History Music / AladdinSane

* PerformanceVideo: The music video for "The Jean Genie", directed by sideman Mick Rock, depicts Bowie and the Spiders from Mars playing on a soundstage and in a WhiteVoidRoom, intercut with scenes depicting Bowie and company outside the Mars Hotel in San Francisco, California.

# [[Music/BetweenTheButtons "Let's Spend The Night Together"]][[note]]Originally by Music/TheRollingStones.[[/note]] (3:10)

* CoverVersion: "Let's Spend The Night Together" was, of course, originally by Music/TheRollingStones, from the American version of ''Music/BetweenTheButtons''.

* GenreRoulette: Bowie plays with numerous styles here. "Watch That Man" sounds more like Music/TheRollingStones than the actual Stones cover. "Drive-In Saturday" is {{Doowop}}. "Aladdin Sane" is {{jazz}} influenced and allows pianist Mike Garson to do a Theolonious Monk-ish solo. "Cracked Actor" is predominantly HardRock, with only a hint of glam. "Lady Grinning Soul" is European art music. "The Jean Genie" is Delta {{blues}} while "Panic In Detroit" has a BoDiddleyBeat.

''Aladdin Sane'' was supported by four singles: "The Jean Genie", "Drive-In Saturday", "Time", and Bowie's cover of Music/TheRollingStones' "Let's Spend the Night Together". For Bowie, this was an unprecedented amount of singles for a single album; up until now, the most an album would get was just two.

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Like his earlier song "Five Years", "Aladdin Sane" the song is based on Bowie's then-conviction that the world had only a few years left. Its full title is "Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)", the first two dates being the years before a world war began, thus {{foreshadowing}} WorldWarIII happening in the coming years (assuming it hasn't already begun).

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Like his earlier song "Five Years", "Aladdin Sane" the song is based on Bowie’s then-conviction that the world had only a few years left. Its full title is "Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)", the first two dates being the years before a world war began, thus {{foreshadowing}} WorldWarIII happening in the coming years.

''Aladdin Sane'' is the sixth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1973. A loosely-constructed semi-sequel to ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'', it's been described as "Ziggy goes to America" by Bowie. The Spiders from Mars would be disbanded at the end of the subsequent tour that July, via an infamous impromptu announcement from Bowie that "not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show we'll ever do," the vague wording of which led fans and press to believe for a short while that he himself was quitting the music industry altogether. In reality, he'd keep going all the way until his death in 2016, barring a hiatus from 2006 to 2011. The character of Ziggy Stardust, meanwhile, was given one last hurrah that fall via "The 1980 Floor Show", an episode of the American variety TV series ''The Midnight Special'' that acted as a transition between the speculative sci-fi of the Ziggy character and the urban dystopia of Bowie's forthcoming album ''Music/DiamondDogs'' (''Music/PinUps'' was released midway through the performance's taping).

''Aladdin Sane'' is the sixth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1973. A loosely-constructed semi-sequel to ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'', it's been described as "Ziggy goes to America" by Bowie. The character of Ziggy Stardust was officially retired at the end of the subsequent tour via an infamous impromptu announcement from Bowie that "not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show we'll ever do," the vague wording of which led fans and press to believe for a short while that Bowie was quitting the music industry altogether; in reality he'd keep going all the way until his death in 2016, barring a hiatus from 2006 to 2011. The album's music is best known for the hits "Aladdin Sane", "Let's Spend The Night Together" and "The Jean Genie".

* GenreRoulette: Bowie plays with numerous styles here. "Watch That Man" sounds more like Music/TheRollingStones than the actual Stones cover. "Drive-In Saturday" is {{Doowop}}. "Aladdin Sane" is {{jazz}} influenced and allows pianist Mike Garson to do a Theolonious Monk-ish solo. "Lady Grinning Soul" is European art music. "The Jean Genie" is Delta {{blues}} while "Panic In Detroit" has a BoDiddleyBeat.

* CallBack: "Time" references his earlier song "Sell Me a Coat".
-->'''Sell Me a Coat"'''

* DarkerAndEdgier: Due to the American influence and the fast-paced songwriting, ''Aladdin Sane'' is a darker, harder, nastier, gaudier glam rock album than ''Ziggy Stardust'', with lyrics that paint the pictures of urban decay, degenerate lives, drug addiction, sex, violence and death.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Due to the American influence and the fast-paced songwriting, ''Aladdin Sane'' is a darker, harder, nastier, gaudier glam rock album than ''Ziggy Stardust''. The lyrics reflect the pros of Bowie's newfound stardom and the cons of touring, and paint pictures of urban decay, drugs, sex, violence and death.

The album was listed at No. 279 in Magazine/RollingStone's [[UsefulNotes/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 Greatest Albums of All Time]].

