Bowie described The Jean Genie – the lead single from his 1973 album Aladdin Sane – as ‘a smorgasbord of imagined Americana’. It references three people.
Bowie wrote the song for Andy Warhol’s muse Cyrinda Foxe, with whom he had a brief affair. The title is a play on words, referencing Jean Genet, the French writer known for his rebellious and provocative themes. The song also clearly references his friend Iggy Pop and his wild stage antics with the Stooges.
Genet and Iggy Pop might be considered the genie of the piece, a magical yet mischievous figure.
Bowie wrote The Jean Genie to show off to Foxe, stating, ‘I wrote it for her amusement in her apartment. Sexy girl.’
The line ‘Talking ’bout Monroe’ refers to Foxe, whose platinum blonde style was influenced by Marilyn Monroe.
The song is infused with Bowie’s passion for New York City and its music and art scene, exemplified by Warhol’s studio, The Factory, and his Pop Art style: ‘New York’s a go-go and everything tastes right.’
Jean Genet (1910-1986) was a French writer, playwright and poet known for his provocative works about crime, sexuality and outsider life. After he was discharged from the French Foreign Legion for engaging in homosexual acts, Genet took up prostitution and thievery.
His novels Our Lady Of The Flowers and The Thief’s Journal explored themes of rebellion, identity and the marginalised – themes that fascinated Bowie.
The lines ‘lives on his back’ and ‘loves chimney stacks’ allude to Genet’s sexuality.
Iggy Pop’s wild onstage antics are referenced several times: ‘he’s outrageous, he screams and he bawls’. And he’s ‘strung out on lasers’.
Bowie’s lead guitarist, Mick Ronson, came up with the barnstorming riff for The Jean Genie during an impromptu jam on the tour bus between Cleveland and Memphis in September 1972.
John O’Reilly, Farnsfield, Notts
QUESTION What’s the greatest size difference between males and females in the animal world?
The size difference between male and female deep-sea anglerfish is one of the biggest. In some cases, females may be more than 60 times the length and about half a million times as heavy as the males.
Some anglerfish have a bizarre mating strategy called sexual parasitism. Finding a mate is incredibly difficult, since deep-sea environments are vast and food is scarce. To overcome this, male anglerfish have evolved to be little more than mobile sperm carriers.
A male anglerfish’s sole purpose is to find a female. When he does, he bites onto her skin and his body releases an enzyme that dissolves the female’s flesh around his mouth, fusing them permanently.
Over time, his circulatory system merges with hers and he essentially becomes a parasitic appendage, losing his eyes, fins and most internal organs. All that remain are his testes, which provide sperm whenever the female is ready to spawn.
Q: In the Second World War, did the Nazis ever try to jam BBC radio programmes?
Simon Entwistle, Clitheroe, Lancs
Q: Was John Travolta’s dance scene from Pulp Fiction borrowed from an earlier film?
Sue Finn, Lincoln
Q: What’s the oldest sporting trophy still competed for?
Mrs D. L. Nelson, Blackpool
Its main rival is the blanket octopus. Females can grow up to 6ft in length and weigh around 26 lb. Males are tiny in comparison, reaching only one inch and weighing less than an ounce – up to 40,000 times less than females.
The females have large, web-like membranes connecting some of their arms, resembling a flowing ‘blanket’, which they can unfurl to appear larger and deter predators.
Males lack this membrane and look like a typical small octopus. They use a specialised, detachable arm called a hectocotylus to transfer sperm to the female. Once the sperm is delivered, the male dies.
Peter Smith, Durham
QUESTION What was the picture on the first known jigsaw?
The original jigsaw puzzles were educational tools known as Dissected Maps. Their invention is generally credited to cartographer John Spilsbury (1739-69).
Spilsbury produced the oldest extant jigsaw puzzle, Europe Divided Into Its Kingdoms, in the 1760s. The puzzle features the continent dissected into pieces along its geographical boundaries and can be found in The Strong National Museum Of Play, in Rochester, US.
Spilsbury appeared in the 1763 London directory as an ‘Engraver and Map Dissector in Wood’.
His process for making his dissected maps consisted of attaching the maps to thin mahogany boards and sectioning them with a handheld fretsaw. The maps were engraved, printed and tinted by Spilsbury himself.
Spilsbury’s clientele included King George III, whose children owned a number of dissected maps.
Susan Collins, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks