David Bowie's album Diamond Dogs was released this month in 1974.
The Art Rock genius' dystopian nightmare album has earned the title 'iconic' in the truest sense that it was a completely original mixture of songs and ideas inspired by novels such as Orwell's 1984 and film director Todd Browning's FREAKS, but most importantly, it has stood the test of time. Listening to Diamond Dogs today it feels poignant and fresh. Its themes of a breakdown in society, humanoid mutations as a result of nuclear war, and global rebellion - themes that were current in 1974 "the year of the Diamond Dogs" - are even more relevant today.
The controversial album cover illustration by the Belgian artist Guy Peellaert was, and still is, a disturbing and iconic piece of airbrushed artwork. In fact, RCA records deemed the back cover of the gatefold sleeve too extreme that they insisted the genitalia on the dog half of Bowie's body be airbrushed out, thus making him bitch as opposed to butch! The album art was an homage to Todd Browning's 1932 pre Hayes code film about side-show freaks who take a horrible revenge on a 'normal'. Browning's horror film still has the same power to shock as it did back in 1932.
Not all great art requires a stomach made of stern stuff, but taking into account all of the above, I think Diamond Dogs does.
Filled with pounding rock and roll riffs, crazy jazz nuances, and soulful ballads. On its 50th anniversary Diamond Dogs is ripe for revival, reappraisal, and in my humble opinion a reaffirmation of just how great this Bowie album is.
Sing along with me: "Rebel, rebel, you've torn your dress. Rebel, rebel, your face is a mess...."
Good review, thank you. It's a magnificent album that seems to be well respected but never quite considered in the same league as Ziggy etc. When I first heard it in about 1979/80 I thought Rebel Rebel was OK but just one of those Bowie songs that had been played to death and I didn't really need to hear it again too often. What really grabbed me was the whole dystopian feel, a complete statement like a concept album but without all the fillers and nonsense of say Tommy. Thank God he never made a double album. It felt to me like listening to a Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K Le Guin or Philip K Dick novel. It was the claustrophobic,…