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Diamond Dogs
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Singles from Diamond Dogs
1."Rebel Rebel"
Released: 15 February 1974
2."Diamond Dogs"
Released: 14 June 1974

Production and style
Though the album was recorded and released after the 'retirement' of Ziggy Stardust in mid-1973, and featured its own lead character in Halloween Jack ("a real cool cat" who lived in the decaying "Hunger City"), Ziggy was seen to be still very much alive in Diamond Dogs, as evident from Bowie's haircut on the cover and the glam-trash style of the first single "Rebel Rebel". As was the case with some songs on Aladdin Sane, the influence of The Rolling Stones was also prevalent, particularly in the chugging title track.[2] Elsewhere, however, Bowie had moved on from his earlier work with the epic song suite, "Sweet Thing"/"Candidate"/"Sweet Thing (Reprise)", whilst "Rock 'n' Roll With Me" and the Shaft-inspired wah-wah guitar style of "1984" provided a foretaste of Bowie's next, 'plastic soul', phase. The original vinyl album ended with the juddering refrain (actually, a tape loop) Bruh/bruh/bruh/bruh/bruh, the first syllable of "(Big) Brother", repeating insistently.

Diamond Dogs was the first Bowie album since 1969 to not feature any of the 'Spiders From Mars', the backing band made famous by Ziggy Stardust. Instead, Herbie Flowers played bass with drums being shared between Aynsley Dunbar and Tony Newman. In a move that surprised some commentators, Bowie himself took on the lead guitar role previously held by Mick Ronson, producing what NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray described as a "scratchy, raucous, semi-amateurish sound that gave the album much of its characteristic flavour". Diamond Dogs was also a milestone in Bowie's career as it reunited him with Tony Visconti, who provided string arrangements and helped mix the album at his own Good Earth Studios in London, on a Trident B-Range console. Visconti would go on to co-produce much of Bowie's work for the rest of the decade.

Release and aftermath
The record was Bowie's glam swansong; according to author David Buckley, "In the sort of move which would come to define his career, Bowie jumped the glam-rock ship just in time, before it drifted into a blank parody of itself". At the time of its release Bowie described Diamond Dogs as "a very political album. My protest ... more me than anything I've done previously". Disc magazine compared the album to The Man Who Sold the World (1970), while Rock and Sounds both described it as his "most impressive work ... since Ziggy Stardust". It made #1 in the UK charts and #5 in the US, Bowie's highest stateside placing to that date.

Diamond Dogs' raw guitar style and vision of urban chaos, scavenging children and nihilistic lovers ("We'll buy some drugs and watch a band / And jump in the river holding hands") have been credited with anticipating the punk revolution that would take place in the following years.[6] Bowie played all of the album's songs except "We Are the Dead" on his 1974 US tour (recorded and released as David Live). "Rebel Rebel" has featured on almost every Bowie tour since, "Diamond Dogs" was performed for the 1976 Station to Station and 1995-96 Outside tours, and "Big Brother/Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" was resurrected for the 1987 Glass Spider Tour.

Personnel
David Bowie – vocals, guitars, saxes, Moog synthesizer, Mellotron, producer, mixing engineer
Mike Garson – keyboards
Herbie Flowers – bass
Tony Newman – drums
Aynsley Dunbar – drums
Alan Parker – guitar on "1984"
Tony Visconti – strings, mixing engineer
Keith Harwood – engineer, mixing engineer

Certifications

Organization Level Date
RIAA – USA Gold July 26, 1974