So why is David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Very few things are more fascinating, music-wise (and maybe otherwise too), than what David Bowie was up to during the 1970s. Aladdin Sane comes at a time (1973) when music and the culture at large were shifting rapidly, and the album pushes things forward with a wide array of of glam and proto-punk and art rock.
Best of all, Aladdin Sane is loose and strange and fun, and sounds fresh as ever half a century later.
“The Jean Genie” combines a stomping, blues rock-meets-proto punk beat with a glam rock vibe that turns the song into a party. I did a little research into who or what the “Jean Genie” is, and apparently it’s just kind of a made up thing. So, good times!
“Watch That Man” has a “Suffragette City”-meets-Rolling Stones feel, but in such a way that if it was a Stones song it would automatically be one of my absolute favorites.
Most of Aladdin Sane moves at a rollicking, upbeat pace, but “Lady Grinning Soul” slows things down a bit. It’s a gorgeous 1960s throwback ballad, with shimmering piano and strings accompanying Bowie.
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane
Flight of the Conchords’ brilliant and hilarious David Bowie homage, called “Bowie’s in Space,” is the kind of satire that’s so good that it has influenced how I think about Bowie.
“Do you read me, Lieutenant Bowie?”
Oh indeed, we do.
Some stats & info about David Bowie – Aladdin Sane
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Art Rock, Glam Rock, Proto-Punk, Album Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Aladdin Sane released? 1973
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #574 out of 1,000
David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I’ve come on a few years from my Hollywood highs, the best of the last, the cleanest star they ever had.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.