"Teenage Wildlife" is a song written by David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 in 1980 for the album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Scary Monsters is an album by David Bowie, released in September 1980 by RCA Records. It was Bowie's final studio album for the label and his first following the so-called Berlin Trilogy of Low, "Heroes" and Lodger . Though considered significant in artistic terms, the trilogy had proved less...

. Running at almost seven minutes, the song was the longest track on Scary Monsters, and Bowie's longest composition since "Station to Station

Station to Station (song)

"Station to Station" is a song written by David Bowie in 1975 and released in 1976. It is the title track and opener for the album of the same name. The song is Bowie's longest studio recording, clocking in just above 10 minutes...

" four years prior in 1976.

Aside from "Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

"Ashes to Ashes" is a single by David Bowie, released in 1980. It made #1 in the UK and was the first cut from the Scary Monsters album, also a #1 hit. As well as its musical qualities, it is noted for its innovative video, directed by Bowie and David Mallet...

", "Teenage Wildlife" was perhaps the album’s most personal lyric. Against a musical backdrop that owed much to his classic song "Heroes", including textural guitar work from both Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...

 and Chuck Hammer

Chuck Hammer

Chuck Hammer is an American guitarist and Emmy nominated digital film composer, known for seminal guitar-synth with Lou Reed, David Bowie, and Guitarchitecture....

, Bowie appeared to take aim squarely at his post-punk

Post-punk

Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

 artistic godchildren, particularly Gary Numan

Gary Numan

Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...

:

A broken-nosed mogul are you

One of the new wave boys

Same old thing in brand new drag

Comes sweeping into view

As ugly as a teenage millionaire

Pretending it’s a whiz-kid world

In a 1980 interview, Bowie commented on Numan and his "whiz-kid world"—
In a recent article for the Mail On Sunday, Bowie revealed that his vocal performance on this song was an imitation of American girl group singer, Ronnie Spector

Ronnie Spector

Veronica Yvette "Ronnie" Spector is an American rock and roll and popular music vocalist, and was the lead singer of the 1960s hit-making girl group, The Ronettes, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. She is known as the "original bad girl of rock and roll."-Personal...

.

The song was covered by Northern Irish rock band Ash

Ash (band)

Ash are an alternative rock band that formed in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland in 1992. The band has sold 8 million albums worldwide.-Band beginning, Trailer and 1977 :...

 for their compilation album A-Z Vol.2.