''Diamond Dogs'' is the eighth studio album by English musician
David Bowie, released on 24 May 1974 through
RCA Records. Bowie produced the album and recorded it in early 1974 at
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
and
Island Studios in London and Ludolph Studios in the Netherlands, following the disbanding of his backing band
the Spiders from Mars
The Spiders from Mars were rock singer David Bowie's backing band in the early 1970s, and initially consisted of Mick Ronson on guitars, Trevor Bolder on bass guitar, and Mick Woodmansey on drums.
The group had its origins in Bowie's earlier ba ...
and the departure of producer
Ken Scott. The absence of
Mick Ronson led Bowie to play guitar on the record. The album featured the return of
Tony Visconti, who had not worked with Bowie for four years; the two would collaborate for the rest of the decade. Musically, it was Bowie's final album in the
glam rock genre, though some songs were influenced by
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
and
soul music, which Bowie embraced on his next album, ''
Young Americans
''Young Americans'' is the ninth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 7March 1975 through RCA Records. The album marked a departure from the glam rock style of Bowie's previous albums, showcasing his interest in soul and ...
'' (1975).
Conceived during a period of uncertainty over where his career was headed, ''Diamond Dogs'' is the result of multiple projects Bowie envisioned at the time. One of these was a musical based on ''
Ziggy Stardust'' (1972), which he ultimately scrapped. Another was an adaptation of
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...
's 1949 novel ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four''. After being denied the rights by Orwell's widow, Bowie devised an urban apocalyptic scenario based on the writings of
William S. Burroughs. Together, the songs from these projects form the theme of ''Diamond Dogs''. Although the
title track introduces a new persona named Halloween Jack, Ziggy Stardust is still present throughout the album. Belgian artist
Guy Peellaert painted the controversial cover artwork depicting Bowie as a half-man, half-dog hybrid, based on photos taken by photographer
Terry O'Neill.
Preceded by the
lead single "
Rebel Rebel", ''Diamond Dogs'' was a commercial success, peaking at number one in the UK and number five in the US. It received mixed reviews and continues to provoke mixed reactions, many criticising its lack of cohesiveness, but Bowie biographers consider it one of his best works and, in 2013, ''
NME'' ranked it one of the greatest albums of all time. Bowie supported the album on the
Diamond Dogs Tour
The Diamond Dogs Tour was a concert tour by English singer-songwriter David Bowie in North America in 1974 to promote the studio album ''Diamond Dogs'' (1974). The first leg of the tour utilized a rock opera-style stage show format with multi ...
, which featured elaborate, expensive set-pieces. Performances from the tour have seen release on multiple
live album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s. Retrospectively, ''Diamond Dogs'' has been cited as an influence on the
punk revolution in the years following its release. It has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2016 for the ''
Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)'' box set.
Background
David Bowie released his seventh studio album ''
Pin Ups
''Pin Ups'' (also referred to as ''Pinups'' and ''Pin-Ups'') is the seventh studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 19October 1973 through RCA Records. Devised as a "stop-gap" album to appease his record label, it is a cover ...
'' in the summer of 1973. At the time, he was unsure of where to take his career. Not wanting
Ziggy Stardust to define him, he disbanded his backing band
the Spiders from Mars
The Spiders from Mars were rock singer David Bowie's backing band in the early 1970s, and initially consisted of Mick Ronson on guitars, Trevor Bolder on bass guitar, and Mick Woodmansey on drums.
The group had its origins in Bowie's earlier ba ...
and parted ways with producer
Ken Scott. According to biographer David Buckley, Scott's departure marked an end to Bowie's "classic 'pop' period" and brought him to more experimental territory and "arguably greater musical daring".
During the ''Pin Ups'' sessions, he told reporters that he wanted to create a musical, using various titles such as ''Tragic Moments'' and ''Revenge, or The Best Haircut I Ever Had''. His guitarist
Mick Ronson recalled: "
owie
An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, ...
had all these little projects...
ndwasn't quite sure what he wanted to do." As Ronson began work on his solo album ''
Slaughter on 10th Avenue'', David and his wife
Angie decided to move out of Beckenham's Haddon Hall, because of harassment by fans. They moved initially into an apartment in
Maida Vale, rented to them by actress
Diana Rigg, before moving into a larger house on
Oakley Street, Chelsea. According to Buckley, David Bowie's manager
Tony Defries prevented this move initially, citing the house as "too extravagant". Despite
RCA Records estimating Bowie's album and single sales in the UK at over two million copies combined, Defries said that sales did not provide Bowie with enough income to afford the house. In spite of Defries, Bowie bought the house and it was here the Bowies spent time with
Rod Stewart
Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...
and
Ronnie Wood of the
Faces,
Mick Jagger and his then-wife
Bianca, and American singer and model
Ava Cherry
Ava Cherry is an American singer and model. She collaborated with English musician David Bowie between 1972 and 1975; the two met in New York City when she was a nightclub waitress and Bowie was touring for ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardus ...
