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Words and music by David Bowie.
(spoken) This ain't rock'n'roll. This is genocide! As they pulled you out of the oxygen tent You asked for the latest party With your silicone hump and your ten inch stump Dressed like a priest you was Tod Browning's freak you was Crawling down the alley on your hands and knee I'm sure you're not protected, for it's plain to see The diamond dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees Hunt you to the ground they will, mannequins with kill appeal CHORUS (Will they come?) I'll keep a friend serene (Will they come?) Oh baby, come unto me (Will they come?) Well, she's come, been and gone. Come out of the garden, baby You'll catch your death in the fog Young girl, they call them the Diamond Dogs Young girl, they call them the Diamond Dogs The Halloween Jack is a real cool cat And he lives on top of Manhattan Chase The elevator's broke, so he slides down a rope Onto the street below, oh Tarzie, go man go Meet his little hussy with his ghost town approach Her face is sans feature, but she wears a Dali brooch Sweetly reminiscent, something mother used to bake Wrecked up and paralyzed, Diamond Dogs are sableized CHORUS Oo-oo-ooh, call them the Diamond Dogs (x2) In the year of the scavenger, the season of the bitch Sashay on the boardwalk, scurry to the ditch Just another future song, lonely little kitsch (There's gonna be sorrow) try and wake up tomorrow CHORUS Ooh, call them the Diamond Dogs (x2) Bow-wow, woof woof, bow-wow, wow Call them the Diamond Dogs Dogs Call them the Diamond Dogs, call them, call them Call them the Diamond Dogs, call them, call them, ooo Call them the Diamond Dogs Keep cool Diamond Dogs rule, OK Hey-hey-hey-hey Beware of the Diamond Dogs (repeat)
I was wondering if anyone else has noticed the profound parallel between the lyrics of Diamond Dogs and Samuel R. Delaney's ground breaking 1974 novel 'Dhalgren?' I know that Diamond Dogs began as music for a production of Orwell's '1984', but the similarities between the Diamond Dogs track and Dhalgren are striking--
The lyrics 'Your silicone hump and a ten inch stump,' corresponds with Delanie's protagonist having a sexual encounter with a woman who turns into a tree in the opening scene on the first chapter. 'Dressed like a priest she was,' could easily refer to Dahlgren's protagonist's being aided a black woman dressed as a Catholic priest, the first person he sees when he arrives in Belona, the city wrenched out of the normal flow of time. Halloween Jack corresponds with the character 'Tack', a cool fellow who lives on--you guessed it-- the roof of a high rise like the 'Manhattan Chase'.
Everything's there, from 'crawling down the alley on your hands and knees' to 'The elevator's broke so he slides down a rope', just about every lyric is a scene from this mind-bending novel. As you can see, the similarities are freakish. These examples are just in the first two stanzas of the song and the first chapter of the novel. There's a lot more where those came from.
Did any other Bowie/sci-fi fans catch this? I'd love some feedback on this, I've been wondering about it for over twenty years!!
