David Bowie “Fashion” 1980. Promo 12″ so B-side the same as the A-side, with a helpful note to deejays giving the Intro of 27 seconds and a “Fade” ending, while the sleeve indicates that this track probably is good for dancing (It is! A great funky reggae-inspired rhythm; its original title was “Jamaica.”) “Fashion” was the second single from Bowie’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) album. It hit #5 in the UK and went to #70 in the US and its accompanying video was considered to be one of the best from ‘80 (for its time, it IS good but this was pre-MTV and massive music video budgets so it now looks really dated). I love the song’s cool, detached vibe that channels the boredom of the supermodel and, while the lyrics are a bit clouded in their meaning (some theorize that the “goon squad” is about fascism while Bowie himself said it was more about being self-conscious), it certainly seems like a big eye-roll at people taking themselves too seriously.

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The title track, “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” is gothically dark, vaguely industrial and amazing. “Up The Hill Backwards,” the last single released off of Scary Monsters, has an awesome Diddley-esque intro (Bowie had challenged guitarist Robert Fripp to “imagine he was playing a guitar duel with B.B. King where he had to out-B.B. B.B., but do it in his own way”). The first single which Bowie released prior to the album, “Ashes To Ashes,” is an art rock experiment in surreal new romanticism. It became Bowie’s second #1 hit in the UK and its video was renowned for being the most expensive to make up to that time. And “Fashion” has always been one of my favorite tracks (I blogged about the 12″ just after Bowie’s death this past January), its vibe icy cool detachment to pop culture. “Scream Like a Baby,” the b-side to “Fashion,” was originally slated to have the title “Laser” – and instead of singing “scream like a baby” the line was going to be “I am a laser” – which makes me laugh with the image of a baby shooting laser beams from his mismatched colored eyes.

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