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Ispirato alle sensazioni suggerite dal trionfale tour americano del '72 ("é l'America vista da Ziggy": Bowie dixit) "Aladdin sane" (gioco di parole per "a lady insane") fu pubblicato per consolidare il successo riscosso dal precedente "Ziggy Stardust". Impossibile aggiungere una sola goccia ai fiumi d'inchiostro versati per descrivere l'importanza determinante che il disco in parola esercitò nel dare nuova linfa all'effimero movimento glam rock: meno compatto e più disomogeneo di "Ziggy Stardust", Aladdin ci regala citazioni implicite ("Watch That Man") ed esplicite ("Let's Spend the Night Together") ai Rolling Stones, deliziose velleità cabarettistiche (le ballate "The Prettiest Star" e "Lady Grinning Soul") e cenni al trascinante hard blues degli states ("The Jean Geanie").
L'apertura è affidata al ritmo ossessivo della chitarra di Mick Ronson in "Watch That Man", riflessione parodistica sulla caotica vita di New York City impreziosita dall'abilità tastieristica di Garson. Costui ci regala nella successiva title-track i tre minuti di delirio lisergico-psichedelico di tastiera tra i più leggendari dell'intero repertorio bowieano: qui le dita danzano sui tasti sino a spezzare ogni coerenza ritmica per poi recuperare alla fine l'andatura cadenzata dello splendido ritornello ("ooohhI love Aladdin Sane..."). Geniale. Se "Drive in Saturday" é una rassicurante ballata che scivola serena tra i morbidi accenti di sassofono di cui David é maestro, "panic in Detroit" suona da profetico ammonimento circa un (all'epoca) fantomatico attentato terroristico nel cuore degli states. La chitarra satura di Ronson introduce la successiva "Cracked Actor", cavalcata elettrica al fulmicotone che offre a Bowie il destro per una amara riflessione sul ruolo della (rock)star tempestata di allusioni sessuali ("I just want your sex"): maestro di repentine trasformazioni di immagine e di stile, il giovane David sa di dover soddisfare i gusti instabili e lunatici di un pubblico pronto a tributargli gli onori dei riflettori e delle classifiche e a voltargli le spalle una volta emerso un genere o un artista in grado di rimpiazzarlo.
Non a caso, avvertiti i primi scricchiolii del glam rock, Bowie inscena sul palco la morte del suo personaggio Ziggy Stardust e con esso di un genere musicale che non si risveglierà se non in patetici rigurgiti glam anni '90 (Pulp, Suede etc...). Superate la pomposa "Time" e la soffice "Prettiest Star" ecco riecheggiare le nostalgie della swinging London dei sixties (tema che troverà più ampio sfogo nel successivo album "Pin Ups")in una brillante cover di "Let's Spend the Night Together". Ritmicamente assai più incalzante dell'originale stonesiano, la canzone è interpretata con un tono ironico ed una voce baritonale che le rendono giustizia assai meglio del moscio arrangiamento di Jagger e soci. La trasognata ballata "Lady Grinning Soul" chiude una parata di capolavori imprescindibile per comprendere l'evoluzione di un genere che nella prima metà dei '70 ha rappresentato la più intelligente alternativa allo sterile sperimentalismo del progressive e all'ottusa pesantezza dell'hard rock.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Aladdin Sane (05:07)
Watching him dash away
Swinging an old bouquet
Dead roses
Sake and strange divine
Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh
You'll make it
Passionate bright young things
Takes him away to war
Don't fake it
Sadden glissando strings
Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh
You'll make it
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Battle cries and champagne just in time for sunrise
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Motor sensational
Paris or maybe hell
I'm waiting
Clutches of sad remains
Waits for Aladdin Sane
You'll make it
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Millions weep a fountain, just in case of sunrise
Who will love Aladdin Sane
We'll love Aladdin Sane
Love Aladdin Sane
Who will love Aladdin Sane
Millions weep a fountain, just in case of sunrise
Who will love Aladdin Sane
We'll love Aladdin Sane
We'll love Aladdin Sane
04 Panic in Detroit (04:25)
