Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

Production

According to co-producer Tony Visconti, David Bowie's method on Scary Monsters was somewhat less experimental and more concerned with achieving a commercially viable sound than had been the case with his recent releases; to that end the composer spent more time on his own developing lyrics and melodies before recording, rather than improvising music in the studio and making up words at the last minute. Aside from one cover, Tom Verlaine's "Kingdom Come", all tracks would be credited to Bowie alone, unlike the 'Berlin Trilogy' where there was an increasing amount of input from his collaborators.

Among those collaborators, Brian Eno was no longer present on Scary Monsters, but Chuck Hammer added multiple textural layers deploying guitar synth and, following his absence from Lodger, Robert Fripp returned with the distinctive guitar sound he had earlier lent to "Heroes". Bruce Springsteen's pianist Roy Bittan was back for his first Bowie album since Station to Station five years earlier, while the Who's Pete Townshend guested on "Because You're Young". This would be the fifth and last Bowie album featuring the rhythm section of Dennis Davis and George Murray, which had been together since Station to Station.

Development

Bowie continued to develop songs using non-traditional methods: for "It's No Game (No. 1)", he challenged guitarist Fripp to "imagine he was playing a guitar duel with B.B. King where he had to out-B.B. B.B., but do it in his own way."

"Fashion" started as a song called "Jamaica" but Bowie was unable to think of anything to write, so he almost discarded the song until late in the recording cycle, when it was transformed into the song as it appeared on the album. The track "I Feel Free" (by Cream) was recorded "in rough mix" for the album, but did not appear on a Bowie album until a re-recording for 1993's Black Tie White Noise. A few of the other tracks on the album started with different names: "Ashes to Ashes" began as "People Are Turning to Gold" and "Teenage Wildlife" was originally called "It Happens Everyday". The track "Scream Like a Baby" was originally called "Laser" (the lyric "Scream like a baby" was sung as "I am a laser"). The song "Is There Life After Marriage?" was fully written and recorded for the album, but for unknown reasons was never released.

Style and themes

The public's first taste of Scary Monsters was "Ashes to Ashes", which was released as a single one month prior to the album and made No. 1 in the UK. Built around a guitar synth theme by Chuck Hammer, it revisited the character of Major Tom from Bowie's early hit "Space Oddity". Aside from its critical and commercial success as a song, the accompanying music video set a benchmark for the art form.

Notwithstanding the lush textures of "Ashes to Ashes", Bowie's sound on the album was described by critics as being harsher—and his worldview more desperate—than anything he had released since Diamond Dogs (1974). This was exemplified by such tracks as "It's No Game (No. 1)", the hard-rocking opener featuring lead female vocals in Japanese; the careering title track with its prominent percussion effects and Bowie's exaggerated cockney accent; the second single "Fashion", which seemed to draw parallels between style and politics and which had its own highly regarded video; and "Scream Like a Baby", a tale of political imprisonment.

In "Teenage Wildlife", against a musical backdrop that owed much to his song "Heroes", Bowie was variously thought to be taking aim squarely at new wave artists such as Gary Numan, or reflecting on his younger self:

A broken-nosed mogul are you One of the new wave boys Same old thing in brand new drag Comes sweeping into view As ugly as a teenage millionaire Pretending it's a whiz-kid world

Packaging

The cover artwork of Scary Monsters features Bowie in the Pierrot costume worn in the "Ashes to Ashes" music video, rendered in a combination of Brian Duffy's photographs and a painting by Edward Bell. The original vinyl album's rear sleeve referred to four earlier albums, namely the immediately preceding 'Berlin Trilogy' and 1973's Aladdin Sane, the latter also having been designed and photographed by Duffy. The cover images from Low, "Heroes", and Lodger—the last showing Bowie's torso superimposed on the figure from Aladdin Sane's inside gatefold picture—were portrayed in small frames to the left of the track listing. Their whitewashed look was reportedly designed "to symbolise the discarding of Bowie's old personae." These images were not reproduced on the Rykodisc reissue in 1992, but were restored for EMI/Virgin's 1999 remastered edition.

