Diamond Dogs

Having made the decision to "stop touring" and quickly recording Pin-Ups, Bowie threw himself into creating a musical version of George Orwell's 1984. Well into it, Duh!, he discovered that Orwell's widow wouldn't granting him the rights to use the work, so Bowie created Diamond Dogs instead, which takes up Side 1 of the old vinyl version with various 1984 tracks on Side 2.

I'll be treating both sides as seperate entities because other than being on the same album, they are completely unrelated.

David Bowie: Diamond Dogs

David Bowie: "...They airbrushed the genitalia from the dog. It was by a French artist called Guy Peellaert, who was extraordinary. He put out a book called Rock Dreams in that period, which was a great take on his vision of rock artists. Unfortunately, that particular dog, the Diamond Dog, got castrated. It got returned now that it's out on Rykodisc, he's with equipment..."  NYrock.com

Nik Cohn & Guy Peellaert: Rock Dreams

"...I found this book in my father's collection back in the 70's before I was even a teenager. Each Icon of rock, soul, pop, country from the 50s to the early 70s is painted perfectly by Guy Peellaert inhabiting their own imaginary world. Such as The Beach Boys on the beach, the Drifters under the boardwalk, Otis, sitting at the dock of the bay, The Beatles being chased down Liverpool backstreets. Nik Cohn adds succint passages that captures the essence of our early rock heroes..." Amazon reviewer A customer

The Diamond Dogs cover, the still-disturbing half-man, half-dog painting by Guy Peellaert, sets the scene superbly for (this time) a mutant post-apocalyptic vision that kicks right into gear with the intro's narration:

"...And...in the death...as the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare, the shutters lifted an inch in Temperance Building, high on Poacher's Hill and red mutant eyes gazed down on Hunger City.

No more big wheels.

Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats and 10,000 peopleoids split into small tribes  coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers...like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love Me avenue...

...This ain't Rock'n'Roll, this is Genocide..."

Future Legend

The title track then creates a verbal painting of these mutants on the prowl with some scratchy rock'n'roll to back it up:

"...The superman is a real cool cat and he lives on top of Manhattan Chase. The elevator's broke so he slides down a rope, onto the street below, 'Go Tarzan, go man, go'..."

Diamond Dogs

Bowie:   "...That was the first time that I played all the instruments myself on an album. I had just broken up the Spiders and didn't really want to entrust my music to another set of musicians at the time. So I tried everything myself on the guitar, drums, saxophone and synthesizers. And so it has a peculiarly idiosyncratic style. I find it very endearing, kind of remote and a bit scary..."  NYrock.com

It's cool, it rocks and as a track following the dramatic intro, Diamond Dogs holds its own, just (although whether I needed another apocalyptic vision was another thing altogether). However, because of the extreme impressionism, the album really needed a killer series of tracks right then and there to develop the concept and/or narrative.  Instead, what follows is a rather long medley:

• Sweet Thing
• Candidate
• Sweet Thing 2

...with more of the same, big on atmosphic, impenetrable lyrics but not much else.

"...Sweet Thing features a romantic piano line that would not be out of place in a stage production and an absolutely stunning lead vocal from Bowie who takes full advantage of his range. His performance is just absolutely staggering, but it has a very theatrical, almost over the top sound to it..." Amazon reviewer Michael Stack

"...It's safe in the city, to love in a doorway
To wrangle some screens from the door
And isn't it me, putting pain in a stranger?
Like a portrait in flesh, who trails on a leash
Will you see that I'm scared and I'm lonely?
So I'll break up my room, and yawn and I
Run to the centre of things
Where the knowing one says

Boys, boys, its a sweet thing..."

                Sweet Thing

But what does it all mean? The confusion continues with the next track, Candidate.

"...I'll make you a deal, like any other candidate
We'll pretend we're walking home 'cause your future's at stake
My set is amazing, it even smells like a street
There's a bar at the end where I can meet you and your friend
Someone scrawled on the wall 'I smell the blood of les tricoteuses'
Who wrote up scandals in other bars..."

                                       Candidate

Huh? Look, it's fantastically atmosperic but I still have absolutely no bloody idea what it's supposed to mean!

The album side ends with the hit single, Rebel Rebel, a Stonesy-type of Satisfaction derivative that seems to be a love song of sorts...but is really fairly unimpressive.

Bowie:   "...Rebel Rebel is just for me the funniest song. I can't, I just can't conceive how I wrote that now. I mean, I really must have felt that at the time but... "...Hot tramp, I love you so...", don't give me grief. I mean it's really, it's so flippant." NYrock.com 

Unfortunately, while Side 2 makes more sense, containing songs from the projected 1984 musical, the songs themselves come across as competent rather than exciting and it's only Big Brother that transcends time and is really worth listening to 30 years later.

In particular, the love song When You Rock'n'Roll With Me , which I presume Winston Smith (the everyman who tries to buck the system and risks death by daring to fall in love) is particularly unimpressive:

"...When you rock'n'roll with me, no-one else I'd rather be..."

...just doesn't cut it for me, Dave. It should be noted that Diamond Dogs remains one of Bowie's (and many fans') favorites though, as you might gather,  it's not one of mine. I just don't really "get it". I still played it to death for six months, though!

