David Bowie – The Jean Genie

I love the rawness of this song and performance. I’m convinced there is no style that Bowie could not do. Since I posted his friend Iggy Pop this morning I thought I would post this Bowie song. I love this song because of its rawness and energy…I’m not surprised that it was recorded in the 1st take.

The two main influences for this song were said to be Iggy Pop and Cyrinda Foxe. Many of the lyrics reflect Iggy Pop’s lifestyle and stage antics. Cyrinda Foxe was an actress who starred in commercials for Jean Genie jeans. Legend has it that Bowie wrote this in Foxe’s apartment to entertain her. Foxe would appear in the song’s official video alongside Bowie.

The song was on Bowie’s album Aladdin Sane which was released in 1973. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard Album Charts, #20 on the Canadian Charts, and #1 on the UK Charts in 1973. Bowie was prolific during this period. He would release another album Pin Ups later in the year. Here is a review of the Aladdin Sane from The Press Music Reviews. Whenever I want to look up anything Bowie I go to that blog.

The Jean Genie was the first song recorded for the album. It’s believed to have emerged from a jam on board the Spiders From Mars’ Greyhound tour bus, as they traveled between Cleveland and Memphis on 23 September 1972. It originally had the working title ‘Bussin”, and originated after Mick Ronson began playing the central riff on his new Les Paul guitar.

This song was released in 1972 and peaked at #2 in the UK, #71 on the Billboard 100, and #75 in Canada.

David Bowie: “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.”

David Bowie: “I wanted to get the same sound the Stones had on their very first album on the harmonica. I didn’t get that near to it, but it had a feel that I wanted – that ’60s thing.”

The Jean Genie

A small Jean Genie snuck off to the city
Strung out on lasers and slash-back blazers
Ate all your razors while pulling the waiters
Talking ’bout Monroe and walking on Snow White
New York’s a go-go, and everything tastes right
Poor little Greenie, ooh-ooh

Keep her comin’
The Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
He’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls (Jean Genie)
Jean Genie, let yourself go, whoah

Sits like a man but he smiles like a reptile
She love him, she love him but just for a short while
She’ll scratch in the sand, won’t let go his hand
He says he’s a beautician and sells you nutrition
And keeps all your dead hair for making up underwear
Poor little Greenie, ooh-ooh

The Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
He’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls (Jean Genie)
Jean Genie, let yourself go, whoah

He’s so simple-minded, he can’t drive his module
He bites on the neon and sleeps in a capsule
Loves to be loved, loves to be loved

Oh, Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
He’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls (Jean Genie)
Jean Genie, let yourself go, whoah

Go!
Go!

The Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
He’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls (Jean Genie)
Jean Genie, let yourself go, whoah

Go, go go!

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

52 thoughts on “David Bowie – The Jean Genie”

      4. I had to talk to the FBI a few years ago because I’m in IT and our company had a couple of stores that were hacked into. After talking about security he also told me never to use Siri…to disable it and never have it on because it can be easily tapped into… Now that was probably 4 years ago…so the security is pobably better now….but I don’t use it. I’ll use voice to text but not Siri…but it’s probably fine now.

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  3. Whenever I see a post on Bowie I think I got to start digging into this as I only have Lets Dance on vinyl and Blue Jean. I need to hit Apple Music and load up on Bowie.

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  6. One of Bowie’s best earlyish songs, one I never knew any background on so it’s cool to find out a bit about it.
    My friends Slave to the Square wave have a song called ‘New York’s a Go-go’ as an obvious tip of the hat to David.

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      1. I don’t know if I had a favorite period of his, he had some excellent tunes throughout his career, at least in the 1900s… ‘Let’s Dance’ might have been his best album by way of consistency, but didn’t have his very best songs. As we’ve talked about before ‘Life on Mars’ is a song I’ve only kind of recently gotten familiar with but really like a lot.

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      2. LIfe On Mars to me is the centerpiece of Hunky Dory… his vocals were different at this time. He was good at finding different voices for his music…

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  7. I knew very little about the song and my wife’s a big fan and saw Bowie in Toronto 1976 , so she’s heard this one live in person. I read this post out to her and we both enjoyed the background story. We may just have piped the videos through the speakers and woke up the neighbours!

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    1. First of all…that is so cool she saw him at that time! Second of all…wake them up! Bowie would have been happy to hear that lol. Glad you two liked it Randy.

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    1. Shocker!!!
      His voice through this period I just loved…it had a certain quality to it in some songs like Life On Mars later on in the year.

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  11. His early 70s stuff is/was so singular. The Chameleon name he was given is spot on. Every time you thought he’d found his place he blazed himself a new one in new territory. I personally lost the Bowie thread somewhere around ‘Let’s Dance.’ ‘Heroes’ is a song I would not be without if I had to redo my playlists, and then I’d add ‘Sorrow’ and ‘then Fame’ and then ‘Mars’ and then…

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    1. I kind of dropped off with Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)… but Let’s Dance I did like…like Modern Love and other songs…but after that it was iffy to me. Tin Machine wasn’t bad to hear at the time…but it didn’t stick with me.

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  18. David was taken far too soon. It would have been interesting to see where his musical road would have “stopped by” as the years have gone by. Mrs. Chess enjoys “Ziggy” a bit more than “Disco David,” whom I like a shade more. In my post about him awhile back, I noted it was ironic while he felt he was in his dance-music mode – his most profitable – he felt no growth as an artist. To me, no matter what kind of music he was making…it was worthy of a listen!

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    1. It’s cool that we all like different eras of him. That shows how much he changed but remained Bowie…compare Life On Mars and Ashes to Ashes and you wouldn’t think they were the same artist.

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