31 - David Bowie - Diamond Dogs - 1974

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


DISCOVERY; After facing the cold hard truth that the Beatles inexhaustible pool of record albums was drying up. I made the decision to begin the search for other artists. It was akin to setting off across the Sahara in search of an oasis or looking for a new isotope under a microscope. I felt like a researcher on a great quest for knowledge. One of the tools I would be using was the rock magazine and the first one I purchased while on vacation with the family in Canada (Lake Of The Woods) was this witty Circus Magazine.

I'd already been making use of television late night programming for research. The Midnight Special and Don Kirchner's Rock Concert introduced me to some odd groups I liked the look of if not the sound. I enjoyed watching it but none of it stuck. Though hardly a fan I bought the Circus Magazine for the Edgar Winter piece but became enthralled by the full colour article on David Bowie. I just wondered, if that's what he looks like, what on Earth does he sound like? 

And so it came to pass, the Midnight Special aired the 1980 Floor Show. Watch it I did. First impression was of a visually stunning performer. I didn't think anything else of it until the next day in the field, driving tractor, pulling a plough. The song "Dodo" going through my head! What's this? A song in my head that isn't Beatles! I thought enough of the song to find the new album next trip to town, certain it would be on it. It all felt very outré. Like I was treading very close to a line. No, the song wasn't included but it didn't matter. Not at all. I'd found something I could listen to. A new voice.

WHERE & WHEN; Everything about this album appealed to my 14 year old sensibilities, from the artwork to the subject matter. The ambiguous sexuality, the raging apocalysm in my head and the dystopia of my imagination. I became an obnoxious David Bowie fan in the same way I had been an obnoxious Beatles fan. Only difference, trying to look like David Bowie was bound to raise more eyebrows in rural Minnesota than my affected British accent had done.

HIGHLIGHTS; Every oozing note! There is nothing on this album that isn't pure genius.

STATUS; CD