Today, 46 years ago, David Bowie released Diamond Dogs, his 8th studio album.
The cover art features Bowie as a striking half-man, half-dog grotesque painted by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert. It was controversial as the full painting clearly showed the hybrid’s genitalia.
Released on 24 May 1974 by RCA Records and produced by Bowie himself, it was his first album to not feature his backing band the Spiders from Mars (Mick Ronson on guitar, Trevor Bolder on bass and Mick Woodmansey on drums).
Diamond Dogs was also Bowie’s final album in the glam rock genre; he would explore R&B and soul music on his next album Young Americans.
Diamond Dogs was a commercial success, peaking at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 5 on the US Billboard 200. It was ranked number 995 on All Time Top 1000 Albums and number 447 in NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The song/music video here, “Rebel Rebel”, is the lead single of Diamond Dogs and received critical acclaim for its central guitar riff and strength as a glam anthem. Rock journalist Kris Needs described it: “A classic stick-in-the-head like the Stones’ ‘Satisfaction'”. While NME called it: “A rocking dirty noise that owed as much to Keith Richards as it did to the departed Mick Ronson.” Several publications consider “Rebel Rebel” to be one of Bowie’s greatest tunes.
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Featured image via Pleasures of Past Times.
