David Bowie: Big Brother Meaning

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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, 2017 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