Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980
I think few major artists with an extensive catalogue could have been more pleased with an album they released in 1980. Scary Monsters is unique in that in somehow manages to summarize Bowie’s past succinctly in tracks like “Ashes to Ashes”, where he re-imagines Major Tom as a post-fame strung –out junkie, but also sounds as if he’s been paying close attention to the emerging punk and new wave scenes. However, unlike other albums that sound like Bowie’s trying to ride a wave or cash in on a trend, Scary Monsters somehow pulls off the appearance of being of the same gritty musical world as these subgenres without resorting to aping its style. I was unprepared for the cover art, which features David Bowie dressed up as some kind of harlequin. It made me think of Stephen King’s It, while also reminding me of a line from one of Jimi Hendrix’s last interviews, where he claims he’s on the verge of a new musical direction, vowing “I don’t want to be a clown anymore.” Is Bowie thinking the same?
Let’s Dance, 1983
I think I had heard Iggy Pop’s version of “China Girl” maybe once or twice before this, some years ago, but I had never heard the Bowie version, though wife routinely described it as horrible. She even went so far as to claim that Bowie himself tried to distance himself from the track on The Rose O’Donnell show, and elsewhere admitted that he recorded his version to help Iggy Pop out financially. I was expecting the worst, and actually thought it not bad. Same for “Let’s Dance,” leading me to suspect that this is a David Bowie album that a lot of people are embarrassed to own (when everyone knows that ought to be Young Americans), probably because it’s a dance album released just a few months too late.
Tonight, 1984 and Never Let Me Down, 1987
It is unfair to pair these two albums together, as if individually they have little to recommend them, but well, sometimes the truth hurts.
I have this theory about the 1980s, formed in large part by these albums and old reruns of Dynasty, that America was very entranced by artifice in the 1980s. Everything mainstream looked fake – deliberately fake. As in, how big can we make these shoulder pads? How high can we tease this hair? How many extra pop hooks and studio over dubs can we add to this song? More so than Tonight, but Never Let Me Down is almost excessive in its production value. The only studio trick that’s missing is perhaps a guest rapper.
Black Tie, White Noise, 1993
If Bowie’s output in the 1980s were characterized by being over-the-top, Black Tie, White Noise at least exercises some restraint. The worst criticism, and the most telling one, is that it bares absolutely no resemblance to anything else going on musically in 1993. “Pallas Athena” recalls moments from Low and Heroes, but most of the album just gets sucked into the background.
