Such an iconic guitar riff! "you got your mother in a whirl. She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl" is one of the best opening lines to a song ever! & the fact it came out in 1974... amazing! Bowie was always ahead of his time
Among my favorite Bowie lyrics is from 1972's Five Years. *A girl my age went off her head* *Hit some tiny children* *If the Black hadn't have pulled her off* *I think she would have killed them* *A soldier with a broken arm* *Fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac* *A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest* *And a queer threw up at the sight of that* The desperation of the news that earth was really dying sent everyone off into a frenzy and Bowie described it so masterfully!
@@79BlackRose My favorite Bowie era is '69 to '73. Cygnet Committee (1969) is amazing. Width of a Circle (1970) Quicksand (1971) Five Years (1972) Time (1973) I only picked one song from each of those five years, and there are other great songs on those albums, but the lyrics he came up with in the earlier years were so much heavier and more reflective than what came later. Heroes, from 1977, is probably my favorite song of the entire 70s.
I'm English, remember hearing this on my cheap transistor radio in my teenage bedroom the Friday evening of its release as a single early 70s?!.. The boy's showing some promise !!....
Hey L33! Check out "Sweet Thing / Candidate / Sweet Thing (Reprise)." It's a bit of a suite. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that's Herbie Flowers on bass on "Rebel Rebel." Peace.
Young Americans is Bowie’s next “studio” album. But the album after this one was his first live album recorded at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia, titled David Live. Earl Slick does the lead guitar job like a mad man. Two album set with songs from Ziggy, Alladin and the Diamond Dogs albums.
"We like dancing and we look divine" I love this song And Bowie, so much I have a Black Star tattoo in honour of him, and my mom ,who died around the same time as David
Brilliant! Will look for it. Love the dedication. I should have been a musician, I feel this very strongly. Sadly, I cannot carry a tune in a bucket, or play anything at all. Sigh. Can write lyrics though.
Was lucky enough to see him a couple of times. The Reality Tour show was the best of the two - he opened with this song and played for 3 hours. Absolutely epic.
Oh L33.... You finally hit upon this one. I sang this with my band back in the day BACK - IN - THE -DAY.... I'm no guitarist...I'm a singer who plays guitar. But this riff is so easy. Play a D chord and it's right under your fingers. Thank you my friend...I'm 21 again. Keep up the good work kiddo.
Herbie Flowers played with everybody. Elton, Lou Reed, Melanie (on her breakthrough album, Candles in the Wind), Roy Harper, Harry Nelsson (the memorable bassline on Jump Into the Fire), solo albums with Paul, George and Ringo....
On release, Bowie described Rebel Rebel as the first song he'd written specifically for the singles market since Space Oddity. Whether it was because of that (I much prefer his more obscure album tracks!) or just because of the repetitiveness, I always saw this as inferior to some of his more intricate songs. There is, however, a mind-blowing version of this song, which I strongly recommend you check out. Not sure if I'm allowed to post a link, but the full title is "Rebel Rebel - Rockin'1000 That's Live Official". I think you'll appreciate the drums in particular!
Brings back great memories of dancing to this at our " school disco!!!)😊.....though this is my least favourite track off this album....."chant of the ever circling skeletal family" is an absolute banger. ....well worth a listen.
The acting roles which I can remember on movies - “The Man Who Fell to Earth, Labyrinth, and my favorite playing Andy Warhol in “Basquiat” Onstage he played John Merritt in “The Elephant Man.” I wished I would have seen him in that.
One of my Bowie favorites. So many sounds and phases through the years and this one definitely brings on the memories. I love you so! Is he singing about working on a transmission with a live wire? I get greasy repair shop vibes but who gives a shit I love how the song has always made me feel 😂
It's a good iconic song, but over the years it's become my least favourite Diamond Dogs song (along with the title track), with its glam-rock sounds inherited from the previous album Aladdin Sane (I'm deliberately not counting Pin Ups, which is a covers album). The suite "Sweet Thing"/"Candidate"/"Sweet Thing (Reprise)", "We Are the Dead", "1984" and "Big Brother"/"Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" are the most interesting tracks for me.
The guittar riff is an inversion of that of I can't get no satisfaction by the rolling stones, and mick said that he wished he could have done that, as it felt cooler than that of their song.
I've played (mainly bass) in many bands over the years. One night, after a gig, this is annoying, deluded bloke wanted to talk to us when we were trying to break the gear down and get it to the van. He told us he was a drummer and told us all the people he played with. OUR drummer started asking him drumming related questions - he had no clue. My favourite one was: Drummer: How would you count in the band if the song is in 3/4 time at 120 beats per minute? Deluded: Three, two, one, go! EVERY time I hear you start the track with "3,2,1, go!" it takes me back to that bloke and I have a chuckle.😊
@@mrbenn1489 He wrote above: "I wanted to keep our appointment to finish "Aladdin Sane"... so here we are lol. What a great track. Now, we are doing "Diamond Dogs" after this week." This is what confused me.
I played this in a band years ago. It was fun to listen to but boring as heck to play. It's a great song and riff like he said. People loved it back then. It always struck me as how both could be so opposite. On the other hand, the Stones songs were good songs too but always a blast to play.
In later years, he revised the song a bit: both are a blast, but I prefer the latter arrangement - especially when the full band kicks in and "play it hard"... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eF551z9KlA8.html
I love Bowie, have most of his albums but I don’t think he was that much of a chameleon as everyone keeps saying, Alice Cooper played hard rock, soft rock, jazz, classical, new wave, punk,disco,garage rock, heavy metal, glam, art rock, even r&b and a little bit of hip hop, he did some horror films, the muppet show and Hollywood squares!! And still releasing great albums. Don’t get me wrong, I was sad when Bowie died, I just wasn’t excited with a lot of his later albums
@@scottyhotty1003 There's a superb video (from Michael Parkinson's talk show on British TV) where Bowie recalls the first time he saw the Rolling Stones and makes a quick, perfect impression of Mick Jagger: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N7-7HJCXx10.html
I think people like that song so much because of the memorable riff, but apart from that it really is a bit too repetitive and always goes on too long for me. It is the only song on Diamond Dogs that I'd skip through, and it doesn't feel like it belongs on that album at all.
No doubt it was a convenient bit of fun and savvy marketing to be tagged glam rock in the moment. But if Bowie performed "Rebel Rebel" in jeans and a t-shirt and a scruffy beard would it still *sound like* "glam rock"? What do T-Rex (when not singing Bowie songs) and Elton John and, say, "Rebel Rebel" have in common besides the outfits? Were Jimi Hendrix and The Who proto glam rock? I've never been able to figure it out. But even assuming the musical genre existed, this song's not a farewell to anything. It was just the next single. Had Bowie felt inspired to frame a goodbye to his soon-to-be alienated Ziggy audience, why not the next song (on the flip side) "When You Rock and Roll With Me"? I guess because it's not glam enough? Or maybe because it's all just rock critic nonsense.
