After the commercial success of "Young Americans", "Station to Station" and "Heroes", Bowie started a collaboration of three experimental albums with Brian Eno, "Low, "Stage" and then 1979's "Lodger".

His next album was "Scary Monsters" with Tony Visconti with the idea of creating his contemporary version of the Beatles "Sgt Pepper" album, with each song having its own clear cut identity. Bowie described the record as a kind of purge, "it is haunted by the ghosts of past creations and spooked by my personal demons and those of the wider world."

The sounds contrasted the grinding sounds against a slick production that included Roy Bittan's solid piano playing laid the foundation and special attention paid to the skronky cutting edge polish he calls "guitar architecture".

The first single I heard was "Fashion" played as an album track, but the first single issued by RCA was "Ashes To Ashes" that did not chart in the US. The song was a continuation of the Major Tom character from "Space Oddity" that confirmed the general consensus that Major Tom was a junkie.

But back to "Fashion"...it opens with a sinister sound of a drip that becomes the song's timekeeper ramping up into a chunky beat with a dissonant guitars epitomized the punk rock ethic with other instruments creating a dystopian sound of dread. It was the last song recorded for "Scary Monsters" and it drew inspiration from the dance rhythms of "Golden Years" and topped off with Robert Fripp's stellar guitar work that gave the reggae funk beat a dose of the 80's.

The song peaked at #70 in the US, his first showing since 1976. It has since become Bowie's go to on many of his subsequent tours up to the "A Reality Tour" 2003-2004.

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