David Bowie | Scary Monsters And Super Creeps | (RCA) 1980

LP Reviewed in Sounds, 16th August, 1980

DAVID BOWIE | ‘Scary Monsters And Super Creeps’ (RCA PL 13647)****1/2 ‘To be insulted by all these Fascists is . . . so degrading — children round the world put camel shit on the walls — oh God — it’s sordid — IT’S NO GAME’ (Quote from ‘It’s No Game).

THE MAN’S never been the same since Berlin ‘Lows’ with the Ig, eventually escaping —with a reinforced view of Wagnerian grandeur — to dizzy heights of dislocation in Geneva.

Our ‘Thin White Duke’ has now descended from an Alp and evicted the ‘Lodger’. Now, ‘Monsters ‘n’ Creeps’ keep the enigmatic one ‘running scared’ — all good paranoid stuff. His fright’s our gain, highly addictive after a few spins.

‘Creeps’ is a pastiche of every Bowie track on vinyl, also encompassing most of what’s hit the charts over the last year. Add a pinch of stomping Teutonic ‘glory’ —gets the masses moving —eh? Not really fair (old boy) to compare new offerings from D.B. with past plastic excursions ’cause he writes for a particular time — NOW.

If that’s the case with ‘Scary Monsters’ — I’ve been listenin’ to a compulsive neurotic! Perhaps all Bowie’s work is a pre-conceived meister plan. Lay out yer LPs full circle, and I guarantee you’ll hear past echoes somewhere on this (sorry) mystical, tragic and romantic autobiography.

David Bowie | Scary Monsters And Super Creeps | (RCA) 1980

A synthesised Bowie counts the band into ‘It’s No Game (Part One)‘ but keeps well out of the way as a Jap lady rants, insults, climaxes — or just reads the latest sales figures for Toyota cars — over vomiting, half dazed bass, 27 drum kits recorded on top of the World Trade Centre and insane guitar escapades.

Fripp sounds like he was 3,000 miles away while Alomar slips in well greased chords — oblivious to the mayhem. Eventually David gets round to multi tracked, hoarse, hysterical vocals.

‘I really don’t understand this situation’ he sings, choked with frustration — perhaps an accurate summary of this session! ‘Game‘ ends with people have their fingers broken’.

Everyone leaves ‘cept Fripp/Alomar who labour over a highly improbable ‘avant garde’ note sequence. It goes on and on . . . ’till the ‘band leader’ tells them to ‘SHUT UP’ — in no uncertain terms.

Fade. Real good Panzer rock put to a ‘Heroes’ megastomp beat. Into a Sixties Bo Diddley R’n’B riff for ‘Up The Hill Backwards‘ but the beat’s been scrambled/aborted.

Intro fragments of manic guitar lead into a kind of ballad. Lot’s of ‘oh hoos’ on this sleek, Stateside influenced number. Sounds like the drumkit’s been thrown down the liftshaft by now.

Space Invaders

A creamy topping masks lyrics — ‘While we sleep they go to work — we’re legally crippled’ — and the perfect line for any party — ‘I’m OK — you’re so-so’ (lose friends and despise people!). ‘Up The Hill’ doesn’t exactly pound you in the teeth — just softens you up for title track onslaught.

‘Scary Monsters And Super Creeps‘ makes Space Invaders feel positively cuddly. Yellow Magic Orchestra — rethink your freak potential! No synthesised Tuinol here. Intro is fast, racey guitars to make yer reach for mum’s Valium (another drug).

Moog-drum beats like the ‘boings’ on ‘Speed Of Life‘ (‘Low’), and pure Davey Jones Cockney vocalising as D.B. loses ‘is aitches, making ‘Scaries’ as infectious as social diseases. Sure gives the ‘fuck art — let’s dance’ brigade a chance to practise what they preach!

Paranoid lyrics have Bowie bowing away from anything with two legs and a threat. Track blows out with a neat bit of harmonised vocals and suitable touch ‘n’ glow guitar — to boldly solo . . . continued NWOBHM Times.

