ABSOLUT ALBUM COVERS

The Artists, The Art and The Albums

ABSOLUT UNDERGROUND>>>

A record sleeve starts as a blank canvas. Musicians create a mood with words and melodies and sound, and artists transform it into a picture. The image may give insight into the music encased inside or it may simply encourage the viewer to interpret the words and images in his or her own way. ABSOLUT ALBUM COVERS, a salute to the artists whose designs have left an indelible mark on music, pays homage to the visual masterpieces that have helped define a musical revolution.

ABSOLUT ALBUM COVERS. ABSOLUT BOWIE.
Aladdin Sane, 1973
With his androgynous looks, sexually charged lyrics and in-your-face antics, David Bowie is above all else an innovator. Bowie is celebrated for his ingenuity and style as much as his music. The cover of his 1973 album, Aladdin Sane, photographed by Brian Duffy and designed by Duffy and Celia Philo, plays up the contradictory messages incorporated throughout the album.

Duffy was one of the terrible three of British photography in the sixties; Along with David Bailey and Terry Donovan, he was responsible for injecting a shot of street-wise working-class energy into the world of fashion photography. He continued to utilize the method in the cover photograph for Aladdin Sane; it showcased Bowie's "glam-rock" character through campy make-up and glitter, in the guise of a lightning bolt streaked across his face.

The sleeve was also revolutionary in that it was printed in seven colors, a process not possible in the UK at the time; it had to be printed in Switzerland instead.

In Jerry Hopkins' biography, Bowie, David Bowie explains, "Aladdin Sane was Ziggy (the character) meeting fame… a subjective Ziggy talking about America, my interpretation of what America means to me…Wanting to be up on stage performing my songs, but on the other hand not really wanting to be on those busses with all those strange people…so Aladdin Sane was split down the middle..."

Rolling Stone reviewed the record in 1973; in it Ben Gerson wrote, "A lightning bolt streaks across David's face; on the inside cover the lad is airbrushed into androgyny, a no less imposing figure for it…Though he has been anointed to go out among us and spread the
word, we find stuffed into the sleeve…a form requesting our name, address, 'favorite film and
TV stars,' etc., plus $3.50 for membership in the David Bowie Fan Club…Such discrepancies have made David Bowie the most recently controversial of all significant pop artists…" He added, "The seeming contradictions intrinsic to this album…are exasperating, yet the outlines are sufficiently legible to establish the records [Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin]…as reworkings of the same obsessions…to advance the myth…packing more and more reality into his scheme, universalizing it."

Aladdin Sane was the first album Bowie released after The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. It was one of the most highly anticipated releases since The Beatles' self titled album and became Bowie's first #1 record.