Aladdin Sane
Aladdin Sane is the sixth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released in the United Kingdom on 19 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, was the most expensive cover ever made at the time and 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 his 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 (1969–1973).
Release[edit]
RCA issued "The Jean Genie" as the lead single on 24 November 1972.[61][62] In its advertising, the label said it was "the first single to come from Bowie's triumphant American tour".[61] The song charted at number two on the UK Singles Chart,[63] making it Bowie's biggest hit to date. The single fared worse in the US, reaching number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100.[50] It was promoted with a video by Mick Rock, featuring bits of concert footage shot in San Francisco in late October 1972, interspersed with shots of Bowie posing around the Mars Hotel and actress Cyrinda Foxe.[50] The second single, "Drive-In Saturday", was released in the UK on 6 April 1973.[62][64] Like the previous single, it was a commercial success, peaking at number three in the UK.[36] "Time" was issued as a single in the US and Japan in April, and "Let's Spend the Night Together" in the US and Europe in July.[65] In 1974, Lulu released a version of "Watch That Man" as the B-side to her single "The Man Who Sold the World", produced by Bowie and Ronson.[66]
Aladdin Sane was released in the UK through RCA on 19 April 1973.[a][70] With a purported 100,000 copies ordered in advance,[5] the LP debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart, where it remained for five weeks. In the US, where Bowie already had three albums on the charts, Aladdin Sane reached number 17 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, making it Bowie's most successful record commercially in both countries to that date. According to Pegg, this feat was unheard of at the time and guaranteed Aladdin Sane's status as Britain's best-selling album since "the days of the Beatles".[55] Elsewhere, the album reached the top five in France, the Netherlands and Sweden,[72][73][74] and the top ten in Australia.[75] Aladdin Sane is estimated to have sold 4.6 million copies worldwide, making it one of Bowie's highest-selling LPs.[76] The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums notes that Bowie "ruled the [British] album chart, accumulating an unprecedented 182 weeks on the list in 1973 with six different titles."[77] Following Bowie's death in 2016, Aladdin Sane reentered the US charts, reaching number 16 on the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Albums chart the week of 29 January 2016, where it remained for three weeks.[78] It also peaked at number six on the Billboard Vinyl Albums the week of 18 March 2016, remaining on the chart for four weeks.[79]
Critical reception[edit]
Critical reaction to Aladdin Sane was generally laudatory, if more enthusiastic in the US than in the UK.[55] Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone remarked on "Bowie's provocative melodies, audacious lyrics, masterful arrangements (with Mick Ronson) and production (with Ken Scott)", and pronounced it "less manic than The Man Who Sold The World, and less intimate than Hunky Dory, with none of its attacks of self-doubt."[26] Billboard called it a combination of "raw energy with explosive rock".[55] In The New York Times, Edwards described Aladdin Sane as "the most expressive, if still uneven, album of his recording career".[60] In the British music press, letters columns accused Bowie of 'selling out' and Let It Rock magazine found the album to be more style than substance, considering that he had "nothing to say and everything to say it with".[80][55] Similarly, Kim Fowley of Phonograph Record considered the record bad, save for "Time" and "The Prettiest Star". Fowley found the record's flaws to be "over-verbalised multi-symbolistic lyrics", not enough collaboration with Ronson when making it and the presence of Garson on piano.[81]
Other British writers gave more positive assessments, with Val Mabbs of Record Mirror citing it as Bowie's best work up to that point.[82] Also writing for Phonograph Record, Ron Ross stated that with the record, Bowie has proven himself to be "one of the most consistent and fast-moving artists since the Beatles". Ross considered side one "the tightest, and probably the best, work Bowie has ever recorded".[83] Writer Charles Shaar Murray of the NME felt Aladdin Sane was a strong contender for album of the year, further calling it "a worthy contribution to the most important body of musical work produced in this decade."[84] The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote a few years later that his favorite Bowie album had been Aladdin Sane, "the fragmented, rather second-hand collection of elegant hard rock songs (plus one Jacques Brel-style clinker) that fell between the Ziggy Stardust and Diamond Dogs concepts. That Bowie improved his music by imitating the Rolling Stones rather than by expressing himself is obviously a tribute to the Stones, but it also underlines how expedient Bowie's relationship to rock and roll has always been."[85]
Reissues[edit]
Aladdin Sane has been reissued several times. Although the original 1973 vinyl release featured a gatefold cover, some later LP versions such as RCA's 1980 US reissue presented the album in a standard non-gatefold sleeve.[114] The album was first released on CD in 1984 by RCA.[115] In 1990, Dr. Toby Mountain at Northeastern Digital, Southborough, Massachusetts,[116] remastered Aladdin Sane from the original master tapes for Rykodisc, released with no bonus tracks.[117] It was again remastered in 1999 by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios for EMI and Virgin Records, and once more released with no bonus tracks.[118]
In 2003, a two-disc version was released by EMI/Virgin.[119] The second in a series of 30th Anniversary 2CD Edition sets (along with Ziggy Stardust and Diamond Dogs), this release includes a remastered version of the album on the first disc. The second disc contains ten tracks, a few of which had been previously released on the 1989 collection Sound + Vision.[120] A 40th anniversary edition, remastered by Ray Staff at London's AIR Studios, was released in CD and digital download formats in April 2013.[121] This 2013 remaster of the album was included in the 2015 box set Five Years 1969–1973 and rereleased separately, in 2015–2016, in CD, vinyl and digital formats.[122][123][124] A 12" limited edition of the 2013 remaster, pressed in silver vinyl, was released in 2018 to mark the 45th anniversary of the album.[125] To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the album was reissued on 14 April 2023 in vinyl picture disc and half-speed-mastered versions.[126]
According to the liner notes and biographer Nicholas Pegg:[1][127]
Production