Drummer reacts to "Sweet Thing" / "Candidate" / "Sweet Thing (Reprise)" by David Bowie

[@emilymartinez6961]

BOWIE!!!... You have NO idea how much this man meant to us teenagers back in the 70's, l saw him 7 times in concert starting with " Ziggy Stardust ", ...he will for ever be in our hearts. ❤U Bowie 👍🏻🥰

[@Morthoron1]

That beginning vocal where Bowie goes from a low register bass to a high tenor is quite remarkable.

[@Grithron2]

Bowie the proto-goth...from Eldtritch to Smith in seconds!

[@christinebainbridge2354]

This album really shows off Bowie’s vocal range!

[@NickPangio-pi1sw]

"I smell the blood of Les Tricoteuses": French for a knitting woman. Most often used in its historical sense as a nickname for the women in the French Revolution who sat beside the guillotine during public executions, supposedly continuing to knit. Bowie was a lyrical genius!

[@stevejennings1809]

Awesome, one of my favorite albums, the beginning of the album used to scare my kids but they like it now that they're older.

[@jyjjy7]

Sweet Thing/Candidate is Bowie's best work

[@bigmike4436]

This album has some of the dirtiest, filthiest guitar ever recorded.

[@ajaxfernsby4078]

I saw Bowie on the Diamond Dogs tour. It / he was so over the top I remember thinking the ticket price was far to little for what I just saw.

[@martinhenderson6351]

For me, this epitomises Bowie. His greatest composition, it's got EVERYTHING.

[@MAZE4]

Now that's a voice.

[@wpollock1]

The sound of the guitar and sax match the dystopian world that Bowie created. Who writes like this? No one. Decadently beautiful. Bowie on guitar and sax.

[@CliffordLake]

My favorite Bowie album.

[@ianbrooke6342]

Another album I bought when it was first released then almost wore it out, played it constantly, quite brilliant. By far my fave Bowie album, it's almost impossible to pick a favourite track there are so many. The last 3 tracks are all brilliant. I promise you've never heard anything like Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family.

[@Joshualuv13]

How much do I love this track !? So much , I can never turn it off.

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

BOWIE plays guitar, piano, sax, and all vocals😎👍🏼

[@TheoZoffrok]

Moog and Mellotron, but not the piano!

[@elaineandjohn9599]

@@TheoZoffrokMike Garson does the main piano, as was mentioned later…

[@chrisbridgen2711]

This is the first album I bought with my own money.

[@TheoZoffrok]

I've been a huge Bowie fan for 45 years, and have virtually everything he ever recorded. And this three song suite is right up there with anything he did. His singing in the closing section is simply *breathtaking* - and then there are his sterling efforts on lead guitar (in fact ALL the guitars, apart from the wah-wah rhythm part on 1984), saxophones and synths. Incidentally L33, there's a demo version of Rebel Rebel which I'm sure is on KZbin, on which Bowie plays *everything* - guitars, bass, drums, the lot. What a genius he was.

[@pauldove966]

Love the intensity of Candidate, the way it builds in tension and momentum like a runaway train, something which the live versions seem to miss.

[@tanyawillow1]

Bowie at the height of his powers. His best work imo. The first album I’d heard with a theme that ran through it. First concept album. ❤

[@jyjjy7]

It SO flows into Rebel Rebel. That iconic Rebel Rebel riff coming right after the epic guitar chaos is perfect.

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Sometimes this is my favorite Bowie album

[@pleasantvalleypickerca7681]

It's better when you listen to all the songs in order but still glad you're doing it.

[@markferrett700]

Bowie at his creative peak.....brilliant.

[@NickPangio-pi1sw]

"Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats" When I first heard this I knew this album was going to be great!

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

"DIAMOND DOGS" ALBUM AND TOUR. SAW THIS TOUR IN L.A. BOWIE NEVER DISAPPOINTED!!❤❤ Saw him "ZIGGY STARDUST" TOUR, "DIAMOND DOGS" TOUR, "SERIOUS MOONLIGHT" TOUR, AND IN EARLY 2000'S SAW HIM AT DODGER STADIUM FOR HIS "RETROSPECTIVE TOUR" WHICH WAS AWESOME!👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😎😎😎😎😎💋💋💋💋

[@douglasg.9271]

Love the live version of these songs.

[@jamesd5118]

Diamond Dogs was my first Bowie album in 1974. After getting the next album, David Live, I went back and picked up all the older ones. This medley is hardly commercial like "Rebel, Rebel" or "Rock And Roll With Me", but it a great listening experience.

