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The 20th of February 1974

Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 17th to Saturday the 23rd of February 1974

Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 16th of February

Results counted from Sunday the 17th,

and published on Wednesday the 20th of February 1974.

David Bowie

Aladdin Sane

At No.33, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, is David Bowie with Aladdin Sane.

If there is one image…

…that defines the seventies, then this album cover has got to be it.

An unquestionably iconic image. As soon as it was released to the world it became immortal almost immediately. Even now, when one hears the name Bowie, this picture is never too far from the surface.

There are some…

…which signify the lightning bolt image as a portrayal of the head splitting in two, and I can see that.

If that is the case, and if this was David’s intention, then it fits perfectly with the contents of the package within, which some have found to be not as pleasant a listening experience as when Ziggy fell to earth on his previous album, which is good, because I feel it wasn’t meant to be.

David Bowie – No.22 in the UK Albums Chart on My 1st Birthday

David Bowie – No.35 in the UK Albums Chart on My 2nd Birthday

Although a lot of people…

…automatically pair this album up as a follow-up to his previous album, this really wasn’t the case at all. If anything, the pairing should be the one which came before Ziggy, and not this one which comes after. I see this album more as an extension, and one which is portrayed as something you’re meant to initially think of as illuminating cultivating, but which, underneath the veneer, it’s going extremely awry indeed.

There are those that tend to forget that David is a performer first and foremost, and he portrays characters which ebb and flow within his conscience. Nothing is left to chance, everything is as it is intended. That’s why the addition of avant-garde pianist Mike Garson, and setting him free to feel his own experimental way all over this album, and especially the title track, is inspired.

If it feels uncomfortable to listen to, that’s because that is how it is meant to be. The Rolling Stones cover track seem a bit off? You’re not going mad. You’re just in the head of the character of someone who is.

Let me explain.

I see it as a concept album,..

…a letter from America (which, in a way it was), where we follow the protagonist through his journey which he is soon discovering is not the self-exploratory enlightening he expected; instead, behind every dazzle of lights there is a sinister and deleterious undercurrent creeping into the subconscious, with every stop along the way becoming a schizophrenic exploratory expedition of excess of all the worst possible things in this foreign land. A journey which let’s in a dehumanisation into his own self, which sends the figure spinning off into some dizzying fever-dream; eventually managing to pull himself away and return back to the safety of his homeland. But, although the land he has come back to has not changed, he himself is now infected permanently by the experience he’s left behind.

A head which has effectively split in two. He truly has become A Lad Insane.

The album…

…had exploded into the chart last spring on the 29th of April 1973, straight in at No.1, and dominated there for the rest of that season, only relenting the position at the advent of summer, where it stayed in the Top 10 until halfway through the autumn. Since then it has occupied the mid-chart positions throughout the winter months up until this week in 1974.

From here,..

…the album will stay in this area for another few weeks until, in about a month from here, it will fall out of the chart after the 23rd of March.

The journey doesn’t stop there though, and it will slip far out of reach to travel it’s own journey for quite some time. However, it will join back up with me along my musical road in the future, where we will both catch up with our stories then.