This week "The Jean Genie" / "Ziggy Stardust" enters the UK singles chart, it was the lead single to his 1973 album Aladdin Sane. Co-produced by Ken Scott.
According to Bowie, it was "a smorgasbord of imagined Americana" A protagonist inspired by Iggy Pop, and the title being an allusion to author Jean Genet. One of Bowie's most famous tracks, it was promoted with a film clip featuring Andy Warhol associate Cyrinda Foxe and peaked at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song's chugging R&B riff is often compared to the Yardbirds, especially their cover of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man".
The line "He's so simple minded, he can't drive his module" later gave the band Simple Minds their name.
"The Jean Genie" was born on the Ziggy Stardust Tour as a spontaneous jam called "Bussin'" on the tour bus between Cleveland and Memphis, sparked by Mick Ronson's Bo Diddley-inspired riff on his new Les Paul. It became the inaugural track Bowie penned for Aladdin Sane in the fall of 1972 during his US tour, finalizing it in New York City, where he mingled with Cyrinda Foxe of the Warhol set. Bowie later revealed, "I wrote it to entertain her in her apartment. Sexy girl." In the 1990s, Bowie characterized the song as "a smorgasbord of imagined America" and "my inaugural New York song."
The recording session occurred at New York's RCA Studios on October 6, 1972. "I had an engaging conversation with [bassist] Trevor Bolder," Def Leppard's Joe Elliott reminisced. "I asked, 'Do you recall recording The Jean Genie?' He replied, 'No. We completed it in an hour and a half.'"
The following week, mixing took place at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. The original single mix was produced in narrow stereo, whereas the album mix featured a broader stereo soundscape.
The song's driving R&B riff often draws comparisons to the Yardbirds, particularly their rendition of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man," but it likely took inspiration from French singer Jacques Dutronc's 1966 song "La Fille du Père Noël." The lyrics are reminiscent of the Velvet Underground's "stylized sleaze."The theme was partly influenced by David Bowie's friend Iggy Pop, or as Bowie described, "an Iggy-type character... it wasn't actually Iggy." The phrase "He's so simple minded, he can't drive his module" is famously attributed to the naming of the band Simple Minds.
The title is frequently seen as a nod to the author Jean Genet. Bowie acknowledged that although it was "subconscious... it's likely there, yes." In his 2005 book "Moonage Daydream," he stated more explicitly: "A simple riff that I composed one evening in New York to entertain Cyrinda developed into the lyrics for what was initially an instrumental track, turning it into a vibrant mosaic of fictional American culture... inspired by a character reminiscent of Iggy... The title, of course, was a clever pun related to Jean Genet."
In October 1972, Mick Rock directed a promotional film clip for the song in San Francisco. The video combined concert and studio footage of Bowie with the Spiders from Mars and location shots at the Mars Hotel featuring Cyrinda Foxe. Bowie's vision for the video was to portray "Ziggy as a kind of Hollywood street-rat" with a "Marilyn-esque consort," which resulted in Foxe's casting and her flight from New York to San Francisco specifically for the filming.
Bowie recorded "The Jean Genie" for BBC's Top of the Pops, with the performance airing on January 4, 1973. In a departure from the norm, the band played live, featuring an extended guitar solo by Ronson. Although tapes of this Top of the Pops episode were erased, BBC cameraman John Henshall had made a copy using innovative fisheye lens techniques. When contacted, Henshall was astonished to learn he possessed the sole surviving copy. This film has been preserved and was screened at the British Film Institute in December 2011. The BBC replayed the segment during the Top of the Pops 2 Christmas Special on December 21, 2011, marking its first airing since the initial broadcast in January 1973.
Commenti