I listened to Bowie’s Diamond Dogs album on the Flexi drive to Millgrove today. I was thinking of the genocide in Gaza and how Bowie had used that word at the start of the title track – ‘This ain’t rock n roll, this is genocide’. And so I listened to it. It seems a transitional album. Bowie was still doing the glam thing, but mixing it up with a dirty Stonesy feel like the title track, Sweet Thing and Rebel Rebel. Those songs are a lot like the Stones on It’s Only Rock n Roll, the album they released in the same year – 1974. But the upcoming soul thing is starting here, with 1984 and When You Rock n Roll With Me. I like the title track a lot. It was a single, but it’s really not a single. It’s too long and complex, and the lyrics are impenetrable (though they’re colourful). It’s just a good groove, some great riffs and vocal riffs. Sweet Thing’s good too, but I much prefer the live version from David Live. I think he perfected the song there, especially the middle section, where the melody is so much better on the live version. Rebel Rebel was also a single, and it was a big hit. 1984 is startling the way it seems to come out of nowhere fully formed. And it’s a vocal triumph. We’re way past that year now, but the lessons of Big Brother are still there to be learned in our media landscape. Someone ought to play that this is genocide line over images of Gaza.
