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12 Bowie albums in 12 months: Aladdin Sane

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Dave Amitri on Aladdin Sane

As I reach the 4th month of 12 Bowie albums in 12 months I find myself at “Aladdin Sane”. Another character change, some very striking iconic make up and another collection of eclectic styles and sounds for a first time listener to discover. I’ll not deny that scanning the track listing and just recognising “The Jean Genie” I felt my first pang of Bowie fatigue and to be honest the first listen left me a little nonplussed. However what I have discovered with Bowie is that there is always something in one of these albums. A hook, a sound, a hint of recognition or even an annoyance that gives me the impetus to continue. After a couple more listens I  came up with the phrase “It’s a bit David Quoie” I’m not sure it’s unique but I’m claiming it for the number of 3 chord boogie tunes that litter the album. Then there’s the piano, lots of piano, more on that later. Finally it’s a very, very 70’s album. “Of course it is Dave” I hear you cry. In fact it’s so specifically 70’s that in order to try something different to shake things up a bit I’ve turned the whole review into a  reimagination of an early 70’s episode of Top of the Pops, with some artistic licence to keep the pedants pedanting. Please indulge me here as I settle down with my family one Thursday evening in 1973. Mum knitting and dad looking over the top of his paper. Older sisters hoping for a performance from David Essex. Me and my brother hoping that Pans People don’t embarrass us all either with what they’re not wearing or their painfully literal interpretation of the songs. The show begins..

DLT is presenting and as is the way of these things the first song is an upbeat foot stomper. “Watch That Man” to me is every inch a Rod Stewart and The Faces tune. A bluesy rock an roll number that is a great start to the show. In my head I can picture Rod and Ron Wood, heads together over a single mike miming the “Watch That Man” lyric as Rod spins away to muck about at the back of the stage. A strong start. Dad didn’t lift his head above the paper but Mum sneaked a cheeky peak at Rod’s bum..

Back to DLT now who puts a serious face on and declares “now for something very special…” of  course it’s “Aladdin Sane” and I nearly went with Steely Dan for this, there’s little hints towards it being a Dan tune. On reflection though you can’t have a Bowie album reimagined without having one Bowie performance. So here we are. This is such a Bowie song and in my imaginary TOTP this would be the performance of the night. Confusing my Dad and sending him to the kitchen for a cup of tea. My sisters giggling at the bulges in the skin tight trousers and me and my brother not quite understanding what was going on but knowing we’d be talking about it in the playground tomorrow. It’s  a brilliant song. The play on the phrase “a lad insane”, so creative, inventive, druggy and dreamy. Right up my alley. Yet in the spirit of honesty it’s slightly ruined for me by Mike Garson’s freeform jazz piano that sounds like a set of off key church bells. I think I’d prefer a radio edit but that’s my problem. I realise it is hugely important to Bowie heads so I won’t mention Les Dawson here as that would be disrespectful. This is the David Bowie I was hoping to find. It’s rarer though than the fandom would have me believe.

It’s all too much for DLT as he mock fans his hirsute face while the kids jockey for position. His enthusiasm wanes as he realises its TOTP stalwarts Mud next. Again. Doing “Drive In Saturday”. Dressed in their teddy boy gear they phone in a performance of the fourth single from their album knowing no one except my Dad is listening and cursing the producers for putting them on after Bowie. Yet as we know this is a Bowie song in reality and we’re all wondering what it’s doing here and how you go from “Aladdin Sane” to this half arsed ode to 50’s life.

DLT is clearly back on his game as he readies himself for his next link. Introducing “Panic In Detroit” by informing us that Deep Purple can’t be in the studio tonight but Pans People are here. Their performance consists of walking then running around a cardboard city, wearing very little and panicking, looking shocked with hands waving above their heads. You get the picture. Dad’s put his paper down and mums angry clicking nearly drowns out the TV. I love the song actually. Raucous, with a driving beat and a great vocal. A heavy metal tune with a splash of Bowie drama. Superb…

At this point in 1973 DLT would have uttered “Phwoar” and mopped his brow or something equally inappropriate and gone on to announce “Cracked Actor” which for my imaginary TOTP is performed by T Rex. It doesn’t stretch the imagination too far as it’s a meat and two veg glam rock anthem. Bolan or Bowie it passes us all by. Dad’s snoring now and a fight has broken out between me and my brother over the last orange Matchmaker.

DLT is now standing alone as the mood in the studio drops. “And now  time for something a little bit different. From the new Andrew Lloyd Weber musical “Time” it’s “Time” performed by David Essex.” My sisters move to the edge of the sofa, mum puts her knitting down “he’s got lovely eyes” and me, my brother and my Dad start talking football.. At least that’s my take on perhaps the most theatrical of all the Bowie songs I’ve heard so far. It’s a straight up musical theatre tune from the delivery, to the almost spoken part, the musicality. Like something from Evita or Chess. Did he write a musical? Maybe he should have, it’s clear the will for dramatic musical theatre was there but does it belong here?

Next up crashing into the charts is those other bunch of fake teddy boys straight from the fancy dress cupboard with “The Prettiest Star”.  It’s Showaddywaddy.  Doowapping, finger clicking and synchronised stepping along to a slowed down rock n roll rhythm from times past. My sisters are planning to recreate the moves with their mates in the playground tomorrow. Dad becomes animated and joins in the finger clicking. “Aha, a proper tune” he announces. Back in the real world how this song aligns itself with the image Bowie was projecting at the time is beyond me. I’m clearly missing something here…

DLT back announces it as a “future number one” and introduces “Let’s Spend The Night Together” informing us it’s a cover of The Rolling Stones classic ( thank god he’s here..). Who have I selected in my imaginary Thursday night pop fest for this? Of course it’s  Status Quo. Legs apart, head to foot in denim, nodding along to an all too familiar song with absolutely nothing added. It’s s great fun, we get up and head bang along it annoys mum and dad but this from the great innovator? Baffling again.

Coming towards the end of the show now and DLT announces a new number one. “The Jean Genie” by Sweet. Now this is the most obvious of my imaginary musings. The song is so similar to “Blockbuster” that we must assume one copied the other but apparently not. Both recorded on the same label, at approximately the same time, using the same riff and from what I can discover it was pure coincidence missed by the A & R man. Ironically “Blockbuster” got to number one and “The Jean Genie” didn’t. “The Jean Genie” remains one of Bowies most commercial tunes and one I really like. It’s everything a glam rock song should be. Driving, rocking, over the top and best played loud. This is Bowie to me. Me and my brother want to buy it from Woolies at the weekend.

Back in the day Top of the Pops would play out with a song over the credits. This week it’s “Lady Grinning Soul” which DLT informs us is from  the latest Bond film. I’m stretching my time lines here at making it Shirley Bassey because it deserves a proper singer. Bowie does a great job of it and its easily my favourite song on the album. It’s a beautiful, swoon of a song. Delicious and light with a hint of drama. A lovely, lovely end…

So what does my light hearted bit of nonsense mean? It means “Aladdin Sane” is an album of incredible highs and some inexplicable song choices. Bowie was a master at dressing up something familiar in some fancy clothes and make up and selling it as the future. The bands I referenced all had great commercial success yet were hardly at the cutting edge of popular music. There’s a pattern forming for me, when he’s great he’s everything I expected and more but to justify his exalted place in the history of popular music are there just far too many “shrug” songs you can just take or leave? The four albums I’ve covered so far were released in a 2 year period, April 71 to April 73. Did that effect the quality control? I maintain he could have made two mind blowing albums in the same period but Bowie heads will tell me he made four and not to be such a dick. “Aladdin Sane” is an enjoyable listen but overall the Bowie legend remains an unsolved mystery to me.

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Comments

  1. Wonderfully funny review – Panic in Detroit as interpreted by Pans People is right on the money.

    I thought it was beyond doubt that the JG riff had been nicked for Blockbuster.

    I did read that there was a confrontation between Bowie and Sweet’s producer when they had a chance meeting. The story goes that Bowie approaches him, is stony-faced, uses the C-word and then breaks into a big smile and offers warm congratulations for their number one.

    • The riff for both songs was ripped off from The Yardbirds’ I’m A Man which was ripped off from Bo Diddley’s, which was adapted from Muddy Waters’, etc etc. They were created at roughly the same time on different sides of the Atlantic. Just serendipity.

  2. What a great way to frame a review – and I think does justice to the fact there’s a lot going on in that record.
    Aladdin Sane was the first proper Bowie album I bought (I already owned Changes One), and like you above I was a bit “meh” about it.
    If truth be known, I still am (a bit) – probable philistine me, but I don’t think it as good as before (Ziggy) or after (Diamond Dogs).
    But … I’m going to give it another spin when I finish writing this drivel …

  3. I think you’re pretty much on the money. I’ve had it since the 70’s and it’s intriguing that a new listenr over 40 years later should come to the same conclusion – I have always thought it sounded a bit thrown together and rushed. The cover art is superb though, isn’t it?

  4. Depends how one feels about the piano that’s slavered wildly over certain tracks. Personally I think it’s great but I feel the best is yet to come. Maybe people liked it better as a release at the time whereas other, later records are easier to approach after the event.

  5. Good job he wasn’t encumbered by releasing stand-alone 45s on that quality control issue.
    John, I’m Only Dancing and a cover of a Chuck Berry song as a b-side… doesn’t sound too strenuous.

  6. Terrific review there, Dave and you’ve hit upon points made by Stuart Maconie over on Slotbadger’s podcast Album to Album. I’m looking forward to your take on Diamond Dogs next.

  9. Enjoyed the review, except, come on, Drive in Saturday is awesome!

    Agree with those who say it is hurried and uneven. I really detest Time and LSTNT is not one of his greatest covers. Love The Prettiest Star and of course The Jean Genie is a dance floor classic.

  10. I remember Andy Luck and Benjie Clark raved about it after we’d hit the Wimpy for a bender. I’d sold Ziggy and was underwhelmed. A bus I never got back onto for years. Your review confirms my view.

  11. Great review Dave, the best so far. You’ve pretty much nailed it, but while your description of Drive-in Saturday as a “half arsed ode to 50’s life” had me spluttering into my coffee, you’ve missed the mark on that one. It was the 60s (Jagger, Twig the wonder kid, etc). One of his best songs too.

  16. The review is wonderful conceit and the choice of acts you have covering the songs is inspired . Kudos for the LGS Bond theme idea too, I’ve always thought exactly the same.

    Give the title track some more time though: that piano solo is possibly the greatest in pop music.

  17. Agree with all that. I usually skip from Ziggy to Station To Station, apart from Sorrow on Pin Ups.

    I don’t like cokey Bowie, although I’m aware the habit was still active during STS, so my statement falls short.

  18. Fab idea for framing the review. When anyone has asked I have always said my favourite single was ‘Drive-in Saturday’. I think it has a lot to do with the time and place. I was just coming up to eleven years old. We had a black & white tv and it seemed a lot was black & white then. David Bowie and ‘Drive-in Saturday’ was just what I needed. I’d learnt three chords from my headmaster at primary school and I had my eye on an electric guitar in the window of ‘Susans’ music shop on Chapel Street market near Londons Angel. Life was getting a little bit exciting…..and yes it’s been there for so long I’m not going to change it now.

  19. Possibly like many, my first Bowie album was Changesonebowie. A “greatest hits” released in 1976. Bizarrely he chose not to include these:

    Life on Mars no. 3
    Starman no. 10
    Drive In Saturday no. 3

    Instead including minor hits like Diamond Dogs and album tracks like Suffragette City.

    So took me a bit longer to know some of his greatest songs. Quite strange.

  20. That’s a brilliant review that manages to obliquely sum up a lot of the disappointment I felt the first time I heard the album. I was underwhelmed from the start except when those church bells chimed, at which point I can clearly recall my seventeen year old self picking up the inner sleeve and eagerly searching the credits to find out who had played that incredible piano part. Thereafter, the intermittent sense of disinterest returned as the rest of what I thought was a fairly average album unfolded. I still don’t think it’s a successful work. And I have nothing against chimney stacks. Luckily, ‘Pinups’ was along soon to rescue my interest in the man and his music.

    Incidentally, I’m rather surprised your mum and dad let you listen to the rest of TOTP after hearing the lyrics to ‘Time’.

  21. Jean Genie and Blockbuster both so similar by coincidence, the coincidence being that the writers of both songs had heard The Shadows Of Knight’s version of Bo Diddley’s Oh Yeah.

  22. I think you are a little bit harsh on this album. When I was discovering Bowie in the early 90s, I liked aladdin more than ziggy. I think it sounds meatier and much more assured in its sense of experimentation and playfulness than his earlier albums. He sounds like the proper space commander he was born to be, and not merely a rock singer/songwriter any more.

    • I agree…the singles are great, the piano tracks are really superb, Ronno and Mike Garson are on fire, each in their own way…and Bowie is imperious.

      My views expressed in Dave’s review threads to date make me sound like a contrarian, just going against the received wisdom (MWSTW and Aladdin Sane seriously under-rated; Hunky Dory and Ziggy slightly over-rated) – I guess it depends where your head is when you first hear these LPs…

  23. Still unsure of the blog / forum etiquette after all these years I won’t answer every response… It’s great to get a positive response to something like this and even those who dont necessarily agree do it with charm so thank you. I’m glad I gave the album a few extra listens as I really found it hard work at first and it’s not my intention to be offensive to something that clearly means a lot to many. A question I would like to put to Bowie fans is when do you think he gained the high regard he is currently held in? It’s clear he was popular in 1973 but was it later in the 70’s, Let’s Dance, Live Aid or even later that his reputation soared? I’m enjoying doing these and I’m looking forward to the rest. Someone who knew him told me “Young Americans” was Billy Mackenzie’s favourite so I’m going to persist until at least July. I can’t pretend I’m at the point yet where I cant wait to hear the next one. I genuinely hope that does happen … On to “Pin Ups” next…

    • There’s been a hardcore since Ziggy. Those who were captivated went backwards to discover the preceding albums, and continued to believe through to Diamond Dogs and the death throes of glam. He lost quite a few rock-oriented fans in his transition to plastic soul and then funk, but picked up new admirers. The same dynamic happened in the Berlin years – the albums really weren’t commercially successful, but were very influential on the developing movements of post-punk, New Romantic and synthpop. By Scary Monsters, Bowie was again riding the zeitgeist. Let’s Dance was deliberately aimed at the wider public, and he lost a few previously loyal fans who were turned off by the more mainstream approach. When you ask about ‘reputation’, do you mean artistic or popular? I’d suggest the artistic one has been there since the Ziggy era, with fellow travellers joining and leaving the journey from station to station (ha!).

