What's the best track on "Scary Monsters"?

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0e/DavidBowieScaryMonstersCover.jpg

Everybody's asking for "Diamond Dogs" as the next one. So I went for this one instead ;)

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Ashes to Ashes 21
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 11
Teenage Wildlife 7
It's No Game (No. 1) 6
Up the Hill Backwards 5
Fashion 4
Because You're Young 3
Scream Like a Baby 2
Kingdom Come" 2
It's No Game (No. 2)2


Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:00 (eighteen years ago)

Sort of feel like voting for "Ashes To Ashes", but then everyone else will do so I'll go for "Screamin Like a Baby" instead, which is just as great.

Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:00 (eighteen years ago)

'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)' is one of my favourite Bowie songs ever.

zeus, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:04 (eighteen years ago)

One of the "It's No Game"s or "Because You're Young". Have to think about it.

Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:14 (eighteen years ago)

"Teenage Wildlife" EASILY. One of my fave DB songs..

W4LTER, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:15 (eighteen years ago)

Sort of feel like voting for "Ashes To Ashes", but then everyone else will

Geir Hongro, Tastemaker?

Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:17 (eighteen years ago)

"Fashion" cause it blew me away live a few years ago.

stephen, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:18 (eighteen years ago)

Seeing that album cover again reminds me of how beautiful it is.

Another vote for the title track, for the outro yelling.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:19 (eighteen years ago)

Torn between "It's No Game," "Fashion" and "Scary Monsters" -- went w/ the former. Love the Japanese and the Frippery.

Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:20 (eighteen years ago)

Ashes to Ahes is so great for so many reasons, but whenever I'm playing Apples to Apples of course I have to sing its name to that melody.

Abbott, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 23:23 (eighteen years ago)

I'm gonna vote for Scary Monsters but GOD I wanna go with Kingdom Come.

da croupier, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 23:35 (eighteen years ago)

fuck it, I'm going with Kingdom Come. Scary Monsters is "better" but if you had to ask me which one I'd be least willing to go without ever hearing again for the rest of my life, it'd be Kingdom Come.

da croupier, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 23:37 (eighteen years ago)

This album is a bit of a freak-out in general. I luv it.

W4LTER, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 23:45 (eighteen years ago)

"It's No Game" #1

[Frippian psychoness]
SHUT UP!!
[Frippian psychoness continues]
SHUT AWWWRrrrrrrpppppppppppppppppppppp

Joe, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 00:16 (eighteen years ago)

I picked this up recently and I'm loving most of it, but "Ashes to Ashes" stands out because it sounds like 5 different ideas for choruses, any one of which would be the best part of nearly every other artist's songs, lined up, one after another, in a never cycle.

Z S, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 00:41 (eighteen years ago)

Sure, the ending of "It's No Game" is one of the best endings ever. :)

Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

"Teenage Wildlife."

talrose, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 01:21 (eighteen years ago)

Boring as I am, voted for "Ashes to Ashes" BECAUSE IT IS FUCKING BRILLIANT. There are so many other fantastic songs I felt kind of bad about shortchanging them, the title track, "Up the Hill Backwards" and "Fashion" among them. One of my three or so favorite Bowie albums (and my first, picked out when I was a kid on account of the title track and awesome cover).

Telephone thing, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 01:49 (eighteen years ago)

"Kingdom Come" is an abomination--possibly Bowie's worst ever vocal performance (except for much of David Live, I suppose)! (Btw, have you heard Tom Verlaine's original, Anthony?)

"Ashes to Ashes" for me.

JN$OT, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 08:27 (eighteen years ago)

can't not go with "Ashes to Ashes" but man do I dig "It's No Game"

The Good Dr. Bill, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 08:28 (eighteen years ago)

"Kingdom Come" is an abomination--possibly Bowie's worst ever vocal performance (except for much of David Live, I suppose)! (Btw, have you heard Tom Verlaine's original, Anthony?)

