It's No Game

Song infobox
Name = It's No Game


Artist = David Bowie
Album = Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
Released = September 12 1980
track_no = 1
Recorded = The Power Station, New York; Good Earth Studios, London February-April 1980
Genre = Rock, New Wave, Post-punk
Length = 4:15 (No. 1)
4:22 (No. 2)
Label = RCA Records
Writer = David Bowie
Producer = David Bowie, Tony Visconti
prev =
prev_no =
next = "Up the Hill Backwards"
next_no = 2
Misc = Extra chronology
Artist =
Type =
Last single ="Because You're Young" (9)
This single = "It's No Game (No. 2)" (10)
Next single =

"It's No Game" is a song written by David Bowie for the 1980 album "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)", featuring lead guitar played by Robert Fripp. The song is in two parts, opening and closing the album.

Music and lyrics

The lyrics to "It's No Game (No. 1)" are sung in Japanese by Michi Hirota, with Bowie screaming the English translation "as if he's literally tearing out his intestines".Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). "Bowie: An Illustrated Record": pp.112-113] Bowie said that he employed a strident female vocal "to break down a particular kind of sexist attitude" regarding Japanese girls and women in general. [David Buckley (1999). "Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story": p.374]

In contrast to the musical and vocal intensity of the first part, "It's No Game (No. 2)" is much calmer; "NME" editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray interpreted this as meaning that by the album's close, Bowie is "facing the same situation which he confronted when the album began, but with the force of his rage somewhat spent. Things haven't improved, but he's taking it better."

The song contains lyrics and a vocal melody borrowed from an early unreleased Bowie song called "Tired of My Life", demoed in 1970 but said to have been written when he was 16.Nicholas Pegg (2000). "The Complete David Bowie": pp.108-109] It was considered the "most obvious target" of the Hee Bee Gee Bees' Bowie parody "Quite Ahead of My Time" (1981), which featured a voice calling out the names of Japanese cars.

Other releases

* "It's No Game (No. 1)" was released as the B-side of the US version of the single "Ashes to Ashes" in August 1980.
* In Japan it was released as a single in 1980 with "Fashion" as the B-side.

Cover versions

* Born to Worry - A version called "It's No Game Part 3" on the album "Loving the Alien: Athens Georgia Salutes David Bowie".
* Nine Inch Nails - Guitar samples from the Bowie song, slowed and in reverse, on "Pinion" from the album "Broken"; the sample is more clearly heard in the intro tape played prior to most Nine Inch Nails concerts.

Notes