This is easily one of David Bowie's most impressive achievements. Not only does this medley of songs show off his full range and theatrical power as a singer, but musically, there's a world of influences, rhythms, noises and unbelievable lyrics to enjoy. And if that isn't enough, there's also Mike Garson sprinkling his piano magic over everything. A fantastic piece of music. And Bowie just seemed to casually throw it out there! It's so easy for geniuses. 😁

Very difficult to say this, given Bowie’s amazing career, but this is probably my favorite “track” of his. It’s certainly in my top 5. Chilling, beautiful, scary, inspired genius.

It's a real hard choice .... But I do believe that Diamond Dogs is my very favourite Bowie album

My favorite Bowie album. Apocalyptic, dystopian, dark, brooding, bizarre... everything I love.

Favorite album. And my favorite Bowie moment is after the piano flourish when the crunching guitar comes in at the end. It sounds like decay, perfect for the subject matter.

'Les Tricoteurs' were the women who knitted by the guillotine during the French revolution.

Oh my lord, the solo between Sweet Thing and Candidate has to be one of my favorite solos of all time. It's just so perfect and powerful. Really underrated Bowie suite.

Also love the David Live version of this..

THIS!!!!! if i had to give someone 5 bowie songs they HAD to hear, this would be on there. no question. The song is like a movie in itself, and for my money one of Bowie's best vocal performances. He also plays all the guitars...mellotron and sax. Yes...this is bowie's first foray into that DEEP vocal range. Mike garson's piano is incredible. always. of course, this all works better when you listen to the whole album in one shot. that said...wanna hear another one that I feel is incredible (i'm in the minority) form this album. We Are the Dead. it manages to be gorgeous and freakin creepy all in one shot. MORE BOWIE PLEASE ;O)

One of my favorite Bowie songs ever, I see his dystopian world when I hear it. When Bowie was denied the rights to George Orwell's book 1984 by Orwell's widow, he modified his vision for this concept by blending proto-punk & Dickensian themes together & came up with his "Halloween Jack" persona to finish the album. The songs 1984, Big Brother, & We Are The Dead follow his original Orwellian ideas, the other songs more are in line with the latter concept. He also employed his cut up technique for his lyrics on this album that he learned from William Burroughs. He wrote them on paper, then cut them into phrases & rearranged them into different sequence, creating a very nonlinear storyline. He utilized similar techniques throughout his career, using a computer program in later years. I remember hearing this wearing headphones on as a teen, sitting in my darkened bedroom & being transported to his dystopian world. Bowie's voice was mesmerizing & Garson's piano was hauntingly beautiful. It still takes me there today. Mission accomplished Bowie!

One of the epic Bowie tracks. I think I hear something new every time I listen. Surprising to note that with Mick Ronson out of the picture, David plays most of the guitar parts on the album and quite effectively.

this is musical modern art masterpiece. David freaking Bowie ladies and gents...

Possibly one of my favourite Bowie songs. It is pure theatre.

There is a live performance on KZfaq that is phenomenal and chilling. In this particular video Bowie is rail thin and probably at the height of his addictions but his voice is dramatic and hypnotizing as ever. This performance also includes band members Mike Garson, David Sanborn on tenor sax, Luther Vandrose on background vocals, and the incredible Earl Slick on guitar.

Diamond Dogs is an incredible album, was only 12 when this came out. This song drips talent and creativity on each second on it. Bowie was very much number one in a field of one. To quote the title of a song Nobody does it better!

I love the juxtaposition between Bowie’s instrumental work on this - It’s Bowie as lead guitarist, and a sax section, - limited in technique but not imagination - playing against Mike Garson’s virtuosic piano, it’s messy and so grand...

been a big fan of his for a very long time... love this track... the version on david live is nice too...

Diamond Dogs is a masterful album and one of Bowie's very best. His last glamrock album, at the same time it points forward to the plastic soul of Young Americans.

This my favorite Bowie album.

