Aladdin Sane
Occupation
- Vocals, guitar, David Bowie
- Guitar, Piano: Mick Ronson
- Bass: Trevor Bolder
- Drums: Mick Woodmansey
(1972)
Aladdin Sane is a concept album by David Bowie from the year 1973. Was published at the music label RCA Victor on 13 April of the year.
Genesis
The compositions for six of the ten tracks were taken during the second half of the American tour of Bowie and the Spiders of Mars between September 1972 and January 1973. Bowie himself described Alladin Sane as " Ziggy goes to America" for the tour was a jazz pianist Mike Garson hired, since the first concert in the Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio on September 22, 1972 to the lineup of the Spiders of Mars, Bowie's backing band, was one. The sites of origin documented Bowie on the label of the record. (see track list ). In some titles Bowie used puns. Thus, the restored on the passage to England Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197? ) As "a lad insane " (Eng. " a crazy guy " ) can be read; at Bowie's half-brother Terry was diagnosed with schizophrenia at this time; he himself suffered from the fear of being crazy. The first two listed in parentheses year figures indicate the years before the outbreak of the two world wars. The Jean Genie, created on the tour bus at a Jam and recorded in early October 1972 for a single in New York without producer Ken Sccott, is seen as a play on words of Jean Genet.
RCA decided by the single The Jean Genie not to wait for the recordings to the end of the tour and sent producer Ken Scott in the United States. The recordings began with about a one-week 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. The production was moved to the end of the tour in the Trident studios in London, where from January 1973 another two weeks was recorded. Scott mixed the recordings from a further 10 days.
Publication and chart success
The Jean Genie was released a mono version in November 1972 in the United Kingdom and the United States. The single reached on 9 December, the UK Top 40, scored 2nd place and stayed 13 weeks. In the Billboard Hot 100, it rose single on 23 December 1972, reached number 71 and stayed five weeks.
The album was released on 13 April 1973. It peaked in the UK album charts and the top stayed a total of 72 weeks in the charts. In the U.S. Billboard 200, the album reached number 17
Reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine -reviewed Aladdin Sane for the music database Allmusic. Bowie give up the obsession with futurism in favor of a concentration on the loose casualness of the New York and London jazz and compacted rock music. Erlewine criticizes the lack of cohesion of the album.
The album has an entry in Robert Dimery published in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The local critic Jim Harrington found in the various titles despair and alienation, as well as the effort to self-knowledge. Herrington sees the weak point of the album in the cover of Rolling Stones Let's Spend the Night title Together, which suggest the existence of the following album Pin Ups with his cover versions.
The album took in the published in book form in 2005 -time list of the American music magazine Rolling Stone space 274 of the 500 best music albums of all time. This list of six albums by Bowie are included.
Cover design
The record sleeve shows Bowie with Ziggy Stardust for the phase typical, dyed red hair and a painted, two colored flash in the face. Bowie was photographed for the cover in January 1973 by fashion photographer Brian Duffy. The flash should serve as a symbol of split personality: Bowie and he created fictional character Ziggy Stardust. Duffy was together with David Bailey and Terence Donovan as an influential fashion photographer. He cites Elvis as inspiration for the flash, although this symbol was also used in a collection of the Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto from 1971, which had inspired in March 1972 to the red - Ziggy Bowie hairstyle.
Title list
Aftermath
The album has the glam rock influenced, the shock - rocker Marilyn Manson gave it as the greatest inspiration for his conversion to Glam Rock and his album Mechanical Animals.