David Bowie | Scary Monsters And Super Creeps | (RCA) 1980

The single ‘Ashes To Ashes‘ should be heard in elpee context for full appreciation. Start is a sound-track for a Fifties based Beeb spy thriller — all weepy synths, Kings Road funk and dusty guitars.

Dark limos and silenced Lugers fade to a medium tempo, melancholic lyric — the echoed ‘oh oh ohs’ reminiscent of ‘Space Oddity‘.

David’s ditching his ‘tin can’ hero with image blowin’ ‘We know Major Tom’s a junkie’ chorus — well NASA knew that anyway! Aside from Mafia inference, overall effect is a bit Doobies, plus three pints of laid-back venom.

And remember kids — ‘To get things done, you’d better not mess with Major Tom!’ Numan’s gonna need a doctor when he hears how he could have sounded!

‘Fashion‘ must be a mechanoid piss-take of the bland one. ‘Turn to the left —turn to the right’ instructions, and what with disco ‘beep beeps’ it could be ‘M’ pop music energy.

Fripp, by this stage, has soaked himself in a few gallons of Castrol X —slithering over his fingerboard like a seal on heat. Acutely disturbing,

Fashion

‘Fashion’ closes the first side of ‘Scaries’. So far — great. Flip — into side two and ‘Teenage Wildlife‘. Beat is ‘V2 Scheider/Heroes’ — multi melody guitars and Reichstag drummin’.

Backing vocals —excellent all through the album, hovering round the main lyric, sticking like leeches. Bowie’s main vocals have achieved an Olympic power and range, perfectly complemented by fluid crystal guitar runs.

Visconti’s given the musicians full range, but this song isn’t strong enough for their expertise. The theme — ‘same old thing in brand new drag’ —seems like a snide/jaded or pitying opinion of the various regiments in Britain’s adolescent army.

‘Scream Like A Baby‘ intros grey and foreboding. Storm guitars blitz a fuzz beat over silicon chip programmed drumming. As they came down on the faggots’ and ‘pumped us full of strange drugs, Bowie and mate, Sam, (a Pop?) get shoved into an asylum for not conforming.

David Bowie | Scary Monsters And Super Creeps | (RCA) 1980

The kids are soon ‘cured’ — so tranquillised, can’t even say ‘soc, soci, societ . . . ‘ —society. Ending goes apeshit with baby vocals and musical wreckage as Sam goes ‘to the furnace’.

A Phil Spector touch on a cover version of Tom Verlaine’s ‘Kingdom Come‘. Complete vocal control with bluesy intonations and gutter soul — rubbin’ yer nerve ends with a wire brush.

I love the basement treatment — like it was recorded via a transatlantic phone line. Beautiful and memorable and if the writer hears it he should be proud.

‘Because You’re Young‘ qualifies as an anthem. Visions of street crawling and faded romance. ‘Because you’re young — you’ll meet a stranger some night. . . but it makes me sad’.

So David’s gonna dance his life away —a million dreams sunk. Lyrics imply a man with a problem.

‘Scaries’ ends with a repeat of ‘It’s No Game‘. The energy of the preceding tracks has considerably subdued Mr Jones. Pace is slower, lyrics clearer, with the piano high in the mix to compensate for the drained vocals.

‘Monsters’ has a mark of genius, a calculated orgasm. The discipline needed for a recording, harnessing rampant talents of musicians like Fripp, Alomar, Townshend, Davies and Clark to the Bowie machine, is an achievement in itself.

In summary

For the sceptical, my copy was an ‘actual’, circumstances making this review a ‘brown package under the table job’. My observations don’t come from a two hour panic listening and this was a —note, readers of other papers — clean, unedited version.

David described ‘Lodger’ as A West Berlin club, full of punks, devouring an edible scale model of the Berlin Wall’. He always had a way with words.

This LP — diamonds without the dogs — is an accessible, fun pop compilation. Should provide Bowieologists with a conversation piece for some time.

I get a gut feeling that the guy could be bowing out with a big flash — but there’s been so many changes, ‘Scary Monsters’ could just mark the end of another Bowie.

Leave you with a quote —’Put a bullet in my brain and it makes all the papers’. Hear it, and see what happens next. (Valac van der Veene)