Description
Book SynopsisAfter his breakthrough with
Ziggy Stardust and before his U.S. pop hits Fame and Golden Years David Bowie produced a dark and difficult concept album set in a post-apocalyptic Hunger City populated by post-human mutants.
Diamond Dogs includes the great glam anthem Rebel Rebel and utterly unique songs that combine lush romantic piano and nearly operatic singing with scratching, grungy guitars, creepy, insidious noises, and dark, pessimistic lyrics that reflect the album''s origins in a projected Broadway musical version of Orwell''s
1984 and Bowie''s formative encounter with William S. Burroughs. In this book Glenn Hendler shows that each song on
Diamond Dogs shifts the ground under you as you listen, not just by changing in musical style, but by being sung by a different I who directly addresses a different you.
Diamond Dogs is the product of a performer at the peak of his powers but uncomfortable with the rock star role he had constructed. All of the
Trade Review[Hendler’s] textual analysis of Bowie’s lyrics and the influences of the album is deep, yet he doesn’t skimp on musicology … This 33 1/3 is worth reading even if you know nothing about Diamond Dogs. * Bomb *
This latest volume of Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series sees US academic Glenn Hendler manfully take a crack at forensically unpacking the disparate ingredients of Bowie’s greatest future dystopia Diamond Dogs and passing with flying colours. * Shindig! Magazine *
Table of ContentsTrack Listing Acknowledgments 1. This Is Not America 2. Who Can You Be Now? 3. 1984 in 1974 4. Mr. Burroughs Goes to Hunger City 5. Boys and Things 6. Rough Trade 7. Futures 8. This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll 9. Repetition I 10. Repetition II 11. Wild Mutations 12 Everybody Wants to Be a Fascist 13. After the Human 14. It’s No Game
