Hello and good evening,
The latest episode of the albumtoalbum podcast is up and live now. It’s a three way chat between self, Adam Buxton and Bowie author Chris O’Leary. That is, three middle aged blokes with facial hair and specs*. We’re discussing Scary Monsters and Super Creeps. I hope you can check it out and let me know what you think!
*I’ve been getting a some messages via Twitter that the podcast is too “blokey”. Yep, this episode is indeed, blokey, comically so.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/davidbowie-albumtoalbum/id1355073030?i=1000504732479
(I should point out that decreasing the ‘blokey’ quotient would be absolutely brilliant IMO))
^ This is ace. I couldn’t be arsed with the Bowiefest this weekend but I made time for this.
Merci Moose, I am flattened to hear this 🙂
Flatteny quite literally gets you nowhere. 😉
Scary Monsters, the single, is my favourite Bowie song. Sometimes.
Enjoy your podcast a lot and found these two Scary Monsters eps fascinating and fun. This is the Bowie album that when it came out I totally lived with between 15 and 18 years old, a teenage wildlife on the highest order ‘ (details for Patreon subscribers only). It’s a brilliantly front loaded LP though I’d have given side 2 more fulsome praise than Adam did perhaps. Well done, although you must be alarmingly running out of albums soon?
Cheers! I’m always up for revisiting LPs with different guests – I think we’ve had two Hunky Dorys and people often nominate that one as their favourite. Theres quite a few still to get through!
I’ll give this a listen as I’ve decided this will be my Bowie year. I tweeted this earlier which actually elicited an incredulous response from Tracy Thorn which she has since deleted unfortunately. Anyway look forward to listening…
Was it you who also said on another thread recently you had never listened to a Beatles album all the way through? I can sense a 2022 project for you as well!
Hope you enjoy your Bowie project. Always fascinating to hear a fresh take on overfamiliar music, so please report back here. And good choice to stick to the golden 70s period: you will get many people on here trying to tell you his nineties and beyond stuff is just as good, or that his last album was his best ever…. they’re wrong, it’s not, don’t listen to them!
Dave, thats a noble undertaking. Do let me know what you think!
Yes that was me…. The tweet below was the one that got me thinking and determined which 12 I should go for. I’m one listen in to TMWSTW. Loved it, heard some Hendrix Experience influence which is great. Going to go for the minimum 6 listen theory ….
12 in a row greatest ever. Certainly right up there, Beatles have to be considered of course and for (late 60s and) 70s stuff, Neil Young has to also be considered.
1. Neil Young
2. Everybody Know This is Nowhere
(Deja Vu with CSN)
3. After The Goldrush
4. Harvest
5. Time Fades Away
6. On the Beach
7. Tonight’s the Night
8. Zuma
9. Long May You Run (with Steven Stills) *
10. American Stars n Bars *
(Decade)
11. Comes a Time
12. Rust Never Sleeps
(Live Rust)
Brackets contain alternative choices that are not brand new “Neil Young” studio albums.
* Some relatively weaker stuff 76-77, but Bowie had a couple of slighter albums too.
I’d deffo include the two (official) Buffalo albums. A couple of his greatest songs are on there.
Er, and quite a few on which he doesn’t appear at all….
I’ll get me bucksin jacket.
Thought about that too.
Heathen is very good, and I may be a lone voice in support of the first TIn Machine album.
“As good as” – a matter of opinion, but I’d include those 2 in his “Best Of” list
Not lone. Some of it is terrible. Working Class Hero would almost be the nadir of Bowie if it wasn’t for Dancing in the Street, which is the nadir of modern history.
Heathen nor TM, not in the 12 successive album thing though. If his whole career considered then, for me, Blackstar is in his top 10 (at least).
Great stuff. If Buxton did seem to think it was his podcast and take control at times I can forgive him because he is so good at it.
Thanks! Yes, I noticed that a few times but tbh, he’s a podcast master and I’m just a gibbering fanboy so it was totally fine with me 🙂
You do an excellent job.
Oh this is good news. I enjoyed that first part and hadn’t realised it was only the first of a two parter!
“His most exciting and accomplished year”, big claim! @slotbadger 1972? 1977? Er .. Glass Spider tour.
Great listen though.
I think it’s definitely one of – if not THE most e. and a. year of his career yes! It’s the apex of his recording career, he’s branching out into acting and actively seeking more cinema roles, he’s back from his Berlin fastness with a powerful hybrid of experimentation and commercial songwriting, confidence seems at an all time high and it’s goodbye Major Tom, hello pop megastardom!
Thoroughly enjoyed that but I kept yelling at the radio when you guys were talking about Kingdom Come and the Tom Verlaine amp story. The Royalties!! You’ve got a track on a Bowie album! The Royalties!! I can’t believe you guys didn’t touch upon that. How lucky to have your relatively unknown song suddenly making you coin. See also; ‘Pablo Picasso’ (Johnathon Richman?)
Bowie’s 50th is quite the concert.
Great cast.
At the time, I was upset with the album. It was the first time he had taken a backwards glance and I was less impressed with his updates, preferring Space Oddity to Ashes To Ashes, Fame to Fashion, Fripp’s guitar on “Heroes”, etc. I was also bereft by the loss of the rhythm section afterwards, so it is an album I approach with sorrow. The terrific marching rhythm for the last minute of Fashion almost brings me to tears but I’m getting soft as I age in more ways than one.
However, your cast has made me revisit with refreshed ears and I concede you may have a point over Teenage Wildlife and It’s No Game Pt. 2.
Next time you are in touch with Mr Buxton, please point him towards Buddha Of Suburbia, 1. Outside, hours…, Heathen and The Next Day, all of which I rank higher in the pantheon, even Let’s Dance, Black Tie, White Noise and Tin Machine I.
That said, I’m really looking forward to the next cast. Thanks.
Roll on the release of Era Five! 😀
Thanks @slotbadger I really enjoy your podcasts. There’s a lot of David Bowie ‘stuff’ on the web but your podcast is always a safe bet for decent, interesting and thought provoking conversations. Please keep them coming.