, with whom Bowie allegedly had an affair during this time.
Along with recording ''Pin Ups'', Bowie participated in other musical ventures in 1973. He co-produced and played on
Lulu's recording of "
The Man Who Sold the World", which was released as a single in January 1974, contributed to
Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, and we ...
's ''
Now We Are Six'', and formed a trio called the Astronettes, comprising Cherry, Jason Guess and
Geoff MacCormack. The group recorded sessions at
Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios was a renowned British independent commercial recording studio based in Barnes, London. It is best known for its recordings of many artists throughout the late 1960s to the first decade of the 21st century, including Jimi Hendr ...
in London but the project was ultimately shelved in January; a compilation album titled ''People from Bad Homes'' (later ''The Astronettes Sessions'') was released in 1995. Bowie reworked songs from these sessions in subsequent years. Buckley writes that the songs he recorded featured a blend of
glam rock and
soul, which proved to be the direction Bowie took in 1974.
Writing
According to biographer Chris O'Leary, ''Diamond Dogs'' is a combination of numerous projects Bowie envisioned at the time. In November 1973, Bowie conducted an interview with writer
William S. Burroughs for ''
Rolling Stone''. Published in February 1974, the interview gave insight into Bowie's current ambitions. An admirer of Burroughs's working methods and his 1964 novel ''
Nova Express'', Bowie revealed he had begun using Burroughs's "cut-up" technique as a way for inspiration. He spoke of a musical based on ''Ziggy Stardust'', saying: "Forty scenes are in it and it would be nice if the characters and actors learned the scenes and we all shuffled them around in a hat the afternoon of the performance and just performed it as the scenes come out." He also casually mentioned adapting
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...
's 1949 novel ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four'', a Bowie favourite, for television. He had wanted to create a theatrical production of the novel and began writing material after completing sessions for ''Pin Ups''. Neither of these projects came to fruition.
The ''Ziggy Stardust'' musical, considered a "retrograde step" by biographer
Nicholas Pegg
Nicholas Pegg is a British actor, writer and director. Educated at Nottingham High School and graduating with a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Exeter, Pegg subsequently trained at the Guildford School of Acting.
Acti ...
, fell through, but Bowie salvaged two songs for ''Diamond Dogs'' he had written for it—"
Rebel Rebel" and "
Rock 'n' Roll with Me
"Rock 'n' Roll With Me" is a power ballad written by David Bowie and Warren Peace and recorded in January 1974 that first appeared on Bowie's ''Diamond Dogs'' album, supposedly to address the artist's complex relation with his fans. A version r ...
". At the end of 1973, George Orwell's widow,
Sonia Orwell, denied Bowie the rights to use the novel. The rejection annoyed Bowie, who lambasted her for it in ''
Circus'' magazine a few years later.
She refused to allow any adaptation of her late husband's work for the rest of her life. No adaptations were possible until after her death in 1980. Unable to adapt the novel, Bowie decided to create his own apocalyptic scenario inspired by the works of Burroughs. Songs from this scenario included what would become the album's
title track and "
Future Legend
"Future Legend" is the opening track of David Bowie's 1974 album ''Diamond Dogs''. Its spoken narrative introduces the album's setting in a "glitter apocalypse".
Music and lyrics
Barely a minute in length, "Future Legend" begins with a distorted ...
".
Recording
![Tony Visconti](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Tony_Visconti.jpg)
Buckley writes that the album was the first time Bowie used a
recording studio as an instrument. With Scott's departure, Bowie produced the album himself.
Keith Harwood
Keith Harwood (1950 – September 3, 1977) was a recording engineer, most notable for his work at Olympic Studios with such musicians as David Bowie (on ''Diamond Dogs'' in 1974), the Pretty Things and Ron Wood. Harwood collaborated on engineer ...
, who had worked previously with
the Rolling Stones on numerous sessions, and on
Led Zeppelin's ''
Houses of the Holy'', handled engineering duties. Pegg writes that despite Bowie and Harwood's previous collaborations on
Mott the Hoople's ''
All the Young Dudes'' and the original version of "
John, I'm Only Dancing
"John, I'm Only Dancing" is a song by English musician David Bowie, originally released as a non-album single on 1 September 1972. A glam rock and R&B number, the lyrics describe a situation in which the narrator informs his lover not to ...
" (both 1972), ''Diamond Dogs'' was Harwood's first credit on a Bowie album. Bowie described being "in awe" of Harwood because of his work with the Stones. With the departure of the Spiders from Mars, Bowie handled lead guitar duties. He recalled in 1997 that he practiced every day knowing "the guitar playing had to be more than okay". This surprised ''
NME'' critics
Roy Carr and
Charles Shaar Murray, producing what they described as a "scratchy, raucous, semi-amateurish sound that gave the album much of its characteristic flavour". Pianist
Mike Garson and drummer
Aynsley Dunbar
Aynsley Thomas Dunbar (born 10 January 1946) is an English drummer. He has worked with John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Journey, Jefferson Starship, Nils Lofgren, Eric Burdon, Shuggie Otis, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Mick R ...
returned from the ''Pin Ups'' sessions,
Tony Newman also played drums while
Herbie Flowers, who had played previously on ''
Space Oddity'' (1969), was recruited to play bass.