He looked a lot like Che Guevara, drove a diesel van
Kept his gun in quiet seclusion, such a humble man
The only survivor of the National People's Gang
Panic in Detroit, I asked for an autograph
He wanted to stay home, I wish someone would phone
Panic in Detroit
He laughed at accidental sirens that broke the evening gloom
The police had warned of repercussions
They followed none too soon
A trickle of strangers were all that were left alive
Panic in Detroit, I asked for an autograph
He wanted to stay home, I wish someone would phone
Panic in Detroit
Putting on some clothes I made my way to school
And I found my teacher crouching in his overalls
I screamed and ran to smash my favourite slot machine
And jumped the silent cars that slept at traffic lights
Having scored a trillion dollars, made a run back home
Found him slumped across the table. A gun and me alone
I ran to the window. Looked for a plane or two
Panic in Detroit. He'd left me an autograph
"Let me collect dust." I wish someone would phone
Panic in Detroit
05 Cracked Actor (03:01)
I've come on a few years from my Hollywood Highs
The best of the last, the cleanest star they ever had
I'm stiff on my legend, the films that I made
Forget that I'm fifty cause you just got paid
Crack, baby, crack, show me you're real
Smack, baby, smack, is that all that you feel
Suck, baby, suck, give me your head
Before you start professing that you're knocking me dead
You caught yourself a trick down on Sunset and Vine
But since he pinned you baby you're a porcupine
You sold me illusions for a sack full of cheques
You've made a bad connection 'cause I just want your sex
Crack, baby, crack, show me you're real
Smack, baby, smack, is that all that you feel
Suck, baby, suck, give me your head
Before you start professing that you're knocking me dead
06 Time (05:15)
Time - He's waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me boys
Time - He flexes like a whore
Falls wanking to the floor
His trick is you and me, boy
Time - In Quaaludes and red wine
Demanding Billy Dolls
And other friends of mine
Take your time
The sniper in the brain, regurgitating drain
Incestuous and vain, and many other last names
I look at my watch it say 9:25 and I think Oh God I'm still alive
We should be on by now
We should be on by now
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la (repeat)
You - are not a victim
You - just scream with boredom
You - are not evicting time
Chimes - Goddamn, you're looking old
You'll freeze and catch a cold
'Cause you've left your coat behind
Take your time
Breaking up is hard, but keeping dark is hateful
I had so many dreams, I had so many breakthroughs
But you, my love, were kind, but love has left you dreamless
The door to dreams was closed. Your park was real dreamless
Perhaps you're smiling now, smiling through this darkness
But all I had to give was the guilt for dreaming
We should be on by now (x5)
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la (repeat)
Yeah, time!
09 The Jean Genie (04:07)
A small Jean Genie snuck off to the city
Strung out on lasers and slash back blazers
Ate all your razors while pulling the waiters
Talking bout Monroe and walking on Snow White
New York's a go-go and everything tastes nice
Poor little Greenie
CHORUS
Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
He's outrageous, he screams and he bawls
Jean Genie, let yourself go!
Sits like a man but he smiles like a reptile
She loves him, she loves him but just for a short while
She'll scratch in the sand, won't let go his hand
He says he's a beautician and sells you nutrition
And keeps all your dead hair for making up underwear
Poor little Greenie
CHORUS
He's so simple minded he can't drive his module
He bites on the neon and sleeps in the capsule
Loves to be loved, loves to be loved
CHORUS (repeat)
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Altre recensioni
Di francis
Bowie si guarda allo specchio con un bicchiere di Moët & Chandon in mano e ride di se stesso.
"Aladdin Sane" non è l'album che consacra il glam, è l'album che lo uccide.
Di Dune Buggy
"Come Dorian Gray, dalla musica alla vita: una primavera di eccessi!"
"Il futuro Duca Bianco dà grandissima prova di maturazione nell’unire falsetti, bassi e recitazione."
