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Composer Colin Towns on David Bowie's `Ashes to Ashes'

Composer Colin Towns on David Bowie's `Ashes to Ashes'

I regard this as David Bowie's last really important record. After "Ashes to Ashes" came "Let's Dance" and all the stuff that led up to Tin Machine, but this was the last time I felt he really experimented and came up with something new, something other than a formula. I liked the droll, downbeat atmosphere of the single. I loved the video too. Videos in general changed after this one. The strength of the drama and the sheer surreality of it opened things out.

Scary Monsters was Bowie's last great album too. There was an element of his earlier, overtly English stuff about it. Major Tom is back, for instance, and the album is full of strange characters. Also, Bowie was still throwing guitar players around with wild abandon. It's a record full of interesting angles.