Alan Parker of
Blue Mink played guest guitar on "1984" and "augmented" Bowie's riff on "Rebel Rebel", although he was only credited for "1984". Bowie's longtime friend Geoff MacCormack, now known as
Warren Peace
Geoffrey Alexander MacCormack, better known as Warren Peace, is an English vocalist, composer and dancer best known for his work with David Bowie in the 1970s.
Musical career
A long-time friend of Bowie since their schooldays in Bromley, Peace ...
, sang backing vocals. ''Diamond Dogs'' was a milestone in Bowie's career as it reunited him with
Tony Visconti, who provided string arrangements and helped mix the album at his studio in London. Visconti would go on to co-produce much of Bowie's work for the rest of the decade.
Before the ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' project was denied, Bowie worked on "
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
" recording it on 19 January 1973 during the sessions for ''
Aladdin Sane
''Aladdin Sane'' is the sixth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 20April 1973 through RCA Records. The follow-up to his breakthrough ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' (1972), it was the fi ...
''. Initial work on ''Diamond Dogs'' began in late October 1973 at
Trident Studios in London, where Bowie and Scott recorded "1984" in a medley with "Dodo", titled "1984/Dodo"; once they had mixed the track, this session marked the final time the two worked together. According to O'Leary, this session was also the last time Bowie worked with Ronson and Bolder. The medley had already made its public debut on the American television show ''
The 1980 Floor Show
The 1980 Floor Show was a rock musical spectacle featuring English rock musician David Bowie as the protagonist, held at the Marquee Club in Soho, London, on October 18–20, 1973. It was broadcast in the United States by NBC on November 16, 197 ...
'' recorded in London on 18–20 October 1973. A cover of
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
's "
Growin' Up", with Ronnie Wood on lead guitar, was also recorded during this time. Recording for the album at Olympic officially began at the start of 1974. Bowie had started to work on "Rebel Rebel" during a solo session at Trident following Christmas 1973. This was Bowie's last known visit to Trident, his principal recording studio since 1968. On New Year's Day, the group recorded "
Candidate" and "Take It In Right", an early version of "Can You Hear Me" from ''
Young Americans
''Young Americans'' is the ninth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 7March 1975 through RCA Records. The album marked a departure from the glam rock style of Bowie's previous albums, showcasing his interest in soul and ...
'' (1975). Following the final sessions with the Astronettes, recording continued from 14–15 January, with the group recording "Rock 'n' Roll with Me", "Candidate", "
Big Brother
Big Brother may refer to:
* Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control
** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...
", "Take It In Right" and the title track. The following day, Bowie recorded "We Are the Dead", after which he contacted Visconti for mixing advice. O'Leary writes "Rebel Rebel" was finished around this time. Recording was finished at Ludolph Studios in the Netherlands, where the Stones had just finished recording ''
It's Only Rock 'n Roll'' (1974).
Music and lyrics
''Diamond Dogs'' was Bowie's last album in the glam rock genre. Buckley writes: "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." The album has often been regarded as an "English
proto-punk
Proto-punk (or protopunk) is rock music played mostly by garage bands from the 1960s to mid-1970s that foreshadowed the punk rock movement. The phrase is a retrospective label; the musicians involved were generally not originally associated wit ...
" record, according to the cultural studies academic
Jon Stratton
Jon Stratton is an Australian academic and scholar in the field of cultural studies. He has authored 11 sole books, edited five collections, and written over 80 journal articles. For over 25 years, he has been a media commentator in print, radio ...
, who calls it "post-glam". The pop culture scholar Shelton Waldrep describes it as "wonderfully dark proto-punk", while the music journalist C. M. Crockford says it is "the goofy, abrasive place where punk and
art-rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...
meet, dance a little, and depart".
In the opinion of ''
The Guardian''s
Adam Sweeting
Adam Sweeting is a British rock critic and writer.
Sweeting started writing in 1979 for publications such as ''Beat Instrumental'', ''Trouser Press'', Australian magazine ''RAM''Adam Sweeting. "Have Faith and Go to the Pictures". '' RAM Magazine ...
, while "the music still has one foot in the glam-rock camp", the album marks the point in Bowie's career where he "began exploring a kind of
Weimar soul music with lavish theatrical packaging", featuring
Broadway-style ballads such as "Big Brother" and "Sweet Thing".
