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>> DAVID BOWIE :: SCARY MONSTERS
If you must own one David Bowie album, buy this one. Everything he's recorded since, including Earthling, is always compared to Scary Monsters. We recorded the backing tracks for the first time in New York, at the then-state-of-the-art Power Station. Although this studio was very businesslike and the staff hustled us out exactly when our time was up, there was a wonderful energy which we tapped into. Carlos, George and Dennis were playing their best, now that they were in their own country and didn't have to deal with German and Swiss pubs for their only amusement. We were joined by Roy Bitten from the E Street Band (piano intro on "Ashes To Ashes") and often munched ribs and chicken sitting next to The Boss in the communal artists' lounge. Dennis Davis actually turned to Bruce Springsteen, so casual was the ambiance, and asked, "What band are you in?" "It's No Game" was the only finished song we recorded in the two-and-a-half weeks we were there. Every other song was just a backing track with working titles such as "People Are Turning to Gold" and "Jamaica" (which eventually became "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion"). Instead of immediately writing finished melodies and lyrics, David begged to take a long break to think it all out, so we adjourned until 2 months later in London. At my Good Earth Studios in London we met up again. This time David had written great lyrics and carefully-thought-out melodies, something he hadn't done on the triptych albums. "It's No Game" was translated into literal Japanese and David wanted to sing it, but couldn't make heads or tails of where the Japanese words fit over the melody. We found a Japanese actress from the London production of "The King And I" who was hired to coach David. She discovered that the lyrics were literal and not poetic, therefore they couldn't synchronize with the melody. It was David's idea for her to narrate parts of the song instead, and that's what you hear as the opening track. Fripp made a return visit, and his guitar playing on "Fashion" is legendary!!!! If you look closely, you can see May Pang say "Beep, beep!" in the video. We kind of felt that we'd finally achieved our Sgt. Pepper, a goal we had in mind since The Man Who Sold The World. The critics and public acclaimed this as a hit album with no fewer than 3 hit singles: "Ashes To Ashes", "Fashion" and "Scary Monsters". This was David's first platinum record. |
