David Bowie: Aladdin Sane

David Bowie’s instructions to Mike Garson to “just go mad” on the piano in Aladdin Sane paid off handsomely. It is probably the most brilliant piece of discordant music in a pop song ever!

As the title track on the follow up to the hugely successful The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Aladdin Sane is an odd song, dominated by Garson’s piano over dark, sombre minor chords. Most of the album was written while on tour in America (a place which Bowie initially hated) and Bowie originally was going to call the Album “Aladdin Vain”, but thought that the drugs reference would be overplayed.

Although most of the album is more mainstream rock than most Bowie, Aladdin Sane sticks out in its bleakness. The lyrics are typically opaque, although perhaps a clue is given in the sub title, 1914-1918, 1939-1945, ???? , evoking the image of an imminent third world war.

When I think of Aladdin Sane, I think of Bowie, touring the US in 1973, as a sad, fraught futuristic figure, knowing that he was heading for a crash in the very near future (“Paris or maybe hell, I’m waiting”) Stringing the “old bouquet” that was maybe his relationship with Angie, or maybe the ghost of Ziggy, with his “sad remains” in clear view.