Aladdin Sane

Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |Template:Short description|noreplace}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other Template:Category handler Template:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Images 1966–19671973Pin Ups1973studioAladdin SaneDavisBowieAladdinSane.jpgyesA close-up of a white shirtless man with bright red hair with a blue and red lightning bolt across his faceDavid Bowie Template:Start date Template:Efn6 October, December 1972 – January 1973* Trident, London

RCA, New York City*Glam rock
hard rock Template:Duration RCA*Ken Scott
David Bowiex|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}

Aladdin Sane is the sixth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released in the United Kingdom on 19Template:NbspApril 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 (1969–1973).

Background and writingEdit

Template:Quote box David Bowie 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.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Aladdin Sane was the first album Bowie wrote and released from a position of stardom.Template:Sfn Writing new material on the US leg of the tour in late 1972,Template:Sfn many of the tracks were influenced by America and his perceptions of the country.Template:Sfn The biographer Christopher Sandford believes the album showed that Bowie "was simultaneously appalled and fixated by America".Template:Sfn The tour, combined with other side projects during the period, such as co-producing Lou Reed's Transformer and mixing the Stooges' Raw Power,Template:Sfn<ref name="Sheffield RS" /> took a toll on Bowie's mental health, further influencing his writing.Template:Sfn 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 doingTemplate:Nbsp... 'Ziggy Part 2'".Template:Sfn 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."<ref name="Sheffield RS">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

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"Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and, according to Bowie, was less defined and "clear cut" than Ziggy, and "pretty ephemeral".Template:Sfn According to the biographer David Buckley, the character was a "schizoid amalgamation" that was reflected in the music.Template:Sfn

RecordingEdit

File:Mikeparis.jpg

Aladdin Sane features the pianist Mike Garson (pictured in 2006), whose playing broadened the songs into more experimental territory.

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.Template:Efn Template:Sfn<ref name="Gallucci UCR AS" /> 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;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn he remained with Bowie's entourage for the next three years.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Buckley called Aladdin Sane the beginning of Bowie's "experimental phase" and cited Garson's presence as "revolutionary".Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn The pianist was given a lot of attention from Bowie in the studio, who mainly wanted to see what Garson could do.Template:Sfn 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 (later known as Warren Peace), who subsequently appeared on later Bowie records in the 1970s.Template:Sfn

The first song recorded for the album was "The Jean Genie" on 6Template:NbspOctober 1972 at RCA Studios in New York City, after which the band and crew continued the tour in Chicago. Bowie produced the session himself.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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 (1974).Template:Efn Template:Sfn A provisional running order included the remade "John, I'm Only Dancing" and an unknown track titled "Zion".Template:Efn The sessions concluded on 24Template:NbspJanuary.Template:Sfn

Music and lyricsEdit

Template:Quote box

Like Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane is predominantly glam rock,<ref name="Erlewine AllMusic" /><ref name="Gallucci UCR AS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with elements of hard rock.<ref name="RS Gerson" /> The album's American influence and fast-paced development added a tougher, rawer and edgier rock sound.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

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."Template:Sfn The author James E. Perone states that thematically, the album deals with "the concept and definition of sanity",Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="CRR review">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Side oneEdit

File:Rolling Stones 1967.jpg

Numerous tracks on the album are influenced by the Rolling Stones (pictured in 1967)

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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Pegg describes "Watch That Man" as "a sleazy garage rocker" heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones, specifically their song "Brown Sugar" (1971).Template:Sfn The mix, in which Bowie's lead vocal is buried beneath the instrumental sections, has been heavily criticised by critics and fans.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Biographers compare it to the contemporaneous sound of Elton John and the Stones' Exile on Main St. (1972).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

"Aladdin Sane (1913–1938–197?)" was inspired by Evelyn Waugh's 1930 novel Vile Bodies,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn which Bowie read during his trip on the RHMS Ellinis back to the UK.Template:Sfn Described by Buckley as the album's "pivotal" song, it saw Bowie exploring more experimental genres, rather than strict rock 'n' roll.Template:Sfn It features a piano solo by Garson,<ref name="RS Gerson" /> 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.Template:Sfn Doggett similarly believes that the track's landscape belongs to Garson.Template:Sfn

"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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn It is heavily influenced by 1950s doo-wop music,Template:Sfn and presents a contemporary update to the 1950s drive-in culture.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

"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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Bowie compared the ideas of Sinclair to the rebel martyr Che Guevara for the narrator in "Panic in Detroit".Template:Sfn The lyrics are dark, featuring images of urban decay, violence, drugs, emotional isolation and suicide,Template:Sfn adding to the album's overarching theme of alienation.Template:Sfn Musically, the song itself is built around a Bo Diddley beat;Template:Sfn Pegg considers Ronson's guitar part very "bluesy".Template:Sfn