Pegg describes the album as having "manic alternations between power-charged
garage rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
and sophisticated, synthesiser-heavy apocalyptic ballads". Biographer
Christopher Sandford
Christopher Sandford (1902–1983) of Eye Manor, Herefordshire, was a book designer, proprietor of the Golden Cockerel Press, a founding director of the Folio Society, and husband of the wood engraver and pioneer Corn dolly revivalist, Lettice San ...
writes that beyond the overall concept, many of the songs delve into
R&B. ''
Pitchfork''s Barry Walters wrote that although the album is still primarily glam rock, it also contains elements of "Blaxploitation funk and soul, rock opera, European art song, and Broadway."
Side one
The opening track, "Future Legend", is a spoken word track that depicts a world riddled by an urban apocalypse. The writings of Burroughs, especially ''
The Wild Boys'' (1971) inspire the visions of decay. Author
Peter Doggett notes that unlike the opening of ''
Ziggy Stardust'', which announces the world will end in
five years, the apocalypse of "Future Legend" could happen at any time. Bowie begins the title track by announcing, "This ain't rock'n'roll – this is ''genocide''". The track introduces Bowie's newest persona, Halloween Jack, described as "a real cool cat" who "lives on top of Manhattan Chase" in the urban wasteland depicted in "Future Legend". He rules the "diamond dogs", who O'Leary describes as "packs of feral kids camped on high-rise roofs, tearing around on roller skates, terrorizing the corpse-strewn streets they live above". Although Jack is commonly identified as one of Bowie's "identities" like Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, Doggett notes that Jack occupies "little more than a cameo role". The riff and saxophone are inspired by the Rolling Stones. Bowie's voice is also noticeably lower-pitched than his earlier records, which Ned Raggett of
AllMusic believes fits the song perfectly. Biographer
Marc Spitz notes that it is the same "jaded commentator's voice" Bowie had used on ''Aladdin Sane''.
Multiple biographers cite the suite of "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)" as the album's highlight. Pegg describes Bowie's vocal performance, which he believes to be one of his finest, as a croon. "Sweet Thing" paints pictures of decay, with sex being a "drug-like commodity" while "Candidate" contains references to
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
and
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
, with Bowie being "consumed by the fakery of his own stage creations". Cited by Pegg as Bowie's most covered track, "Rebel Rebel" is based around a distinctive guitar riff reminiscent of the Rolling Stones and was his farewell to the glam rock era. The song features guest guitar by
Alan Parker who, according to Pegg, "added the three descending notes at the end of each loop of the riff". It features a character who predates 1970s punk rock and gender-bending lyrics ("You got your mother in a whirl / She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl"). Some commentators praised the song itself but felt it did not contribute to the overall theme of the album.
Doggett, however, writes that the song acts as the "musical continuation" of the "Sweet Thing" suite.
Side two
Bowie and MacCormack co-wrote "Rock 'n' Roll with Me". It was Bowie's first co-writing credit on one of his own albums. MacCormack said his contribution was minimal—he played the chord sequence on piano. A
power ballad, the song explores the relationship between the audience and an actor. When asked whether fans considered him a leader, Bowie described "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" as his response, saying: "You're doing it to me, stop it!" Buckley writes the song foreshadowed the soul direction that Bowie would take on ''Young Americans''. The lyrics of "We Are the Dead" reflect the characters of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'',
Winston and
Julia's, love for each other. They establish a world fraught with danger that mirrors the rest of the album. Buckley describes the lyrics as "gothic" and the music as "creepy". Although it quotes ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' directly, O'Leary and James Perone argue the song owes more to the writings of Burroughs.
The centrepiece of side two of the original LP, "1984" was the signature number for Bowie's planned adaptation of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. It has been interpreted as representing Winston Smith's imprisonment and interrogation by
O'Brien. The lyrics also bear some similarities to Bowie's earlier song
"All the Madmen", from ''
The Man Who Sold the World''—"They'll split your pretty cranium and fill it full of air." AllMusic's Donald A. Guarisco wrote: "Bowie's recording of "1984" fully realizes the song's cinematic potential with a dramatic arrangement that utilizes skittering strings and a throbbing
wah-wah guitar line that effectively mirrors the song's clipped, militaristic rhythms."
Originally recorded during the ''Aladdin Sane'' sessions, the rerecording's wah-wah guitar is reminiscent of
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwri ...
's "
Theme from ''Shaft''". Guarisco and Pegg felt the song's
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
and soul nature fully predicted the direction Bowie would take on ''Young Americans''.
According to Pegg, the theme of "Big Brother" is "the dangerous charisma of absolute power and the facility with which societies succumb to totalitarianism's final solutions". It was a possible contender to close Bowie's adaptation of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. Featuring synthesisers and saxophones, the track builds to a climax that Buckley considers reminiscent of ''The Man Who Sold the World''. The track segues into "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family", a variation on "Two Minutes Hate" from ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. It is a chant in 5/4 and 6/4 time, with a distorted guitar loop. On the original LP, the word brother repeats in a "stuck-needle effect", similar to the ending of
the Beatles' ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composi ...
'' (1967).
