Celebrating
its golden jubilee today at 50 years old is the 8th studio LP from
David Bowie, Diamond Dogs. It would mark the end of his glam-rock,
Ziggy Stardust era and point the way to his transition to his next
incarnation the soulful "Thin White Duke".
After
completing his previous LP, Pin-Ups, a collection of covers recorded to
satisfy record label obligations, Bowie was beginning to waffle in
terms of the clarity of his vision for the direction of his career. He
was running out of runway with the Ziggy persona, and had disbanded The
Spiders From Mars band lead by guitarist, Mick Ronson. Ronson had moved
on to record a solo album, so Bowie opted to assume the position of
lead guitarist for the recording of Diamond Dogs. Bowie's more
rudimentary guitar technique ended up working in his favour in some
respects because it necessitated a raunchier, more primitive performing
style, something that, in retrospect, became a bit of inspiration for
the punk scene that would start bubbling up in the UK within the
following year. Those kids, like Sid Vicious, were ardent Bowie fans,
and the link between the punk explosion in the UK and Diamond Dogs
cannot be overlooked.
However,
as pivotal as the album may have been towards inspiring the musical
revolution around the corner, Bowie was still in a state of flux, part
way between shedding the Ziggy skin and emerging in a new form. In that
sense, Diamond Dogs was a bit of a chrysalis, with the artist beginning
to embrace the R&B and soul influences that would overtake his
sound on his next record, Young Americans. Because of that, critics of
the day saw Bowie as loosing focus, so some of the contemporary reviews
of the day were quite critical of his stylistic floundering. That
didn't stop the record from smashing its way the top of the charts in
the UK and getting near there in the US at a respectable number five
position at its peak.
The
themes explored on the album were equally a hodgepodge of half grasped
concepts, some stemming from a planned Ziggy Stardust stage musical
Bowie had been contemplating, others inspired by William Burroughs
apocalyptic visions, and who's "cut-up" technique Bowie had been
actively exploiting to help with his creative process. Bowie was also
toying with an adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, all of which meant
the overall vibe of the album was decidedly nihilistic, a disposition
that, along with the thrashing guitar work, dovetailed with the mindset
that would inform the aforementioned punk aesthetic. Even Bowie's look,
still within the Ziggy framework, took on a spiky visage, another
element predicting the near future.
In
many respects, Diamond Dogs serves as a fitting capstone to the
glam-rock era of the first half of the 1970s, putting a final
punctuation on the scene and queuing up the punk era around the corner,
though Bowie himself was about to shift gears into something slick and
sophisticated for his shift to LA, along with a serious cocaine
addiction and some funky grooves.
