Aug 15
Future Legend / Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family
While I’ve still got that poster from Luke up there, thought I might add another shot from Diamond Dogs and as well tackle a couple of tunes from Diamond Dogs. Two of my all time favorites should do.
Diamond Dogs was to be Bowie’s musical interpretation of George Orwell’s 1984. However, the Orwell family would have nothing to do with the project. So, Bowie had to set it up slightly different. In order to do this, he resorted to spoken word. The song was Future Legend. And, boy, did it EVER set the stage for what was to come:
And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in ancient Temperance Building
High on Poacher’s Hill
And red mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheelsFleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue
Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers
Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald
in the day of the dog
the year of the diamond dog…..
this aint rock and roll this is genocide
Bowie then cuts straight into the song Diamond Dogs. Which, quite honestly to me is a huge letdown from the buildup of Future Legend. The album then morphs from bawdy to downright suicidal as Bowie depicts a future totally void of hope with perversions around every corner. It gets ugly. Bowie then tries to bring the listener back up a little with the twisted hope of Big Brother, only to end his interpretation of the future with the very rocking and very bizarre “Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family”:
Brother
Ooh-ooh
Shake it up, shake it up
Move it up, move it upBrother
Ooh-ooh
Shake it up, shake it up
Move it up, move it upBrother
Ooh-ooh
Shake it up, shake it up
Move it up, move it upBrother
Ooh-ooh
Shake it up, shake it up
Move it up, move it upBrother
Ooh-ooh
Shake it up, shake it up
Move it up, move it upBrother
Ooh-ooh
Shake it up, shake it up
Move it up, move it upBrother
Ooh-ooh
Shake it up, shake it up
Move it up, move it upBro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro-Bro…………………………..
There it is folks, when all hope is lost, Big Brother’s gonna dance.
Feel better now?
“Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family” has by far one of the catchiest guitar riffs ever made by anyone ever. However, it clocks in at about 2:00 with stuck tape “Bro” repitition at the end. So, it never got any radio play. I always felt that if Bowie had added just a little extra something to that song to clock it in at least 2:30, it could have been a monster hit. It’s that much fun.
Even with a combined duration of 3:00 between the two songs, they are both absolule must haves for a Bowie collection. You’re not truly experienced in what Bowie used to do until you’ve memorized the lyrics to both. Just trust me on that. And, neither are on anything that I’m aware of other than the original Diamond Dogs.
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DD is ny favourite Bowie album of all time. For me, it just sounds complete in the sense that it sets out to portray a post nuclear holocaust combining a 1984 scenario. Mind blowing when your 13 years old.
I love ‘We are the Dead’, probably my favourite track. Tho’ it varies with my mood.
How do you properly desscribe ‘Chant..’ to anyone. I love the way it builds up to the climax of Bro. I really don’t think I have ever heard anything else quite like it. A truly brilliant masterpiece of an album.
I read on Margaret Chow’s website of her meeting with Bowie and her attendance at A Reality gigs. She met Marilyn Manson and he said he plays Diamond Dogs before he goes on stage.Mmm.. not sure what to make of that.
I’ve seen several references to Marilyn citing Bowie. I think with a lot of the glam rockers, Bowie is sort of the god of the genre. And nothing epitomized the glam genre more than DD. He had some other songs like “John I’m Only Dancing” that were more glam at face value, but nothing from start to finish was more decadent and ambiguous than DD. I can see it, I don’t have a hard time making anything of it. A lot of people you’d never expect use Bowie as a stage motivation.