Scary Monsters
	Produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti
	Released on September 1980
	UK CHART POSITION #1 . . . US CHART POSIITON #12
	Find it at GEMM
RCD 20147 cover [high resolution scan]

M oreso than Diamond Dogs, Scary Monsters is David Bowie’s nightmare of the future. It’s as frightening, confrontational, violent, paranoid and groundbreaking an album as he’s recorded. And it’s flat-out brilliant at every turn, beating listeners into submission with the opening “It’s No Game (Part 1),” drawing them into a sublime state on “Ashes To Ashes,” birthing them into the nightmare on “Scream Like A Baby.” Having been born at the right time, I remember being a huge Bowie fan as a teenager when it was announced that Bowie was re-visiting Major Tom of “Space Oddity” fame on his new album -- I was afraid he’d somehow detract from the original (like Peter Schiller had), but “Ashes To Ashes” floored me. This song and “Fashion” were also made into early music videos (the latter was less artsy, just Bowie in camouflage green and his band), and both hit me like a revelation from on high. Today, Scary Monsters still packs a powerful punch; the development of “alternative” rock has softened the stun factor somewhat, but few have ever brought this level of musicianship and innovation to the studio (after all, not everyone can draft Robert Fripp as a guest guitarist). Low is probably the closest in effect to this album (Lodger had favored brutal minimalism), if Bowie had replicated the choppy song structure across an entire album. There are elements of Heroes on here as well (notably “Teenage Wildlife”), but where his earlier albums seemed detached, Scary Monsters grabs you into the moment without concern for your personal safety. It’s an exhilirating experience, one you’d have to go back to Aladdin Sane to find a point of reference, and one Bowie has not matched since. If fans needed a reminder of why they anticipated Bowie’s new albums like mana from heaven, Scary Monsters was it. In 1992, a remastered version of the album was released with four additional tracks dating from 1979, including the singles “Crystal Japan” and “Alabama Song.”

AQL1-3647 front cover	AQL1-3647 back cover	AQL1-3647 lyric sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. IT'S NO GAME (PART 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
6. TEENAGE WILDLIFE    6:51
7. SCREAM LIKE A BABY    3:35
8. KINGDOM COME    (Tom Verlaine)    3:42
9. BECAUSE YOU'RE YOUNG    4:51
10. IT'S NO GAME (PART 2)    4:22
    
    CD expanded reissue bonus tracks
    
11. SPACE ODDITY (1979 version)    4:57
12. PANIC IN DETROIT (1979 version)    3:00
13. CRYSTAL JAPAN    3:08
14. ALABAMA SONG    (Kurt Weil/Bert Brecht)    3:51
    
    All songs written by David Bowie unless noted

CREDITS

DAVID BOWIE -- vocals + keyboards, vocal backing, cover concept
CARLOS ALOMAR -- guitars
DENNIS DAVIS -- percussion
ROBERT FRIPP -- guitar
GEORGE MURRAY -- bass
Roy Bittan -- piano
Andy Clark -- synthesizer
Chuck Hammer -- guitar (4,6)
Michi Hirota -- voice (1)
Lynn Maitland -- vocal backing
Hisahi Miura -- Japanese translation
Chris Porter -- vocal backing
Pete Townshend -- guitar (9)
Tony Visconti -- acoustic guitar, vocal backing
Natasha Kornilof -- clown costume
Richard Sharah -- make-up
Edward Bell -- illustrations
Brian Duffy -- cover concept, photography
Greg Gorman -- photography
David Fanthorpe -- photography
Reiner Design Consultants, Inc. -- package design (Rykodisc reissue)

For more discographies visit...

© 2006 Connolly & Company. All rights reserved.