We got him, boys! The Diamond Dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees! The song is about a young guy falling for an escort. The Hunger City Secret Police want to recruit him, but he and this escort essentially are attempting to escape, whether literally or through physical loving and cocaine, as you picked up on. Rebel Rebel is gonna be such a fun listen, if you haven't gotten to it in this session. The 2nd half of the record is the 1984 side. You'll definitely love that side. Low won't be as epic, but I'm sure you'll appreciate the artistic value in it. Ziggy after that will definitely impress. I'm excited for your retrospective video after you finish this album, though. Your ranking could really go in any direction! Keep up the great work, Justin! 🧡

Thank you for continuing with this. It may have been mentioned previously that this was originally supposed to be a musical based on Orwell's 1984 but Bowie was denied this by the author's estate. Bowie was also hanging out with Beat writer William S. Burroughs at the time. There was definitely a gay subtext here, and Bowie was borrowing Burroughs' cut and paste technique with the lyrics. By the way, the collision of the Sweet Thing reprise into Rebel Rebel is one of the greatest moments in rock and roll.

Such an overlooked song! It's my favorite from the album. Great video!

Best Bowie track ever. That’s it.

Love that low manipulated vocal at the beginning... and it just gets better weirder. Before AIDS, the sexual revolution was an exciting time. Since I was in basically a small university town it was not nearly as “seedy” as larger cities. Listening to this album back then let us imagine that world. People were grabbing other people in bars, trying out their new freedom and whisking off into the night... we were young. Androgynous David was a creepy scary sex symbol of the times. The cover folds out to a continued dog body. Very bold. Great that you came back, great album, great memories. Thank you. Take care everyone, ( manipulated low voice) maassskksss ppplllsss, Peace and dark seedy Music

Think of 1974 for a moment.....who was creating music like this at that point? No one. There is a beautiful decadence to it.....he carried this into his tour with a re-creation of a street scene.

Oh My! What a damn great thing to wake up to. My all time favorite Bowie song and that says a ton since about my top 100 are Bowie. Thank you so so much for this welcome wakeup!

Ha! One of my friends had the album cover as as big poster on his bedroom wall. It's like a train wreck, you can't look away. This album is one of Bowie's more challenging ones, but, as in the case of these 3 songs, well worth the effort.

Had the Diamond Dogs poster in my room. My grandfather stayed over woke up to the poster which terrified him🤣😂

As I'm sure everyone below has probably told you, this was originally meant to be less of an album, and more of a cast album to a musical he was developing based on the book 1984. But when Bowie asked for the rights, Mrs. Orwell said, "Nah". So he cobbled _Diamond Dogs_ together by rewriting some songs and writing new ones. It's a disjointed album for sure, but it has some of my favorite Bowie songs on it. This suite and "We Are The Dead" are the standout tracks for me. And "Rebel, Rebel" is always fun. Also worth hearing is the original version of "Candidate", known today as "Alternative Candidate". It's a standalone song, and Mike Garson's piano heavily features in it.

An excellent choice, Bowie really gets to show his singing range on this one, starting really low and slow, working his way up to the high note at the end. Nice changes in this one too, how he starts slow then winds himself up in the middle section. This is my 2nd favorite Bowie album after "Station to Station" so I really like the order you're going in. It's a shame he couldn't get the rights to use "Nineteen Eighty-Four" but I think that just made him more creative in the end.

David live lp version absolutely mind blowing, whole lp great live version of moon age daydream blistering!

Excellent reaction, Bowie was a full-on genius...what vocals, what an imagination.

Wow! Out of all the channels I watch, thought you'd been the perfect person to react to those songs! And I was right! Always meant to request you to do these songs! Kept forgetting! Thanks! You do a great work of dissecting songs!👍

I love Bowie's voice and I respect his legacy, but some of his music I will never understand.

Arguably his greatest work, pure poetry. Bleak and Orwellian. So ahead of its time, the ending is so sleazy. It's hard to find anything to compare to this during that era. My favorite lyric is "we'll buy some drugs and watch a band, jump in a river holding hands" followed by a dirty, screaching sax that echoes their desperation. Rebel, rebel is a welcome relief from the gloom.

