Often Copied, Never Equalled: David Bowie unleashes Scary Monsters

David Bowie : It's No Game (Part 1)

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Scary Monsters for me has always been some kind of purge. It was me eradicating the feelings within myself that I was uncomfortable with… You have to accommodate your pasts within your persona. You have to understand why you went through them. That’s the major thing. You cannot just ignore them or put them out of your mind or pretend they didn’t happen or just say ‘Oh I was different then.’
-David Bowie

On September 12, 1980 David Bowie released Scary Monsters...(And Super Freaks), his first #1 UK album since Diamond Dogs. Recorded in New York City without Brian Eno, the album is a departure from the Berlin Trilogy. Producer Tony Visconti says Bowie, perhaps inspired by the success of Gary Numan, wanted to make a commercial album. The tag line for album promotions would be "Often Copied, Never Equalled".

At 33, Bowie had become an elder statesman of the rock scene and like most of us older fellows, he thought less of the current strain of music. In "Teenage Wildlife" he is almost certainly targeting Gary Numan in the lines

Same old thing in brand new drag
Comes sweeping into view
As ugly as a teenage millionaire
Pretending it's a whiz-kid world

Numan's reaction:

"I was quite proud about it at the time, to be honest. Even though I'd fallen out with him it still made me feel, Wahey!I'm in a Bowie song. That's cool."

Sessions began in March of 1980. Although Adrian Belew had been paid for the sessions Robert Fripp did most of the guitar work. Both Pete Townshend ("Because You're Young") and Tom Verlaine, whose "Kingdom Come" is the only cover, made appearances at sessions, but Verlaine, like Belew, is absent from the recording.

 The original songs took months to evolve. "People Are Turning to Gold" would become "Ashes to Ashes" (previously discussed) ; "It Happens Everyday" became "Teenage Wildlife" and "Jamaica" became the second single "Fashion". ( Bowie's acting skills would come in handy during the video age. Here he plays both an iconic star and his biggest fan).

  Bowie took the New York tapes with him and eventually came up with the lyrics. The vocals were recorded in London at Good Earth where actress Michi Hirota added forceful Japanese narration to the title track.

Sean Mayes, the pianist on Lodger and the Stage tour, later recalled listening to Scary Monsters with Bowie. " David was depressed – as he always is after completing a project. He was sure it was terrible and would be a failure. But then he laughed and said this was how he always felt!”

That's not how critics felt. Record Mirror's Simon Ludgate awarded it seven stars out of a maximum five. Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ writing

 No concepts, no stylistic excursions, no avant collaborations--this songbook may be the most conventional album he's ever put his name on. Vocally it can be hard to take--if "Teenage Wildlife" parodies his chanteur mode on purpose the joke's not worth the pain, and if you think Tom Verlaine can't sing, check out "Kingdom Come"--though anyone vaguely interested has already made peace with that. Lyrically it's too facile as usual, though the one about Major Tom's jones gets me every time. And musically, it apotheosizes his checkered past, bringing you up short with a tune you'd forgotten you remembered or a sonic that scrunches your shoulders or a beat that keeps you on your feet when your coccyx is moaning sit down.

Scott Isler, writing for Trouser Press:

Bowie's current high-relief music may not be to everyone's taste, but Scary Monsters represents a plateau in a career made up of plateaus. Its songs are quirky, intriguing and meticulously presented; musically, only Fripp has any leeway, and his solos total about a minute and a half for the whole album...Bowie continues to amaze. 

And from Smash Hits:

 Scary Monsters doesn't have the consistency of my favorite Bowie albums. Not all of the songs are up to the standard I associate with Bowie. Apparently critics felt this was a high water mark because every album of the 90's would be called the "best Bowie album since Scary Monsters". He wouldn't top it until his final years.

Valentino's In A Cold Sweat

Thin Lizzy : Waiting For An Alibi

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On March 1, 1979 Thin Lizzy performed their new single "Waiting For an Alibi" on Top of the Pops. Gary Moore, the band's on again off again guitarist,  is one of the double duellists out in front. He'd pack it up for good in July of 1979 to be replaced by Midge Ure ( yes, the future Ultravox front man). The lead off single from the upcoming Black Rose, "Waiting For an Alibi" is the third highest charting single in the band's history, peaking at U.K.#9.

If singer/bassist Phil Lynott looks a bit under the weather it's because he and guitarist Scott Gorham were both full blown heroin addicts. Black Rose producer Tony Visconti tells The Irish Times:

'I had to be the sober one. It was like being a designated driver. The thing with Phil was that he was visibly dying. During the recording of the last album, Black Rose, his complexion was ashen. There were a few days when he couldn’t even get out of bed. I had more than one chat with him about this. It is very hard to tell one of your peers that they are doing it too much, when you do a bit yourself. You don’t want to come across as a hypocrite. I tried to reach out to Phil, but like a lot of people who have an addiction problem, he said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control.’ Thin Lizzy were probably the greatest rock band I ever worked with.”

Just For One Day

David Bowie : Heroes

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On September 23, 1977 David Bowie released the greatest single of the year, "Heroes" b/w "V-2 Schneider". Though it's often thought of as an ass kicking song about two lovers taking on the world, upon closer inspection it's a sad tune about lovers hanging in there "just for one day".

The backing track Bowie sang on MARC sounded nothing like the final version.

  Though not a big hit upon its release, "Heroes" is the high point of Bowie's Berlin trilogy. The song may have even got its name from the Neu song "Hero". You can hear the Velvet Underground influence as well. Songwriting credit goes to Bowie and Brian Eno. Producer Tony Visconti played a big role and even sings backing vocals. Carlos Alomar plays guitar. George Murray is on bass and Dennis Davis is on drums. But the most famous contribution is from Robert Fripp who layed down three guitar solos the first three times he heard the song. In the clip below Visconti says the solos were pretty but meaningless until he layered all three of them together. These master class stories always fascinate me.

All that was missing were the lyrics. Bowie asked Visconti and others to leave him alone so he could come up with something. Among the inspirations Bowie quoted is the Otto Mueller painting Lovers Between Garden Walls.  

Another bit of inspiration came by accident when Bowie looked out the window and caught the married Visconti in an embrace with backing vocalist Antonia Maas. She would later help Bowie translate Heroes into "Helden", the German version.

Upon its release "Heroes" was not met with widespread praise. The NME's Charlie Gillett famously stated

  "Well he had a pretty good run for our money, for a guy who was no singer. But I think his time has been and gone, and this just sounds weary. Then again, maybe the ponderous heavy riff will be absorbed on the radio, and the monotonous feel may just be hypnotic enough to drag people into buying it. I hope not".

40 Year Itch : One Extra Coastline

Sparks : Hospitality On Parade

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   Rock operas made a comeback in 1975 with 10cc's "Une Nuit A Paris ( One Night in Paris)", Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and almost the entire Sparks album Indiscreet, which was released in October. The Mael brothers teamed up with producer Tony Visconti who indulged their Gilbert and Sullivan operetta obsessions on songs like opening track "Hospitality On Parade", "Without Using Hands" and "It Ain't 1918". 

Not all of the critics were impressed but Morrissey was a huge fan, writing in his forward to Visconti's Brooklyn Boy. 

    "Either the Maels or Tony Visconti, were asking 'What can we show them that is new?'...From a tipsy teatime waltz to unstoppable violins, the pace pulverized the listener, and Russell's mouth seemed unable to close. There are so many latitude and longitude instrumental textures that the masterstroke was almost overcooked."

   The album peaked at #18 in the UK and failed to chart in the US.