Diamond Dogs

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For other uses, see Diamond Dogs (disambiguation).
Diamond Dogs
Studio album by David Bowie
Released 24 April 1974
Recorded October 1973 - February 1974 at Olympic Studios and Island Studios, London, and Ludolf Studios, Hilversum, Netherlands
Genre Rock, glam rock
Length 38:25
Label RCA
Producer David Bowie
David Bowie chronology
Pin Ups
(1973)		 Diamond Dogs
(1974)		 David Live
(1974)
Singles from Diamond Dogs
  1. "Rebel Rebel"
    Released: 15 February 1974
  2. "Diamond Dogs"
    Released: 14 June 1974

Diamond Dogs is a concept album by David Bowie, originally released in 1974 on RCA Records, his eighth album. Thematically, it was a marriage of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Bowie's own glam-tinged vision of a post-apocalyptic world. Bowie had wanted to make a theatrical production of Orwell's book and began writing material after completing sessions for his 1973 album Pin Ups, but the late author’s estate denied the rights.[1] The songs wound up on the second half of Diamond Dogs instead where, as the titles indicated, the Nineteen Eighty-Four theme was prominent.

Contents

Production and style[edit]

Though the album was recorded and released after the 'retirement' of Ziggy Stardust in mid-1973, and featured its own lead character in Halloween Jack ("a real cool cat" who lives in the decaying "Hunger City"), Ziggy was seen to be still very much alive in Diamond Dogs, as evident from Bowie's haircut on the cover and the glam-trash style of the first single "Rebel Rebel".[1] As was the case with some songs on Aladdin Sane, the influence of The Rolling Stones was also evident, particularly in the chugging title track.[2] Elsewhere, however, Bowie had moved on from his earlier work with the epic song suite, "Sweet Thing"/"Candidate"/"Sweet Thing (Reprise)", whilst "Rock 'n' Roll With Me" and the Shaft-inspired wah-wah guitar style of "1984" provided a foretaste of Bowie's next, 'plastic soul', phase. The original vinyl album ended with the juddering refrain (actually, a tape loop) Bruh/bruh/bruh/bruh/bruh, the first syllable of "(Big) Brother", repeated incessantly.[3] The track "Sweet Thing" was Bowie's first try at William S. Burroughs' cut-up style of writing, which Bowie would continue to use for the next 25 years.[4]

Although Diamond Dogs was the first Bowie album since 1969 to not feature any of the 'Spiders from Mars', the backing band made famous by Ziggy Stardust, many of the arrangements were already worked out and played on tour with Mick Ronson prior to the studio recordings, including "1984" and "Rebel Rebel". In the studio, however, Herbie Flowers played bass with drums being shared between Aynsley Dunbar and Tony Newman. In a move that surprised some commentators, Bowie himself took on the lead guitar role previously held by Mick Ronson, producing what NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray described as a "scratchy, raucous, semi-amateurish sound that gave the album much of its characteristic flavour".[5] Diamond Dogs was also a milestone in Bowie's career as it reunited him with Tony Visconti, who provided string arrangements and helped mix the album at his own Good Earth Studios in London, on a Trident B-range console, brand new from Trident at the time.[citation needed] Visconti would go on to co-produce much of Bowie's work for the rest of the decade.

Cover[edit]

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The cover art features Bowie as a striking half-man, half-dog grotesque painted by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert. It was controversial as the full painting clearly showed the hybrid's genitalia. Very few copies of this original cover made their way into circulation at the time of the album's release. According to the record-collector publication Goldmine price guides, these albums have been among the most expensive record collectibles of all time, as high as thousands of US dollars for a single copy. The genitalia were quickly airbrushed out for the 1974 LP's gatefold sleeve, although the original artwork (and another rejected cover featuring Bowie in a sombrero cordobés holding onto a ravenous dog, an image captured by Terry O'Neill[6]) was included in subsequent Rykodisc/EMI re-issues.

