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

Let's Dance

When I was a kid my dad had a taped copy of this album. I have a feeling the other side of the cassette had Queen's Hot Space on it. Ahhh, the early eighties. This was the record that pushed Bowie into super-duper stardom. Add to that the boom of MTV, the rise of the video clip, and Bowie was everywhere! You could write a decent post purely on the impact the Let's Dance video had at the time. It's hard to believe that today marks 38 years since the arrival of Let's Dance. Well, maybe not that hard, but my my, the time do fly!

Indeed some of my first Bowie experiences were with songs from this album. You couldn't escape the first three singles on the radio or the TV. The only earlier Bowie tune I remember before this album was Ashes to Ashes, and I would have been four years old when that was released. I have vivid memories of watching the clown in slow motion on Countdown in our old lounge room in Morley. 

Let's Dance was, and remains, Bowie's biggest selling album, hitting the No.1 position on charts around the world. The following Serious Moonlight Tour ran from May to December of 1983, and played throughout Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Bowie spent half a month in the country of Japan, where his popularity was at a career peak. He even played three shows at the Perth Entertainment Centre in November of that year. I think I remember black and white posters in the Sunday Times or the West advertising the concerts. I was living in Albany at that point, and wasn't the Bowie fan that I am now. And I would have been seven years old and short on cash and transport, he he he.

But, let's take a look at the album. Co-produced by Bowie with Nile Rodgers, this is one of the few Bowie records where he doesn't play an instrument. The band assembled for the studio sessions include Carmine Rojas on bass, Robert Sabino on keys, the double drumming attack of Omar Hakim and Tony Thompson, percussionist Sammy Figuera, oh, and some guy called Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar. There was also a powerful horn section and backing vocalists a-plenty. 

The very first noise we hear is that of SRV's guitar as Modern Love kicks the record off. His distinctive sound and style adds a lot to the early eighties production, and some songs have aged well; while others have not. The first three songs, Modern Love, China Girl and the title track, were also the first three singles of the record. They also form the strongest part of the album. The fourth and last single, Without You, is largely overlooked, but it's not a bad track. It's just hard for anything here to stack up against those three songs. Interestlingly, it's not Rojas on the bass, but Bernard Edwards, who co-formed Chic with Rodgers. 

The quality of the songs dips somewhat on the second half; or side, depending on your format. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) was originally recorded for the soundtrack of the 1982 film The Hunger, which also starred Bowie. Apparently, he wasn't happy with how it came out, hence it's re-recorded appearance here. I initially preferred this version, but after seeing its use in Inglourious Basterds, I now like the original better. Richochet and Shake It are pleasant enough to listen to, the former using some interesting syncopation, but the latter comes across as pure filler. The only cover is a version of Metro's 1977 song Criminal World, which seems to be a baffling choice, for mine.

When this record came out that I started to realise there were album versions and single versions of the same song. The version of Let's Dance on my dad's cassette was longer than the one I saw on TV. I didn't know that was a thing that record companies had started doing. Obviously, songs were commonly cut to either fit radio formats (Billy Joel's Piano Man was famously edited down on its initial release) or TV spots, but I was largely unaware until this album. Bizarre to think that is one of the memories I associate with Let's Dance. I also remembering wondering what the heck 'serious moonlight' was. In fact, I still wonder. He he he...

I give this 3/5. Would dabble a little again.

NEXT UP: Never Let Me Down - 27th April