For me this is Bowies greatest work of art. I love probably 90% of his output, but this still gives me chills. You should have just let it play to the next track.

I think you will also like We are the Dead from the same album :)

Love hearing a reactor who's got something to talk about. Stellar reaction.

I was around 12 when this came out - my hip older cousin had the most awesomest album collection

This is my favourite Bowie track, and I think it's his best vocal. I would describe it as some kind of warped progressive punk cabaret. I like the way the crude simplicity of Bowie's playing challenges the relative sophistication of some of the music. It adds a real edge to it.

What an incredible artist. The last two releases before his death was some of his best work in my opinion. I really miss him.

The lyrics seem absurd or surreal at times because he used Brion Gyson and William Burroughs cut-up method to write some of the lyrics on this album. It created some really interesting results that we don’t get on any other album.

Love this little song cycle - top five Bowie for me.

My favourite David Bowie album cd diamond dogs

There is a live version of this on the "David Live" album (1974) that is totally mind-blowing

Really pleased you reacted to this, one of the best parts from one of my all time favourite albums.

Bowie plays the guitar lead on the album here. You caught MIKE GARSON in your 1,2,3 air piano. The DAVID LIVE( look for the remastered version) on Sweet Thing features one of the coolest guitar/ Sax interplays you will ever hear in music. Ever! Earl Slick I believe( this is one of Bowie's songs that seems written for Slick but that's just me) and a young saxophone player who seemed to have promise at the time named David Sanborn.

Sadly, his passing caused us to loose a pioneer in progressive music. Furthermore, actually his passing supposedly caused Keith Emerson’s depression to deepen and caused us to loose a second amazing talent. RIP to both. Great music

Thank you for sharing, you said before that Bowie is not your genre. Bowie is his own genre! Hope you continue to explore this unique artist who really changed our heads since the sixties.

From the very first time I head this in 1974 to hearing it now in 2024 it still has the very same effect on me! This hasn’t even dated….nothing this brilliant could!

Glad to see that you finally got back to this album. Great video. Looking forward to the rest of the album.

You have an admirable knowledge of the post-apocalyptic film genre.

Love this song! These & "We are the Dead" are my favorites off Diamond Dogs. "Sweet Thing" (the three) are Bowie's most Proggy IMO. Plus.........This is also the song(s) that turned me onto Genesis (Gabriel). Sounds strange I know. I had never heard them, but saw pictures of Gabriel fronting Genesis. And somehow, I got the idea that maybe Genesis would sound like this. lol On a side note, since you mentioned movies, Bowie wasn't a bad actor as well. Really liked "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", in which he plays an English officer in a Japanese POW camp during WWII. Bowie then wages war against the Japanese commander of the camp the only way he can. That being psychological as the Japanese were veryspiritual people during that time (as opposed to being very westernized in current times).

Yes, the "Sweet Thing"/"Candidate"/"Sweet Thing (Reprise)" suite is one of the greatest Bowie tracks ! In comparison, the glam-rock of "Rebel Rebel" and the soul ballad "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" are much more classic and less exciting (although good) but "We Are the Dead", "1984", and "Big Brother"/"Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" revive the research and atmosphere of "Sweet Thing" !

I really love that album. My Bowie favorite. As usually I'm impatient to hear your reaction. Well you should have continued with Rebel rebel… I think I said that before but the cover artist is Guy Pellaert who was an innovative comics creator (Pravda and Jodelle). He also created the book "Rock babies”. A very influential artist. I had the chance to interview him in the 90'.

My faveourite Bowie song/sequence from my faveourite album (along with Hunky Dory!). Also hear how he pretty much creates the vocal template for many if not all late 70's-80's post-punk, dark-wave male lead singers. Though sure he surely must have taken some influence from Scott Walker among others way back when.

