David Bowie – Big Brother

This ain't rock 'n' roll, this is genocide!

In 1974 David Bowie released Diamond Dogs, an album that marked his transition from his rock ‘n’ roll roots into his plastic soul era. Bowie wanted to write a musical for the book 1984but George Orwell’s wife didn’t allow it, so he then took some of the songs he had already recorded (Big Brother, 1984) and mixed them into this album. This mixture of songs feels weird since he’s musically switching through the record between his raw, original sound (in songs like Rebel, Rebel) to a more disco sound in others (1984).

This album tries to follow the concept of 1984, oppression and chaos. Without knowing it, Bowie made a record describing punk kids before punk kids were punks. According to Bowie’s biography by David Buckley (Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story), the Big Brother song is “a daring, insisted, frightening paean to the Super God”. Let’s see what’s this about:

Don’t talk of dust and roses
Or should we powder our noses?
Don’t live for last year’s capers

The time has come to stop wasting our thoughts on banal acts, stop worrying about your looks or the fun times you had in the past. None of that is important.

Give me steel, give me steel, give me pulses unreal

Let’s start producing! Let the real work begin!

Many lyrics use pulsars instead of pulses but I don’t see how that’d fit in here. After listening to the song too many times I’m pretty convinced that it’s pulses.

He’ll build a glass asylum
With just a hint of mayhem

Big Brother

A glass asylum is a place that provides safety (I don’t think we’re talking about a mental hospital here). The fact that it’s made out of glass serves to represent the illusion of freedom, the people inside it don’t see the outside walls so they live under the idea that they’re still free.

He’ll build a better whirlpool
We’ll be living from sin
Then we can really begin

The whirlpool, a bunch of currents spinning, serve to illustrate the point of the lies being
translated into half truths. Our Big Brother’s spin machine will keep feeding us lies and modified truths that will lead us to a life without sin.

Please saviour, saviour, show us
Hear me, I’m graphically yours

I’m not fully sure of what the graphically means here. It might be an allusion to the fact that the Big Brother sees everyone through cameras (and so he’s only getting the graphical representation of yourself). It might also be another way of saying “I’m fully yours, in every sense of the word”.

Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool us, someone like you
We want you, Big Brother, Big Brother

Ah, what a great chorus. Our character is now fully involved in this thing. Like Winston in
1984, the character has been fully brainwashed and now he praises the Big Brother.

Comparing the Big Brother to Apollo brings images of the perfect man, after all, Apollo is the mythical representation of what a man should look like. He’s also the guy that empowers you (and takes your powers away if you’re nasty).

I know you think you’re awful square
But you made everyone and you’ve been everywhere
Lord, I’d take an overdose if you knew what’s going down

An awful square is someone old fashioned and boringly conventional. The Big Brother gives his followers the impression that he’s just and old dude, not too relevant, but his disciples see him as the guy who “made everyone and is everywhere”. Our character would overdose if his leader told him to.

Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool us, someone like you

Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool, someone like you

Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool, someone like you
We want you, Big Brother

They must really want him.