13 - Scary Monsters

One more. That's all i've got in me. Remember, i've listened to 13 David Bowie albums in 2 days. Scary Monsters is a good stopping point though. We're back to proper Bowie writing songs about himself, but it's 1980 so it's got Japan, and we're about to watch the whole world give David Bowie levels of cocaine a try. Fripp is back, but he's being used in a proper context this time. We're still using Eno's compositional tarot cards, or pictionary i ching, or whatever you want to call it, and Bowie's just yelling out other guitarists for Fripp to try to imitate, but he's had to take a different approach for himself and actually write this stuff down and edit it and "compose."

What everybody seems to forget is that he's the adult now. They forget that it's all an ego trip that he's writing as he goes. Before he was the kid and didn't want to grow up to be a monster like all the other adults, so he invented new monsters, but now he is one so he has to point out all the repetition and "been there, done that" that he was there and doing.

There's a hint of that smugness from Heroes, but at least he's saying that he's still trying to run away. He's still saying he knows he's following the script, but looking for an escape route. He still says don't look up to me, i'm not the trendsetter you think i am. I'm not the hero, just another one of the monsters. It's very explicitly a recap album, and it's pretty thorough. Once again, after you wrap your head around which chapter of the story we're reading (think Robert Palmer, Phil Collins, creepy dad 80s), it's great. The sellout is coming, but i really, really don't know the next few albums so i'll be as surprised as you how i react to them.

Maybe tomorrow, i'm a little tired and we're only halfway through this epic. Or maybe in an hour i keep going. I don't know.

14 - Let's Dance