Artwork and packaging
The cover artwork depicts Bowie as a striking half-man, half-dog
grotesque. He sports his Ziggy Stardust haircut and two "freak-show" dogs surround him shown against a backdrop of New York City. The artwork originated from a photo session with photographer
Terry O'Neill. Bowie opted not to use any of his previous cover artwork photographers and instead requested the services of Belgian artist
Guy Peellaert, whose recently published ''Rock Dreams'' catalogue, featuring numerous airbrushed and exploited photographs, was growing in popularity. Bowie invited Peellaert to the photoshoot where he posed as a dog and with a
Great Dane brought to the session. Bowie asked Peellaert if he would like to develop a painting for the artwork, based on a storyboard idea where he appeared as a half-man, half-dog, stylistically similar to Peelleart's artwork for the Rolling Stones' ''It's Only Rock 'n Roll''. Peellaert agreed, basing the backdrop on a book he owned about
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
's Pleasure Park. The two dogs behind Bowie were based on the Island's Cavalcade Variety Show performers Alzoria Lewis (known as "the Turtle Girl") and Johanna Dickens (known as "the Bear Girl").
The artwork was controversial as the full image on the
gatefold sleeve showed the hybrid's genitalia. RCA had the genitalia
airbrushed from the sleeve used for most releases. Some original uncensored copies 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, selling for thousands of US dollars for a single copy. Other changes to the artwork included the substitution of the freak show badge "Alive" with the word "Bowie"; Bowie was credited simply as "Bowie", continuing the convention established with ''Pin Ups''.
Rykodisc/
EMI restored Peelaert's original uncensored artwork for the album's re-release in 1990. Subsequent reissues have included a rejected inner gatefold image featuring Bowie in a
sombrero cordobés holding onto a ravenous dog with a copy of Walter Ross's novel ''The Immortal'' at his feet.
Release and promotion
![David Bowie - TopPop 1974 08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/David_Bowie_-_TopPop_1974_08.png)
In the UK, RCA released the
lead single, "Rebel Rebel", on 15 February 1974, backed by the ''Hunky Dory'' track "
Queen Bitch
"Queen Bitch" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was originally released on his 1971 album ''Hunky Dory'' before appearing as the B-side of the single "Rebel Rebel" in the United Kingdom in early 1974. The song was inspired by ...
". The same day, Bowie recorded a
lip synced performance of "Rebel Rebel" at Hilversum's Avro Studio 2 for the Dutch television programme ''Top Pop''. Broadcast two days later, it featured Bowie donning what Pegg calls his short-lived "pirate image"—an eyepatch and a spotted neckerchief. Bowie changed this costume after the performance in favour of the "swept-back parting and double-breasted suits" of the Diamond Dogs Tour. For its US release, Bowie recorded a new mix in April 1974. Dubbed the "Latin dub mix" by Doggett, this mix was released in New York in May 1974, with "
Lady Grinning Soul" as the B-side. The single was a commercial success, peaking at number 5 on the
UK Singles Chart and number 64 on the US ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
. It further became a glam anthem, the female equivalent of Bowie's earlier hit for
Mott the Hoople, "
All the Young Dudes". However, as the lead single, the song gave little indication to the rest of its parent album's dark atmosphere and themes.
RCA issued ''Diamond Dogs'' on 24 May 1974 with the catalogue number APLI 0576.
The album was a commercial success, peaking at number one on the
UK Albums Chart and number five on the US
''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape chart.
A $400,000 advertising campaign featuring billboards in
Times Square and
Sunset Boulevard, magazine ads, subway posters declaring "The Year of the Diamond Dogs" and a television commercial, one of the first of its kind for a pop album according to Pegg, boosted its sales in the US. In Canada, it repeated its British chart-topping success, hitting number one on the ''
RPM 100
''RPM'' ( and later ) was a Canadian music-industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. ''R ...
'' national albums chart in July 1974, remaining there for two weeks.
RCA released the second single, "Diamond Dogs", on 14 June 1974, with a rerecorded version of Bowie's 1971 single "
Holy Holy" as the B-side. It was Bowie's least-successful single since "
Starman
''StarMan'' is a 1996 fantasy novel by Australian writer Sara Douglass. It follows the second book in the series, '' Enchanter'', with Axis marching north with his army to confront a formidable enemy.
Background
''StarMan'' was first published ...
", peaking at number 21 on the
UK Singles Chart and failing to chart in the US. "1984" was released as the third single in the US and Japan, but failed to chart. Reviewing the single in August 1974, ''Billboard'' described "1984" as Bowie's "most commercial cut ... in a long time".
Tour
![Bowie-DD-1974-3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Bowie-DD-1974-3.jpg)
Bowie supported the album on the Diamond Dogs Tour, whose first leg lasted from 14 June to 20 July 1974. Co-designed and constructed by Chris Langhart, it featured elaborate set-pieces and cost $250,000.
