David Bowie Aladdin Sane CD

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Personnel: David Bowie (vocals, guitar, harmonica, saxophone, keyboards); David Bowie; Mick Ronson (vocals, guitar, piano, background vocals); Mac Cormack (vocals, background vocals); Trevor Bolder (bass instrument); Mike Woodsmansey, Mick "Woody" Woodmansey (drums); Ken Fordham (flute, saxophone); Mike Garson (piano); Linda Lewis, Juanita "Honey" Franklin, G A MacCormack (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Ken Scott; Mick Ronson.
Audio Remasterers: Nigel Reeve; Peter Mew.
Audio Remixer: Dr. Toby Mountain.
Recording information: RCA Studios, London, England (1972); RCA Studios, Nashville, TN (1972); Trident Studios, London, England (1972).
Photographer: Sukita.
Unknown Contributor Role: L.
Arrangers: David Bowie; Mick Ronson.
This 2003 set packages David Bowie's Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs in one budget-priced set. These are not the Ryko reissues with bonus tracks these are the remastered EMI versions with no bonuses, which is the only way these discs are now available, and this is a nice, quick, affordable way to get both these records at once. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Ziggy Stardust wrote the blueprint for David Bowie's hard-rocking glam, and Aladdin Sane essentially follows the pattern, for both better and worse. A lighter affair than Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane is actually a stranger album than its predecessor, buoyed by bizarre lounge-jazz flourishes from pianist Mick Garson and a handful of winding, vaguely experimental songs. Bowie abandons his futuristic obsessions to concentrate on the detached cool of New York and London hipsters, as on the compressed rockers "Watch That Man," "Cracked Actor," and "The Jean Genie." Bowie follows the hard stuff with the jazzy, dissonant sprawls of "Lady Grinning Soul," "Aladdin Sane," and "Time," all of which manage to be both campy and avant-garde simultaneously, while the sweepingly cinematic "Drive-In Saturday" is a soaring fusion of sci-fi doo wop and melodramatic teenage glam. He lets his paranoia slip through in the clenched rhythms of "Panic in Detroit," as well as on his oddly clueless cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together." For all the pleasures on Aladdin Sane, there's no distinctive sound or theme to make the album cohesive; 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. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
It's no surprise that ALADDIN SANE and PIN UPS came out in the same year. Each drip with the seedy sexuality of London's late '60s sexual revolution. Yet, while PIN UPS was a mid-'60s sampling of influences--a glorified cover album--ALADDIN SANE was all Bowie.
Stepping out of the Ziggy Stardust shadow (Bowie would announce his temporary retirement from the stage later that year), ALADDIN SANE was the aftermath of Ziggy's visit, a brutal memoir of the drugs, sex and glamour that a young starlet could find at the time. "Forget that I'm 50/'Cause you just got paid," Bowie croons, adopting the persona of a "Cracked Actor," and one wonders how far stardom had pushed Bowie. Was he indeed a lad insane?
The macho guitar rave-ups are a brilliant spewing of the PIN UPS influences. Mick Ronson's searing guitar is beautiful trash, made of Stonesy grind and dangerous Kinks-like riffing. Bowie is at an evocative peak, his vocals at once voyeuristic and enticing. His cover of "Let's Spend The Night Together" sends an unwashed shiver up the back, and his youthful exuberance on "Panic In Detroit" is charmingly believable.
ALADDIN SANE showed that Bowie was an artist with staying power that reached beyond his previous Martian Cult status.