• Voto:
E' il 1980 e il clown bianco si strucca.
Bowie dice addio per sempre ai propri personaggi; affinché la catarsi funzioni, è necessario farli rivivere tutti insieme, in un'ambientazione un po' autoreferenziale, nostalgica e futuribile al tempo stesso.
Ma "Scary Monsters" è anche l'occasione per ribadire la propria statura di capostipite degli ultimi fermenti avant-rock, se è vero che era stato proprio Bowie con la trilogia berlinese a prefigurare tanta new wave.
Il suono è molto brillante e moderno, con qualche parentela con la no wave di Bill Laswell, ma ricco anche di citazioni dal passato di Bowie: la batteria riverberata di "Low", certe dissonanze vocali da "Diamond Dogs/Hunky Dory", Fripp che cita il suono di "Heroes", e una diffusa atmosfera glam.
se la prima facciata brilla di capolavori come "Ashes To Ashes" (su tutte), "Fashion", "Up The Hills Backwards", "Scary Monsters", la seconda mostra qualche calo d'ispirazione ("Teenage Wildlife" è l'ennesima copia di "Heroes", mentre "Kingdom Come" e "Because You're Young" non sono certo memorabili).
Ho sempre avuto un rapporto conflittuale con quest'album, pensando a cosa avrebbe potuto essere con pezzi tutti all'altezza di "Ashes To Ashes" e con ancora Eno alle strategie oblique.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Up the Hill Backwards (03:15)
The vacuum created by the arrival of freedom
And the possibilities it seems to offer
It's got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it
It's got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it
A series of shocks - sneakers fall apart
Earth keeps on rolling - witnesses falling
It's got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it
It's got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it
Yea, yea, yea - up the hill backwards
It'll be alright ooo-ooo
While we sleep they go to work
We're legally crippled it's the death of love
It's got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it
It's got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it
More idols than realities ooo-ooo
I'm OK, you're so-so ooo-ooo
It's got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it
It's got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it
Yea, yea, yea - up the hill backwards
It'll be alright ooo-ooo
03 Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (05:12)
She had an horror of rooms she was tired you can't hide beat
When I looked in her eyes they were blue but nobody home
She could've been a killer if she didn't walk the way she do, and she do
She opened strange doors that we'd never close again
She began to wail jealousies scream
Waiting at the light know what I mean
Scary monsters, super creeps
Keep me running, running scared
Scary monsters, super creeps
Keep me running, running scared
She asked me to stay and I stole her room
She asked for my love and I gave her a dangerous mind
Now she's stupid in the street and she can't socialise
Well I love the little girl and I'll love her till the day she dies
She wails
Jimmy's guitar sound jealousies scream
Waiting at the light know what I mean
Scary monsters, super creeps
Keep me running, running scared
Scary monsters, super creeps
Keep me running, running scared
Scary monsters, super creeps
Keep me running, running scared
Scary monsters, super creeps
Keep me running, running scared
Oh oh woh-oh
Oh, oh-oh-oh oh
Oh oh oh, oh oh
04 Ashes to Ashes (04:25)
Do you remember a guy that's been
In such an early song
I've heard a rumour from Ground Control
Oh no, don't say it's true
They got a message from the Action Man
"I'm happy, hope you're happy too
I've loved all I've needed to love
Sordid details following"
The shrieking of nothing is killing
Just pictures of Jap girls in synthesis and I
Ain't got no money and I ain't got no hair
But I'm hoping to kick but the planet it's glowing
Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom's a junkie
Strung out in heaven's high
Hitting an all-time low
Time and again I tell myself
I'll stay clean tonight
But the little green wheels are following me
Oh no, not again
I'm stuck with a valuable friend
"I'm happy, hope you're happy too"
One flash of light but no smoking pistol
I never done good things
I never done bad things
I never did anything out of the blue, woh-o-oh
Want an axe to break the ice
Wanna come down right now
Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom's a junkie
Strung out in heaven's high
