David Bowie - Diamond Dogs (30th Anniversary 2xCD Edition) 1974 FLAC

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 lived 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". As was the case with some songs on Aladdin Sane, the influence of The Rolling Stones was also prevalent, particularly in the chugging title track. 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", repeating insistently.

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. Instead, 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".[3] 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, and who would go on to co-produce almost all his work for the rest of the decade.

The cover art features a striking half-dog, half-Bowie figure painted by 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 was quickly airbrushed out for the 1974 LP’s gatefold sleeve, although the original artwork (and another rejected cover featuring Bowie in a cordobes hat holding onto a ravenous dog) was included in subsequent Rykodisc/EMI re-issues.

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". 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". Disc magazine compared the album to The Man Who Sold the World (1971), while Rock and Sounds both described it as his "most impressive work … since Ziggy Stardust". It made #1 in the UK charts and #5 in the US, Bowie's highest stateside placing to that date.

Rough in sound and pretentious in theme, Diamond Dogs' raw guitar style and vision of urban chaos, scavenging children and nihilistic lovers ("We'll buy some drugs and watch a band / And jump in the river holding hands") have been credited with anticipating the punk revolution that would take place in the following years. Bowie played all of the album's songs except "We Are the Dead" on his 1974 US 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.



"Future Legend" – 1:05
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" (Richard Rodgers)
"Diamond Dogs" – 5:56
"Sweet Thing" – 3:39
"Candidate" – 2:40
"Sweet Thing (Reprise)" – 2:31
"Rebel Rebel" – 4:30
"Rock 'n' Roll With Me" (Bowie, Warren Peace) – 4:00
"We Are the Dead" – 4:58
"1984" – 3:27
"Big Brother" – 3:21
"Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" – 2:00

**Bonus Tracks**

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

Pass: Lee Harvey Oswald