Best Bowie Music - Scary Monsters (1980)

David Bowie - "Teenage Wildlife"

Much like the Beatles, I had always thought that David Bowie was a great artist without a perfect album (or at least a perfect album in the traditional sense). He was capable of writing a side of perfect, futuristic pop songs, while backing them with classical synth compositions (not necessarily imperfect, but hard to categorize, and certainly difficult to call a perfect pop album).  Or make an excellent soul/funk record, and then include an unforgivable cover of "Across The Universe," an awful song no matter who's singing. I've guess I've always had a hard time really connecting to David Bowie albums in general. Sure, there's always plenty to appreciate, but his best albums are still pretty cold and distant. He seems to specialize in highly stylized groove-based jams, and rarely hits on the kind of emotional transcendence of a song like "Heroes." But in the last few weeks I've made a breakthrough and discovered that I do have a favorite Bowie album and it is perfect. And that album is Scary Monsters.
My favorite era of Bowie's personal life is circa 1975, when he moved into Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes' mansion in the Hollywood Hills and got way into black magic. He stayed in seclusion for long stretches of time and did mountains of cocaine. According to Marc Spitz's biography, he weighed 85 lbs and lived on a diet of red and green peppers, milk, and blow. He drew pentagrams on everything in the house to protect himself from spirits. He was going through something called "cocaine psychosis" and was completely paranoid and isolated from the outside world. Considering how uniquely insane this seems, logic would dictate that Station To Station should be my favorite Bowie album. And for a while I thought it might have been. But in reality, it's Scary Monsters, an album that came out five years later, that seems to exhibit the qualities that a cocaine psycho might exude.
It opens with "It's No Game (Part 1)" which has only ever reminded me of ODB. His voice is absolutely shredding through the coolly strutting verses, and for no apparent reason. It's a completely original trick, and the perfect one to set a wholly upsetting, paranoid tone for the album (this is to say nothing of the Japanese lady's dialogue in the intro). It's followed by my original favorite song from the album, "Up The Hill Backwards" with its' jittery 7/4 intro section and super smooth transition to the verse featuring gang vocals. Recently, I've appreciated "Ashes To Ashes" more than ever. It's the album's most famous song, and the one I've always been most familiar with. I had always thought that there was something off about it; something holding it back from perfection. Now, I couldn't tell you what the something was. The jerky bass and disco drums, the variety of synth tones, the euphoric chorus...all of it seems brilliant. But the song that elevates Scary Monsters from just another excellent Bowie album to something else altogether is "Teenage Wildlife." It's the album's beating heart, the moment of vulnerability where all the baggage and gimmicks and fashion are put aside while Bowie cries out for something raw and real. It's as epic and far-reaching as "Heroes" and slightly more complex. The back end of the album is loaded with a few gems as well. "Scream Like A Baby" has minor chords on top of minor chords, with a razor-sharp one-note riff, reinforcing the album's, uh, creepiness. Bowie's cover of Tom Verlaine's "Kingdom Come" manages to fit the theme of the album, in spite of the feel-good power-pop guitar lines.
The best thing about Scary Monsters is how it manages to balance all of the best parts of his previous five albums, something that the designer of the artwork must have noticed as well. It's a cliche to mention how innovative he was in the 70s, but jeez...he was really innovative. And prolific! He was cranking out an album a year (which I guess is pretty easy when you only sleep twice a week). Anyways, Scary Monsters is an incredible summation of one of the most creative periods of any rock and roll artist ever.

"Ashes To Ashes"


A few more:
On Soul Train
Dick Cavett Interview Pt. 1/Pt. 2
At the Grammys, getting his feelings hurt


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