― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Thursday, 17 June 2004 01:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 June 2004 01:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 17 June 2004 03:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 17 June 2004 03:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 17 June 2004 03:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 17 June 2004 04:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark e (mark e), Thursday, 17 June 2004 07:16 (nineteen years ago) link
'Nuff said. Marc Bolan at his absolute worst wouldn't touch a line like this with a ten foot pole.
"When You Rock & Roll With Me" = song as lame as something found in Broadway production of "Grease".
Consolation: nothing on this album is quite as bad as "Lady Grinning Soul".
― QLW, Thursday, 17 June 2004 08:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Thursday, 17 June 2004 08:08 (nineteen years ago) link
To be fair, the title song would be an OK Stones ripoff if it was maybe half the length that it is. It makes its point quickly and then proceeds to plod on (I agree) endlessly and pointlessly. And introducing these characters - Halloween Jack (I think I can type that name with a straight face), etc. - that never get mentioned again throughout the duration of the record. See what I mean?
Good Bowie vocal performance in "Candidate". OK. Wish it had a better lyric, though. Every time I heard "Boys/boys/ it's a sweet thing", I always thought of Ferry singing "Here's looking at you kid". Yep, it's a Roxy Music rip-off. And not a good one at that.
"Rebel Rebel" has a great riff, surely. But I think this one also goes on too long and pointlessly. Really, I think you can objectively state that the entirety of side one consists of a few ideas - 3 short songs - stretched out far beyond what is necessary. Unless, of course, you're David Bowie and short on material and need to fill up an album side quickly.
Speaking of which, most of the second side seems much less memorable. "Rock & Roll With Me" remains a faux-Broadway piece of shit. (I'd much rather hear faux-West End pieces of shit like "Love You Till Tuesday" - it's a better song, at least.) Things like "1984" and "We Are The Dead" - hard to rememember much of anything about these.
The chant thing was at least kind of cool back in the day, if you were stoned and didn't have an auto return turntable.
Perhaps you can tell that I haven't owned or heard this lp since around 1979. I haven't wanted to either.
― QLW, Thursday, 17 June 2004 08:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Thursday, 17 June 2004 08:45 (nineteen years ago) link
Incidentally, Eighties isn't Rebel Rebel, but Jane Says totally is.
― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Thursday, 17 June 2004 10:36 (nineteen years ago) link
LOL[did you use your creepiest voice? "and in the death..."]
― willem (willem), Thursday, 17 June 2004 10:49 (nineteen years ago) link
i thought the bonus cd on this new version was a missed opportunity. theres a lot of other, more interesting, rarer tracks they could have put on there instead.
― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Thursday, 17 June 2004 11:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 17 June 2004 12:07 (nineteen years ago) link
QLW is right that the title track is overlong (which is a total shame, because it's such a great song otherwise), but then Bowie's albums are always most interesting where they're most flawed. Hating on "Lady Grinning Soul" seems historically uncharitable to me. As to charging Bowie with "rip-off": you're kidding, right? Pastiche is ALL he ever did, and he was quite obvious about it: only dumbasses ever called him "original," since originality is the most overrated trope in the whole critical galaxy.
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 17 June 2004 12:24 (nineteen years ago) link
BUT When You Rock and Roll With Me is a song that has always kind of gripped me and made me want to swoon. It sort of reminds me of Prince.
― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 17 June 2004 12:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 17 June 2004 12:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Oh please don't ruin it for me. Prince is great, but he doesn't TOUCH this.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:08 (nineteen years ago) link
otmfm
― de, Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― de, Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Thursday, 17 June 2004 14:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 June 2004 14:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark e (mark e), Thursday, 17 June 2004 14:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― de, Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:01 (nineteen years ago) link
Oh, Alex. You need to hear "Strays Of The World".
I love Diamond Dogs. I was going to pick up the reissue yesterday after seeing the ad for it in the Voice. I'm saddened to read that there's not too much going on of value on the extra disc, though. Guess I'll stick to my Ryko version.
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:43 (nineteen years ago) link
Hah! Right on.
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:44 (nineteen years ago) link
I was in junior high when this came out and lived when I could with my Indian/Mexican GF whose father raped her any time I wasn't there and one night she shaved her eyebrows and I came by toasted on ludes and she was laying there, nude and all Inca looking, covered in red glitter fingering the DD cover and cooing "Day-vud!" while "We are the Dead" played and it became our song.
― Ian G, Friday, 18 June 2004 04:02 (nineteen years ago) link
I always thought it was ROT ROT ROT etc
― Ian G, Friday, 18 June 2004 04:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 June 2004 04:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― willem (willem), Friday, 18 June 2004 05:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 June 2004 05:31 (nineteen years ago) link
As for Diamond Dogs: along with Young Americans and The Man Who Sold the World, these were albums I didn't get into when I was younger, so to this day I don't know them very well. I'll give it a better listen tomorrow. I can't abide Rebel Rebel anymore and never liked the title track much, though. 1984 I only know through Tina Turner!
― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 18 June 2004 06:40 (nineteen years ago) link
Didn't Transformer also start off intended to be a musical?
― bham, Friday, 18 June 2004 07:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark e (mark e), Friday, 18 June 2004 08:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― willem (willem), Friday, 18 June 2004 10:54 (nineteen years ago) link
What a dick.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 04:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 19:47 (nineteen years ago) link
Diamond Dogs and Outside are my fave Dave CDs. The failed/goofball/miserabalist narratives adds a weirdly effective structural mood thing.
"When You Rock n Roll with Me" always seemed to be something the future desolation kids might listen to at a secret cabaret, which gave it--for me, anyway--this terribly sad, futile beauty, because, not in defiance of its schmaltz.
