the album I've played more than any other

I have probably played Scary Monsters And Super Creeps by David Bowie more than any other album; I know every part of every track inside out. But it’s a measure of how good this record is that I still don’t get bored of it, never skip any tracks, and get a huge amount of pleasure from it, every time I hear it.

The basic tracks for Scary Monsters were recorded in a two week period in New York in the early part of 1980, then DB took a break to work on the lyrics. By April 1980 he was in London overdubbing and recording the vocals. In between early gigs with the League Of Gentlemen Robert Fripp would travel to Tony Visconti’s Good Earth studio to lay down what he later described as 'burning guitar'. It was released in September just after “Ashes To Ashes” had become Bowie’s second ever number one. Promoted by the most New Romantic of New Romantic videos (and featuring Steve Strange and other weirdly attired denizens of Strange’s Blitz Club) this was a truly magical marriage of sound and vision, and it was seeing this video on Top Of The Pops that really converted me to David Bowie. I bought Scary Monsters on cassette as I didn’t have a record player at that time. From Woolworths as I remember, at the very end of 1980, using some of my Christmas money. And I loved every track straight away - never has an album had such a huge and immediate impact on me. I have, quite obviously, never looked back… Buying that cassette is surely one of the pivotal moments of my life.

The first track features tons of tape hiss, a mad Japanese woman shouting angrily, some seriously odd singing from Bowie, Fripp’s anguished guitar and an ending that involves Fripp playing an atonal circular pattern until someone screams out 'Shut Up!' - I had no idea what was happening but I knew right away that it was, somehow, quite brilliant.

After the torment of "It's No Game" we get the lopsided chant of "Up The Hill Backwards" where DB is buried in the mass of vocals and after just two oblique verses and no obvious chorus the song dissolves into more Frippian noise. The title track follows, with Bowie's mockney voice back on show, though with a sinister, theatening edge. There is also an eerie electronic sibilence present on the sss sounds, just enough to make you shiver slightly. A propulsively catchy song, though it was no more chart friendly than "Up The Hill..." - that didn't stop RCA milking the album for all it was worth and issuing both as singles in early 1981.

The fourth track is the magnificent "Ashes To Ashes", a follow up to Bowie's first big hit, "Space Oddity". A vaguely reggaeish beat, cool synths, mysteriously obscure lyrics - the was the blueprint for all subsequent New Romantic songs. The video just capped it all beautifully. 

"Fashion" follows next, one of the sleekest and catchiest dance tracks Bowie has ever recorded. It's impossible to sit still while this song plays. Yet amongst the hard New York funk there's still space for some savage guitar from Fripp. 

Over on side two things seem a little calmer to begin with. "Teenage Wildlife" comes on like an update of the "Heroes" sound, not least in the mid paced tempo and Fripp's laser beam lead lines. There's a stunning fatalistic quality to the whole song and the the lyrics and especially the vocals themselves take it to another place altogether. As Bowie reflects on his life he finds himself being asked for advice by the new wave... although he rather sadly sees them as 'the same old thing, in brand new drag...'. One of them asks him directly, 'David what shall I do, they wait for me in the hallways?' to which he replies, rather wonderfully, 'Don't ask me, I don't know any hallways'. It's rare that Bowie ever refers to himself directly in song, and on this occasion he's deliberately distancing himself from the next wave of musicians and artists, setting himself apart once again. At just 33 he doesn't like the way he's being set up as an elder statesman to the next generation.

"Scream Like A Baby" follows, and we are back in one of David's nightmare future worlds. As with "Diamond Dogs" or "Sons Of The Silent Age" an unnamed State is persecuting anyone with individuality. It's a chilling song but presented in a remarkably cheery tune.

Tom Verlaine's "Kingdom Come" is the only cover on the record but both the sound of the recording and the lyrics themselves fit perfectly with the mood of side two - a resigned acceptance of whatever fate throws at us. Bowie's acrobatic vocals are arguably some of his finest ever. 

"Because You're Young" is desperately sad. Ostensibly addressed to his son, it becomes a lament to lost opportunities as it touches on the pain of his broken marriage. For someone who usually hides genuine emotion behind characters and play-acting the line 'She took back everything she said, and left him nearly out of his mind' is about as raw a line as Bowie has ever written, and it's hard not to cry at the conclusion as he really sings his heart out - 'a million dreams, a million scars'.

After that the second version of "It's No Game" comes as something of relief. Shorn of the manic Japanese vocals, and with Fripp reigning it in, this version restates the themes of tolerance and acceptance whilst at the same time condemning fascism and extremists. A few seconds after the song has ended we hear the sound of the tape running off the spool and flicking round and round.

There is the sense that much of Scary Monsters is concerned with tying up the loose ends of the 1970s. "It's No Game" was first demoed in 1970 and the revised lyrics put to bed the ghosts of Bowie's Thin White Duke phase when he was falsely accused of flirting with fascist iconography. "Fashion" was developed from a 1975 song called "Jamaica"; "Scream Like A Baby" takes the tune from "I Am A Laser", a 1973 song from the unfinished Astronettes project. Add to this the way that "Ashes To Ashes" brings down the blinds on the Major Tom saga and "Because You're Young" brushes away the ashes of his marriage and it is clear that Bowie wanted to start the 1980s with a clean slate.

So strong is Scary Monsters that it has become the benchmark by which every subsequent Bowie album is marked. So many Bowie album reviews in the last 30 years have included the words 'perhaps Bowie's best since Scary Monsters...'

For me it is one of the greatest albums ever made, and certainly Bowie's greatest achievement, a collection of 10 songs linked by a mood, a vague theme of regret and remembrance balanced by an urgency and desire to move forwards. There are moments on this album that are among my very favourite musical moments ever - for example, the spine-tingling synth solo at the end of "Ashes To Ashes" is something I wish could go on for ever. It doesn't but that doesn't matter; Scary Monsters has been with me for 31 years now, and I know it will be with me for another 31 and for ever.