Yeah, but it's so bad that it turns good (as Rob Sheffield once brilliantly remarked), and you can't write this about Verlaine's perfectly respectable performance.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 11:05 (eighteen years ago)

"It's No Game" for the Frippery and the ending.

aldo, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 11:07 (eighteen years ago)

Bowie's singing on "Teenage Wildlife" is more...troubling.

(xpost)

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 11:21 (eighteen years ago)

Well, truth be told, I haven't heard the album in the past 25 years or so, Alfred. But I can still recall my horror upon first hearing Bowie's version of the song. Also, I've never actually known of anyone who preferred David's version to Tom's. Until now, I guess. (What was it that Xgau wrote about Bowie--something about how truly awful vocals sometimes being all the concept you need?)

JN$OT, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 12:14 (eighteen years ago)

When I first heard his version years ago I thought I'd never heard him so badly; I assumed the histrionics were deliberate. Now I accept them as such, and they underline that lyric about the voice of doom shouting in his room.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 12:59 (eighteen years ago)

(Btw, have you heard Tom Verlaine's original, Anthony?)

TS: Tom Verlaine's Kingdom Come vs. David Bowie's Kingdom Come

da croupier, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:33 (eighteen years ago)

haha--ya got me, pardner!

JN$OT, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago)

Kingdom Come

kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

"Teenage Wildlife" BY FAR! (although this is Bowie's best album - a forest of tall trees for sure)

I remember listening to "TW" on my last day of being a teenger (which, coincidentally, was 7 years ago today) and having an emotional reaction to it greater than I had with song up to that point in my life. Especially when the screaming throng asks "David what shall I do?"

Davey D, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 17:49 (eighteen years ago)

Toss up between "It's No Game (Pt.1)" and "Teenage Wildlife".

Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:36 (eighteen years ago)

Even though I like lots of moments on several individual tracks, my vote goes to the title track. Such a propulsive stomper, I love the way those massive drums keep pushing the track forward (and the way they support the hoo-hoo-ing towards the end with the guitarsolo screeching on top).

willem, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 20:31 (eighteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

ILX System, Monday, 8 October 2007 23:01 (eighteen years ago)

ashes or teenage....but 'because you're young' is awesome too. i can't believe that's pete townshend on guitar

akm, Monday, 8 October 2007 23:27 (eighteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ILX System, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 23:01 (eighteen years ago)

Unoriginal but very great winner here.

Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 10:24 (eighteen years ago)

two years pass...

heard the title track today for the first time in ages, wanted to start a poll. i wish fripp did more hired gun stuff in this period

What do you do when there's a user with, like, sixty of 'em? (velko), Saturday, 29 May 2010 09:17 (fifteen years ago)

how much more do you want him to do? he did loads

anagram, Saturday, 29 May 2010 22:05 (fifteen years ago)

well after about 82 or so he stopped becuz of kc i guess. point was so much of it is amazing, wish there was some more

What do you do when there's a user with, like, sixty of 'em? (velko), Saturday, 29 May 2010 22:54 (fifteen years ago)

Just the other day I heard Superchunk's take on Scary Monsters which really illustrates what a great song it is, even when being covered very badly.

dlp9001, Sunday, 30 May 2010 00:44 (fifteen years ago)

They also do Adam Ant's Beat My Guest a little more convincingly...

dlp9001, Sunday, 30 May 2010 00:45 (fifteen years ago)

"It's No Game" Part 2 tying for last place is kinda bullshit.

billstevejim, Sunday, 30 May 2010 16:04 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

bowie's vocals are so all over the place on this record and often "bad" but this is pretty much the only bowie joint i have a strong connection with. i like how out of control his voice sounds. like the artifice of everything he usually does is a bit more open or something via his straining vocals

buzza, Tuesday, 3 January 2012 05:47 (fourteen years ago)

one year passes...

all of these decades, i've wondered what all of those weird noises at the beginning of "it's no game (part 1)" were. that noise that sounds like someone crumbling paper just before the music starts up is one of these. and it's Tony Visconti punching a tape into a machine & punching the on button even before that -- which for some reason i thought sounded like some form of water torture or something.