Fritz Lang's ''
Metropolis'' (1927) and
Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene (; 27 April 1873 – 17 July 1938) was a film director of the silent era of German cinema. He is particularly known for directing the German silent film ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' and a succession of other German Expressionism, ...
's ''
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (german: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) is a 1920 German silent horror film, directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, ...
'' (1920) influenced the tour's design, primarily due to Bowie's interest in
German expressionism. The tour's second leg, from 2 September to 1 December 1974, has been nicknamed the Soul Tour, because of the influence of the soul music Bowie had begun recording for ''Young Americans'' in August. The shows were altered heavily, and no longer featured elaborate set-pieces, partly because Bowie had tired of the design and wanted to explore the new sound he was creating. Bowie dropped songs from the previous leg, while he added new ones—some from ''Young Americans''.
In early September, director
Alan Yentob filmed a documentary that depicts Bowie on the tour in Los Angeles, using a mixture of sequences filmed in limousines, hotels and concert footage, most of which was taken from a show there at
Universal Amphitheatre
Universal Amphitheatre (later known as Gibson Amphitheatre) was an indoor amphitheatre located in Los Angeles, California within Universal City, California, Universal City. It was built as an outdoor venue, opening in the summer of 1972 with a p ...
on 2 September. Broadcast on
BBC1 in the UK on 26 January 1975, ''
Cracked Actor
''Cracked Actor'' (or full title, ''Cracked Actor: A Film About David Bowie'') is a 1975 television documentary film about the musician David Bowie, made by Alan Yentob for the BBC's ''Omnibus (UK TV series), Omnibus'' strand. It was first sho ...
'' is notable as a primary source of footage of the Diamond Dogs Tour, and for showing Bowie's declining mental state during this period because of his growing cocaine addiction. Although ''Cracked Actor'' has never received an official release, Pegg calls it "arguably the finest documentary made about David Bowie". After seeing an advanced screening of the film, director
Nicolas Roeg immediately contacted Bowie to discuss a role in ''
The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976).
Bowie played all of the album's songs except "We Are the Dead" on the tour, performances of which have been released on three live albums: ''
David Live'' (1974), ''
Cracked Actor
''Cracked Actor'' (or full title, ''Cracked Actor: A Film About David Bowie'') is a 1975 television documentary film about the musician David Bowie, made by Alan Yentob for the BBC's ''Omnibus (UK TV series), Omnibus'' strand. It was first sho ...
'' (2017) and ''
I'm Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74)'' (2020). "Rebel Rebel" featured on almost every later Bowie tour, "Diamond Dogs" was performed for the
Isolar,
Outside
Outside or Outsides may refer to:
General
* Wilderness
* Outside (Alaska), any non-Alaska location, as referred to by Alaskans
Books and magazines
* ''Outside'', a book by Marguerite Duras
* ''Outside'' (magazine), an outdoors magazine Film, th ...
and
A Reality Tours, and "Big Brother/Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" was resurrected in 1987 for the
Glass Spider Tour, which itself was heavily influenced by the Diamond Dogs tour.
The Diamond Dogs Tour has had a lasting legacy. Sandford says the tour turned Bowie from a "novelty act" into a "superstar". Spitz writes it was highly influential on future tours with large and elaborate set pieces, including
Parliament-Funkadelic's Mothership Connection tour,
Elvis Presley's Vegas period, the 1990s tours of
U2 and
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
, and
'N Sync
NSYNC (, ; also stylized as *NSYNC or 'N Sync) was an American boy band formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich. Their self-titled debut album was successfully released to European ...
, the
Backstreet Boys,
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...
and
Kanye West's 2008
Glow in the Dark Tour.
Critical reception
The album received mixed reviews from music critics on release. ''
Disc'' magazine compared the album to "the greatly underrated" ''The Man Who Sold the World'', believing it to contain some of Bowie's best-written songs and "without doubt the finest
Phe's made so far", while ''Rock Magazine'' found it "a strong and effective album, and certainly the most impressive work Bowie's completed since ''Ziggy Stardust''".
Martin Kirkup of ''
Sounds'' wrote, "where ''Aladdin Sane'' seemed like a series of Instamatic snapshots taken from weird angles, ''Diamond Dogs'' has the provoking quality of a thought-out painting that draws on all the deeper colors". ''Billboard'' saw a "subtler, more aesthetic Bowie" than his previous records on an album "which should reinforce his musical presence in the 70's". Peter Harvey of ''
Record Mirror'' was disappointed regarding the absence of the Spiders and wished the lyrical themes were more upbeat, but predicted the record would make a good stage production.
''
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
''s
Chris Charlesworth
Chris Charlesworth is a British-based music journalist and author; and, between 1983 and 2016, managing editor of Omnibus Press. He is particularly noted for his work about, and with, The Who, for whom he has worked as an executive producer. Char ...
called the album "really good" and offered additional praise, comparing it to
Phil Spector's
Wall of Sound method of production and noting the similar level of excitement and praise Bowie's albums were beginning to receive as the Beatles did in the 60s.