Singles and other songs

Following the release of "Ashes to Ashes" in August 1980, prior to the album, and "Fashion" in October, the title track was issued as a single in January 1981 in both vinyl record and compact cassette form. The album's final single, "Up the Hill Backwards", was released in March of that year. Other songs from this period, released on CD by Rykodisc, included both sides of the single "Alabama Song" b/w "Space Oddity", the latter a stark remake that debuted New Year's Eve 1979 on The Kenny Everett Video Show and served as a "ritualistic purification" of Bowie's most famous number prior to its demolition with "Ashes to Ashes"; "Crystal Japan", B-side of "Up the Hill Backwards" in the UK and an A-side b/w "Alabama Song" in Japan, where it was also used for a Sake commercial; and a new version of Aladdin Sane's "Panic in Detroit".

Release and legacy

RCA released Scary Monsters in September 1980 with the promo line "Often Copied, Never Equalled", seen as a direct reference to the New Wave acts Bowie had inspired over the years. It was highly praised by critics, Record Mirror giving it a rating of seven stars out of five, while Melody Maker called it "an eerily impressive stride into the '80s" and Billboard reported that it "should be the most accessible and commercially successful Bowie LP in years". The album's No. 1 placing in the UK charts was Bowie's first since Diamond Dogs in 1974, while its US peak of No. 12 was his highest stateside showing since Low almost four years earlier.

Despite the worldwide megastardom and commercial success that Bowie would achieve in coming years, most notably with his next studio album Let's Dance in 1983, many commentators consider Scary Monsters to be "his last great album", the "benchmark" for each new release. Well-regarded later efforts such as Outside, Earthling, Heathen and Reality were cited as "the best album since Scary Monsters." In the latest edition of his musical biography of the singer, Strange Fascination, David Buckley suggested that "Bowie should pre-emptively sticker up his next album 'Best Since Scary Monsters' and have done with it".

In 2000 Q magazine ranked Scary Monsters at No. 30 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2002 Pitchfork Media placed it No. 93 in its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at No. 27 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s" saying "Bowie bridles the experimentation of his Berlin trilogy and channels those synth flourishes and off-kilter guitar licks into one of the decade's quirkiest pop albums." In 2013, NME ranked the album at number 381 in its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Track listing

All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.

Reissues

The album has been re-released four times to date on CD, the first being in 1984 by RCA, the second in 1992 by Rykodisc (containing four bonus tracks), the third in 1999 by EMI (featuring 24-bit digitally-remastered sound and no bonus tracks) and the last in 2003 by EMI as a SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc).

Personnel

David Bowie – vocals, keyboards, backing vocals, saxophone

Dennis Davis – percussion

George Murray – bass guitar

Carlos Alomar – guitars

Additional musicians

Chuck Hammer – guitar synthesizer on "Ashes to Ashes" and "Teenage Wildlife"

Robert Fripp – guitar on "Fashion", "It's No Game", "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", "Kingdom Come", "Up the Hill Backwards", and "Teenage Wildlife"

Roy Bittan – piano on "Teenage Wildlife", "Ashes to Ashes" and "Up the Hill Backwards"

Andy Clark – synthesizer on "Fashion", "Scream Like a Baby", "Ashes to Ashes" and "Because You're Young"

Pete Townshend – guitar on "Because You're Young"

Tony Visconti – acoustic guitar on "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" and "Up the Hill Backwards", backing vocals

Lynn Maitland – backing vocals

Chris Porter – backing vocals

Michi Hirota – voice on "It's No Game (No. 1)"

Production

David Bowie, Tony Visconti – production and engineering

Larry Alexander, Jeff Hendrickson – engineering assistance

Peter Mew, Nigel Reeve – mastering