Bowie Jean Genie

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The Jean Genie From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "The Jean Genie" is a single by David Bowie, released in November 1972. One of Bowie’s most famous songs, it was the lead single for the album Aladdin Sane (1973).

The song's chugging R&B riff is often compared to The Yardbirds while the lyrics have been likened to the "stylised sleaze" of The Velvet Underground. The subject matter was inspired in part by Bowie's friend Iggy Pop or, in Bowie's own words, "an Iggy-type character... it wasn't actually Iggy." The line "He's so simple minded, he can't drive his module" would later give the band Simple Minds their name. The title has long been taken as a pun on the name of the homosexual author Jean Genet. Bowie was once quoted as saying that this was "subconscious... but it's probably there, yes".

"The Jean Genie" was composed and recorded in New York City, where Bowie spent time hanging out with the Warhol set's Cyrinda Foxe. In 2005 the singer described its genesis thus: "Starting out as a lightweight riff thing I had written one evening in NY for Cyrinda’s enjoyment, I developed the lyric to the otherwise wordless pumper and it ultimately turned into a bit of a smorgasbord of imagined Americana ... based on an Iggy-type persona ... The title, of course, was a clumsy pun upon Jean Genet".

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