David Bowie’s iconic ‘Diamond Dogs’ album will receive a 50th anniversary re-issue later this year.
Today – February 15th – marks exactly 50 years since David Bowie released ‘Rebel Rebel’, a huge trans-Atlantic hit buoyed by that urgent, proto-punk riff. Parent album ‘Diamond Dogs’ was a work of evolution, taking Bowie beyond his Spiders From Mars cohorts.
Easing himself out of Ziggy’s realm, David Bowie opted to explore a paranoid vision of a crumbling society, referencing Orwell in the process – indeed, Bowie tried (and failed) to gain the theatrical rights to his novel 1984.
Somehow striking a chord amid the fractious UK political landscape of the 70s, a further influence came in the form of American author William S. Burroughs, whom Bowie had interviewed for Rolling Stone in November 1973.
—
—
The unforgettable cover art features Bowie as half-man, half-dog – painted by the Belgian artist Guy Peellaert from photos by the world-renowned photographer Terry O’Neill.
The 50th anniversary edition of ‘Diamond Dogs’ will be available on May 24th through Parlophone.
For those intrigued by these kinda things: the half-speed master was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.
SIDE ONE
Future Legend
Diamond Dogs
Sweet Thing
Candidate
Sweet Thing (Reprise)
Rebel Rebel
SIDE TWO
Rock ’n’ Roll With Me
We Are The Dead
1984
Big Brother
Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family
Related: David Bowie’s Best Films – Filtering His Silver Screen Legacy
—