Release and aftermath[edit]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 2.5/5 stars [7]
Robert Christgau (C+) [8]
Rolling Stone (1974) (Unfavorable) [9]
Rolling Stone (2004) 2.5/5 stars[10]
Bowie performing during Diamond Dogs Tour, 1974.

The record was Bowie's glam swansong; according to author David Buckley, "In the sort of move which would come to define his career, Bowie jumped the glam-rock ship just in time, before it drifted into a blank parody of itself".[1] At the time of its release Bowie described Diamond Dogs as "a very political album. My protest ... more me than anything I've done previously".[11] Disc magazine compared the album to The Man Who Sold the World (1970), while Rock and Sounds both described it as his "most impressive work ... since Ziggy Stardust".[11] It made #1 in the UK charts and #5 in the US (where the song "Rebel Rebel" proved popular), Bowie's highest stateside placing to that date. In Canada, it was able to repeat its British chart-topping success, hitting #1 on the RPM 100 national albums chart in July 1974 and holding it for two weeks.[12]

Diamond Dogs' raw guitar style and visions of urban chaos, scavenging children and nihilistic lovers ("We'll buy some drugs and watch old bands / And jump in the river holding hands") have been credited with anticipating the punk revolution that would take place in the following years.[13] Bowie himself has described the Diamond Dogs, introduced in the title song, as: "all little Johnny Rottens and Sid Viciouses really. And, in my mind, there was no means of transport, so they were all rolling around on these roller-skates with huge wheels on them, and they squeaked because they hadn't been oiled properly. So there were these gangs of squeaking, roller-skating, vicious hoods, with Bowie knives and furs on, and they were all skinny because they hadn't eaten enough, and they all had funny-coloured hair. In a way it was a precursor to the punk thing."[14]

Bowie played all of the album's songs except "We Are the Dead" on his 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour (recorded and released as David Live). "Rebel Rebel" has featured on almost every Bowie tour since, "Diamond Dogs" was performed for the 1976 Station to Station and 1995-96 Outside tours, and "Big Brother/Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" was resurrected for the 1987 Glass Spider Tour.

Track listing[edit]

All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.[15]

Side one[edit]

  1. "Future Legend" – 1:05
  2. "Diamond Dogs" – 5:56
  3. "Sweet Thing" – 3:39
  4. "Candidate" – 2:40
  5. "Sweet Thing (Reprise)" – 2:31
  6. "Rebel Rebel" – 4:30

Side two[edit]

  1. "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" (lyrics: Bowie; music: Bowie, Warren Peace) – 4:00
  2. "We Are the Dead" – 4:58
  3. "1984" – 3:27
  4. "Big Brother" – 3:21
  5. "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" – 2:00
Bonus tracks (1990 Rykodisc/EMI)
  1. "Dodo" (Recorded 1973, previously unreleased) – 2:53
  2. "Candidate" (Demo version, recorded 1973, previously unreleased) – 5:09

Compact disc releases[edit]

Diamond Dogs was first released on CD by RCA in 1985 with censored cover art. The German (for the European market) and Japanese (for the US market) masters were sourced from different tapes and are not identical for each region.

1990 Rykodisc/EMI[edit]

Dr. Toby Mountain at Northeastern Digital, Southborough, Massachusetts,[16] remastered Diamond Dogs from the original master tapes for Rykodisc in 1990 with two bonus tracks and the original, uncensored, artwork. "Future Legend" stops at 1:01 and "Diamond Dogs" has 6:04 in this version.

1999 EMI/Virgin[edit]

The album was remastered by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios without bonus material, with the same track listing as the 1985 CD release.

2004 EMI/Virgin[edit]

The third in a series of 30th Anniversary 2CD Editions, this release included a remastered version of the first disc. The second disc contains eight tracks, some of which had been previously released on CD as bonus tracks of the 1990-92 Rykodisc/EMI reissues.

Bonus CD (2004 EMI/Virgin)[edit]

All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.

