MB Bowie Classics: "Diamond Dogs"

[Trollheart]

... and here's the other Bowie classic for today. Among my very favourite of his, almost flawless to my mind.

[Psy-Fi]

Bowie tries his hand at a concept album based on George Orwell's "1984" novel. Some interesting songs and some mediocre and even tedious ones. The album is a mixed bag and Mick Ronson's departure from the band and lack of his guitar playing here is noticeable and doesn't help. The hit song "Rebel Rebel" is the standout track and the one song here that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the songs on the album.
I gave "Pin Ups" a 3 and I'll be generous and give this one a 3 but I much prefer the previous album to this one.

[Trollheart]

Yeah, I'll have a lot to say about this album once I can put some time aside. Safe to say this is getting a five from me though.

[Cuthbert]

4.

First half of the album is strong.

Second half is weaker.

1984 is the best on the second half.

Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing Reprise on the first. Though the first is very strong and you could pick any track really.

A 4 is fair.

[MicShazam]

The first half of Diamond Dogs largely sounds like Bowie woke up one morning and realized Roxy Music existed. Of course, their first 3 albums, which all predate this one, are far better in every way. Later the same year as Diamond Dogs was realeased, they'd even come out with Country Life - an album that's far more forward looking and interesting than anything Bowie has managed thus far in his career.

When the album doesn't sound like Roxy-lite, it's mostly just Bowie's usual 50's and 60's rock pastiches - something that I'm starting to grow really weary of - and I can't really say that this album left much of an impression on me. The last song on the album, "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" is even outright garbage. "Rebel Rebel" has a neat riff, but relies on it to the point of driving it into the ground.

I'm starting to feel desperate for Bowie to modernize his sound. I really feel like The Man Who Sold the World was far and away the most appealing, interesting, unique and well written album thus far, leaving the rest of his early albums in the dust.

2/5

Early Bowie just isn't cutting it for me so far.
I could make a solid EP of tracks from the albums I found underwhelming on the whole, but I'm not sold on the idea of most of these being classic albums.

Trollheart, I really look forward to your take on the album and I hope you'll have a lot to say.
It's pretty obvious that our takes on this album will be enormously different.

_Previous ratings:__________________

(Rated on a scale relative to only Bowie's own discography, where 1 means the worst he's done and 5 means the best he's done.)
David Bowie: 1/5
Space Oddity: 2/5
The Man Who Sold The World 4/5
Hunky Dory 3/5
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust 3/5
Aladdin Sane 3/5
PinUps 2/5
Diamond Dogs 2/5
Young Americans
Station to Station
Low
Heroes
Lodger
Scary Monsters
Let's Dance
Tonight
Never Let Me Down
Black Tie White Noise
1. Outside
Earthling
Hours
Heathen
Reality
The Next Day
Blackstar

[Trollheart]

As far as I can remember, this was the first Bowie album I ever purchased myself, and other than greatest hits compilations may have been the only one too. I absolutely love it, from the opening intro narration right through to the chilling closer. Not a bad track on it for my money, not even one. Created as a kind of reaction against the denial of the estate of George Orwell to allow him to make a theatrical production of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Bowie's dystopian vision of the future of course borrows heavily from the novel, especially the second side, but there are plenty of his own ideas in here too. Yes, we're missing Mick Ronson, but not being a guitar player I don't really see a big difference and I think it was brave of Bowie to take on not only guitar but also sax and piano duties. It makes this album very much more one of his as opposed to being a “Ziggy” product.

A few people here have referenced the second side being weaker than the first, and of course on side one you have the title track, the wonderful "suite" of "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)" and of course the timeless "Rebel Rebel", so it's hard to match such powerful quality. But I think Bowie does it well. Starts off with a great ballad, something you would not expect in a song entitled “Rock and Roll With Me” - wonderful organ here really gives the song a sense of gravitas and Bowie is on top form vocally. Sure, it sounds a little like “Lean on Me”, but that's another discussion entirely. “We Are the Dead” has a kind of stream-of-consciousness lyrical quality, quite morose and downbeat and then “1984” - love the disco/ELO stylings on this! - kicks things up nicely, linking the two tracks and sliding into “Big Brother”, with some great horn work, where you can really see how the theatrical production would have worked very well on this one. And despite what MicShaz says, I love “Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family”, a perfect end to the album. On my original vinyl copy the last word just keeps repeating, so yeah, ever-circling indeed. Boo to Orwell's estate for denying us the chance to see this as a full-blown musical. Boo I say!

[Cuthbert]

I've got it on vinyl as well.

Never listened to it though.

Love the artwork.

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

And despite what MicShaz says, I love “Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family”, a perfect end to the album. On my original vinyl copy the last word just keeps repeating, so yeah, ever-circling indeed.

I honestly hated that song, but that's what's going to happen.
About the ending; I read somewhere that something went wrong with some tapes in the studio, so that the ending was stuck on repeat. They liked how it sounded and chose to make the vinyl repeat the same mistake. At least that's how someone, somewhere explained it.

We're getting to a very different phase of his career soon though, and I think my ratings will start getting a bit nicer...

[rubber soul]

I always thought of Diamond Dogs as the transition from Ziggy Stardust (Rebel, Rebel, Sweet Thing) to the white soul Thin White Duke Era (1984, Rock n Roll With Me). Obviously, I'm more partial to the Ziggyesque tracks but, for the most part, Bowie is at his experimental best. Favorite songs are the title track, Sweet Thing/Candidate, and Big Brother/March of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family. It is a slight step down from the previous three albums, but Diamond Dogs still rates as a classic for me.


9/10 (The word has spoken )