2023 is the 50th anniversary of Pin Ups, and nostalgia about Bowie’s glam-era cover album is popping up. I’ve been posting Midnight Special videos largely featuring Bowie promoting songs from the album, and this month’s issue of Mojo is the second recent magazine to feature an altered version of the album’s cover art on its own cover (you may recall, I recently posted the similar cover of the collector’s magazine, Goldmine).

I don’t have access to the text of the Mojo cover story, but here are two promotional blurb’s from the magazine’s website:

“ZIGGY STARDUST IS DEAD – long live Aladdin Sane! This month’s MOJO celebrates David Bowie’s momentous 1973, half a century on: a year of iconic lightning flashes, relentless gigging, notable excess, trips on the Trans-Siberian Express and two classic albums.”

So, it’s worth noting that the other album marking its 50th anniversary is Aladdin Sane, which is widely regarded as a more significant work than Pin Ups. Both albums have iconic covers, but I think Aladdin Sane’s is the better known of the two, which makes Mojo’s decision to use the Pin Ups cover moderately interesting.

“COVER STORY: DAVID BOWIE 1973 dawned with Bowie ascendant, but how could he sustain the trajectory? With two brilliant albums, multiple image upgrades and lots of cocaine. “It was frequently said: ‘David, if you need to go into rehab, go into rehab.’”