It is exactly fifty years since Aladdin Sane was released. It was the first LP I bought on the day it came out and is the album I’ve listened to the most. Dave Ross wrote about it two years ago:
I shared my thoughts a couple of years before that:
There is a lovely looking book I will definitely be buying, pulled together by Chris Duffy, the son of the photographer who captured the famous cover image:
There is a show and exhibition at the Southbank
Here are The Spiders performing Drive-In Saturday on Russell Harty’s TV Show in 1973.
It all takes me back and makes me feel really old.
I presume that’s a magnificent write up Tiggs. However the lad is insanely overrated.
Always loved DIS, brings back happy memories of seeing
a Sunday evening at the Coventry Hippodrome watching
Bowie and band in their Ziggy and the Spiders prime
Went to the Southbank exhibition last weekend
Really well put together, lots of behind the scenes stuff about the cover, focus is really on that rather than the whole album.
Found it very inspiring and quite moving as well.
It’s quite small, no more than a couple of rooms so probably not enough for a London visit on its own, but would definitely recommend it.
After the joy of Hunky Dory and the paranoia of Ziggy, I struggle with Aladdin Sane – it reeks of cocaine.
There’s a half-speed mastered LP out this week, and I have not bought it.
Go on. You know you want to.
I might (will) do, but not at 35 quid!
Makes my top 10 of Bowie albums just. It’s great of course, but not as great as others. Loses points for the execrable Time and the awful Stones cover. Also was very quickly recorded which I think is evident. Lady Grinning Soul is an absolute highlight.
Here are your cut out and keep Dai rankings that I am sure all are waiting for with baited breath:
Station to Station
Ziggy Stardust
Diamond Dogs
Blackstar
Low
Heroes
Scary Monsters
Young Americans
Aladdin Sane
Lodger
Might get above Young Americans on a good day
(probably write all this on the other thread but didn’t check)
Apart from the correct number 1, everything else is wrong. Lodger is underrated, as shown by our own Dave’s review. No Hunky Dory! Let’s Spend The Night Together is great. A fresh take and full of verve. Please see me.
Oops, just testing! HD belongs in top 3. Lodger may indeed be a tad underrated, but the competition is strong. LSTNT has verve but is still awful
That’s better. HD should be up there. Otherwise I’m more of a 76-80 kind of guy. Sits better with the post punk/art rock music I favour. Probably the age I was too. HD sits outside the other 70s styles. It seems somehow effortless, less in thrall to fashion, beep beep. Blackstar certainly outstanding but I find it hard to process. As good a band as he has had to work with.
Funnily enough, I tend to favour albums written and recorded quickly and dirtily while touring a breakthrough album. I regard it as a true litmus test of an act’s worth. For example, I prefer Burnin’ to Catch A Fire.
The first Bowie album I bought on release (I bought “Starman” when it was in the charts but the album a while later) and whilst I lived it and know every note, it was also the last. I was never as interested again for some reason. I think I’d moved on to more Southern Rock/West coast dimensions by then.
PS I recently discovered I have a Jeff Beck boot with Stanley Clarke on bass and Mike Garson on keys!
I’ll confess I haven’t returned to it but I’m very fond of my Top Of The Pops reimagination. Tiggers proper review is a wonderful piece of informed writing. A proper review as the 208 👍 confirm.
I however still have a frustration that sums Bowie up for me. For all the glam, glitter, drama, invention, creativity he is infuriatingly inconsistent. Great cover artwork though…