Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

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Which SMASC single?

1. Ashes to Ashes
25
61%
2. Fashion
9
22%
3.Up the Hill Backwards
3
7%
4. Scary Monsters
4
10%
 
Total votes: 41

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Minnie the Minx
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Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Minnie the Minx » 21 Mar 2018, 01:35

The three OK OK FOUR singles from Scary Monsters. You know them. You like them. You may hate them!
Which one is your favourite. Why?
Do you think another one off the album might have made a better single?



Ashes to Ashes? Oh no, not again. You're stuck with valuable friend.



Fashion? Beep Beep!



Up The Hill Backwards? It'll be alright.
Last edited by Minnie the Minx on 21 Mar 2018, 11:33, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Quaco » 21 Mar 2018, 01:48

'Scary Monsters' would have been a good single too. That A side is hits, hits, hits.

My fave is 'Fashion', definitely. I'm lukewarm on the other two, esp. the overrated 'Ashes to Ashes'. Maybe I'll have a moment with it sometime and it'll click.
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Minnie the Minx
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Minnie the Minx » 21 Mar 2018, 01:56

I agree with you about Ashes to Ashes. The love for it always makes me wonder if people got swayed by the video and the references to Major Tom.
Fashion all the way for me. It's a beaut.
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby trans-chigley express » 21 Mar 2018, 04:27

Quaco wrote:'Scary Monsters' would have been a good single too. That A side is hits, hits, hits.



It was a single, at least in the UK. Top 20 hit too. Surprised Minnie left it out.


Ashes to Ashes for me, I just love the whole sound of that track and have never been influenced by the video at all. Followed by Up The Hill Backwards which I've always liked although never really thought of as single material. I'm a bit bored by Fashion. They chose the right songs as singles. Maybe It's No Game Part 1 would have made a good 5th single but that's too many singles from one album.

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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby toomanyhatz » 21 Mar 2018, 05:17

UtHB, though slight, is my favorite of this bunch. Glad someone else feels the same about A2A. "Fashion" is probably more interesting than I give it credit for, but I've always been bored by it. As I've said probably too many times, the album has always struck me as his first lackluster one rather than his last good one.
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Nervous Ned » 21 Mar 2018, 06:28

I love all four SM singles.
Never particularly liked the Ashes to Ashes video, despite the hooha it looked pretty dated even in 1980. But the track is sublime. Bowie writes his own epitaph clearing the decks for the new decade.

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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby naughty boy » 21 Mar 2018, 07:43

Yeah, 'Ashes to Ashes' for me too. Loads of great bits in there ('the shrieking of nothing is killing, just..', that gorgeous final section, the bass all the way through). It's not just my fave track on the album but top 5 Bowie for me.
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby The Modernist » 21 Mar 2018, 09:44

trans-chigley express wrote:
It was a single, at least in the UK. Top 20 hit too. Surprised Minnie left it out.

.


I bought it as a single. It's definitely my favourite of the four. What an amazing sounding record with that wailing, coruscating guitar and booming drums, it's so exciting. I love the sinister lyric and cockney vocal too..it's like you're listening to Bill Sykes or something. Definitely one of my favourite Bowie songs.

Of the others, I'd go A2A (very good..but not for me the classic it is for everyone else), Fashion (great sound, slightly dull tune), Up The Hill ( never cared for it, not sure what he was attempting with this one).

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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby The Modernist » 21 Mar 2018, 09:50

I bought three of the four singles by the way. I don't know why I didn't just buy the album..would've worked out cheaper. Damn beastly record companies ripping off the kids!

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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Darkness_Fish » 21 Mar 2018, 09:54

"Ashes to Ashes" is easily the best of the three choices, but "Scary Monsters" is better. "Fashion" strikes me as being really empty (ooh, is that some kind of commentary on the industry) and clunky. "Up the Hill Backwards" reminds me of some kids TV show theme that I can't think of, a really soulless dirge, albeit an upbeat dirge.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby clive gash » 21 Mar 2018, 10:25

Up the Hill Backwards is a chore, a proper indication of how Bowie was about to lose it.

Scary Monsters is, like Diamond Dogs and Young Americans, a relatively poor record in Bowie’s Classic Period.

The difference between those ‘failures’ and the horrors to come? At least he was trying.
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Minnie the Minx » 21 Mar 2018, 11:08

trans-chigley express wrote:
Quaco wrote:'Scary Monsters' would have been a good single too. That A side is hits, hits, hits.



It was a single, at least in the UK. Top 20 hit too. Surprised Minnie left it out.


.


I completely forgot it was a single until I read your post! :D
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Minnie the Minx » 21 Mar 2018, 11:22

Unward Brank wrote:Yeah, 'Ashes to Ashes' for me too. Loads of great bits in there ('the shrieking of nothing is killing, just..', that gorgeous final section, the bass all the way through). It's not just my fave track on the album but top 5 Bowie for me.


I don't dislike it - far from it. I'd just rather listen to Teenage Wildlife.
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Bent Fabric » 21 Mar 2018, 11:28

"Ashes to Ashes" is stunning. I love the sound of it, the pace of it, the way he sings it - there's a unique character to the whole thing where it could/should sound really cluttered and lopsided but it doesn't. For me, his last truly great moment.

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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby harvey k-tel » 21 Mar 2018, 11:30

'Up The Hill Backwards' is so sing-song-y and dull that I'm surprised it was a single.

'Changes2Bowie' was the first Bowie I ever heard, I think, and I remember not really digging 'Fashion' that much. In fact, it may very well have been my least fave track on the comp.

'Ashes To Ashes' is magnificent. His teetering-on-the-edge-of-falsetto singing, the instrumentation and the arrangement are all so strong. Definitely in my top 20 Bowie tunes.
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Minnie the Minx
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Minnie the Minx » 21 Mar 2018, 11:33

Y'all have got Scary Monsters now too and you can vote again.
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby yomptepi » 21 Mar 2018, 13:07

A2A is slightly less offensive than the other wretched yodeling cod camp nonsense featured here. A wretched album as I am sure we all agree.
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby harvey k-tel » 21 Mar 2018, 13:27

And Yomp's Adjective of the Day is...
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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby Graham Murakami » 21 Mar 2018, 20:37

Up the Hill Backwards is my second favourite Bowie song.

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Re: Which Scary Monsters single is THE BEST?

Postby jimboo » 21 Mar 2018, 20:42

Unward Brank wrote:Yeah, 'Ashes to Ashes' for me too. Loads of great bits in there ('the shrieking of nothing is killing, just..', that gorgeous final section, the bass all the way through). It's not just my fave track on the album but top 5 Bowie for me.


Spot on chap. Fashion is the only true duffer on the album.
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