David Bowie: Diamond Dogs

 "...George Orwell, Lou Reed, and the Rolling Stones all walk into a bar...No, that title's not a joke, I actually have a reason for it. Those, it seems, are the chief influences on this record - my favorite Bowie album, by the way..." Amazon reviewer finulanu

"...Based almost entirely on dismal futuristic images presented in the works of Orwell and Burroughs, the album is a dark, sexually-charged tour through the dilapidated Hunger City, ruled by Halloween Jack high atop Manhatten Chase. It is essentially narrated with some of David's best vocal and lyrical work to date...I'd have to place this among my top four Bowie albums. Hope you enjoy!..." Amazon reviewer James G. H. Kowalski

"...But still, is this really 30 years old? Jeepers, it sounds like it was recorded last week. Diamond Dogs is now enriched by the excellent packaging, including Bowie's comments about his state of mind during the creation of the 1984 stage musical concept, to several of the contributing players' thoughts and a host of pictures and other graphics from the period. The bonus disc is a treat as well. I'd actually forgotten the single mix of Rebel Rebel and my ensuing disappointment when I bought the album and the background vocals were gone! But why quarrel with what has to be one of the ten best guitar riffs ever composed? Amazon.co.uk reviewer Paul S. Whiston

Bowie then took Diamond Dogs on tour in the USA, presenting a highly theatrical (and expensive) show, which went down a storm. You can see a very coked-out Bowie on tour, on and off-stage, captured in the fascinating Cracked Actor documentary (named after a song on Aladdin Sane), which is presently, unfortunately unavailable. Apparently, after seeing the documentary, film director Nicholas Roeg immediately offered Bowie the lead-acting role in The Man Who Fell To Earth. 

The Diamond Dogs tour booked a week in Philadelphia presenting funk-ified versions of Bowie favorites, led by new recruit Carlos Alomar, a guitarist who would stay with him for many years both LIVE and in the studio and featured the only remaining Spider From Mars, Mike Garson, on piano and a number of black singers, including a young Luther Van Dross.

The evening performances were recorded for the David Live album which, like most LIVE albums is for fans only...but well worth checking out because of the considerably different LIVE arrangements, including a fab Puerto Ruican gay hustler take on Suffragette City. 

However, I always considered the single, Knock On Wood, to be fairly plodding and labored but it did it's job here in Australia, becoming reasonably popular. Let's be fair, how many LIVE albums have a hit single?

David LIVE has now been remastered and with the addition of some new tracks, the original concert song order has been reinstated. Strangely for me, the Diamond Dogs tracks sound fantastic on David LIVE and for the life of me, I can't work out why. The nearest I can get to it is that in concert, they're dramatic soundscapes with words and singing. Whatever the reason, they sound way better than the studio versions to me and David LIVE certainly captures an era for me. 

David Bowie: David LIVE

"...I was fortunate to see the Diamond Dogs Tour in New Haven way back when. It was the strange time of Glam. Mascara was a real commodity. Have you ever seen an audience that looked like raccoons? I have. But getting back to Bowie - he was just the best on that tour. Like a Broadway show, the scenery kept changing, he was doing pantomime. One minute he's in a trenchcoat on some dark alley singing When You Rock 'n' Roll With Me and the next he's a prizefighter in a boxing ring, gloves cuffed around the microphone, singing Rebel Rebel..." Amazon reviewer !metamorpho

"...The 2005 issue of David LIVE is a significant improvement on previous issuings of the album, thanks to the labours of producer Tony Visconti. What we have now for the first time is a complete 1974 Diamond Dogs show. The sound has been genuinely polished up and Bowie's vocals are incredibly strong. The album feels much more LIVE than previous issues..." Amazon reviewer K. Ansell-pearson

"...I don't own any other David Bowie albums but I've been a rock & blues guitar player for 35 years and this album has some of the most screamin' LIVE guitar playing I've ever heard. As far as I'm concerned, Earl Slick steals the show!! In April 2003, Guitar Player Magazine published an article titled, "50 Forgotten Albums Every Guitarist Should Own," and this album is on the list. Get it - Dig it..." Amazon reviewer Jimmy James

"...I've given the new remastered release of David LIVE two listenings since purchasing it today, one on my average car stereo and one on my above-average home system (in stereo) and can report that the new version...is nothing short of brilliant...Gone is the flat, one-dimensional sound. Perhaps the most noticeable improvement is the aural depth of the concert recording. This is particularly true of DB's voice, as it reverberates with warmth and places him in front of the band. The stereo separation is also more pronounced, and the musician's individual instruments and backing vocals are clearly recognizable. The production can be described as clean and true, but not polished. On several tracks, the hum of the theater's sound system is actually audible, lending to the authenticity of the concert recording. The audience applause and cheers remain understated but also seem to be more dynamic..." Amazon reviewer tvc215

It should be noted that during the day Bowie and the band also recorded most of the astonishing Young Americans album.

For more info, see:

• wikipedia Diamond Dogs
• the original Diamond Dogs promotional poster from RCA, presently selling for around $1,000
• wikipedia David Live
• a very brief but thorough look at Bowie's activities in 1974 from Roger Griffin
• Rock Magazine article with Bowie talks about setting up for the Diamond Dogs tour, getting a new touring band together etc.
• Rolling Stone with more about the Diamond Dogs tour
• Fan Magazine, the people who turn David Bowie on, including Angie, Zowie, Marc Bolan etc.
• New Musical Express article on David LIVE and Young Americans
• a fascinating Circus Magazine article with Tony Visconti about David LIVE + The Man Who Sold the World + Marc Bolan