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
was more critical in ''
Creem'', suggesting that Bowie performs a pale imitation of
Bryan Ferry's "theatrical vocalism". He also dismissed the lyrical content as "escapist pessimism concocted from a pleasure dome: eat, snort and bugger little girls, for tomorrow we shall be
peoploids – but tonight how about $6.98 for this piece of plastic? Say nay." Ken Emerson of ''
Rolling Stone'' gave the album an extremely negative review, calling it, "Bowie's worst album in six years". He criticised Bowie's choice of direction, the absence of Ronson, describing Bowie's guitar playing as "cheesy" adding "the music exerts so little appeal that it's hard to care what it's about". Despite the album's mixed reception,
John Rockwell of ''
The New York Times'' found it inoffensive and "surrealisticnihilistic".
Influence and legacy
''Diamond Dogs'' raw guitar style and visions of urban chaos, scavenging children and nihilistic lovers ("We'll buy some drugs and watch a band / Then jump in a river holding hands") have been credited with anticipating the
punk revolution that would take place in the following years. According to ''Rolling Stone'' writer
Mark Kemp
Mark Kemp (born April 10, 1960) is an American music journalist and author. A graduate of East Carolina University, he has served as music editor for ''Rolling Stone'' and vice president of music editorial for MTV Networks. In 1997 he received a ...
, the album's "resigned nihilism inspired interesting gloom and doom from later goth and
industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
acts such as
Bauhaus and
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...
". O'Leary writes that Bowie's appearance in the promotional video for "Rebel Rebel" provided inspiration on future punks' styles and attitudes. He continues that initial British punks were former fans of Bowie and
Roxy Music, and "Rebel Rebel" stands as both Bowie's goodbye and tribute to them. Crockford further acknowledges the album's influence on punk, stating: "Bowie's violent, amateruishly scraping guitar playing here would be echoed in the late-70's
post-punk bands and Diamond Dogs' concept of street gangs roaming London was echoed in the gleeful nihilism of the
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...
."
Considering Bowie's direction afterwards through the punk and
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
eras, ''
Stylus Magazine
''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog.
Addi ...
''s Derek Miller says, "''Diamond Dogs'' should be remembered not only as one of glam’s last great full-lengths but more importantly as a gap-record that somehow manages to cohesively storyboard Bowie's crude conceptual surrealism while also expanding his sound."
Retrospective appraisal
Retrospective appraisals have been mixed. AllMusic's
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
said that, because Bowie did not completely retire the character of Ziggy Stardust, ''Diamond Dogs'' suffers from him being unsure how to move forward. Although he praised "Rebel Rebel", he further criticised the exclusion of Ronson and ultimately concluded "it is the first record since ''Space Oddity'' where Bowie's reach exceeds his grasp".
Greg Kot of the ''
Chicago Tribune'' gave the album a mixed review, calling it "an overproduced concept album inspired by Orwell's ''1984''".
Eduardo Rivadavia was also mixed in ''
Ultimate Classic Rock'', questioning the presence of Ziggy, whom Bowie supposedly retired the year before. Despite the album's commercial success, Rivadavia concluded: "with decades of hindsight, ''Diamond Dogs'' now seems more like the gateway from the ''Ziggy Stardust'' era to his
Thin White Duke blue-eyed soul period, and beyond".
Nevertheless, the record has attracted positive reviews. ''Pitchfork''s Barry Walters described the album as "a bummer, a bad trip, 'No Fun' – a sustained work of decadence and dread that transforms corrosion into celebration". He also believed it foreshadowed Bowie's Thin White Duke persona.
For punknews.org, C. M. Crockford wrote that ''Diamonds Dogs'' is Bowie's "utterly most distinctive work: melodramatic, raw, challenging, and ambitious even when crammed with catchy songs". Crockford ultimately called it one of Bowie's essential releases and argued that he would "never make an album that was so obviously his own again".
In a 2013 readers' poll for ''Rolling Stone'', ''Diamond Dogs'' was voted Bowie's fifth-greatest album.
In subsequent decades, Bowie biographers have described ''Diamond Dogs'' as one of Bowie's greatest works. Cann writes: "''Diamond Dogs'' is arguably
owie'smost significant album, a pivotal work and the most 'solo' album he has ever made." Although Spitz calls it "no fun", he states it was Bowie's "best-sounding, most complex record to date, and it still pulls you into its romantic and doomed world three and a half decades on". Trynka calls it "a beautiful mess", while Buckley says the album proved that Bowie could still produce work of "real quality" without Scott or the Spiders. Doggett writes it anticipated the "sonic audacity" of ''
Low
Low or LOW or lows, may refer to:
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* Low (surname), listing people surnamed Low
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* Low, Quebec, Canada
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* Lo Wu station (MTR code LOW), Hong Kong; a rail station
* Salzburg Airport (ICAO airport code: LO ...
