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Diamond
Dogs F.A.Q.
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Read Tony Viscontis comments about Diamond Dogs
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Jon Howell David had wanted to do a theatrical production of 1984, but the Orwell estate refused to sell him the rights. So he turned his original idea into what became the Diamond Dogs album, which was released in June '74. Bowie: 'I was stuck with a partially written musical. And I converted it into something more Burroughsian. That was when I really started playing around with cut-up techniques, and that really opened up a whole new avenue of songwriting to me, a whole approach creating different atmospheres. Because that was the crux of what rock was to me. It wasn't so much what rock said. It was just the attitude and the atmosphere that it created. I was trying to define my version of rock-personally, in the way that I felt it, as a more stage oriented, theatrical kind of artist'. The album cover of Diamond Dogs originally showed a half-dog, half-Bowie figure. The offending parts were censored in the American release of the album. It is now available in the US with the original cover. One song that didn't make it to the album was Dodo. It was recorded with the Spiders, with a soul arrangement. Bowie: 'I also had Lulu cover it, but that never came out either'. The song is available in the Ryko/EMI re-releases, and the Sound+Vision CD set as part of a medley, 1984/Dodo. Even prior to these releases, this song was available on many bootlegs. The album was Bowie's first major commercial success in the US, becoming his first top 10 album, eventually reaching #5 and spending 25 weeks on the chart. In the UK, it became Bowie's third consecutive #1 album, but only spent 17 weeks on the chart (the first indication that Bowie's unprecedented commercial success in the UK had peaked in 1973 and would now go into decline for the remainder of the 70s). Like many other Bowie albums, Diamond Dogs has become a consistent seller and favourite over the years. In 1983, RCA reissued the album on cut price vinyl and it spent a further 18 weeks in the UK charts, reaching #60. The 1990 EMI CD re-release spent one week on the UK charts at #67, and the EMI mid-price CD re-release spent a further 7 weeks on the UK chart in 1998, reaching #75. According to the MRIB in 1998, Diamond Dogs is Bowie's 9th biggest seller of all time in the UK. |
January 10. 2000
A CYBERSPACE ODDITY