Interestingly, on my copy of this album on cd is an outtake of another song called "Candidate" that is so beautiful. It's entirely different from this "Candidate". It's worth looking up. This album is Bowie at his glammiest (is that even a word?). I just love the how melodic the music is, and how well it rocks out. I also love how Bowie's gay persona out rocked many ardently straight rock bands. This was subversive music back in the day. It made parents uncomfortable if their sons listened to this. ;-) Bowie's influence in society goes beyond his music. The world is a better place because of him. Another tidbit: the album art was painted by the same artist who did the cover art of the Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" album. Bowie raced to get his album released before theirs because of this, partly so no one would think he was copying the Stones (despite the fact that "Rebel Rebel" is the best Stones imitation ever!).

BTW Les tricoteuses - the knitting ladies - is pure cut-up Burroughs/Gysin post-Beat writing applied to rockunroll.

I've always counted Future Legend/Diamond Dogs as ONE song...and Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing as the SECOND song. Rebel Rebel being the 3rd and final song of side one. The opening note Bowie sings on Sweet Thing is his lowest ever note recorded apparently.

ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAV TRACKS

one of my fav songs of bowie

This is great stuff, I love those 3 songs and Herbie Flowers plays bass! Good review too.

How have I never heard this track before? Brilliant!

This section of songs is masterful. David had a way of making strange places seem right next door in the way he creates atmospheres and sings and even speaks those atmospheres without being removed from something heartfelt and his character trying to get a message out that is deeply oppressed by some weird smiling malevolence.

This album blew my mind as a youngster…

Understanding and acceptance without judgement is the key to art. Well done!!!!

Wow! Perfect Song! Great reaction Jason!

Have you ever listened to the German Krautrock band Can? If not I highly recommend them. They are at the same time one of the most highly influential rock bands of all time (they've influenced Brian Eno, Sonic Youth, the entire Post-Punk scene, early electronic music, hip hop producers, etc.) and totally unknown to most people. What made them special was the fact that the band members came from very different fields: the bass player and the organist were classically trained and had avantgarde sensibilities (they studied with Stockhausen), the guitarist came from a rock background, the singer was a street musician and the drummer (Jaki Liebezeit, one of the greatest drummers of all time) was originally a Jazz drummer. Together they created incredible music, far ahead of their time, always carried forward by Jaki's insanely precise drumming (as band members once said: the difference between Jaki and a drum computer is that the drum computer has a humanizing function). If you want to check them out, here are a couple of recommendations: their song Vitamin C, which sounds like a drum and bass track at times, decades before drum and bass existed. Then there's Halleluwah, an 18 minute tour de force based on an incredible drum beat, in my eyes the greatest rock song of all time. Mother Sky is another song where you will marvel at Jaki Liebezeit's drumming. Then there's Future Days from the album of the same name. On that album they basically invented ambient music back in the 70s. I could go on and on, they have so many great tracks and they're all utterly unique. If you want to go for whole albums: Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi and Future Days. But pretty much everything they did in the 70s is amazing (later they dropped off a bit). You definitely won't regret it. Edit: I'm blind, I just saw you did Vitamin C a couple of weeks ago.

It was written for a project which never reached fruition, called 'The 1980 floorshow', and of course was to be based on George Orwell's novel 1984.

This is fantastic!

Masterpiece. Lovely dissonance.

Imo I think this his best album. Yes Ziggy Stardust is good too, but I still think this album is better. Not a bad song on the album.. Keep up the great comments Justin.😋

Good job again. I do, however, love the title track. This album really drew me into his work.

Bowie’s Diamond Dogs again ... cool! Congrats on 14k Mr JPman!

My favorite track, good review

Best musical & vocal performance of his career... hands down! Only Bowie would do this...

RCA brought out the original artwork on this album and the dog was "anatomically correct" .....they brushed that out! 😊

I sure do ,love that I stumbled back 2 years ago. This is probably my favorite Bowie and that's a hard thing to narrow down. His vocals...OMG.... Love your channel!!! One last thing.. This song on the David Live album at The Tower Philadelphia is awesome.

