The pictures today do not reflect the musical selection, but I hope that you enjoy both.

Aladdin Sane is the sixth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on April 13, 1973. The follow-up to his breakthrough The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, it was the first album he wrote and released from a position of stardom.

The name of the album is a pun on “A Lad Insane”. Although technically a new Bowie ‘character’, Aladdin Sane was essentially a development of Ziggy Stardust in his appearance and persona, as evidenced on the cover by Brian Duffy and in Bowie’s live performances throughout 1973 that culminated in Ziggy’s ‘retirement’ at the Hammersmith Odeon in July that year. Aladdin Sane was described by Bowie … as simply “Ziggy goes to America”; most of the tracks were observations he composed on the road during his Ziggy Stardust Tour, which accounted for the place names following each song title on the original record labels. Biographer Christopher Sandford believed the album showed that Bowie “was simultaneously appalled and fixated by America”. His mixed feelings about the journey stemmed, in Bowie’s words, from “wanting to be up on the stage performing my songs, but on the other hand not really wanting to be on those buses with all those strange people … So Aladdin Sane was split down the middle.” This kind of “schizophrenia”, as Bowie described it, was conveyed on the cover by his makeup, where a lightning bolt represents the duality of mind, although he would later tell friends that the “lad insane” of the album’s title track was inspired by his brother Terry, who had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic.

Per wikipedia:
Aladdin Sane featured a tougher rock sound than its predecessor Ziggy Stardust, particularly on tracks like “Panic in Detroit.” “Panic in Detroit” is based it on friend Iggy Pop’s descriptions of revolutionaries he had known in Michigan and Pop’s experiences during the 1967 Detroit riots. Rolling Stone magazine called the track “a paranoid descendant of the Motor City’s earlier masterpiece, Martha and the Vandellas’ “Nowhere to Run.”” Musically “Panic in Detroit” has been described as a “Salsa variation on the Bo Diddley beat” and features prominent conga drums and female backing vocals. The lyrics name-check Che Guevara and are also said to contain references to John Sinclair of the White Panther Party. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine printed its list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. Mick Ronson was ranked at #64, and “Panic in Detroit” as his “essential recording.”

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 favorite 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
Panic in Detroit
Panic in Detroit

Songwriters: David Bowie