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 Ludolph Studios, Nederhorst den Berg
Genre Art 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 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.

Production and style

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 studio in London. Visconti would go on to co-produce much of Bowie's work for the rest of the decade.[1]

Cover

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

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [7]
Robert Christgau (C+)[8]
Rolling Stone (1974) (Unfavorable)[9]
Rolling Stone (2004) [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 No. 1 in the UK charts and No. 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 No. 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

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

Side one

  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

  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

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

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

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

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)

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

Charts

Peak positions

Chart (1974) Position
Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart[17] 3
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[18] 1
French SNEP Albums Chart[19] 4
Italian Albums Chart[20] 15
Norwegian Albums Chart[21] 8
Swedish Kvällstoppen Chart[22] 3
UK Albums Chart[23] 1
US Billboard 200[24] 5
West German Media Control Albums Chart[25] 40

Year-end charts

Chart (1974) Position
Australian Albums Chart[17] 20
Canadian Albums Chart[26] 15
French Albums Chart[27] 11
Italian Albums Chart[20] 52
UK Albums Chart[28] 6

Certifications

Region Certification
United Kingdom (BPI)[29] Gold
United States (RIAA)[30] Gold

References in popular culture

  • The Serbian and former Yugoslav band Kozmetika in its initial period was named after the album, Dijamantski Psi, meaning Diamond Dogs in Serbian language.[31]
  • 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.[32]
  • In the 4th Season of the television show The Venture Bros. the Diamond Dogs are robotic dog trackers for the Guild of Calamitous Intent, of which a shapeshifting impersonator of David Bowie is the leader, known as The Sovereign (who, it is revealed, is featured on the cover of Diamond Dogs).[33]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination—David Bowie: The Definitive Story: pp.208-217
  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. ↑ 11.0 11.1 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 8 December 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2008. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. 
  18. ↑ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 21, No. 24" (PHP). RPM. 03 August 1974. Retrieved 31 January 2014. 
  19. ↑ "InfoDisc : Tous les Albums classés par Artiste > Choisir Un Artiste Dans la Liste" (PHP). infodisc.fr. Retrieved 31 January 2014.  Note: user must select 'David BOWIE' from drop-down.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Hit Parade Italia – Gli album più venduti del 1974" (in Italian). hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 31 January 2014. 
  21. ↑ "norwegiancharts.com David Bowie – Diamond Dogs" (ASP). Retrieved 31 January 2014. 
  22. ↑ "Swedish Charts 1972–1975/Kvällstoppen – Listresultaten vecka för vecka > Juni 1974 > 11 Juni". hitsallertijden.nl (in Swedish). Retrieved 31 January 2014. Note: Kvällstoppen combined sales for albums and singles in the one chart; Diamond Dogs peaked at the number-four on the list in the 1st week of June 1974.
  23. ↑ "David Bowie > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 31 January 2014. 
  24. ↑ "allmusic ((( Diamond Dogs > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011. 
  25. ↑ "Album Search: David Bowie – Diamond Dogs" (ASP) (in German). Media Control. Retrieved 10 October 2013. 
  26. ↑ "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1974". RPM. Retrieved 2 February 2014. 
  27. ↑ "Les Albums (CD) de 1974 par InfoDisc" (PHP) (in French). infodisc.fr. Retrieved 31 January 2013. 
  28. ↑ "The Official UK Charts Company : ALBUM CHART HISTORY". Archived from the original on 13 August 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2007. 
  29. ↑ "British album certifications – David Bowie – Diamond Dogs". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 31 January 2014.  Enter Diamond Dogs in the field Search. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Click Go
  30. ↑ "American album certifications – David Bowie – Diamond Dogs". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 31 January 2014.  If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
  31. ↑ Janjatović, Petar (2007), EX YU ROCK enciklopedija 1960-2006, p. 120, ISBN 978-86-905317-1-4
  32. ↑ Hawking, Tom. "John Vanderslice on Covering Bowie and Why Kickstarter is "Just as Involved as Some Labels"". Retrieved 11 June 2013. 
  33. ↑ http://www.avclub.com/articles/osi-love-you,99215/

External links

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
David Bowie
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  • Book:David Bowie / Part 2: Singles and songs
  • Category:David Bowie
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Book:Nineteen Eighty-Four
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