  1. "1984/Dodo" (Recorded 1973) – 5:29
  2. "Rebel Rebel" (From "Rebel Rebel" US single A-Side, 1974) – 3:00
  3. "Dodo" (Also known as "You Didn't Hear It from Me", Recorded 1973) – 2:53
  4. "Growin' Up" (Bruce Springsteen) (Recorded 1973) – 3:25
  5. "Candidate" (Demo version, recorded 1973) – 5:09
  6. "Diamond Dogs" (K-Tel Best of Bowie edit, 1980) – 4:41
  7. "Candidate" (Intimacy mix, 2001) – 2:58
  8. "Rebel Rebel" (2003 mix) (From Reality Bonus Disc) – 3:09

Personnel[edit]

Charts[edit]

 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2012)

Album[edit]

Year Chart Position
1974 UK Albums Chart 1[17]
1974 Canadian RPM 100 Top Albums chart 1
1974 Australian Kent Report album Charts 3
1974 US Billboard Pop Albums 5
1974 Norwegian album chart 8

Single[edit]

Year Single Chart Position
1974 "Rebel Rebel" UK Singles Chart 5
1974 "Rebel Rebel" Norway's single chart 9
1974 "Rebel Rebel" Canadian RPM 100 Top Singles Chart[18] 30
1974 "Rebel Rebel" US Billboard Pop Singles 64
1974 "Diamond Dogs" UK Singles Chart 21

Certifications[edit]

Organization Level Date
RIAA – USA Gold 26 July 1974

References in popular culture[edit]

  • The Serbian and former Yugoslav band Kozmetika in its initial period was named after the album, Dijamantski Psi, meaning Diamond Dogs in Serbian language.[19]
  • An organization in the upcoming video game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was named after the album.
  • In June 2013, John Vanderslice released a cover version of the album on limited edition vinyl. Using the original album as backbone to experiment and improvise in the recording studio with collaborators, Vanderslice altered lyrics, song structures, chord progressions, and titles of many of the songs. [20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination—David Bowie: The Definitive Story: pp.210-217
  2. ^ Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.63
  3. ^ Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: pp.63-64
  4. ^ Kamp, Thomas (1985). David Bowie: The Wild-Eyed Boy 1964-1984 (1st ed.). O'Sullivan, Woodside & Co 
  5. ^ Carr & Murray 1981). Op cit: p.14
  6. ^ Terry O'Neill (1985). Legends. Viking Adult. ISBN 978-0-670-80933-2
  7. ^ Allmusic. Retrieved on 8 August 2011.
  8. ^ Robert Christgau. Retrieved on 8 August 2011.
  9. ^ Emerson, Ken (1 August 1974). "Rolling Stone Reviews: Diamond Dogs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 May 2013 
  10. ^ "Rolling Stone: Artists: David Bowie". Rolling Stone. 2004. Retrieved 6 May 2013 
  11. ^ a b Nicholas Pegg (2000). Op cit: pp.289-291
  12. ^ RPM Top Albums at Collections Canada. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  13. ^ Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Op cit: p.64
  14. ^ Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.63
  15. ^ David Bowie. Diamond Dogs (RCA Records, 1974).
  16. ^ "Northeastern Digital home page". Archived from the original on 2007-12-08. Retrieved 2008-05-26. 
  17. ^ "Number 1 Albums – 1970s". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2011. 
  18. ^ RPM Top Singles at Collections Canada. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  19. ^ Janjatović, Petar (2007), EX YU ROCK enciklopedija 1960-2006, p. 120, ISBN 978-86-905317-1-4
  20. ^ Hawking, Tom. "John Vanderslice on Covering Bowie and Why Kickstarter is "Just as Involved as Some Labels"". Retrieved 11 June 2013. 

External links[edit]

Preceded by
The Singles: 1969-1973 by The Carpenters		 UK number-one album
8-29 June 1974		 Succeeded by
The Singles: 1969-1973 by The Carpenters
Preceded by
Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot		 Canadian RPM 100 number-one album
27 July - 3 August 1974 (2 weeks)		 Succeeded by
Caribou by Elton John
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