― i, grey, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 07:00 (sixteen years ago) link
btw--What the fuck was a "Cooper Time Cube"? I recall DB claiming the device had much to do with the fuzz/blur guitar sound.
― i, grey, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 07:02 (sixteen years ago) link
I love Diamond Dogs. I listened to it all the time when I was just out of high school.
― W4LTER, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 07:19 (sixteen years ago) link
if there's anything this album just taught me, it's to never listen to negative reviews.
― Creeztophair, Thursday, 22 May 2008 00:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Re "Cooper Time Cube" - If I recall my "Raw Power" liner notes properly, it was some sort of guitar-treatment device that kinda resembled a bong and was used on (I think) "Gimme Danger" and possibly elsewhere.
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Thursday, 22 May 2008 17:53 (fifteen years ago) link
if there's anything this album just taught me, it's to never listen to negative reviews
lol you old
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 22 May 2008 17:55 (fifteen years ago) link
i didn't know peeps were down on diamond dogs. it's a banger 4 sho
― M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, 22 May 2008 17:56 (fifteen years ago) link
when my 5th-grade self first heard this LP (before I had ever even heard the word "genocide"), I thought it went: "this ain't rock and roll...this is...jazz time!"
made sense to me...and in a crazy way, it still does...
― henry s, Thursday, 22 May 2008 18:05 (fifteen years ago) link
"this ain't rock and roll...this is...jazz time!"
Bahahahahaahahahahahaahaha
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 22 May 2008 22:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Because they're sometimes earned?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 May 2008 22:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Diamond Dogs is fucking brilliant.
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 22 May 2008 22:54 (fifteen years ago) link
we'll buy some drugs and watch a band we'll jump in the river holding hands
one of my favorite bowie lyrics.
you pretty much cannot fuck with diamond dogs.
― Emily Bjurnhjam, Friday, 23 May 2008 01:41 (fifteen years ago) link
I've grown to love "Sweet Thing/Candidate" (especially Bowie's wonderful, awful guitar solo on the former) and "1984," but not even the remastered version can disguise how thin this sounds. Plus, this Bowie lover has his limits for doomy doggerel.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 23 May 2008 02:13 (fifteen years ago) link
doomy doggerel.
That was punishing.
― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 24 May 2008 18:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh, I so love this and Alex's review is so uh-huh, thank you.
-- Ian G, Friday, 18 June 2004 05:02 (3 years ago) Bookmark Link
― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 24 May 2008 19:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I thought it was weird how no one even commented on that - UNTIL NOW
― Z S, Saturday, 24 May 2008 19:34 (fifteen years ago) link
what a hot story.
― Creeztophair, Saturday, 24 May 2008 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Sweet Thing is a brilliant track, though that bit where he goes off on one about hamburgers does my head in a bit.
― chap, Sunday, 25 May 2008 14:53 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=gnauRgyWovo
― brad whitford's guitar explorations (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Wednesday, 28 April 2010 14:58 (fourteen years ago) link
My twopennorth on Dogs.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 31 October 2011 09:28 (twelve years ago) link
The title track, 'Rebel Rebel' and 'Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (reprise)' are the main reasons I find myself returning to this record, and although I'm not as keen on the second side as I am on the first, I'd still rather listen to this than 'Young Americans'.
― Turrican, Monday, 31 October 2011 17:30 (twelve years ago) link
Marcello, do we know the extent of Alan Parker's contributions? To my ears the lead on the title track sounds too gnarly to be professional (on the other hand I'm sure the magnificent, inept solo on "Sweet Thing" is Bowie's; he can't slide his fingers down the frets).
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 31 October 2011 17:37 (twelve years ago) link
xp yeah, DD is way stronger as an album than YA (which I like, but only a few of tracks on it are essential)
― asked Dermot O'Leary, but he couldn't help me either. They call me the (snoball), Monday, 31 October 2011 18:06 (twelve years ago) link
...and the title cut of 'Diamond Dogs' just popped up on WinAmp random play
I've always felt this was underrated but listening to it last night my love for it went to a whole new level. It has berserk ambitions and it totally delivers on them. This is the Orwell-on-Broadway lunacy that Muse have been gunning for over their last three albums, a more persuasive take on showbiz, terror and America than Aladdin Sane, and a lyrical feast. I also realised that Blur's use of brass is almost entirely derived from the spectacular arrangements on Big Brother, not to mention Andrew Eldritch's vocal schtick. And while the intro's a dud (the album should begin with the title track's faultlessly decadent opening line) the stuttering ending is perfect. My favourite after Low, I think.
Now to read Marcello's essay.
― Deafening silence (DL), Tuesday, 5 March 2013 09:54 (eleven years ago) link
Looking forward to sinking my teeth into this: http://thequietus.com/articles/16797-the-hideous-ecstasy-of-fear-diamond-dogs-40-years-on
― willem, Tuesday, 2 December 2014 06:35 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7l6ixggtys&fbclid=IwAR1OGISlopn6oheciEKEhmBTNKjp8ReVdvafootgyR0cbrfJ4lJKtH2datU
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Monday, 6 April 2020 17:58 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7l6ixggtys
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Monday, 6 April 2020 17:59 (four years ago) link
Ugh, that splice between "Candidate" and "Sweet Thing (Reprise)" is so hideously hamfisted, everybody in the studio must have been stoned to let it pass. It annoys me so much I have to make my own edit before I can listen to it.
― Godless Tiny Tim (Tom D.), Sunday, 13 December 2020 18:41 (three years ago) link
I like it as a splash of ice water in the face, after you jump in the river holding hands.
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 13 December 2020 18:58 (three years ago) link
I am having so much fun with the poisonous peopleSpreading rumors and lies and stories they made upSome make you sing and some make you screamOne makes you wish that you never been seen
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 July 2023 14:55 (ten months ago) link