album #47

aladdin sane (david bowie)

This is Bowie's fifties rock album, with a heavy dose of Rolling Stones, strong and simple. There's a good sing-song shape to the songs, they move on a metronome- it's a relatively predictable album, not in a bad way. There are a few odd gems- the paranoid passion of “Panic in Detroit” lifts it up a level, as the guitars run down the walls; “Time” is a vaguely hostile cabaret soliloquy, an early taste of the Thin White Duke. “Lady Grinning Soul” makes for an alluring closer, a haunting ballad of smoke and mirrors. And my favorite track is “Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?),” one of the great Bowie songs in my opinion. The glowering piano line seduces me instantly- add to this the eerie, searching question of the chorus, “Who Will Love Aladdin Sane?,” and the astonishing, otherwordly breakdown of the piano midway through. Nothing on this orderly album can approach the level of chaos braved in that interlude.

Another way to look at that song, in context of this album- this is the first record Bowie released as a genuine rock star, massively famous. And "Aladdin Sane" hints at the boldly strange road that he'll soon travel, far away from conventional glam rock sounds.

This is a good one- I really like this album, I'd rank it as one of my favorites of Bowie's. One question I'd love to examine is, who is Aladdin Sane, the character? I know Ziggy, I know the Duke- what's Aladdin Sane's philosophy exactly, and does it show up anywhere other than that particularly haunting track? Is there a theme that unifies these tracks on a level that I haven't discerned? The answer appears to be 'no,' and the character, as Bowie describes him, is "Ziggy goes to America." Anyway- this is a winner. Good, good album here.