Scream Like a Baby
1980 song by David Bowie
"Scream Like a Baby" | |
---|---|
Song by David Bowie | |
from the album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) | |
Released | September 12, 1980 |
Recorded | The Power Station , New York , February 1980; Good Earth, London , April 1980 |
Genre | Post-punk |
Length | 3 : 35 |
Label | RCA |
Songwriter(s) | David Bowie |
Producer(s) | David Bowie, Tony Visconti |
" Scream Like a Baby " is a song written by David Bowie . It appears on the 1980 album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) .
Music and lyrics
The song focuses on a protagonist called Sam who is evidently being held, along with the track's narrator, in a political prison. Though set in the future, the story is related in the past tense, in a fashion Bowie has described as "future nostalgia... A past look at something that hasn't happened yet". [1] Musically the song is noted for its "ultra-modern new wave guitar/synth sound", [1] as well as for Bowie's use of varispeed vocals to illustrate Sam's downward spiral in the prison hospital – according to NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray , the effect is "as if the narrator of ' All the Madmen ' inhabited the world of ' 1984 '". [2]
"Scream Like a Baby" was one of several tracks on Scary Monsters that evolved from pieces Bowie had written years before. It was originally composed in 1973, with different lyrics, as "I Am a Laser" for The Astronettes ( Ava Cherry , Geoffrey MacCormack and Jason Guess). [3] Bowie worked on an album for the group but it was eventually dropped, finally surfacing in 1995 as the Ava Cherry album People from Bad Homes ; "I Am a Laser" was one of the tracks. [4]
Bowie intended to play the song during his 1987 Glass Spider Tour , but dropped the song from the set list before the tour started. [5]
Other releases
- It was released as the B-side of the single " Fashion " in October 1980.
Personnel
According to Chris O'Leary: [6]
- David Bowie – lead and backing vocals
- Carlos Alomar – guitar
- Andy Clark – synthesizer
- George Murray – bass
- Dennis Davis – drums
Production
- David Bowie – producer
- Tony Visconti – producer
Notes
- 1 2 Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie : p.181
- ↑ Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record : p.113
- ↑ David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story : p.207
- ↑ O’Leary, Chris. "Pushing ahead of the dame" .
- ↑ Currie, David (1987), David Bowie: Glass Idol (1st ed.), London and Margate, England: Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-1182-7
- ↑ O'Leary, Chris (2019). Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie 1976–2016 . London: Repeater. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-91224-830-8 .