How Bo Diddley Inspired David Bowie’s Glam Rock Classic “The Jean Genie”

The city of Detroit fascinated David Bowie and inspired one of the defining songs of his glam rock period, “The Jean Genie.”

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It wasn’t just the grit of Detroit that inspired Bowie, but his friend, and Michigan’s own, Iggy Pop, whom he called a “trailer park kid.” Meanwhile, the success of the 1972 rock opera The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars had thrust Bowie to stardom. And his record label was eager for a follow-up.

Americana Blues

While touring in the United States, Bowie became struck by the stark realities of American city life. Detroit’s ruggedness caught his eye, and “The Jean Genie” is a vivid snapshot of American life as he imagined it.

But it began as a gift for a friend. Bowie said he wrote “The Jean Genie” for actress Cyrinda Foxe, who appeared in Andy Warhol’s 1977 film Bad. He wrote it “for her amusement” in her apartment in New York City.

Foxe recalled the episode in her memoir, Dream On. She said Bowie wanted to write her a song and asked, “What do you want?” She said, “I don’t know. Something like The Yardbirds.” Also, a guitar riff Mick Ronson had tinkered with on tour seemed perfect for Bowie’s gift to Foxe.

Ronson’s syncopated chords sounded like a sped-up take on Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man.” The riff fits with Foxe’s request for something like The Yardbirds, whose garage rock was built atop American blues.

“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.”

Multiple Muses

Bowie told the BBC he wrote the lyrics about an Iggy Pop-type of person—the idiot savant. He imagined the character as a “closet intellectual” who didn’t want anyone to know he read. Additionally, the title suggests a reference to French author Jean Genet. From Bo Diddley to Jean Genet, by way of Iggy Pop and Cyrinda Foxe, the new single arrived in 1972. It’s the first from Bowie’s sixth album, Aladdin Sane.

His band worked quickly and wrote most of Aladdin Sane while touring to support Ziggy Stardust. Producer Ken Scott said the new album was recorded and mixed in only three weeks to meet the demands of RCA Records.

There’s a hurried sloppiness in the final version that today might have been edited or polished. When the song transitions out of the first verse, you can hear bassist Trevor Bolder begin the chorus before the rest of the band. But Bowie liked the mistake and chose to leave it in.

Mars Hotel

In the Mick Rock-directed music video, Bowie wanted Ziggy Stardust to be depicted as a “Hollywood street rat.” Foxe also appears in the clip, echoing Marilyn Monroe and dancing near Bowie in front of the Mars Hotel in San Francisco.

Rock spliced several clips of the band performing live to sync with the audio. Like the album’s rushed schedule, they were on a time crunch and completed the video in only 10 hours. Regardless of the frantic pace, “The Jean Genie” reached No. 2 in the UK and remains a Bowie classic.

“The Jean Genie lives on his back
The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
He’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls.”

Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns