Latest albumtoalbum is out now and it’s with family favourite Adam Buxton, with whom I waffled on for a few hours about Scary Monsters. We had aimed to get this done in time for the 40th anniversary but best laid plans and all that. Anyway, we did it, I think it came out nice and here it is! Should anyone be inclined to share or leave a review on Apple podcasts, or similar, I would be incredibly grateful. Thanks!
https://audioboom.com/posts/7751911-adam-buxton-on-scary-monsters
SM is probably his most important record. Not actually his best, though the first side is absolutely colossal. I wish I was capable of explaining why. I expect youse twos will manage to.
Who’s Adam Buxton?
Who’s David Bowie?
DB? He used to take up a few feet of shelf space at Harkonnen Towers. These days it`s 2-3 inches.
https://lmgtfy.app/?q=adam+buxton
Just found this.
Thanks yes that came out just as we were about to sit down to do part two, good timing. Its fascinating – never seen that Elephant Man footage before!
Lennon had tickets to see it, I think on December 10th 1980.
And people complain about missing gigs because of Covid…
I really enjoyed that – thanks for posting it.
Can’t believe it took you so long to get to this record! Coming back in style though with “Cobbler Bob” (look it up on YouTube if you need cheering up) himself. Respect.
I have listened to and enjoyed nearly all of these, so I think I’ll save this for the Christmas break. Cheers.
I was holding out for Cobbler Bob, but v glad to have finally got him (after his Macca encounter too!)
Umm @slotbadger I think your link up there is broken – getting a 403 response
Oh thats weird – try this:
or
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/davidbowie-albumtoalbum/id1355073030?i=1000502495898
That works, thanks. Is there a link to download it for future listening pleasure? Needy, aren’t I, sorry 😀
I was going to ask the same thing! I usually listen to podcasts when out and about and not able to stream…
Looking forward to listening to this. Adam Buxton is nothing if not a super-enthusiast of Mr Bowie, so his insights should be interesting.
I’m a fan of Scary Monsters. It’s a terrific record and (controversially) I could make a good case for it being his most satisfying, direct album. It has mature songwriting chops and a more commercial, mainstream feel than his 70s records, but crucially doesn’t feel like a sellout like his 80s records sometimes do. Plus the general quality control of his music has been a bit wayward since 1980. Scary Monsters is snappy, cohesive and just experimental enough to let you know you’re not dealing with a normal pop star.
I might be slightly biased as my first experience of Bowie was the single Scary Monsters b/w Because You’re Young. Still a favourite single of mine.
Just search for Bowie Album to Album on yout favourite podcast app. Mine appear whenever they are released and it is always a pleasant surprise.
Got it, great. I’m halfway through and it’s a great listen. Thanks Slotbadger.
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) please 😉 . Haven’t listened yet, saving good stuff for Christmas period. Think it is half a masterpiece, side 2 is a big step down from the first one. Maybe if he had filled that side with moody instrumentals and recorded it in Berlin everybody would say it is his best album! I think the songs on side 1 as a piece are the best since Station to Station (at least), 5 songs 4 hit singles.
I agree side one is far better. Side two does dip… but for an album of ten tracks where the final track is a reprise of the first one, it has a nice symmetry and the dip is acceptable, I think.
An acceptable dip, more than satisfactory,
hurr
It took me quite a while to get into side 2. Til recently, it all sounded a bit samey and thin. The songs on side two only really started to separate and settle into themselves when I was listening ahead of this podcast conversation, in order to have something half-intelligent to say about them. I’m still not entirely convinced by Scream Like A Baby or Because You’re Young, but do like aspects of them. The closing version of Its No Game (2) is beautiful, I love that sad, reflective vibe and for some reason, absolutely adore Alomar’s strumming towards the end. The lack of Fripp over the solo creates this gorgeous spacious feel and his rhythm guitar fills it nicely.
The rhythm section absolutely sparkle on Scream and Teenage Wildlife is a lament for the Young Dude he once was.
Scary Monsters has Bowie pulling out every twist from his huge box of tricks. It’s a summary of his amazing Seventies adventure, while looking forward to a new decade.
Scary Monsters the song or the album you mean?
If you mean the album, then yeah I agree, that’s a good summary. Although you make it sound as if he was re-treading old ground, which isn’t quite the case (although I know you don’t really mean that). I think a lot of his seventies work, brilliant though it was, was half-formed and just all part of a restless process. He obviously got bored easily and couldn’t sit still. Scary Monsters (the album) sounds like him putting a final form to all his half-baked ideas and actually taking the time to polish them off properly. It’s a seamless album with no loose ends.
Station To Station very much not half-baked but fully realised, to take one example. SM side two is a bit half-baked and, in the case of Teenage Wildlife, reheated, since it is something of a Heroes reprise. I don’t suppose Bowie saw himself summing anything up. I think he may have come to a bit of a dead end. It didn’t help he had to wait a good while with new material due to his contractural position. By Let’s Dance he wanted a hit album. The momentum of more experimental times had been lost you could say. Let’s Dance has a lot going for it but he wasn’t the same artist any longer. Not an original insight I guess.
What age were you when Scary Monsters came out? Just a thought, but maybe my impression of it (and of all his seventies work) has been formed by approaching it all as a historical body of work. I only started listening to Bowie as a teenager in about 1990. You know what I mean? When you listen back to a body of work, fixed and closed, rather than experiencing it as it happens, it can take on a different shape.
My age means it’s a similar story for me. I’d borrowed Low on cassette from the local record library around 86 and couldn’t get on with it although I’d heard tons of good stuff written about the album. Apart from Ashes to Ashes and Fashion which I knew from hearing on the radio when I was quite small, Bowie was always just a middling pop artist for me during my teenage years. It was only when the reissues came out that I started to dig deep and find out what he was all about (I was just about still in my teens then)
He was revisiting the past, undoubtedly. The 1979 re-recordings of Space Oddity, Panic In Detroit and Rebel Rebel are testament to that. Ashes To Ashes is Major Tom updated, Fashion could be a reupholstered Fame, Teenage Wildlife is the “Heroes” tune with a less than heroic subject. Kingdom Come is an interesting choice of cover as well, one of an acolyte who fell in love wth Ziggy/Aladdin Sane.
Very enjoyable podcast as always. I’m a big Buckles fan anyway and he really brings out your funny side.
Thanks @ainsley! I didn’t need to do much, he was incredibly easy and fun to chat to – I was a bit nervous in case he turned out to be difficult but he was terrific from the get go.
@Slotbadger. Have you got anyone lined up for Black Tie White Noise?
Al B Sure’s probably not doing much.
Is there any reference you don’t know?
Reference Tone. I only know him by reputation.
Is this him?
*dons voluminous dayglo t-shirt*
Acieeeeeeeeeed!
Black Tie White Noise has failed to motivate any guests thus far. I’ve even had two people offer to do “Tonight”, but still no BTWN
One of Fatima’s favourites, as I recall. Just sayin…
That’s interesting. Black Tie is an album of celebration, a return to his quirky brilliance following his commercial adventures of the eighties and the Tin Machine experiment. It’s a lot of fun. Getting married obviously did him the world of good.
Meh. The title track was a stonkingly brilliant single, but the album is a bore I think. I tried to like it so much when it came out, and I listened to it quite a few times. But it was a real struggle and I haven’t listened to it since. Not for me I’m afraid.
Excellent cast 👍
It almost makes me like Adam Buxton! 😉