Love Bowie! Seen several of his live shows. Please check out "Dead Man Walking" a song written by David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels and released as single from the 1997 album Earthling. THEN watch him and Reeves perform a total different version live on Late Night with Conan O'Brian in 1997. Not many artists can cover their own songs with such originality guitar riff used in the intro dates back to the mid-1960s when Jimmy Page taught it to Bowie

Here Bowie does what he always did best... being a genius. Nobody in modern arts has been so consistently creative for almost 50 years. (P.S.: no hope at all in Matheson's novel "I am legend" ending: the movie was an excruciating betrayal)

Outta the blue KZfaq decided I needed to see your reaction while I was scrolling my life away. Before the end of your first sentence I subscribed. Thank you for the flashback to my teen years. Have you reacted to anything from Aladdin Sane yet? 🍻🖖

Not to change the subject, but you really ought to do Van Morrison's unrelated but also amazing song "Sweet Thing" :) - as for Bowie, I've listened to a fair amount of his work, but I never knew he did anything this far towards prog rock. Strong stuff, very glad to have heard it!

So glad your listening to David again...1984 Changes and Rock and Rock Suicide are good ones when you get around to it. Check out Life on Mars..Rick Wakeman is on piano.

Diamond dogs is one of those records I didn’t get at first and then on the 5th listen or so it suddenly clicked.

Sweet thing/candidate/Sweet thing(reprise), Quicksand, It's Gonna be Me, Cygnet Committee, width of a circle, Teenage wildlife, Wild is the wind, Lady Grinning Soul, and countless others.

This song is epic

Thanks for the video. I was hoping you would get around to listening to this because it seemed like it would be right up your alley. I bought this album the summer I graduated from high school. I listened to it all that summer, living away from home for a summer job, so as you might imagine, it has a very personal space in my head. I think this particular song holds up better musically than most of Bowie's work and it's one of his very best. I hope you'll listen to the song 'Aladdin Sane' sometime soon, as I think you would also appreciate the musicality of that one too.

I always played these three tracks as one ..a great part of Diamond Dogs

Diamond Dogs, is actually based on a true story that Bowie was very, very interested in at that time.

Great guess on the analogy you drew between David's voice here and Peter Hammill's. Another singer inspired by Peter Hammill : Fish (Marillion)

i managed to see Bowie only once when they kicked off the Isle of Wight festival ,what ever year that was....., anyhooo, fantastic set that covered alot of the oldies and up to his current album which at the time was ''Reality'' ( great album) but what comes across as he chats and spends time to interact with the audience is what a genuine down to earth warm bloke he is despite the fame.

Hi JP ! Great reaction, I always loved this song : it's the very definition of epic! I reckon you're going though the "Diamond Dogs" album. Next stop is obvious now : you'll have to go through "1 - Outside" next ! Believe me, it's a trip you won't regret ;) !

hint: The inspiration for this album, conceptually, is George Orwell's novel, 1984.

Our Elvis we miss Starman

This album was originally slated to be his theatrical version of George Orwells 1984.

If you like saxophone use at its best, try Loggins and Messina. Mother Lode album “ Move on” or off Full Sail “ Pathway to Glory” ! They ebb and flow from vocals to elegant instrumentals. “ Keep me in Mind”, and “ Angry Eyes” are great too.

when this album was released i was a bit dissappointed,being just a teen,wanting more of the ziggy glamrock stuff,but since then us has just grown and grown in signifigence.I mean its an obvious masterpiece among so many Bowie masterpieces.And the sweet thing has such a thrilling blend of hopelessness and beauty.Beauty and despair comes at you fused into one creature so overwhelming we are not sure its an angel or a demon approaching us in the dark.A song who has all the hallmarks of a epic movie,with Bowies voice narrating like a snake from a forbidden and f heaven.What Bowie albums to check out from the 70s? ALL of them,i mean every single track!

epic !!

Love the reaction. You mention the feeling of desolation and drew an analogy to "I Am Legend". I wouldn't disagree, but I would l refer to the actual movie "1984" with Richard Burton and John Hurt (which was, in fact, made in 1984!). It's one of those films which should be seen, but perhaps only once due to the level of despair.

A great selection. His version of this suite of songs in the 1974 double album 'David Live' is a very different arrangement to the studio version but equally great. In fact, I prefer it to the Diamond Dogs version due to David Sanborn's alto-sax contributions. Cheers.