Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Celebrating its 41st birthday today is Bowie's first offering of the 1980s. I'm going to say right away that this is one of my favourite albums of his, and I think it would be in my Top 5 Bowie records. It's also one of a handful of Bowie that I have on vinyl. Again, as I have mentioned on several previous blog posts, I was aware of Bowie growing up, but didn't really become as big a fan as I am now until the early mid nineties. I don't think I listened to this album in full until the early '00s. 

This is the first studio release to come after Bowie's so-called 'Berlin trilogy' and some of the musicians who played on Lodger return. The rhythm section of bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis join old mate Carlos Alomar on guitar with new bandmate Andy Clark on synthesiser. Returning for the first time since 1976's Station to Station is pianist extraordinaire Roy Bittan, although he only plays on three tracks. King Crimson's Robert Fripp also plays guitar on about half of the album, his first appearance on a Bowie album since 1977's "Heroes". Sadly, neither Bittan or Fripp would play on a future Bowie release. Tony Visconti also returns to co-produce the album and contribute some acoustic guitar and background vocals. 

I remember seeing the video for Ashes to Ashes on Countdown (an old music show on the ABC, for those too young to remember). The image of Bowie as a Pierrot clown is very possibly my earliest memory of him. The song was a pretty bit hit in its day, hitting No.1 on the singles charts in the UK and Australia. Rightly so, I mean, it's a corker. Partly a sequel to Space Oddity and some kind of eighties nursery rhyme, the distinctive synth riff make this one of Bowie's most recognisable tunes. You can thank synth guitarist Chuck Hammer for that. I think I remember hearing the album title Scary Monsters around the time this video was doing the rounds. Back then it was the most expensive film clip ever made for a song, costing over a quarter of a million pounds, reportedly.

Any other experience I had with this album came in dribs and drabs. It was the Changesbowie compilation cassette I bought as a teenager that first introduced me the to song Fashion. I previously heard a snippet of the outro on the aforementioned album's TV commercial. It must have been around 1990, and I dug that part of the track instantly. Upon a full listen, I was somewhat disappointed to learn that the 'fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion' bit only happened at the end, he he he. I soon grew to love it, and it remains a big fave of mine, of not just this album, but Bowie in general.

The title track appeared on Bowie's The Singles Collection 2, which I must have acquired on CD in the mid nineties. I remember being fairly nonplussed on first hearing it, but I quite enjoy the song now. I particularly like hearing live versions of Bowie performing it with Nine Inch Nails. It's quite aggressive in tone, an approach which was similarly mined for the title track of Reality in 2003. Both songs come out swinging, as it were. Up the Hill Backwards was also issued as a single in early 1981, which is not a bad track, but for mine, easily the weakest of the four. I do really like the line "I'm okay/You're so-so" which takes a gentle swing at the self help movement that began burgeoning in the late sixties. 

What's left of the album is also very strong, for the most part. Kicking off with the manic It's No Game (Part 1), you are almost kicked in the head by Fripp's abrasive guitar and Bowie's unhinged vocal delivery. One of my friends remarked after hearing this that "shouty, out-of-key Bowie is my favourite". He hehe. There's also some dialogue recited in Japanese courtesy of Michi Hirota. Yeah, not your average Bowie track, which is possibly why I like it so much. What I also really like is that the record is bookended by this and It's No Game (Part 2), which is basically a calmer take of the first version. Slightly different lyrics too, but the arrangement is gentler and Bowie's vocal is an octave lower. Works brilliantly! The former begins with the sound of a film projector starting up, and the latter has that flapping noise of the tape once the film ends. Nice touch.

The first song of the second side, Teenage Wildlife, is another big favourite of mine. Benefiting from some way-out riffing from Fripp again, and Bittan on the keys, it features one of my favourite Bowie vocals. Almost all of his little tricks from his toolbox are used here, and it's one of my quintessential Bowie songs. I also love how the drums go into double time around the two minute mark, and just stay there! The whole song seems to shift up a gear, but all that has changed is the drums! Awesome stuff. I also quite like the cover of (Television frontman) Tom Verlaine's Kingdom Come, which is the only song on this album not wholly written by Bowie.

Pete Townshend plays guitar on Because You're Young, which unfortunately is one of the weaker tracks on offer here. Townshend would also play guitar on Slow Burn for the Heathen album in 2002. Scream Like a Baby has some nice moments, particularly parts of the drum and synth work. Bowie's vocal distortions in the bridge are quite fun as well. But again, I think these two songs are the least impressive ones.

On the whole, there is much to enjoy here. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) is a very cohesive and consistent record, and I like it a lot. I give this 4/5, and at the type of typing these words, I'm listening to it!

NEXT UP: Reality - Sep 16th