عليك ارتداء ماكياج من مهرج مثلي الجنس المتداول مائة عميق في سيارة مصغر (Eisbaer), Saturday, 11 May 2013 17:39 (twelve years ago)

lol. i always thought it was something to do with a tape. i don't like that track because it uses japanese voices as a lazy signifier of "internationalism" much like lost in translation does. curiously, i still like lost in translation despite this reservation.

this poll was too easy, i mean, come on. "time and again i tell myself/ i'll stay clean tonight" gives me chills every time and i think i played that song over 100 times on my former macbook according to itunes.

Treeship, Saturday, 11 May 2013 18:01 (twelve years ago)

I always thought it was some kind of coffee vending machine.

Camp Macaroni Style (snoball), Saturday, 11 May 2013 18:12 (twelve years ago)

two years pass...

Some speculation by Momus on the origins of the title track: http://imomus.com/index032010a.html (just over midway down the page)

Now here's producer Tony Visconti talking about recording the song and playing a rare early version in which Bowie sings some alternative lines about too many people with too many teeth. "We told Manhattan-based funk musicians to play like a British punk group," says Visconti.

The "British punk group" in question was almost certainly Joy Division, a Bowie favourite at the time. Scary Monsters has many points in common with She's Lost Control, released the year before

Whereas Ian Curtis is singing about his female character's epilepsy, Bowie sings about a woman consumed by anxiety and claustrophobia, running amok, pursued by demons, monsters, creeps. Dennis Davis, Bowie's drummer, is playing suspiciously Stephen Morris-like snare fills, as though someone has just played him the first Joy Division album right there at The Power Station. It's the electronic syndrum-cowbell that punctuates both songs that really gives the game away, though.

Although Visconti is quick to claim credit for running a cowbell through a guitar distortion pedal -- "we just can't leave things as they are, not David and myself" -- some of the kudos should go to Martin Hannett, who produced She's Lost Control and paid meticulous attention to the drum sounds. The Scary Monsters cowbell does such a similar tonal four-bar curve to Joy Division's electronic snare that it's hard not to think it must've been deliberate. But it was a completely legitimate payback; Joy Division had themselves drawn liberal inspiration from Bowie's work with Iggy Pop.

The "rare early version" linked to from Momus' page sounds, um, like Joy Division

Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 16 January 2016 21:07 (ten years ago)

one year passes...

all of these decades, i've wondered what all of those weird noises at the beginning of "it's no game (part 1)" were. that noise that sounds like someone crumbling paper just before the music starts up is one of these. and it's Tony Visconti punching a tape into a machine & punching the on button even before that -- which for some reason i thought sounded like some form of water torture or something.

― عليك ارتداء ماكياج من مهرج مثلي الجنس المتداول مائة عميق في سيارة مصغر (Eisbaer), Saturday, May 11, 2013 7:39 PM (four years ago)

Visconti on Scary Monsters

When we began ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ David and I jokingly said, “Let’s make this our ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’.” With every album we made together since then, we aired that silly phrase again. On reflection, when I listen to ‘Scary Monsters’ it feels more like we made our ‘Revolver’. Maybe it’s because the opening of ‘It’s No Game (No. 1)’ is a tip of the hat to the opening of ‘Taxman’. We were pushing the boundaries further than we ever had with this album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQOGPjg7Tu0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWTQ3vshLNY

willem, Monday, 25 September 2017 08:10 (eight years ago)

its no gaAAAaaaaAAAaaaAAme

AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 25 September 2017 11:20 (eight years ago)

If I had to choose just one, right now it would be 'Fashion'

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Monday, 25 September 2017 20:31 (eight years ago)


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