'' and ''
"Heroes"'', while it simultaneously "capsized the vessel of classic rock". Perone argues that "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" predated
Talking Heads' exploration of African rhythms and experimentation in the late 1970s. Pegg writes that with tracks like "We Are the Dead", "Big Brother" and the "Sweet Thing" suite, the album contains "some of the most sublime and remarkable sounds in the annals of rock music". He further states that Bowie's new voice on the record, a "''basso profundo''", particularly evident on "Sweet Thing" and "Big Brother", was a major influence on
gothic rock
Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...
bands in the 1980s.
It ranked number 995 in the second edition of
Colin Larkin
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged".
Along wit ...
's book ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums'' (2000) and number 447 in
''NME''s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Reissues
''Diamond Dogs'' has been reissued several times. Although the original 1974 vinyl releases featured a gatefold cover, some later LP versions such as RCA's 1980 US reissue presented the album in a standard non-gatefold sleeve. The album was first released on CD in the mid-1980s by RCA, with censored cover art. The German (for the European market) and Japanese (for the US market) masters, sourced from different tapes, are not identical. Dr. Toby Mountain at Northeastern Digital, in
Southborough, Massachusetts, remastered ''Diamond Dogs'' from the original master tapes for Rykodisc in 1990, released with two bonus tracks and the original, uncensored, artwork. It was again remastered in 1999 by
Peter Mew
Peter Mew is a retired British music audio engineer. He worked at Abbey Road Studios, where he was the senior mastering engineer. He came to Abbey Road in 1965 as a tape operator and has since worked with many artists at the studio. Kevin Ayers of ...
at
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...
for
EMI and
Virgin Records, and once more released with no bonus tracks.
In 2004, a 2-disc version was released by EMI/Virgin. The third in a series of ''30th Anniversary 2CD Editions'' (along with ''Ziggy Stardust'' and ''Aladdin Sane''), this release included a remastered version of the album on the first disc. The second disc contains eight tracks, five of which had been released previously with the ''
Sound + Vision
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
'' box set in 1989 or as bonus tracks on the 1990–92 Rykodisc/EMI reissues. In 2016, the album was remastered for the ''
Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)''
box set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit.
Music
Artists and bands ...
. It was released on CD and vinyl, and in digital formats, both as part of this compilation and separately.
Track listing
All tracks written by
David Bowie, except "Rock 'n' Roll with Me", co-written by
Warren Peace
Geoffrey Alexander MacCormack, better known as Warren Peace, is an English vocalist, composer and dancer best known for his work with David Bowie in the 1970s.
Musical career
A long-time friend of Bowie since their schooldays in Bromley, Peace ...
.
;Side one
# "
Future Legend
"Future Legend" is the opening track of David Bowie's 1974 album ''Diamond Dogs''. Its spoken narrative introduces the album's setting in a "glitter apocalypse".
Music and lyrics
Barely a minute in length, "Future Legend" begins with a distorted ...
" – 0:58
# "
Diamond Dogs" – 5:56
# "
Sweet Thing" – 3:37
# "Candidate" – 2:39
# "Sweet Thing (Reprise)" – 2:31
# "
Rebel Rebel" – 4:30
;Side two
# "
Rock 'n' Roll with Me
"Rock 'n' Roll With Me" is a power ballad written by David Bowie and Warren Peace and recorded in January 1974 that first appeared on Bowie's ''Diamond Dogs'' album, supposedly to address the artist's complex relation with his fans. A version r ...
" – 3:57
# "We Are the Dead" – 4:58
# "
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
" – 3:27
# "
Big Brother
Big Brother may refer to:
* Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control
** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...
" – 3:21
# "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" – 1:58
Personnel
Adapted from the ''Diamond Dogs'' liner notes and biographer Nicholas Pegg.
*
David Bowie – lead and background vocals, guitars,
saxophones,
Moog synthesiser,
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...
*
Mike Garson – keyboards
*
Herbie Flowers – bass guitar
*
Tony Newman – drums
*
Aynsley Dunbar
Aynsley Thomas Dunbar (born 10 January 1946) is an English drummer. He has worked with John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Journey, Jefferson Starship, Nils Lofgren, Eric Burdon, Shuggie Otis, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Mick R ...
– drums
*
Alan Parker – guitar on "1984"
Production
*David Bowie – producer;
mixing
*
Tony Visconti –
strings
String or strings may refer to:
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Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
on "1984"; mixing
*
Keith Harwood
Keith Harwood (1950 – September 3, 1977) was a recording engineer, most notable for his work at Olympic Studios with such musicians as David Bowie (on ''Diamond Dogs'' in 1974), the Pretty Things and Ron Wood. Harwood collaborated on engineer ...
–
engineer; mixing
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond Dogs
David Bowie albums
1974 albums
Science fiction concept albums
Dystopian music
EMI Records albums
Albums produced by David Bowie
Music based on Nineteen Eighty-Four
RCA Records albums
Virgin Records albums
Funk albums by English artists
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Protopunk albums