"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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Doggett describes the song as predominantly hard rock, with only a hint of glam,Template:Sfn while Pegg describes Ronson's guitar as "dirty blues".Template:Sfn

Side twoEdit

"Time" was originally written as "We Should Be On By Now" for Bowie's friend George Underwood, with vastly different lyrics.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The song was then rewritten, influenced by the death of New York Dolls drummer Billy Murcia and the concepts of relativity and mortality.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The song's use of the word "wanking" led to it being banned by the BBC from radio stations. Garson's stride and Brechtian cabaret-style piano dominates the track while Ronson plays a similar line on guitar.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

"The Prettiest Star" was originally released in 1970 as the follow-up single to "Space Oddity" (1969).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn It was written for Bowie's first wife Angela Barnett, whom he married shortly after the original's release.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The subsequent rerecording on Aladdin Sane was glam-influenced, and featured Marc Bolan's original guitar part mimicked almost note-for-note by Ronson.Template:Sfn Buckley calls the rerecording a "revamped and much improved" version.Template:Sfn Doggett argues that the song appeared out of place on Aladdin Sane,Template:Sfn while Pegg finds that the references to "screen starlets" and "the movies in the past" mesh with the album's other nostalgic references.Template:Sfn

"Let's Spend the Night Together" is the only cover song on the album. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and recorded by the Rolling Stones in 1967, the song's appearance on Aladdin Sane acknowledges the influence of the Stones on the entire record.Template:Sfn While the original was psychedelic, Bowie's rendition is faster, raunchier and more glam-influenced. It features synthesisers that Pegg believes give the track a "fresh, futuristic sheen". Several critics also consider it a gay appropriation of a heterosexual song.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The cover has been criticised in the ensuing decades as camp and unsatisfying.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

"The Jean Genie" began as an impromptu jam titled "Bussin'" on the charter bus when travelling between Cleveland and Memphis.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Bo Diddley-inspired guitar riff is a variation of the Yardbirds' "I'm a Man" and "Smokestack Lightning".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Bowie called it "a smorgasbord of imagined Americana" and his "first New York song", he wrote the lyrics to "entertain" Warhol associate Cyrinda Foxe, who appeared in the song's accompanied music video.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfn The music is heavily blues-influenced, leading Perone to contest: "This piece exudes the British blues spirit like no previous Bowie song."Template:Sfn The lyrics were also an ode to Iggy Pop, Bowie calling the song's character a "white-trash, kind of trailer-park kid thing – the closet intellectual who wouldn't want the world to know that he reads".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

"Lady Grinning Soul" was one of the final songs written for the album. It was also a last-minute addition, replacing the "sax version" of "John, I'm Only Dancing" as the closing track.Template:Sfn A possible inspiration for the song is American soul singer Claudia Lennear, whom Bowie met during the US tour and also inspired the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar",Template:Efn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn although the critic Chris O'Leary argues that the inspiration was the French singer Amanda Lear, a sometime girlfriend of Bowie's.Template:Sfn Unlike other tracks on the album, "Lady Grinning Soul" has a sexual ambiance, lushness and serenity, and features flamenco-style guitar from Ronson and a Latin-style piano part from Garson.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The track has been described as a lost James Bond theme.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Title and artworkEdit

The title is a pun on "A Lad Insane", which at one point was expected to be the title. When writing the album during the tour, it was under the working title Love Aladdin Vein, which Bowie said at the time felt right, but decided to change it partly due to its drug connotations.Template:Sfn

The cover artwork features a shirtless Bowie with red hair and a red-and-blue lightning bolt splitting his face in two while a teardrop runs down his collarbone. It was shot in January 1973 by Brian Duffy in his north London studio.Template:Efn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In an effort to ensure RCA promoted the album extensively, Bowie's manager Tony Defries was determined to make the cover as costly as possible. He insisted on an unprecedented seven-colour system, rather than the usual four.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The image was the most expensive cover art ever made at the time.Template:Sfn The make-up designer was artist Pierre Laroche, who remained Bowie's make-up artist for the remainder of the 1973 tour and the Pin Ups cover shoot.Template:Sfn Cann writes that Duffy and Laroche copied the lightning bolt from a National Panasonic rice-cooker in the studio. The make-up was completed with a "deathly purple wash", which Cann believes, together with Bowie's closed eyes, evoke a "death mask".Template:Sfn The final photo was selected from a group featuring Bowie looking directly at the camera. These photos later became a signature image of the V&A's David Bowie Is exhibition.<ref name="McCann Guardian" />Template:Sfn The shoot was the only time Bowie wore the design on his face, but it was later used for hanging backdrops at live performances.Template:Sfn