    • I’d say Ziggy did the trick. It stayed in the album charts a long time. Starman and John, I’m Only Dancing skimmed the top ten but put him firmly on TOTP and in the public eye. Jean Genie got to number two, starting a run of top five singles. I think it was the release of Life On Mars? as a single to follow Drive-In Saturday that really won him respect. After Ziggy and Aladdin Sane, here was this amazing song in his back pocket. People then bought Hunky Dory and some went further back to TMWSTW and Space Oddity. It felt like he had made five entirely different albums, all brilliant, in just a year or two. Add to that All The Young Dudes and his work with Lou Reed on Transformer and by the back of 1973, the man was quite clearly a genius who’d seemingly come out of nowhere.

      He then killed Ziggy and soon abandoned the UK for five long years, just like the song.

      Your review is superbly creative, Dave. You have quite an adventure ahead of you if you persevere. I really hope you do because I’m looking forward to reading the results every month.

      • Great to have you back Tigger. That all makes sense. My default setting is so firmly hard wired at “chart success” I do sometimes struggle to judge outside of that. Blockbuster getting to number 1 ahead of Jean Genie for example. Your explanation helps clear that up. I think you said before you thought I might really enjoy Pin Ups so onward to May….

      • Welcome back @Tiggerlion !

        Agree with your general statements about Bowie and how he achieved huge popularity, I think the perception of him as an icon something like The Beatles or Dylan happened later, I am saying around Scary Monsters time. The fact that later in the 80s and 90s he was releasing weaker material didn’t seem to matter. The way people valued him universally was not going to change too much

        • In 1977, he sold very little compared to the previous five years but Low and “Heroes” were lauded as artistic triumphs and The Man Who Fell To Earth raised eyebrows. The strap line for “Heroes”, “There’s old wave, there’s new wave and there’s David Bowie” put him in a different league altogether and it stuck. I think that’s the point he became an icon.

        • My recollection is that he was seen as one of the few old guard who was respected and thought cool in the punk and post punk era. He was still innovative and interesting in the late seventies but that didn’t make him bulletproof, and he was considered an embarrassment in the 80s, post Scary Monsters. Thereafter he was following the trend rather than setting it, going drum and bass and all that. Even the look was no longer right. Everything jarred somehow. There came a point in the 90s when all those 60s icons, like Bowie, McCartney got iconic status but that was when we were heading for a world where it wasn’t all about what was being done now in the present and more and more about the past, heritage and classic rock, playing the old classics live, lowering expectations for new releases, though Bowie got his mojo back to a degree and his style. The rock world changed at some point in the 90s with reverence toward the ‘greats’ rather than a more healthy (you could say) criticism snd irreverence that helped nurture new music.

            • True. Also Live Aid brought about a big change. A new lease of life for those 60s acts, now hailed by the newer ones, Bono singing bits of songs, like Stones’ classics. Still there was a sense of a hip and happening scene elsewhere that wasn’t here. The beginning of the end though in a way, despite good new things still popping up as now of course.

  24. I listened to the album this morning. I like it better than Ziggy because it’s more loose, there’s room for a bit more improvisation, like on the title track. The tracks I find less interesting are those most like the album before. It’s also all so rock ‘n’ roll really, as was glam rock and much other music of that era, often quite retro. I don’t think I like Mick Ronson’s guitar sound at times. It’s got a bit of the ugly glam rock sound, occasionally evoking the glitter band for instance, or Sweet, elsewhere, like on Prettiest Star, it is almost unpleasantly sharp, piercing. I am more of a post-Ronson Bowie admirer really, 76-80. But the best of this album is really fantastic, Aladdin Sane, Drive In Saturday, Let’s Spend The Night Together. Time is more of the theatrical, could have been in a rock musical like Rocky Horror, type of thing. Good tune though, in parts.

  25. I love this series of reviews, Dave, keep’em coming, please. This particular Bowie album is one of my favourites, but it’s still interesting to hear your thoughts on hearing it for the first time, and very entertaining! We’ve had a few similar blogs by other AW:ers in the past; Mini doing Dylan (although that was not on this site) and someone else did…I’m blanking, but I remember loving it (now that’s a clue!) It’s always very entertaining, and – I suspect – for the same reason why these “react” channels on YouTube are such a hit these days. But good thoughtful writing always trumps random waffling after seeing a music video for the first time.

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