[@jeffmiller4832]

I bought Diamond Dogs when it came out, but I already had Aladdin Sane. I lived about 45 miles from Philly and sold out before I could get tickets. David Live by far IMHO is his best. Who else has Earl Slick on lead guitar dueling with the sax player(s)? And one of the best renditions of Rock n Roll Suicide. I bet Lee will damn near shit his pants during his reaction, especially with all the lead guitar. 🍻✌️

[@xtiants]

One of my favorite albums! I used to listen to it all the way through on acid. I love the layering that bowie did on all the instruments. It's genius composition. Dark stuff too. Some great vocals too. "We Are The Dead" is a good one. If you ever do get around to the Pinups album, you'll love Ainsley Dunbar's drums and Ronson's guitar. Cover songs, but done with originality, and electric energy!

[@trainman5323]

Lee. ‘We are the dead’ is a great example of Bowie writing lyrics like he did in his earlier days. Complex and poetic. The ‘title’ of the song are the words that are spoken by the main protagonist in Orwells ‘1984’ novel in response to being discovered by ‘Big Brothers’ henchman. Bowie does a great job capturing the essence and feel of the book in that track. Reading the lyrics are a must. This Lp marked the end of Bowies rock phase. (Excluding Pin Ups)

[@PanarchyInTheUK]

Thanks for that factoid about 1984, I didn't know that. And thanks for mentioning Pin Ups, which seems largely ignored.

[@anabellelei8540]

Ahh Sweet Thing suite. My all time fav Bowie tune. We Are the Dead is phenomenal, too. Thank u thank u!

[@L33Reacts]

I can’t wait to hear that one next week! Gonna be a good one.

[@johnbarleycorn9683]

Some of his best singing ever!

[@cosmiccat6708]

In my top five of Bowie albums, love it. R.I.P Herbie Flowers. If you want to hear some awesome drumming from Aynsley Dunbar on a Bowie album, check out "Pin-Ups", which is an album of 60's covers of Bowie's favourite bands of the time. Ronno, Bolder and Garson are on there too. Another overlooked Bowie album !

[@thescrewfly]

One of my favourites too.

[@Coquinagirl]

I loved the Suite…the unusual and unexpected musical sounds, and David’s deeper vocals… Thank you, Lee! I’ll give you a pat on the back, too! 💫

[@joancarlesclaros9217]

Bowie was composing in an absolute free way. Even lyrics are written using the cut up technique, like his inspiring William Burroughs novelist.

[@scoobyblue5300]

"Buy some drugs and watch a band, then jump in a river holding hands"...pure Bowie awesomeness!

[@michaelz9892]

I think this album has the definitive Bowie voice. Remarkable and so very under rated.

[@EskWIRED]

😊 this is pretty much my favorite stuff that David Bowie has come out with. The three songs show off all of his best abilities.

[@lewismaddox4132]

Don't apologize, you're doing a great job. My daughter says she wants to hear what I recommend but she's off at school and I don't get to be there when the on switch goes off. My son is into Godzilla so maybe someday he'll come around. My wife is damn near deaf but I did get to turn her on to Kate Bush, Phoebe Snow, Simply Red and Anita Baker. I could never in million years get her into Tom Waits and "Disengage" by Robert Fripp. You're like the son I wished I could kill time with and really lambaste with what I know is music that is like an epiphany when you first hear it. God speaks through so many gifted humans and it's a shame we can't all share it, even within the families that love us. (I don't have the time!). You have the time. Love you brother!

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

DAVID BOWIE WAS HIS OWN "GENRE".😎😎💋💋

[@nigeltown6999]

"Rock and Roll With Me" is right up there in my favorite Bowie tracks - this album is always served badly and you have been no exception - it deserves to be listened to as an Album! Ah well...

[@paulthornton918]

Sweet thing etc, is more an experience than a song, Bowie's greatest vocal performance I think.

[@shemanic1]

"Sweet Thing" is an epic saga from Bowie. Keep up these great reactions dude.

[@mana3735]

Love Rock N Roll With Me...rarely gets a look in, but it's a top tune.

[@targetshootr]

Love this album. He came to town in '74 with his city street stage and put on a show.

