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David Bowie - Diamond Dogs Album Lyrics



David Bowie - Diamond Dogs Lyrics






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"

[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: DAVID BOWIE
Copyright: Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, TINTORETTO MUSIC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC




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

[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

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]

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 [ad lib]

Keep cool - Diamond Dogs rule, OK
Beware of the Diamond Dogs [repeat]

[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: DAVID BOWIE
Copyright: Lyrics © TINTORETTO MUSIC, BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC




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

[CHORUS]
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, and...

[CHORUS]

[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: DAVID BOWIE
Copyright: Lyrics © TINTORETTO MUSIC, BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC




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

[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: DAVID BOWIE
Copyright: Lyrics © TINTORETTO MUSIC




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
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: DAVID BOWIE
Copyright: Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.




Rebel Rebel

Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo

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 ya?
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo

You've got your mother in a whirl 'cause she's
Not sure if you're a boy or a girl
Hey babe, your hair's alright
Hey babe, let's stay 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 ya?
Oh?
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo

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!

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, chi-chi, chi-chi
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
Ooh, your face is a mess
Ooh, ooh, so how could they know?
Eh, eh, how could they know?
Eh, eh
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: David Bowie
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG Rights Management, TINTORETTO MUSIC




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

[CHORUS]
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!

[CHORUS (x3)]

[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: DAVID BOWIE, GEOFF MC CORMACK
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, TINTORETTO MUSIC, BMG Rights Management




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 f*ck-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 some one 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
We are the dead
We are the dead

[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: DAVID BOWIE
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, TINTORETTO MUSIC, BMG Rights Management




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 neverthere
Beware the savage jaw
Of 1984

[CHORUS]
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 (who could ask for mor-or-or-or-ore)
(Mor-or-or-or-ore)

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

[CHORUS]

1984 [ad lib]

[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: David Bowie
Copyright: Lyrics © TINTORETTO MUSIC, BMG Rights Management




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, saviour, show us
Hear me, I'm graphically yours

[CHORUS]
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 every where
Lord, I'd take an overdose if you knew what's going down

[CHORUS (3 times)]

We want you Big Brother

[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: ANDY JONES, ROB LLOYD, ADE SCHOLEFIELD, NEIL SPRAGG
Copyright: Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC , Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, TINTORETTO MUSIC




Back to: David Bowie


Diamond Dogs is the eighth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 24 May 1974 through RCA Records. Bowie produced the album and recorded it in early 1974 in London and the Netherlands, following the disbanding of his backing band the Spiders from Mars and the departure of producer Ken Scott. Bowie played lead guitar on the record in the absence of Mick Ronson.

Diamond Dogs featured the return of Tony Visconti, who had not worked with Bowie for four years; the two would collaborate for the rest of the decade. Musically, it was Bowie's final album in the glam rock genre, though some songs were influenced by funk and soul music, which Bowie embraced on his next album, Young Americans (1975).

Conceived during a period of uncertainty over where his career was headed, Diamond Dogs is the result of multiple projects Bowie envisaged at the time: a scrapped musical based on Ziggy Stardust (1972); an adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949); and an urban apocalyptic scenario based on the writings of William S. Burroughs.

The title track introduces a new persona named Halloween Jack. Belgian artist Guy Peellaert painted the controversial cover artwork depicting Bowie as a half-man, half-dog hybrid, based on photos taken by photographer Terry O'Neill.

Preceded by the lead single "Rebel Rebel", Diamond Dogs was a commercial success, peaking at number one in the UK and number five in the US. It has received mixed reviews since its release, many criticising its lack of cohesion; Bowie's biographers consider it one of his best works and, in 2013, NME ranked it one of the greatest albums of all time.

Bowie supported the album on the Diamond Dogs Tour, which featured elaborate and expensive set-pieces. Retrospectively, Diamond Dogs has been cited as an influence on the punk revolution in the years following its release. It has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2016 for the Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) box set.
Performed By: David Bowie
Genre(s): Glam rock, proto-punk, soulart rock, funk
Producer(s): David Bowie
Length: 38:25
Released: May 24th, 1974
Year: 1974

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