Artists
Musicians featured in this piece are:
David Bowie – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica
Mick Ronson – electric guitar, backing vocals
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Mick “Woody” Woodmansey – drums, tambourine, maracas
Written by David Bowie. Produced by Ken Scott & David Bowie, recorded at RCA Studios, New York City, 6–7 October 1972.
The song’s central riff came from Mick Ronson, who began playing it on his new Gibson Les Paul during a jam at the back of the Spiders from Mars’ tour bus between Cleveland and Memphis, under the working title “Bussin’.” David Bowie has said he wrote the lyrics that same autumn in New York for the amusement of Cyrinda Foxe, a Warhol-scene actress who later appeared in the song’s music video. Bowie described the song as a “smorgasbord of imagined Americana” built loosely around an Iggy Pop-type persona, with the title doubling as a pun on French writer Jean Genet. It was the first track recorded for Aladdin Sane and became Bowie’s second Top 3 UK hit in a row.
David Bowie – The Jean Genie Lyrics
A small Jean Genie snuck off to the city
Strung out on lasers and slash back blazers
And 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 nice
Poor little Greenie
Woo-hoo
(Get back one)
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
Sits like a man, but he smiles like a reptile
She loves him, she loves 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
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, whoa-oh
He’s so simple minded, he can’t drive his module
He bites on the neon and sleeps in the capsule
Loves to be loved
Loves to be loved
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo
Oh, 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
Go
Go
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
Go
Go, go
To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 18 program and the full program, click here.