[@maryelizabethreynoldsprice2135]

I love Wednesdays I love Bowie Wednesdays and Lee reactions on Wednesdays. I knew that you would freaking love that's suite. And you were right his vocals were off the chain. By the way I hit the notification Bell to be notified for this and I never got it but I knew it was Wednesday morning so I 'knew to come here anyway. I cannot wait for you to do We are the Dead. I love this entire album and 50 years of me listening to this album it's still sounds as fresh and exciting as when I heard the first time. Think about that these songs were done 50 years ago. I truly don't think that man came from this planet I knew back when I was 14 years old when this came out that it was something incredible I miss knowing he's on the planet but boy did he surely a wealth of himself behind for us to enjoy Ponder or wonder about. He was brilliant and I am enjoying the heck out of watching you discover these songs for the first time. I feel like I'm reliving my youth and my excitement when a Bowie album was released. Thank you Lee and I look forward to next Wednesday.

[@spectorcollector]

One of the most elaborate live rock shows ever; just mind-blowing.

[@mftoms59]

Bowie Live is in my top TWo Live Albums from ANYONE, Great Vocal renditions with plenty of Instrumental Solos.

[@mftoms59]

1974, I think!

[@jeffmiller4832]

All I can say is, if Lee liked the studio version of Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing(reprise); Earl Slick on lead guitar dueling the sax player on David Live is gonna give him….FUCKIN goosebumps! betcha 🍻 ✌️❤️&😊

[@mftoms59]

@@jeffmiller4832 100% agree, EVERY SONG rocks HARD! My FAVORITE Bowie Live Album.

[@jeffmiller4832]

Diamond Dogs came out in 1974, David Live at the Tower Theatre, Philadelphia, 75.

[@TheMarlinspike]

Bowie's guitar on this is ace.

[@Ciargomes]

the live in the tour “diamond dogs” in 1974 🙌❤️

[@enriquealvarezgonzalez6391]

50 years old record and the same chaos in earth today,still ahead and a big masterpiece.All we are rebel rebel today against the Globalism are in debt with this masterpiece.Big brother knows it.We are not the dead.

[@hannsrhinesdale9769]

His early magnum opus. One of many.

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

Diamond Dogs Tour had the most costly stage of effects ever!!🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑 Unbelievable!!😲😳

[@paulmclaine6413]

Bowie. The only Rock God.

[@joey1127]

This whole album was a sort of re-imagining of Orwell's 1984. Fantastic Album when played in its entirety.

[@John-et9yl]

A brilliant stand alone track to listen to, which was recorded during the DD sessions but not included on the album is Candidate (alternate version). RIP the brilliant Herbie Flowers.

[@jeffmiller4832]

The next album was released in 75. His first live album, David Live at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia. A double LP. I’m sure I’ve commented about this subject in the past. Maybe there are others that like this concert album as much as I do. If so, let him know. 🖖🍻

[@corawheeler9355]

Bowie is always good. Enjoyed this.

[@bartholomewswarmkrunsh3859]

So glad you’ve covered these tracks, Sweet Thing & Candidate = awesome. Though I’m glad you did Hunky Dory first - after Diamond Dogs I think you should cover Space Oddity before moving on to Young Americans. Guess its all down to my OCD on doing things in order. Space Oddity is a great album too, especially tracks like Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed / Letter To Hermione / The Cygnet Committee / Memory Of A Free Festival - amongst my favourites of his work.

[@a.k.1740]

The suite "Sweet Thing"/"Candidate"/"Sweet Thing (Reprise)" is one of Bowie's greatest songs. I like the deep voice and the various upside-down keyboard sounds, as well as the fact that David does the flayed guitar parts, which create an uneasy atmosphere (not forgetting, of course, Mike Garson's cascading piano parts!). "Rock ‘n’ Roll with Me" is more in a soul vein, almost a foretaste for his next album, Young Americans. My favourite tracks from Diamond Dogs are the epic "Sweet Thing", "We Are the Dead", "1984" and "Big Brother"/"Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family".

[@DrVonChilla]

UBER-CLASSIC BOWIE. I've been listening to the "Diamond Dogs" album since 1976. It will continue to get regular play around my house for the rest of my life. DAVID BOWIE LIVES ❤

[@bentilley5412]

The world without Herbie is a lesser thing. 😢

[@nixonradio]

The change from the start to the end of Candidate is the sort of thing they should give knighthoods out for

[@jyjjy7]

There is another very different version of Candidate as well as the track Dodo from these sessions which should not be missed

[@davida.j.berner776]

An album of two parts: there's Bowie's own Diamond Dogs concept and a bunch of songs written for a stage/musical version of Orwell's 1984, which never materialised. The Sweet Thing Suite, though, is pure art rock. The lyrics are more obscure than much of Bowie's earlier output, because he was starting to experiment with "cut-ups." This was a process whereby he would write a song, cut the lyrics into small segments and then reassemble them in a random order. It's a literary technique that Bowie borrowed from William Burroughs.