[[AC: Side One]]

[[AC: Side Two]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: Due to the American influence and the fast-paced songwriting, ''Aladdin Sane'' is a harder, nastier, gaudier glam rock album than ''Ziggy Stardust''. The lyrics reflect the pros of Bowie's newfound stardom and the cons of touring, and paint pictures of urban decay, drugs, sex, violence and death.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Due to the American influence and the fast-paced songwriting, ''Aladdin Sane'' is a harder, nastier, gaudier album than ''Ziggy Stardust''. The lyrics reflect the pros of Bowie's newfound stardom and the cons of touring, and paint pictures of urban decay, drugs, sex, violence and death.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Due to the American influence and the fast-paced songwriting, the album features a tougher, rawer and edgier glam rock sound than its predecessor. The lyrics reflect the pros of Bowie's newfound stardom and the cons of touring, and paint pictures of urban decay, drugs, sex, violence and death.

The album is probably best known not for any of the music within it but for its cover art, with the front portrait of Bowie with a lightning bolt painted across his face becoming so emblematic of the musician in the decades after ''Aladdin Sane''[='s=] release that it became the basis for the "singer" emojis (👨🏼‍🎤 and 👩🏼‍🎤) a few years after Bowie's passing in 2016. That said, the album's music still stands as a critical turning point for Bowie, introducing a number of jazz and art rock influences that would come to define his later output, especially once he dropped the glam act entirely just two years after this album's release. As such, ''Aladdin Sane'' sound-wise is much more of a GenreRoulette than ''Ziggy Stardust'' was, featuring mixes of conventional hard-tinged glam rock, piano-driven jazz fusion, art rock, and even rockabilly and {{doowop}} throwback.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Who will love Aladdin Sane? Millions weep a fountain, just in case of sunrise. Who will love Aladdin Sane?"'']]

* BodyPaint: Bowie's face is painted in garish colours.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "Jean Genie"

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Time itself “falls [[UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish wanking]] to the floor” in "Time".

* GriefSong: Bowie wrote "Time" when friends in his own age group started dying, among them Music/NewYorkDolls drummer Billy Murcia, who’s mentioned as “Billy Dolls”.

The album is probably best known not for any of the music within it but for its cover art, with the front portrait of Bowie with a lightning bolt painted across his face becoming so emblematic of the musician in the decades after ''Aladdin Sane''[='s=] release that ''it got its own emojis'' (👨🏼‍🎤 and 👩🏼‍🎤). That said, the album's music still stands as a critical turning point for Bowie, introducing a number of jazz and art rock influences that would come to define his later output, especially once he dropped the glam act entirely just two years after this album's release. As such, ''Aladdin Sane'' sound-wise is much more of a GenreRoulette than ''Ziggy Stardust'' was, featuring mixes of conventional hard-tinged glam rock, piano-driven jazz fusion, art rock, and even rockabilly and {{doowop}} throwback.

The album is probably best known not for any of the music within it but for its cover art, with the front portrait of Bowie with a lightning bolt painted across his face becoming emblematic of the musician in the decades after ''Aladdin Sane''[='s=] release. That said, the album's music still stands as a critical turning point for Bowie, introducing a number of jazz and art rock influences that would come to define his later output, especially once he dropped the glam act entirely just two years after this album's release. As such, ''Aladdin Sane'' sound-wise is much more of a GenreRoulette than ''Ziggy Stardust'' was, featuring mixes of conventional hard-tinged glam rock, piano-driven jazz fusion, art rock, and even rockabilly and {{doowop}} throwback.

# [[Music/TheRollingStones "Let's Spend The Night Together"]] (3:10)

''Aladdin Sane'' is the sixth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1973. A loosely-constructed semi-sequel to ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'', it's been described as "Ziggy goes to America" by Bowie. The character of Ziggy Stardust was officially retired at the end of the subsequent tour via an infamous impromptu announcement from Bowie that "not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show we'll ever do," the vague wording of which led fans and press to believe for a short while that Bowie was quitting the music industry altogether. The album's music is best known for the hits "Aladdin Sane", "Let's Spend The Night Together" and "The Jean Genie".

''Aladdin Sane'' is the sixth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1973. A loosely-constructed semi-sequel to ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'', it's been described as "Ziggy goes to America" by Bowie. The character of Ziggy Stardust was officially retired at the end of the subsequent tour. The album's music is best known for the hits "Aladdin Sane", "Let's Spend The Night Together" and "The Jean Genie".

The album is probably best known not for any of the music within it but for its cover art, with the front portrait of Bowie with a lightning bolt painted across his face becoming emblematic of the musician in the decades after ''Aladdin Sane''[='s=] release.

The album was listed at No.279 in Magazine/RollingStone's [[UsefulNotes/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 Greatest Albums of All Time]].

* RearrangeTheSong: Similarly to "Hang On to Yourself" and "Moonage Daydream" off of [[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars the previous album]], "The Prettiest Star" is a rerecorded version of a non-album single from 1970, released as a follow-up to "Music/SpaceOddity".