Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

Ziggy flaming-rooster haircut) atop the body of a
reclining greyhound in a carnival freak show setting,
with the dog’s bollocks on full display. When RCA
saw the cover, they balked and insisted that the
pooch genitals be airbrushed out.
Diamond Dogs was always conceived to be
performed live. On the track “Candidate,” Bowie
sings, “My set is amazing, it even smells like the
street,” so by the time a returning Tony Visconti was
brought in to assist with strings and final mixes (this
after falling out with the increasingly ego-maniacal
and now culturally irrelevant Marc Bolan), Bowie set
about planning how to present the tracks live.
Toni Basil, the actress and choreographer who
had appeared in Easy Rider and would go on to
create David Byrne’s iconic hand gestures for the
Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” video (and of
course have one chart-topping hit of her own with the
immortal “Mickey”), was hired to put together dance
numbers for a set list that would include tracks from
all of Bowie’s RCA albums as well as The Man Who
Sold the World and the “Space Oddity” single.
Nothing would simply be sung and played this time
around. In fact, the Diamond Dogs “event” would be
so theatrical that the lighting designer hired, Jules
Fisher, was a Tony Award winner. Furthermore,
Fisher suggested that Bowie hire an actual theatrical
director for the tour.
“I had long been wanting to bring theater and rock
’n’ roll closer,” Fisher says today. “Even at this
juncture, I suggested we hire a director. So I