David Bowie: Big Brother Meaning

Big Brother Lyrics

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...

1.  

   anonymous

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   Aug 18th, 8:23am report

   
   

   It is a song sung to God by people searching for answers.

   
   
   
   

2.  

   655alive

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   Jun 30th, 2015 6:47pm report

   
   

   Bowie was going through a lot of turmoil at this time. There was hardly a rock musician from mid- (or post-) WW2 England who couldn't ignore how easy it was to see how their own ability to sway mass movements of a new generation seeking change could evolve with the slightest slip into an abuse of cult-like power rivaling that of Hitler. This easy line to cross from fan to genocidal fanatic (Bowie starts "Diamond Dogs" with the line "This isn't Rock & Roll-this is genocide!"-the new usurping the old) was demonstrated to rock operas like Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and The Who's "Tommy". I'm sure Bowie was well aware the Hitler was a former art student like himself.

   
   
   
   

3.  

   anonymous

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   Jun 10th, 2015 6:00pm report

   
   

   First interpretation, eh? Alright. Allegedly David was going to make a musical based on George Orwell 's classic 1984 and this is follow up song. Interesting to me is how he transforms Big Brother government system, impersonal and technological, into a leader type messiah. In the song he is searching for a savior, someone to "claim" them. A "glass asylum with just a hint of mayhem" sounds like our society now, actually! Insanity, the inmates run the show, in a see through world where privacy no longer exists