David Bowie: Diamond Dogs - 1974
"...and they all had funny-coloured hair. In a way it was a precursor to the punk thing" - David Bowie
Many felt that Diamond Dogs was Bowie's "return to form" after the underwhelmingly-received album of sixties covers that was Pin Ups.
It had a lot of the guitar-driven glam rock essence Of Aladdin Sane and, notably too, tiny bits of wah-wah funky guitar were creeping in to the sound, which was which a pointer to the mid-seventies "soul" phase that Bowie went through. It was only a small one, though (for all the many commentators who labelled this album the one that saw Bowie start to discover soul). I have to say that it is very much a rock album and it is far more his last glam album than it is his first soul one. It is one of those loosely-conceived albums with a supposed concept - that of a futuristic, run-down post-apocalyptic urban setting and the characters who inhabit it. To be fair, the theme runs pretty constantly through the album, but there is no continuing "story" as such.
Interestingly, Bowie has subsequently described the album and its "concept" as being a pre-cursor for punk. referencing Johnny Rotten -
"....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...".
Sorry David, I don't really buy that, but, despite that, in retrospect, I guess I can see why you viewed it like that. Personally, I think Rotten and the like's appearance on the scene was just a coincidence that fitted the particularly train of thought Bowie was having. Not that it really matters, but Diamond Dogs inspiring punk, either consciously or subconsciously? No. Not having it. Looking at the cover, though, those two mutant figures do look a bit punky. Maybe he was right. We'll never really know. Anyway, enough of that and back to the songs...
...let's get pulled out of our oxygen tents and ask for the latest party....
The album started with the scene-setting and evocative Future Legend, a short, haunting spoken introduction, which samples the old easy listening class Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered together with some nightmarish wolf-style howls. Bowie describes a gruesome, post-apocalytptic world called “Hunger City”, where “the last few corpses lay rotting in the slimy thoroughfare…”. It was all very “Future Shock” and “1984” in its unnerving, terrifying prophetic message.
The wailing gives way to the very Stonesy-sounding riffy intro of Diamond Dogs, the false "crowd" noises that make it sound like a live recording are, incidentally, culled from The Faces' Overture & Beginners live album from the previous year. Bowie's scratchy guitar playing is to the fore on this six minute single which wasn't as big a hit as Bowie had become used to. The song introduces the listener to the Hallowe'en Jack character.
The album's cornerstone was the Sweet Thing-Candidate-Sweet Thing trilogy of songs that all flow into each other. It is this track that really express the urban decay thing as Bowie tells us that it's "safe in the city to love in a doorway". I know, David, I've been there and done that. The songs are full of atmosphere and Bowie interacts with reality as he says that "my set is amazing, it even smells like a street". Hedonism abounds too, as we are urged to take drugs, watch a band and jump in the river holding hands. Candidate also appeared as a rarity years later in a totally different form.
The big - now iconic - hit from the album was Rebel Rebel, with its infectious scratchy, Stonesy riff played by Bowie on guitar, trying out his best Mick Ronson. The song's lyrics highlight gender-bending and had quite an effect at the time, more than you would imagine these days. To say "you don't know if you're a boy or a girl" in a song was actually quite ground-breaking. Anyway, it was, and is, a great song.
The haunting We Are The Dead is one of my favourite Bowie deep cuts. It is perhaps one of the most obvious conceptual numbers on the album, fitting in with the whole dystopian, Orwellian theme. I love the track and it never gets mentioned much, so I'm doing so here, in danger of repeating myself.
Funk is introduced for the first time via the concert opener 1984's groovy wah-wah guitar riff, something that was said by many to signpost Bowie's forthcoming change in musical direction - it also suits the album's concept, lyrically and atmospherically.
The album is concluded with the futuristic nightmare of Big Brother and The Chant Of The Ever-Circling Skeletal Family, on which the tape stops abruptly with a never-ending "pra pra pra" robotic utterance. Big Brother contains a memorable line in "we'll build a glass asylum, with just a hint of mayhem", one I have always remembered, for some reason.
Overall there isn't a bad track on the album, for me.
Anyway, thus Bowie said goodbye to glam and proceeded on to one of his most notable changes...
There were a few tracks that didn't make it on to the album that are worthy of mention -
Dodo was recorded in September 1973 in the sessions for Diamond Dogs. It is a lively, brassy song with the sort of dark, futuristic lyrics that would dominate that album. It has a smoky-sounding Bowie vocal and plenty of brass and saxophone in its backing. The chorus of "she's a dodo, oh no..." is somewhat clumsy, though. It was originally titled You Didn't Hear It From Me, which was the next line.
It makes another appearance in a funked-up medley with 1984 that was included on the 30th Anniversary edition of Diamond Dogs. The song is altered quite a bit here and is far funkier. Had this medley been included on Diamond Dogs it would have contributed to a far funkier ambience on what was more of a glammy album.
Candidate is a different song to the Candidate that appears as the middle part of the Sweet Thing trilogy on Diamond Dogs. It was, however, recorded in the sessions for that album, on New Year's Day 1974. It is an impressive, soulful but upbeat song with a jaunty, swing-style drumbeat driving it on together with some breezy Mike Garson piano. It contains a sexually suggestive opening couple of lines and an odd reference from Bowie about his being "the Führerling", starting his unfortunate fascist fascination earlier than we thought. It is an appealing song, though, and showed the direction Bowie's music was beginning to take, despite it not making the album. If this and Dodo had been on Diamond Dogs it may have sounded quite a lot different.
The Rebel Rebel (US Single Version)/Reality Tour Remix is quite a different take on the glammy hit single. It misses out the iconic introductory guitar riff and starts with the line "hot tramp I love you so.." before progressing into a rhythmic, conga-driven piece of soul/rock that once more provided a signpost as to Bowie's future musical direction. It was this version that Bowie played live on David Live and Cracked Actor and indeed for many years afterwards. In 2002, Bowie re-worked the song for the Reality Tour, using a quiet, atmospheric guitar opening before crashing into that recognisable riff. He opened the shows with this and recoded a studio version as well. I like both these versions but I will always prefer that scratchy, riffy glory of the original.
