Remember when David Bowie made this lightning-bolt look about way more than makeup?

CNN — David Bowie released his sixth studio album, “Aladdin Sane,” on April 13, 1973, and the cover portrait of the late British rock star has become one of his most famous images. Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Bowie imagined his next character for “Aladdin Sane” as an “electric boy,” as he explained to Rolling Stone in 1987. “He spent a lot of time creating these personae that were androgynous – they weren’t from this planet,” cultural critic Wesley Morris told NPR following Bowie’s death from cancer in 2016. “If you were a kid, it was kind of weirdly exciting, because these ideas of gender and masculinity and femininity are these acquired notions.” Kesha on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images Bowie’s lightning bolt became a phenomenon; it was even more recognizable than the gold astral circle he wore on his forehead as Ziggy Stardust, which had propelled him to stardom the year prior.