Hitting an all-time low
My mother said to get things done
You'd better not mess with Major Tom
05 Fashion (04:49)
There's a brand new dance
But I don't know it's name
That people from bad homes
Do again and again
It's big and it's bland
Full of tension and fear
They do it over there
But we don't do it here
Fashion - Turn to the left
Fashion - Turn to the right
Ooh Fashion
We are the goon squad
And we're coming to town
Beep-beep - Beep-beep
Listen to me - Don't listen to me
Talk to me - Don't talk to me
Dance with me - Don't dance with me
No - Beep-beep
There's a brand new talk
But it's not very clear
Ooh bop
That people from good homes
Are talking this year
Ooh bop - Fashion
It's loud and it's tasteless
I've not heard it before
Ooh bop
Shout it while you're dancing
On the -er dance floor
Ooh bop Fashion
Fashion - Turn to the left
Fashion - Right
Fashion
We are the goon squad
And we're coming to town
Beep-beep
Listen to me - Don't listen to me
Talk to me - Don't talk to me
Dance with me - Don't dance with me
No - Beep-beep - Beep-beep
Oop bop - do do do do do do do do
Fa fa fa fa fashion
la la la la la la la
06 Teenage Wildlife (06:56)
Well, how come you only want tomorrow
With its promise of something hard to do
A real life adventure worth more than pieces of gold
Blue skies above, sun on your arms strength in your stride
And hope in those squeaky clean eyes
You'll get chilly receptions everywhere you go
Blinded with desire - I guess the season is on
So you trade by shadow boxing, search for the truth
But it's all, but it's all used up
Break open your million dollar weapon
And push your luck, still you push, still you push your luck
A broken nosed mogul are you
One of the new wave boys
Same old thing in brand new drag
Comes sweeping into view, oh-ooh
As ugly as a teenage millionaire
Pretending it's a whizz kid world
You'll take me aside, and say
"Well, David, what shall, shall I do?
They wait for me in the hallway"
I'll say "Don't ask me, I don't know any hallways"
But they move in numbers and they've got me in a corner
And I feel like a group of one, no-no
They can't do this to me
I'm not some piece of teenage wildlife
Those midwives to history put on their bloody robes
And the word is that the hunted one is out there on his own
And you're alone for maybe the last time
And you breathe for a long time
Then you howl like a wolf in a trap
And you daren't look behind
You fall to the ground like a leaf from the tree
And look up one time at that vast blue sky
Scream out aloud as they shoot you down
No no, I'm not a piece of teenage wildlife
I'm not a piece of teenage wildlife
And no one will have seen and no one will confess
The fingerprints will prove that you couldn't pass the test
There'll be others on the line filing past, who'll whisper low
'I miss you he had to go'
Well each to his own, he was
Another piece of teenage wildlife, oh-oh-oh-ohh
Another piece of teenage wildlife, oh-oh-oh-ohh
Another piece of teenage wild...
Life
Wild - Life
Wild - Life
Wild - Life
08 Kingdom Come (03:45)
Well I walked in the pouring rain
And I heard a voice that cries "It's all in vain"
The voice of doom was shining in my room
I just need one day somewhere far away
Lord I just need one day
Well I'll be breaking these rocks
And cutting this hay
Yes I'll be breaking these rocks
What's my price to pay
Well the river's so muddy, but it may come clear
And I know too well what's keeping me here
I'm just the slave of a burning ray
Oh give me the night, I can't take another sight
Please, please give me the night
Well I'll be breaking these rocks
And cutting this hay
Yes I'll be breaking these rocks
What's my price to pay
Sun keeps beating down on me, wall's a mile high
Up in the tower they're watching me hoping I'm gonna die
I won't be breaking no rocks
I said I wont be breaking no rocks
(I won't be breaking no rocks) Oh-oh-oh
(I won't be breaking no rocks) Oh-oh-oh
(I won't be breaking no rocks)
When the kingdom comes
When the kingdom comes
When the kingdom comes
When the kingdom comes
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Mr_Iko
"Bowie è uno stato mentale: quod scripsi, scripsi!"
"Questo disco, troppo presto dimenticato, merita di risorgere come l'araba fenice."
Di Dune Buggy
"Scary Monsters è la sintesi di un decennio di genio musicale, con ironia e freschezza senza tempo."
"È finita un’epoca musicale e culturale più che feconda, direi perfetta. È un addio definitivo ai ’70."
