Scary Monsters

Today is David Bowie's 66th birthday and to celebrate he has released his first new solo single since 2004's "Rebel Never Gets Old". It was also revealed that he is releasing an album of new material in March. This gives me the perfect opportunity to look back at the album that most people recognise as his last 'great' album..."Scary Monsters". Made at a time in his life where things were not at their most rosy: he was overcoming a cocaine addiction, his divorce from Angie in the previous year, the onset of middle age, his career foundering (in the restless eyes of the music press). This album would show that Bowie could be inspired by despair and that he could write about it and confront it with equal aplomb. As listeners we would find that, in the words of Lemony Snicket, "despair is something surprising each time you encounter it".

Looking back at reviews that were made at the time of the album's release, it appears that you needed both an English degree, and another in either Psychology or Psychiatry, to understand what the reviewers were talking about. That Bowie was always over analysed was partly down to the man himself but more down to the fact that the music press couldn't stuff him away into a pigeon hole like most artists. They didn't understand him, so felt they had to make it look like they did. I don't pretend to know what was going on in his head, but I like what he was putting down, on tape, in the recording studio. Employing an array of differing vocal styles, underpinned by Robert Fripp's electrifying guitar work, Bowie fashions (pun intended) some of the most coruscating songs of his canon. The whole album was like a howl of anger or an anguished cry at what Bowie saw happening around him, to him, and his realisation that much of it was caused by himself.

Side One

1. It's No Game (No. 1) – 4:15

2. Up the Hill Backwards – 3:13

3. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) – 5:10

4. Ashes to Ashes – 4:23

5. Fashion – 4:46

Side Two

1. Teenage Wildlife – 6:51

2. Scream Like a Baby – 3:35

3. Kingdom Come – 3:42

4. Because You're Young – 4:51

5. It's No Game (No. 2) – 4:22

"Ashes To Ashes" , a song detailing his daily battles with his addictions, would become the most successful single of his career. "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", with it's wailing guitar parts and exaggerated London accent vocal, perfectly framed the lyrics about estrangement, whether naturally or drug induced, which was becoming a way of life to many people. Then there is "Fashion", a brilliant parody of politics morphed into high fashion, replete with top models in the video, without a message - unless its message is that neither have anything to say that doesn't ring false and hollow. "Teenage Wildlife" is an attack on the young musicians copying Bowie and calling it 'original'. Many pointed fingers at Gary Numan as the main target for Bowie's vehemence. The song points out the short life expectancy (in musical circles) for these people and that there are plenty more waiting to take their place. "It's No Game (No.1)" and "It's No Game (No.2) are the top and tail of the album. The former an angry rage against the emergence of the thought police as a power of censure, much to Bowie's disgust and the latter a far more tempered, world weary delivery of the tired Englishman who is resigning himself to what is happening but still determined to get his message across. It's a message which still holds true now, as the final summation shows:

"Children 'round the world

Put camel shit on the wall

Making carpets on treadmills

Or garbage sorting

It's No Game"

Fashion

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) Live '96

Ashes To Ashes