David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Image © Terry O’Neill 1974

David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs will get a limited edition 50th anniversary reissue

To celebrate 50 years of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs, Parlophone Records has announced that the classic LP will be reissued later this year.

The Diamond Dogs repress will come out on 24 May, the exact day of the 50th anniversary of the album’s original release in 1974.

Issued as a limited edition, half-speed mastered LP and picture disc, the record was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.

Diamond Dogs Tracklisting:

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

Urban apocalyptic scenario

Conceived during a period of uncertainty over where his career was headed, Bowie was inspired to write the songs after he was unable to secure the rights for a theatrical production of George Orwell’s 1984 and the work of William S. Burroughs.

The tracks created an urban apocalyptic scenario while the controversial cover art depicts Bowie as a half-man, half-dog hybrid. Painted by the Belgian artist Guy Peellaert, from photos by Terry O’Neill, the sleeve is one of the most iconic in the musician’s catalogue.

Read More:  No smoke without fire – The 80s rebirth of David Bowie

News of this fresh pressing of Diamond Dogs comes after Parlophone Records announced a new ‘Ziggy Stardust’-era Bowie album will be released for this year’s Record Store Day.

Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth), comes out on 20 April and is taken from the Trident Studios 1/4″ stereo tapes dated 15 December, 1971, which were created for the then provisional tracklisting for what would become The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars album.

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