Product Description

After George Orwell's widow refused Bowie the right to use 1984 as the title of his forthcoming album, he instead used the novel as a conceptual blueprint for what became DIAMOND DOGS. Accompanied only by keyboardist Mike Garson, bassist Herbie Flowers, and drummers Aynsley Dunbar and Tony Newman, Bowie played guitar, sax, Moog, and Mellotron, in addition to his contributions as vocalist, composer, arranger, and producer of the album. With the Orwellian themes as a loose backdrop, DIAMOND DOGS has much of the apocalyptic sense of future shock that informed ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS.
While the album doesn't have the musical punch or the songwriting strengths of ZIGGY, its gems make it more than worthwhile. The lush strings and dominant wah-wah guitar of "1984" seem like a nod to Isaac Hayes, while Bowie's howlsand snarling sax on the title track make it instantly memorable. The glam rock classic "Rebel Rebel", with its edgy guitar riff and strutting 4/4 beat, is the disc's highlight, and one of Bowie's all-time great songs. Amidst the imagery ofa gray, totalitarian future, Bowie injected some optimism by including the nostalgic "Rock 'N' Roll With Me", a good time, rootsy number that presaged his next transformation intothe blue-eyed soul singer of YOUNG AMERICANS.

Track Listing

1. Future Legend
2. Diamond Dogs
3. Sweet Thing
4. Candidate
5. Sweet Thing (Reprise)
6. Rebel Rebel
7. Rock & Roll With Me
8. We Are the Dead
9. 1984
10. Big Brother
11. Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2075 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Amazon.co.uk Review
George Orwell's classic tale of totalitarianism, 1984, was the inspiration for a project that David Bowie hoped would further solidify his standing as a rock visionary. Bowie was a natural artist to helm a musical companion to Orwell's allegory, since his own music exhibits an innate alienation. The concept ultimately broke down, but the music didn't. "Rebel Rebel" has become a rock staple, while "Sweet Thing," "Candidate," and the forthright yet experimental title track (Bowie as puppet master) offer additional highlights. Still, despite such benchmarks and its conceptual flaws, Diamond Dogs is best listened to as a thematic collection. --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews

Future Legend
Diamond Dogs is my favourite Bowie album. I can't directly measure or directly explain why it comes in first before other greats in the Bowie back catalogue - it just does. The imagination, diversity of style, background unease of a bleak social chaos sprinkled throughout - it all cooks together marvellously to serve up a punchy, fragrant banquet of classics. My only criticism of the album is that it begins to flag a wee bit in in the middle before the final few songs deliver the best of finishes - and I think that one less song could have made it perfect. Nevertheless - DD is a firm favourite.

There's no point echoing the rest of the comments that have preceded mine. Bowie could have disappeared altogether after Aladdin Sane - but he managed to conjure up 3 of his best albums in Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and Station To Station.

Diamond Dogs was daring, different, and for the lack of another D word - absolutely bloody fantastic. There's nothing else quite like it - so give it a try if you don't own it as it's a bargain at today's prices.

Hugely underrated
Looking around the net I was really surprised to see the amount of negative reviews this 1974 album got- personally I think it's very good. Yes, it is overblown, but then again Bowie has never been subtle. Whilst the concept behind the album (a dysptopian future along the lines of Orwell's 1984) doesn't hold up too well, you can't fail to admire the scope of Bowie's imagination and creativity here, especially considering that partner-in-crime Mick Ronson had left the ranks, leaving him to handle many of the instruments himself. Most people will be familiar with 'Rebel Rebel' and the title track, the former being one of the most perfect pop singles of all time in my opinion. Just don't buy this album expecting another nine tracks of the same; what we have here is a gloomy, atmospheric set, with brilliant (as ever), cinematic and at times disturbing lyrics. To me this album represents Bowie at a crossroads: the glam hallmarks (sleazy saxophones, those crunchy guitar chords) remain, yet it foreshadows the loneliness and gloom of the 'Berlin' albums. With it's proto-disco rhythm, '1984' points to where he would go next (the 'plastic soul' of '75's 'Young Americans' and the paranoiac funk of 'Station to Station'). It's also infinitely better than both the album that preceded it (the dire-by-all-accounts 'Pin Ups') and the one that followed it (the syrupy 'Young Americans'). Overall, this may not be as immediately satisfying as say, 'Ziggy' but it is still a great album that displays Bowie's amazing artistic vision. If you're already a fan, you NEED 'Diamond Dogs', but if you're new I'd start with the classics first ('Ziggy', 'Aladdin Sane' or 'Low' are all fantastic).

Perfect decadence
This is one of the darkest albums you'll hear, and also an album which captures a slice of 1970s urban America like no other.There was something about the 70s which inspired film makers and writers to think in apocalyptic terms; think of the Omega Man, Soylent Green, A Clockwork Orange, and Anarchy in the UK. Somewhere, in the middle of this, falls Diamond Dogs.
In many ways it is Bowie's most successful artistic venture. Partly because it is all on his own terms.He had jettisoned The Spiders and Ken Scott, and, though clearly drug - drenched by this time, embarked on this marvellous concept album.
The high points are Sweet Thing/Candidate, We are the Dead, and Big Brother. But everything else rocks brilliantly, and the scratchy guitars sound like Punk two years early. It marks a very strange crossroads between Glam/Art Rock and Punk Rock, and is, I feel, unique in the canon. An underrated classic.