[@thescrewfly]

Tony Newman, who you thought was Aynsley Dunbar, was a session man who had been in the 60s instrumental pop band Sounds Incorporated and the power trio May Blitz. More notably, he was the drummer on Jeff Beck's second album "Beck-Ola" which was pretty heavy for the time (early 69) and also featured Rod Stewart, Nicky Hopkins and Ron Wood (on bass).

[@Youtubechannel-po8cz]

I like the way you allow a song to breath, excellent!

[@JimBliss23]

I got this album along with Ziggy Stardust (on vinyl) for Christmas 1983 and they were my introduction to Bowie (aside from the singles Let's Dance & Ashes to Ashes which were in heavy rotation on the radio back then). They blew me away and I've been a massive fan ever since. I distinctly remember a lot of tension and a lengthy lecture a few weeks later when my Mum heard me listening to "Candidate"... the line "We'll buy some drugs and watch a band / Then jump in the river holding hands" didn't impress her at all 🙂

[@digrock7065]

Great choice - can’t wait to see reaction ⚡️⚡️

[@jimmymcintyre7944]

Glad u are doing this LP.

[@delorangeade]

A few "bests" for me with this one. Sweet Thing is my favourite Bowie song and my favourite Bowie vocal from my favourite Bowie album. Disjointed and dystopian, it reminds me very much of Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany which I probably read around the first time I heard this. The two are inextricably linked in my mind. Will You Rock and Roll With Me is just a great rock and roll song that lifts the mood of the album for a moment.

[@michaelcapewell4811]

May I suggest that after Diamond Dogs, you listen to Mick Ronson’s Slaughter on 10th Avenue album, which is similarly dramatic and widescreen 👍

[@jimmymcintyre7944]

Glad u are doing this album. I suggested this last week.

[@sharondavid-melly1498]

Spooky 🎭

[@mojobag01]

I like how the thumbnail appears to say "Shite" :)

[@manhattenman6075]

This song or songs contains the highest note Bowie sang during the chorus of Sweet thing and the lowest note during the first verse.

[@mana3735]

Sweet Thing and the other two ARE just one song, really. CDs couldn't work it out.

[@genegarrett3372]

always a fan of Orwell and especially 1984; always a source for many essays in school, BUT.......................

[@lemming9984]

Anthony Philips and Rick Wakeman had albums titled 1984.

[@patrickdoake6022]

Play david live lp both tracks on it many others one of my favorite live lps equal to made in japan, rock n roll animal etc, try it you wont regret it

[@btj-oo8xc]

Bowie's scruffy album, but it's just so f***ing good

[@sukie584]

Into Rebel Rebel….

[@robrob7400]

His Anthony Newly stage

[@WendyDarling1974]

As much as Bowie is revered, I don’t think he gets nearly enough credit as a vocalist. He really shows off his range and unique abilities on this song. He can go quite low, but then jump up to high and do a falsetto. You can’t possibly hear one of his songs and not know it’s him. Meanwhile the sax, piano and drums in this evokes a similar sound to Blackstar. He was integrated jazz into his work a lot through the years..

[@murraymejka]

This is Ziggys read a book and made it a musical.

[@jamesgalimo1007]

I saw "Sweet Thing" and immediately thought, Chaka Khan... but this song is good, too. However, if you feel like getting funky, check out this song by Rufus and Chaka Khan: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kH3Em2eMgraZrsU

[@vincentschmitt7597]

That's a gatefold album cover btw. Are you ready to see the other half? Hmmm, you may not sleep well that night.

[@sukie584]

Tres butch little number whines, dirty I want you, when it’s good it’s really good when it’s bad I go to pieces..

[@alansmith4748]

The first 3 songs were one song 😕

[@daytripper9222]

Oh no, I know this song very well but believe me when I say the live album from David Bowie called (STAGE) has this song on it and it's a much better version.

[@John-et9yl]

Sweet Thing is on David Live not Stage

[@trainman5323]

Correct it’s on David Live but I think the studio version is better. Bowies even admitted his David Live recordings were weak in many spots. His voice was not at its best. Living hard and fast at that time. The Philly Tower Theater arrangements was cool tho because it was his transition to plastic soul.

[@daytripper9222]

​@@trainman5323I may have got that wrong but nevertheless I still think the live version is better.

[@trainman5323]

@@daytripper9222Everyone likes what they like. No wrong answer. It’s all good!

[@johnbarleycorn9683]

My favorite Bowie album.