson could do. Other musicians hired for the album and tour included the saxophonists Ken Fordham and Brian Wilshaw; the singers Juanita Franklin and Linda Lewis as backing vocalists; and longtime friend Geoffrey MacCormack, who subsequently appeared on later Bowie records in the 1970s.The first song recorded for the album was "The Jean Genie" on 6October 1972 at RCA Studios in New York City, after which the band and crew continued the tour in Chicago. Bowie produced the session himself. The band reconvened in New York with Scott in December, recording "Drive-In Saturday" and "All the Young Dudes", a track Bowie wrote and gave to the English band Mott the Hoople. Recording sessions continued in January 1973 at Trident Studios in London following the conclusion of the American tour and a series of UK Christmas concerts. Tracks recorded at Trident included album tracks "Panic in Detroit", "Aladdin Sane", "Cracked Actor", "Lady Grinning Soul", "Watch That Man" and "Time"; outtakes included the "sax version" of the 1972 non-album single "John, I'm Only Dancing" and "1984", left off Aladdin Sane and placed on Diamond Dogs. A provisional running order included the remade "John, I'm Only Dancing" and an unknown track titled "Zion". The sessions concluded on 24January.
Music and lyrics
Like Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane is predominantly glam rock, with elements of hard rock. The album's American influence and fast-paced development added a tougher, rawer and edgier rock sound. Some of the songs, including "Watch That Man", "Drive-In Saturday" and "Lady Grinning Soul" are influenced by the Rolling Stones; a cover of their song "Let's Spend the Night Together" is included.According to Pegg, the album's lyrics paint pictures of urban decay, degenerate lives, drug addiction, violence and death. He says that some themes present on Bowie's previous works also appear in Aladdin Sane, including "notions of religion shattered by science, extraterrestrial encounters posing as messianic visitations, the impact on society of different kinds of 'star' and the degradation of human life in a spiritual void." The author James E. Perone states that thematically, the album deals with "the concept and definition of sanity", while Ric Albano of Classic Rock Review wrote that the music reflects the pros of newfound stardom and the cons of the perils of touring.
Side one
The opening track, "Watch That Man", was written in response to seeing two concerts by the American rock band New York Dolls. According to the author Peter Doggett, the Dolls' first two albums were important in representing the American response to the British glam rock movement. Bowie was impressed with their sound and wanted to emulate it on a song. Pegg describes "Watch That Man" as "a sleazy garage rocker" heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones, specifically their song "Brown Sugar". The mix, in which Bowie's lead vocal is buried beneath the instrumental sections, has been heavily criticised by critics and fans. Biographers compare it to the contemporaneous sound of Elton John and the Stones' Exile on Main St.."Aladdin Sane " was inspired by Evelyn Waugh's 1930 novel Vile Bodies, which Bowie read during his trip on the RHMS Ellinis back to the UK. Described by Buckley as the album's "pivotal" song, it saw Bowie exploring more experimental genres, rather than strict rock 'n' roll. It features a piano solo by Garson, who had originally attempted a blues solo and Latin solo, which were politely rejected by Bowie, who asked him to play something more akin to the avant-garde jazz genre that Garson had come from. Improvised and recorded in one take, Buckley considers the solo a "landmark" recording. Doggett similarly believes that the track's landscape belongs to Garson.
"Drive-In Saturday" was written following an overnight train ride between Seattle and Phoenix in early November 1972. He witnessed a row of silver domes in the distance and assumed they were secret government facilities used for a post-nuclear fallout. In the track, the radiation has affected people's minds and bodies to the point that they need to watch films in order to learn to have sex again. It is heavily influenced by 1950s doo-wop music, and presents a contemporary update to the 1950s drive-in culture. As Bowie was influenced by Jungian ideas around creativity and madness, the artist Tanja Stark suggests the song's lyrical reference to Jung "crashing out with sylvian" allude to Jung's Red Book hallucinations possibly originating from the Sylvian fissure in the brain.
"Panic in Detroit" was inspired by Iggy Pop's stories of the Detroit riots in 1967 and the rise of the White Panther Party, specifically their leader John Sinclair. Bowie compared the ideas of Sinclair to the rebel martyr Che Guevara for the narrator in "Panic in Detroit". The lyrics are dark, featuring images of urban decay, violence, drugs, emotional isolation and suicide, adding to the album's overarching theme of alienation. Musically, the song itself is built around a Bo Diddley beat; Pegg considers Ronson's guitar part very "bluesy".
"Cracked Actor" was written following Bowie's stay at Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, where he witnessed prostitutes, drug use and sex. The song's narrator is an aging film star whose life is beginning to decline; he is "stiff on his legend" and encounters a prostitute, whom he despises. There are numerous double entendres regarding film stardom and sex: "show me you're real/reel", "smack, baby, smack" and "you've made a bad connection". Doggett describes the song as predominantly hard rock, with only a hint of glam, while Pegg describes Ronson's guitar as "dirty blues".