Duffy believed that Bowie's inspiration for the "flash" design came from a ring once worn by Elvis Presley; it featured the letters TCB (an acronym for Taking Care of Business) with a lightning flash.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Pegg believes the cover has a deeper meaning, representing the "split down the middle" personality of the Aladdin Sane character and reflecting Bowie's split feelings regarding the US tour and his newfound stardom.Template:Sfn The teardrop on his chest was Duffy's idea; Bowie said the photographer "just popped it in there. I thought it was rather sweet."<ref name="RS87">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was airbrushed by Philip Castle, who also helped create the silvery effect on Bowie's body on the sleeve.Template:Sfn Regarded as one of the most iconic images of Bowie, it was called "the Mona Lisa of album covers" by The GuardianTemplate:'s Mick McCann and one of the 50 greatest album covers of all time by Billboard in 2022.<ref name="McCann Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Pegg calls it "perhaps the most celebrated image of Bowie's long career".Template:Sfn

Upon release, the cover was polarising. According to Cann, some were offended and bewildered at Bowie's appearance, while others found it daring.Template:Sfn Henry Edwards of The New York Times initially described the image as "the most cunning representation to date of this angel-faced, 25-year-old, English composer-performer as a disembodied spirit of the Space Age".<ref name="NYTimes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In retrospect, Cann argues that a cover like Aladdin SaneTemplate:'s can be a risky move for artists whose success is relatively recent.Template:Sfn Later publications have compared the lightning bolt design to that of the flag of the British Union of Fascists.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReleaseEdit

RCA issued "The Jean Genie" as the lead single on 24Template:NbspNovember 1972.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In its advertising, the label said it was "the first single to come from Bowie's triumphant American tour".Template:Sfn The song charted at number two on the UK Singles Chart,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> making it Bowie's biggest hit to date. The single fared worse in the US, reaching number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The second single, "Drive-In Saturday", was released in the UK on 6Template:NbspApril 1973.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Like the previous single, it was a commercial success, peaking at number three in the UK.Template:Sfn "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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Aladdin Sane was released in the UK through RCA on 19Template:NbspApril 1973.Template:Efn<ref name="date" /> With a purported 100,000 copies ordered in advance,Template:Sfn 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 SaneTemplate:'s status as Britain's best-selling album since "the days of the Beatles".Template:Sfn Elsewhere, the album reached the top five in France, the Netherlands and Sweden,<ref name="frchart" /><ref name="nlchart" /><ref name="swechart" /> and the top ten in Australia.<ref name="auchart" /> Aladdin Sane is estimated to have sold 4.6 million copies worldwide, making it one of Bowie's highest-selling LPs.<ref name=sales>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 29Template:NbspJanuary 2016, where it remained for three weeks.<ref name="Catalog Albums 2016" /> It also peaked at number six on the Billboard Vinyl Albums the week of 18 March 2016, remaining on the chart for four weeks.<ref name="vinyl albums 2016" />

Critical receptionEdit

Critical reaction to Aladdin Sane was generally laudatory, if more enthusiastic in the US than in the UK.Template:Sfn 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."<ref name="RS Gerson">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Billboard called it a combination of "raw energy with explosive rock".Template:Sfn In The New York Times, Edwards described Aladdin Sane as "the most expressive, if still uneven, album of his recording career".<ref name="NYTimes" /> 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".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfn 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.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Other British writers gave more positive assessments, with Val Mabbs of Record Mirror citing it as Bowie's best work up to that point.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The 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".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

TourEdit

Template:See also In February 1973, shortly after Aladdin Sane was completed, Bowie and the band returned to the road for the final portion of the Ziggy Stardust Tour, which Pegg refers to as the "Aladdin Sane Tour". The same personnel from the album returned for the tour, with the addition of the guitarist John Hutchinson, who had previously performed with Bowie in various projects throughout the late 1960s.Template:Sfn With the exception of "Lady Grinning Soul",Template:Sfn all tracks from Aladdin Sane were added to the setlist. Bowie drastically increased his stage demeanor for this portion of the tour, becoming more open and ambiguous compared to the shy persona of previous performances. He also underwent numerous costume changes during the shows, even representing the Aladdin Sane character through the use of mime and masks.Template:Sfn

