Diamond Dogs

After reading about how David Bowie's album Diamond Dogs was inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, I gave it a few listens. I never owned this album, but two of the songs on it are among my favorite Bowie tracks.

Released in 1974, it was a turning point for Bowie. It was his last glam album, and gave hints of his future direction, which would be the R&B-inspired album Young Americans, which would then transition into his electronica period when he lived in Berlin.

Orwell's book's fingerprints are all over the record. Bowie had wanted to make a rock opera based on the novel, but was denied by the estate, so he just wrote an album that had imagery and phrases all over it. It kicks off with a dystopian spoken word poem, "Future Legend":

"And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in
Temperance Building High on Poacher's Hill
And red, mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheels
Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coverting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers
Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue
Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers
Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald
Any day now
The Year of the Diamond Dogs"

Then the title track, which has been running through my head for the past few days. And yes, it has cowbell. It begins with Bowie yelling, "This ain't rock and roll, this is genocide!"

That the album is about Orwell is made apparent on side two, with a cut called "Big Brother," and if that wasn't clue enough, he has a song called "1984." This is maybe my favorite Bowie song, one I could put on repeat for an hour. It has a great combination of wah-wah guitar that sounds straight out of Shaft and furious strings.

"They'll split your pretty cranium, and fill it full of air
And tell that you're eighty, but brother, you won't care
You'll be shooting up on anything, tomorrow's never there
Beware the savage jaw
Of 1984"

The most lasting legacy on this album has little to do with Orwell and more with teenage alienation. That's "Rebel Rebel," which is just a great song with a great vocal but even more, it was salve to many kids at the time and I'm sure many since, especially with trans teens:

"You've got your mother in a whirl
She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl
Hey babe, your hair's alright
Hey babe, let's go out tonight
You like me, and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they're playing hard
You want more and you want it fast
They put you down, they say I'm wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on"

The way Bowie sings it is as if he is sticking his middle thing up to the establishment. It reminds us that rock and roll is about youth and rebellion, and it's an affirmation to every kid who felt out of place--wear what you want, listen to the music you want, identify with the gender you want.

At the time Bowie was fascinated with fascist imagery, and even said he would have made a good Hitler. The album doesn't, at least to me, take a particular political stance, and instead just explores the ideas. It's one of Bowie's strongest albums, although I prefer Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and Station to Station.