David Bowie : Diamond Dogs

Glam Rock / United-Kingdom
(1974 - RCA Records)
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Lyrics

1.FUTURE LEGEND

And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy
thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in Temperance Building
High on Poacher's Hill
And red, mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheels
Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coverting 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
Any day now
The Year of the Diamond Dogs
This ain't Rock'n'Roll
This is Genocide

2.DIAMOND DOGS

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
Todd 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
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
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
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
Oh, call them the Diamond Dogs
Oh, call them the Diamond Dogs
Call them the Diamond Dogs
Keep cool, Diamond Dogs rule
Beware of the Diamond Dogs

3.SWEET THING

It's safe in the city, to love in a doorway
To wrangle some screens from the door
And isn't it me, putting pain in a stranger
Like a portrait in flesh, who trails on a leash
Will you see that I'm scared and I'm lonely
So I'll break up my room, and yawn and I
Run to the centre of things
Where the knowing one says
Boys, boys, its a sweet thing
Boys, boys, its a sweet thing, sweet thing
If you want it, boys, get it here, thing
'Cause hope, boys, is a cheap thing, cheap thing
I'm glad that you're older than me
Makes me feel important and free
Does that make you smile, isn't that me
I'm in your way, and I'll steal every moment
If his trade is a curse, then I'll bless you
And turn to the crossroads, and hamburgers

4.CANDIDATE

I'll make you a deal, like any other candidate
We'll pretend we're walking home 'cause your future's at stake
My set is amazing, it even smells like a street
There's a bar at the end where I can meet you and your friend
Someone scrawled on the wall "I smell the blood of les tricoteuses"
Who wrote up scandals in other bars
I'm having so much fun with the poisonous people
Spreading rumours and lies and stories they made up
Some make you sing and some make you scream
One makes you wish that you'd never been seen
But there's a shop on the corner that's selling papier mache
Making bullet-proof faces, Charlie Manson, Cassius Clay
If you want it, boys, get it here, thing
So you scream out of line
"I want you! I need you! Anyone out there? Any time?"
Tres butch little number whines "Hey dirty, I want you
When it's good, it's really good, and when it's bad
I go to pieces"
If you want it, boys, get it here, thing
Well, on the street where you live
I could not hold up my head
For I put all I have in another bed
On another floor, in the back of a car
In the cellar like a church with the door ajar
Well, I guess we've must be looking for a different kind
But we can't stop trying 'til we break up our minds
Til the sun drips blood on the seedy young knights
Who press you on the ground while shaking in fright
I guess we could cruise down one more time
With you by my side, it should be fine
We'll buy some drugs and watch a band
Then jump in the river holding hands

5. SWEET THING (REPRISE)

If you want it, boys, get it here thing
'Cause hope, boys, is a cheap thing, cheap thing
Is it nice in your snow storm, freezing your brain
Do you think that your face looks the same
Then let it be, it's all I ever wanted
It's a street with a deal, and a taste
It's got claws, it's got me, it's got you

6. REBEL REBEL

You've got your mother in a whirl
She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl
Hey babe, your hair's alright
Hey babe, let's go out tonight
You like me, and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they're playing hard
You want more and you want it fast
They put you down, they say I'm wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on
Rebel Rebel, you've torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know
Hot tramp, I love you so
Don't you?
You've torn your dress, your face is a mess
You can't get enough, but enough ain't the test
You've got your transmission and your live wire
You got your cue line and a handful of ludes
You wanna be there when they count up the dudes
And I love your dress
You're a juvenile success
Because your face is a mess
So how could they know
I said, how could they know
So what you wanna know Calamity's child
Where'd you wanna go
What can I do for you
Looks like you've been there too
'Cause you've torn your dress
And your face is a mess

7.ROCK ‘N ROLL WITH ME

You always were the one that knew
They sold us for the likes of you
I always wanted new surroundings
A room to rent while the lizards lay crying in the heat
Trying to remember who to meet
I would take a foxy kind of stand
While tens of thousands found me in demand
When you rock 'n' roll with me
No one else I'd rather be
Nobody here can do it for me
I'm in tears again
When you rock 'n' roll with me
Gentle hearts are counted down
The queue is out of sight and out of sounds
Me, I'm out of breath, but not quite doubting
I've found a door which lets me out

8. WE ARE THE DEAD

Something kind of hit me today
I looked at you and wondered if you saw things my way
People will hold us to blame
It hit me today, it hit me today
We're taking it hard all the time
Why don't we pass it by?
Just reply, you've changed your mind
We're fighting with the eyes of the blind
Taking it hard, taking it hard
Yet now
We feel that we are papers, choking on you nightly
They tell me: "Son, we want you, be elusive, but don't walk far"
For we're breaking in the new boys, deceive your next of kin
For you're dancing where the dogs decay, defecating ecstasy
You're just an ally of the leecher
Locator for the virgin King, but I love you in your fuck-me pumps
And your nimble dress that trails
Oh, dress yourself, my urchin one, for I hear them on the rails
Because of all we've seen, because of all we've said
We are the dead
One thing kind of touched me today
I looked at you and counted all the times we had laid
Pressing our love through the night
Knowing it's right, knowing it's right
Now I'm hoping someone will care
Living on the breath of a hope to be shared
Trusting on the sons of our love
That someone will care, someone will care
But now
We're today's scrambled creatures, locked in tomorrow's double feature
Heaven's on the pillow, its silence competes with hell
It's a twenty-four hour service, guaranteed to make you tell
And the streets are full of press men
Bent on getting hung and buried
And the legendary curtains are drawn 'round Baby Bankrupt
Who sucks you while you're sleeping
It's the theater of financiers
Count them, fifty 'round a table
White and dressed to kill
Oh caress yourself, my juicy
For my hands have all but withered
Oh dress yourself my urchin one, for I hear them on the stairs
Because of all we've seen, because of all we've said
We are the dead

9. 1984

Someday they won't let you
So now you must agree
The times they are a-telling
And the changing isn't free
You've read it in the tea leaves and the tracks are on TV
Beware the savage jaw of 1984
They'll split your pretty cranium, and fill it full of air
And tell that you're eighty, but brother, you won't care
You'll be shooting up on anything, tomorrow's never there
Beware the savage jaw of 1984
Come see, come see, remember me
We played out an all night movie role
You said it would last, but I guess we enrolled
In 1984, who could ask for more
1984
I'm looking for a vehicle, I'm looking for a ride
I'm looking for a party, I'm looking for a side
I'm looking for the treason that I knew in '65
Beware the savage jaw
Of 1984

10. BIG BROTHER

Don't talk of dust and roses
Or should we powder our noses
Don't live for last year's capers
Give me steel, give me steel, give me pulsars unreal
He'll build a glass asylum
With just a hint of mayhem
He'll build a better whirlpool
We'll be living from sin
then we can really begin
Please saviour, show us
Hear me, I'm graphically yours
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
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
We want you Big Brother

11.CHANT OF THE EVER CIRCLING SKELETAL FAMILY

Brother, shake it up, shake it up
Brother, move it up, move it up
Brother, shake it up, shake it up
Brother, move it up, move it up
Brother, shake it up, shake it up
Brother, move it up, move it up

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