This portion of the tour commenced in the United States before continuing to Japan in April.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Bowie's stage presence was praised by Japanese audiences and reviewers.Template:Sfn On his arrival back to the UK in early May, where Aladdin Sane had just topped the chart, Bowie's popularity had soared in his home country; the final UK leg of the tour sold out completely. The UK leg made small setlist changes and introduced backdrop banners containing the blue and red lightning bolt Bowie donned on the Aladdin Sane cover artwork. Despite a disastrous first show at London's Earls Court Arena, the remaining dates were successful, receiving acclaim from reviewers and audiences.Template:Sfn

The final date of the tour was 3Template:NbspJuly 1973, which was performed at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. The performance was documented by filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker in a documentary and concert film, which premiered in 1979 and commercially released in 1983 as Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, with an accompanying soundtrack album titled Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture.<ref name="phfilms">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At this show, Bowie made the sudden surprise announcement that the show would be "the last show that we'll ever do", later understood to mean that he was retiring his Ziggy Stardust persona. Although Ronson was told in advance, Bolder and Woodmansey were not, which led to rising tensions between the two and Bowie.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Additional conflicts regarding compensation led to Woodmansey's dismissal from the Spiders in July. Bowie's next album, Pin Ups—a covers album devised as a "stop-gap" record to appease RCA—was recorded during the summer of 1973, released in October,Template:Sfn and was Bowie's final album recorded with the Spiders, by then comprising only Ronson and Bolder.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

LegacyEdit

Template:Music ratings Retrospectively, Aladdin Sane has received positive reviews from music critics but most reviewers have unfavorably compared it to its predecessor. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic believed that Aladdin Sane followed the same pattern as Ziggy Stardust, but for "both better and worse".<ref name="Erlewine AllMusic" /> While he praised the album for presenting unusual genres and being lyrically different, he criticised Bowie's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together", calling it "oddly clueless", and contended that "there's no distinctive sound or theme to make [a cohesive record]; it's Bowie riding the wake of Ziggy Stardust, which means there's a wealth of classic material here, but not enough focus to make the album itself a classic".<ref name="Erlewine AllMusic" /> PitchforkTemplate:'s Douglas Wolk also found it too similar to its predecessor, calling it "effectively Ziggy Stardust II, a harder-rocking if less original variation on the hit album".<ref name="Douglas Pitchfork" /> He writes that while Ziggy Stardust ended with a "vision of outreach to the front row" in the lyrics of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", Aladdin Sane is "all alienation and self-conscious artifice, parodic gestures of intimacy directed to the theater balcony".<ref name="Douglas Pitchfork" /> NME editors Roy Carr and Murray called the album "oddly unsatisfying, considerably less than the sum of the parts".Template:Sfn In a 2013 readers' poll for Rolling Stone, Aladdin Sane was voted Bowie's sixth best record. The magazine argued that it proved Bowie was not a "one-album wonder".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Like music critics, Bowie's biographers have mostly compared Aladdin Sane to its predecessor unfavourably. Pegg writes that it feels more rushed than Ziggy.Template:Sfn Carr and Murray contend that "It was all too obvious that the heat was onTemplate:Nbsp... The songs were written too fast, recorded too fast and mixed too fast."Template:Sfn Marc Spitz states that Bowie might have moved on from the Ziggy persona sooner had it not been for the pressure from his music publisher MainMan. Despite the record being critically viewed as inferior to its predecessor, Spitz calls it one of Bowie's classics and the songs "top-notch", and felt it ultimately showed that at the time Bowie was "still way ahead of the game".Template:Sfn Pegg calls it "one of the most urgent, compelling and essential of Bowie's albums".Template:Sfn

Template:Quote box Biographer Paul Trynka describes it as both "slicker and sketchier" than Ziggy, and argues that "[it] is in some ways a more convincing document on the nature of fame and show business than [its predecessor]".Template:Sfn Doggett similarly describes Aladdin Sane as arguably a more "real" and "rewarding" album than its predecessor, with a "Stones-inspired, vivid production" outdoing the "somewhat flat sonic canvas" of Ziggy, but concludes that while Ziggy is more than the sum of its parts and has a long-lasting legacy, Aladdin Sane is "its songs, its sleeve, and nothing more".Template:Sfn Perone finds the record not as accessible as its predecessor, deducing that with less "melodic and harmonic hooks" and lyrics that are "darker and more inwardly focused and analytical", the result is an album that is "not as well remembered" as Ziggy.Template:Sfn BillboardTemplate:'s Joe Lynch considered Aladdin Sane just as influential on glam rock as a whole as its predecessor. He states that both records "ensured [Bowie's] long-term career and infamy" and argues that both "transcended" the genre, are "works of art", and are not just "glam classics", but "rock classics".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 2003, Aladdin Sane was ranked among six Bowie entries on Rolling StoneTemplate:'s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (at number 277), and 279 in a 2012 revised list.<ref name="RS 500 greatest">Template:Cite magazine</ref> It was later ranked 77th on PitchforkTemplate:'s list of the top 100 albums of the 1970s.<ref name="p4k">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2013, NME ranked the album 230th in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.<ref name="Barker NME">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The album was also included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

