This month sees the 40th anniversary of the release of David Bowie's Orwell-inspired Diamond Dogs. From Gary Numan's 'machine' phase to Janelle Monáe's messianic android influenced by Fritz Lang's Metropolis here are some of the best end-of-days LPs
This month sees the 40th anniversary of a transitional moment in David Bowies career: the release of the Diamond Dogs LP. His first set of original songs since "retiring" his Ziggy Stardust character (and firing his band, the Spiders from Mars), the record has its roots in a theatrical adaptation of George Orwells 1984 that Bowie had hoped to make, but which had to be scrapped when the writers estate denied him rights to the material.
Instead, Bowie incorporated some of Orwells ideas on to side two of Diamond Dogs, grafting it into a wider narrative about a post-apocalyptic future where the titular characters roam the streets of Hunger City, armed with knives and fur coats torn up and used as leg-warmers (Bowie has retroactively credited himself with inventing punk via this "urban scavenger" aesthetic, the cad).
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by Alex Denney via Electronic music | The Guardian
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