The mistake David Bowie left in ‘The Jean Genie’
Having broken into the US mainstream in 1972 with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie became increasingly influenced by American culture. That year, Bowie toured America extensively with the Spiders from Mars and saw Elvis Presley live at Madison Square Garden; gradually, he began to understand the beauty and societal pitfalls the country had to offer.
When looking to record his sixth studio album at the end of 1972, Bowie mainly wrote from fresh experiences in his newfound lifestyle. The result was Aladdin Sane, an album combining The Rolling Stones’s blues-rock approach with a contemporary glam-rock aesthetic. The themes depicted often run against the energy of the music, depicting a bleak image of modern American life.
In its most memorable moment, the album’s lead single ‘The Jean Genie’ presents a character Bowie once described as a “white-trash, kind of trailer-park kid thing – the closet intellectual who wouldn’t want the world to know that he reads.” The glam-infused blues riff was inspired by Bo Diddley; propulsive and danceable, the track presents a “smorgasbord of imagined Americana,” as Bowie saw it.
In the chorus, Bowie sings, “The Jean Genie lives on his back / The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks / (The Jean Genie) he’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls / The Jean Genie, let yourself go, oh”. However, you may have noticed that, just before the first line, Bowie says, “Get back on it.”
Although this snappy addition works exceedingly well, to the point that I was convinced it was an intended part of the lyrics, it wasn’t planned at all. During the recording session at RCA Studios New York, the Spiders from Mars bassist Trevor Bolder allegedly shifted to the chorus progression one bar early; Bowie instinctively instructed him to “get back on it” so they could continue the take. Bowie liked the line and kept it in the final version.
Bowie and the Spiders were pressed for time owing to touring commitments and label expectations, leading to a rather sloppy final product. “There was a lot of pressure because record companies back then demanded an album every six months,” producer Ken Scott explained later. “And so Aladdin Sane had to be recorded and mixed in about three weeks.”
“I love the famous fuck up in it where Trevor goes to the chorus too early,” drummer Woody Woodmansey said of ‘The Jean Genie’ in Spider From Mars: My Life With Bowie. “He pointed it out to Bowie at the time and Bowie said, ‘Leave it in. I like it.'” In fact, “when we played that song live, Bowie told Trev to repeat the mistake.”
Listen to David Bowie’s rough and ready ‘The Jean Genie’ below.
