What's the best track on "Diamond Dogs"?

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This ain't rock'n'roll! This is.... GENOCIDE!

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Rebel Rebel 15
Sweet Thing 9
Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family6
Diamond Dogs 6
Big Brother 4
Candidate 3
We Are the Dead 3
1984 2
Sweet Thing (Reprise) 1
Rock 'n' Roll With Me 1
Future Legend 0


Geir Hongro, Monday, 22 October 2007 11:45 (eighteen years ago)

About time we did this one too. I know a lot of ILM'ers have this as a favourite. Not me, but it's still a great album. Voted for the title track, which is among his best ever rock numbers.

Geir Hongro, Monday, 22 October 2007 11:46 (eighteen years ago)

I think that "Rebel Rebel" is the best track on the album by a long way. Everything else gets bogged down by Bowie's "oh, this is all happening in a decaying city" concept, while "Rebel Rebel" is simply a great song. Even if he is pretending to be Mick Jagger or whoever.
Diamond Dogs was my favourite Bowie album when I was in my late teens - wore out my cassette copy - but now I'm not too keen on his "pretending to be William Burroughs after you've only read half of Nova Express" thing.

snoball, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:01 (eighteen years ago)

Sweet Thing/Candidate/Reprise is really one song and would get my vote.

I kind of go along with Snoball - the dystopian stuff caught my imagination as a teenager but now I'm not so sure... I can think of several Bowie albums I prefer, but quite apart from the half-arsed "concept", I think the songs individually are still pretty strong. I have to say I think the title track is the poorest on the album, it's a but plodding and goes on too long.

Zelda Zonk, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:10 (eighteen years ago)

Sweet Thing by god.

pisces, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:11 (eighteen years ago)

I'm with Geir on this one--"Diamond Dogs" rules! "Rebel Rebel" is a great catchy song, sure, but also a grossly overplayed one.

JN$OT, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:27 (eighteen years ago)

OO OO
shudder shudder

Mark G, Monday, 22 October 2007 12:35 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't care for "1984" until I heard Tina Turner's cover.

Not my favorite Bowie album by a long shot, but the mix has some weird, cool ideas floating around. Voted for "Sweet Thing" for Bowie's great, terrible guitar solo and the way it shifts tempos fast enough to keep us from getting bored.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 22 October 2007 13:01 (eighteen years ago)

Title track!

Davey D, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:07 (eighteen years ago)

"Sweet Thing" shurely

sonnyboy, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:10 (eighteen years ago)

it's a sweet thing

ciderpress, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:29 (eighteen years ago)

Rebel Rebel

kornrulez6969, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:43 (eighteen years ago)

"Rebel Rebel" has never been one of my fave Bowie tunes, yet I can't put my finger on why. It sounds - overly stiff, maybe?

Davey D, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:48 (eighteen years ago)

yeah it's probably my least favorite song on this album, it's not that bad though

ciderpress, Monday, 22 October 2007 17:53 (eighteen years ago)

"Rebel Rebel"=Rolling Stones

Geir Hongro, Monday, 22 October 2007 18:35 (eighteen years ago)

... but I love the Stones

Davey D, Monday, 22 October 2007 18:43 (eighteen years ago)

"Rebel Rebel", overplayed because it's great

Euler, Monday, 22 October 2007 18:44 (eighteen years ago)

I will grant "Rebel Rebel" this: the 3-minute single mix with the phase-shifted guitar is very awesome.

Davey D, Monday, 22 October 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

Come on people, who will stand up for "Skeletal Family"? YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO

Telephone thing, Monday, 22 October 2007 18:50 (eighteen years ago)

BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRAV-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRAV-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA--BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA-BRA

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 22 October 2007 18:53 (eighteen years ago)

The Wedding Present did a nice cover of it.

I'm going with the disco paranoia of "1984"

Alex in NYC, Monday, 22 October 2007 18:57 (eighteen years ago)

"We Are The Dead" is the next best thing here...

sonnyboy, Monday, 22 October 2007 19:00 (eighteen years ago)

Sweet Thing (and yes, that really should include Candidate & the Reprise). I also really love the demo of Candidate (with its lovely little piano stabs) that was added on the Rykodisc reissue.
IIRC that panning single mix of Rebel Rebel was recorded at the Wisseloord studios in Hilversum, the Netherlands. Classic Toppop appearance.

willem, Monday, 22 October 2007 20:15 (eighteen years ago)

We Are The Dead is one of the loveliest songs he wrote & best here. Rebel Rebel is good like It's Raining Men is good, but please let me never listen to them again. Love Sweet Thing when I listen to it but afterwards the only bit I can actually remember is the marvellous churning guitar section.

Eyeball Kicks, Monday, 22 October 2007 20:57 (eighteen years ago)

yep, good call Alex in NYC, i voted for "...Skeletal Family" for the Weddoes cover. love both versions.

stephen, Monday, 22 October 2007 21:03 (eighteen years ago)

"We Are The Dead"

When i was about 19 was obsessed with this.

love this verse:

But now
We're today's scrambled creatures, locked in tomorrow's double feature
Heaven's on the pillow, its silence competes with hell
It's a twenty-four hour service, guaranteed to make you tell
And the streets are full of press men
Bent on getting hung and buried
And the legendary curtains are drawn 'round Baby Bankrupt
Who sucks you while you're sleeping
It's the theater of financiers
Count them, fifteen 'round a table
White and dressed to kill

His voice sounds so great here. Immediate and desperate. or something.

W4LTER, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 01:16 (eighteen years ago)

Consider my vote for "Sweet Thing" a vote for "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)". It's the best thing he ever did.

Arthur, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 04:55 (eighteen years ago)

..and another vote for "...Skeletal Families..."

christoff, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 14:15 (eighteen years ago)

Has anyone here seen the Cracked Actor BBC documentary from 74? Oh my god it's so priceless from start to finish. Who wants to ride through the mean streets of Tinseltown in the back of a limo with a coked-out, paranoid Bowie? Or through the southwest cranking Aretha chugging milk straight from the carton with your babelicious personal assistant, musing on the fly drowning in all that liquid American goodness?

iago g., Tuesday, 23 October 2007 21:02 (eighteen years ago)

POLICE SIRENS "I hope we're not stopped. Is there anything behind us?" GIANT SNIFF

snoball, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 21:18 (eighteen years ago)

The whole doc is on the Tube, natch

snoball, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 21:21 (eighteen years ago)

Actually in a later interview with Alan Yentob, Bowie said that his diet back then consisted of "white powder and milk, and green and red peppers".

snoball, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 21:33 (eighteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

ILX System, Monday, 29 October 2007 00:01 (eighteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ILX System, Tuesday, 30 October 2007 00:01 (eighteen years ago)

Bunch the Sweet Thing/Candidate/Reprise and you get a solid #2...

iago g., Tuesday, 30 October 2007 00:09 (eighteen years ago)


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