DIAMOND DOGS

"Diamond Dogs" is the eighth studio album of David Bowie and was released in 1974. This is a conceptual album with a mix of the novel "1984" by George Orwell and Bowie's personal artistic vision of a post apocalyptic world. Originally, Bowie wanted to make a theatrical musical production of Orwell's novel and he began writing new material soon after completing the recording sessions of his previous studio album "Pin Ups". However, in the late, the author's estate of the novel denied him the legal rights to do so. Then, he decided to make something a little different from the initial idea.

The line up on "Diamond Dogs" is David Bowie (lead and backing vocals, guitar, saxophones, Moog synthesizer and Mellotron), Mike Garson (keyboards), Herbie Flowers (bass guitar), Tony Newman (drums), Aynsley Dunbar (drums), Alan Parker (guitar on "1984") and Earl Stick (guitar on "Rock 'N' Roll With Me").

"Diamond Dogs" has eleven tracks. All songs were written by Bowie except "Rock'N'Roll With Me" written by Bowie and Warren Peace. The first track "Future Legend" is a spoken introduction, and it serves as a kind of a prologue to the album, with Bowie talking about a post apocalyptic description of New York, after a post nuclear war. The second track is the title track "Diamond Dogs". This is the lengthiest track on the album and is a fast rock song with a great chorus work. It's a rock'n'roll song with clearly influences of The Rolling Stones. This is a more conventional rock song with a simple and traditional musical structure which, in my humble opinion, lacks to it some original creativity. The third track "Sweet Thing", the fourth track "Candidate" and the fifth track "Sweet Thing (Reprise)" is a kind of a musical suite and, in reality, they make part of only one song. These are all great tracks with dread and dark tones that represent a kind of a dark tale of the big city. They're all songs with great chorus, beautiful musical performances, nice lyrics and fantastic instrumental sections. The final result is a truly great, pure, brilliant and beautiful musical moment of continuous suite music. These three tracks represent, for me, without any doubt, one of the highlights on the album. The sixth track "Rebel Rebel", like the title track "Diamond Dogs", has nothing to do with progressive rock music. They're straight and pure rock'n'roll traditional songs in the style of The Rolling Stones. Here, we can clearly see homage to Keith Richards, with his performing guitar riffs, and to Mick Jagger, where the vocal performance of Bowie reminds us his unique style. The seventh track "Rock'N'Roll With Me" is a very good and beautiful ballad with nice piano work and warm chorus. It's a song with a very simple musical structure and a nice tune too. This is a very lovely slow song, not too long and that became pleasant enough to listen to, even in our days. The eighth track "We Are The Dead" is based on some words from "1984" novel by Orwell. This is a slow keyboard ballad, very melodic and beautiful to listen to. It represents one of the darkest musical moments on the album with explicit lyrics and with a very dense dark musical atmosphere. The ninth track "1984" is clearly fully oriented by Orwell. It represents the first musical sign of Bowie, to the soul music approach, which will be appeared on their next studio album "Young Americans". This is a very nice funky musical number with plenty of energy and creativity. The tenth track "Big Brother", like the previous track, is also a clearly fully Orwell oriented song. It's an excellent song where Bowie's voice sounds very robotic, as a machine. This is a song with very pessimistic lyrics where the hero of the novel Winston Smith failed in his fighting against the dictator, Big Brother, and was converted as one of his followers. It's one of the most progressive tracks on the album and one of its best, too. The eleventh and last track "Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family", like "Sweet Thing", "Candidate" and "Sweet Thing (Reprise)" is a kind of a musical suite, which make part of an only one song. It represents the last step of Smith to the submission to the authority. This is a very paranoid song with a variety of circling musical sounds and repetitive vocals, and with an abrupt and unexpected end to the album. This song is, with the previous song "Big Brother", one of the most progressive songs on the whole album. Both tracks represent an unexpected grand final for this great album.

Conclusion: Once more we are in presence of a great studio album of Bowie, the only truly and real chameleon artist. Strangely or not, he was able to make another surprisingly great studio album. This is Bowie's third classic studio album from his glam rock musical period. But it's darker than "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars" and "Aladdin Sane" are. "Diamond Dogs" is another great conceptual musical work, a bit more complex than some of his earlier musical studio works and represents another classic art rock album. It's probably the deepest and darkest studio album of Bowie and it's also the most paranoid, indecipherable, inscrutable and insane, too. It has an interesting concept and many new sounds while still continuing the nihilistic apocalyptic themes of the "Ziggy" era. The glam trash style is still there. So, this is a Bowie's album not to lose. This is a must for any classic Bowie's fan.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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