A bit, yes. Could have been replaced with the original "Candidate" (which bears no resemblance to the included song Candidate). I think "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" was the odd track out because it presaged Bowie's abrupt shift to his brand of soul music so quickly after this.
I suppose that the title track,"Rebel Rebel" and "1984" are well-known enough at this point to be "classic Bowie", and the cover is iconic. Overall, I don't think it's a great album, but I was 13 or 14 back then, so it's got a place in my heart -a space that it shares with other not-quite-great-but-I-love-em albums like The Hoople, Goats Head Soup and Muscle of Love.
For me, it's his saxophone which makes the track, which for some reason hardly ever gets mentioned. ST/C/ST(R) is peak Bowie - where his wit, vision, melodicism and rarely deployed instrumental prowess all come together in his greatest studio performance.
This was the first Bowie release where I felt let down. After loving Aladdin Sane, then Pinups even more, I could not wait to pick this up on release day. When I put the stylus on the record I was introduced to this creepy music talking about rats, mutants, I'm like......what is this!? Then when I heard the guitar work I found myself looking at the liner notes, but where's Mick Ronson?! Then finally, I remembered seeing Bowie perform this awesome new song called 1984 on Midnight Special but wait, this version is different; that incredible DoDo middle part that juxtapositioned so well with the main tune was missing? So yeah, never one of my favorites....
While there are many I prefer over it.... Station to Station Ziggy Low Heroes ....EVERYTHING through Scary Monsters is essential.
Essential listening. Played it for days on end after it's release. Didn't think Bowie could or would match the Ziggy or Aladdin Sane albums but he beat out all expectations.
My friend bought me a copy of this for my birthday. I listned to it once since then and I thought it was great. Rebel Rebel is my favorite and 1984 sounds almost disco.
This is where Bowie proved that he was no conventional pop star. Break up the band, take a vision of societal collapse inspired by Orwell's 1984, and make a fractured cityscape with audio, visual and dramatic components. He raced ahead of his fans and left many of them behind forever. Incidentally, I now sure of the meaning of the title "Sweet thing." Bowie is sketching out the album sequence. I think we need some kind of suite thing, he muses. He writes it down. Suite thing. Hmm, yes. "It's a sweet thing, sweet thing." Tim
You're right, it's a pun, never thought about that before. Bowie is nothing if not a punster, or "pundit" as he said in Watch That Man.
A stunningly good album. Second only to The Man Who Sold The World for me. Better than Ziggy and Aladdin, and miles better than Hunky, which I've always thought has been overrated.
A Bowie must have. A few songs are only good, not great. Wish the production values would have been cleaner as some of the tunes have a lot going on. Transitional album.
Not one of my favorites, but not without merit. A "so, so" vote from me. Honestly, I don't think a single song on it would make the cut for my personal best of Bowie, but the overall album has a pleasing enough vibe. Side note: I seem to recall the original Rolling Stone album guide calling Diamond Dogs the leaden nadir of Bowie's sci-fi trip.
Essential. Along with Hunky Dory, my favourite Bowie from '69-74'. The weakest tracks IMO are Diamond Dogs and Rebel Rebel and not due to familiarity. I do prefer them both in the context of the album as opposed to standalone songs. I wish Rebel had been slightly edited as the track really outstays it's welcome and doesn't really go anywhere after the 100th chorus. The rest is simply brilliant and it's all been said here already.
But the fact that Dodo is an outtake is pretty cool, makes it special. I remember hearing it on TV and have it on Sound+Vision box set.
Essential listening - a true classic. The murky muddy production is maybe my only quibble, that and the awkward edit from "Candidate" to "Sweet Thing". Peter Hammill's "Nadir's Last Chance" reminds me of this album.
Not this again. Bowie basically borrowed from neu! verbatim on Dogs and Station. Nothing wrong with that, he took the science of neu! and engineered it into art.
For such an outstanding outtake, nobody's talking about Alternative Csndidate. That track is such a find. The sound quality on this is poor but you can watch the clear vinyl going round in a pretty way.
I don't hear any Neu! on "Station to Station", for what it's worth, and any perceived Neu! influence on "Diamond Dogs" might be down to Bowie and Neu! both being big Stooges fans. I don't know. I do know Bowie and Eno talked about Harmonia's "Deluxe" being inspirational - which is obvious because "Red Sails" is basically Harmonia's "Monza" with Bowie singing over it.
