David Bowie fired the Spiders From Mars shortly after the release of Pin Ups, but he didn't completely leave the Ziggy Stardust persona behind. Diamond Dogs suffers precisely because of this -- he doesn't know how to move forward. Originally conceived as a concept album based on George Orwell's 1984, Diamond Dogs evolved into another one of Bowie's paranoid future nightmares. Throughout the album, there are hints that he's tired with the Ziggy formula, particularly in the disco underpinning of "Candidate" and his cut-and-paste lyrics. However, it's not enough to make Diamond Dogs a step forward, and without Mick Ronson to lead the band, the rockers are too stiff to make an impact. Ironically, the one exception is one of Bowie's very best songs -- the tight, sexy "Rebel Rebel." The song doesn't have much to do with the theme, and the ones he does throw in to further the story usually fall flat. Diamond Dogs isn't a total waste, with "1984," "Candidate," and "Diamond Dogs" all offering some sort of pleasure, but it is the first record since Space Oddity where Bowie's reach exceeds his grasp.
As stated in an earlier post, I got to participate in roundtables with some of the cast of Jim Mangold's forthcoming western remake of 3:10 to Yuma over at the Regent Beverly Wilshire last week...I posted "*the session with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale*":http://chronicridicule.blogspot.com/2007/08/310-to-yuma-christian-bale-russell.html already...and now I will throw on what went down with ...
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Nothing hurts my heart more than news of another record store closing. I spotted this item on Vanishing New York, and it's taken a big poop on my day. Future Legend was that rarest of music enclaves in NYC being that it was a tiny, independent shop wherein you could find rare, imported and obscure shit by artists like Psychic TV, The Sonics and Pussy Galore above 14th Street (which is not to sa...
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From ARTINFO.com: Belgian illustrator and cartoonist Guy Peellaert died of heart failure at the age of 74 on November 17. Pellaert had a surrealist, Pop-art style; he mixed painting, drawing, photography, and comics in his work. He designed numerous well-known album covers, including for David Bowie's Diamond Dogs and the Rolling Stones' It's Only Rock 'n' Roll. He designed posters for countle...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Future Legend |
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| 2 Diamond Dogs |
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| 3 Sweet Thing |
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| 4 Candidate |
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| 5 Sweet Thing (Reprise) |
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| 6 Rebel Rebel |
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| 7 Rock & Roll With Me |
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| 8 We Are the Dead |
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| 9 1984 |
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| 10 Big Brother |
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| 11 Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family |
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 "Diamond Dogs")