ReissuesEdit

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.<ref name="Goldmine">Template:Cite book</ref> The album was first released on CD in 1984 by RCA.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> In 1990, Dr. Toby Mountain at Northeastern Digital, Southborough, Massachusetts,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> remastered Aladdin Sane from the original master tapes for Rykodisc, released with no bonus tracks.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

In 2003, a two-disc version was released by EMI/Virgin.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> 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.Template:Sfn A 40th anniversary edition, remastered by Ray Staff at London's AIR Studios, was released in CD and digital download formats in April 2013.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="five years box set">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> A 12" limited edition of the 2013 remaster, pressed in silver vinyl, was released in 2018 to mark the 45th anniversary of the album.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the album was reissued on 14 April 2023 in vinyl picture disc and half-speed-mastered versions.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Track listingEdit

All tracks are written by David Bowie, except "Let's Spend the Night Together", written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.<ref name="liner notes" />

Template:Tracklisting Template:Tracklisting

NotesEdit

On the original UK LP label, each track was ascribed a location to indicate where it was written or took its inspiration:Template:Sfn Template:Sfn New York ("Watch That Man"); Seattle–Phoenix ("Drive-In Saturday"); Detroit ("Panic in Detroit"); Los Angeles ("Cracked Actor"); New Orleans ("Time"); Detroit and New York ("The Jean Genie"); RHMS Ellinis, the vessel that had carried Bowie home in December 1972 ("Aladdin Sane"); London ("Lady Grinning Soul") and Gloucester Road ("The Prettiest Star").Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

PersonnelEdit

According to the liner notes and the biographer Nicholas Pegg:Template:Sfn<ref name="liner notes">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

David Bowie – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, saxophone, synthesizer, mellotron
Mick Ronson – guitar, piano, backing vocals
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Mick "Woody" Woodmansey – drums
Mike Garson – piano
Ken Fordham – saxophone
Brian "Bux" Wilshaw – saxophone, flutes
Juanita "Honey" Franklin – backing vocals
Linda Lewis – backing vocals
G.A. MacCormack – backing vocals

Production

David Bowie – producer, arrangements
Ken Scott – producer, engineer, mixer
Mick Moran – engineer
Mick Ronson – arrangements, mixer

Charts and certificationsEdit

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Weekly chartsEdit

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1973 weekly chart performance for *Aladdin Sane*
Chart (1973)	Peak Position
Australian Albums (Go-Set)<ref name="go-setbanks">Template:Cite magazine</ref>	4
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name="auchart">Template:Cite book</ref>	7
Canadian Albums (RPM)<ref name="Canadachart">Template:Cite magazine</ref>	20
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)<ref name="nlchart">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	4
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	2
French Albums (SNEP)<ref name="frchart">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }} Note: user must select 'David BOWIE' from drop-down.</ref>	3
Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	8
Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref name="Jachart">Template:Cite book</ref>	41
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)<ref name="norcharts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	11
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)<ref name="swechart">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}Note: Kvällstoppen combined sales for albums and singles in the one chart; Aladdin Sane peaked at number nine on the list in the second week of May 1973.</ref>	5
US Billboard Top LPs & Tape<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	17

2003 weekly chart performance for *Aladdin Sane*
Chart (2003)	Peak Position
Template:Album chart
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2013 weekly chart performance for *Aladdin Sane*
Chart (2013)	Peak Position
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2016 weekly chart performance for *Aladdin Sane*
Chart (2016)	Peak Position
Template:Album chart
US Billboard Vinyl Albums<ref name="vinyl albums 2016">Template:Cite magazine</ref>	6
US Billboard Catalog Albums<ref name="Catalog Albums 2016">Template:Cite magazine</ref>	16

Template:Album chart Template:Album chart

2023 chart performance for *Aladdin Sane*
Chart (2023)	Peak position

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Year-end chartsEdit

1973 year-end chart performance for *Aladdin Sane*
Chart (1973)	Position
French Albums (SNEP)<ref name="frayearend">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	39
UK Albums (OCC)<ref name="UKYearend">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	2