The title track and second single off of Bowie’s 1974 album, Diamond Dogs. This song further explores the dystopian future set up in Future Legend.
Bowie uses the cut up technique, an aleatory literary technique in which a text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text, a process popularized in...
[Spoken Intro]
This ain't rock 'n' roll, this is genocide!
[Verse 1]
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
Tod 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 on to 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
Young girl, they call them the Diamond Dogs
[Verse 2]
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 Tarzan, 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 paralysed, Diamond Dogs are stabilised
[Chorus]
(Will they come?) I'll keep a friend serene
(Will they come?) Oh baby, come on to 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
Young girl, they call them the Diamond Dogs
[Bridge]
(Oo-oo-ooh) call them the Diamond Dogs
(Oo-oo-ooh) call them the Diamond Dogs
Oh, hoo!
Awoooooo!
Woof! Woof!
[Verse 3]
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]
(Will they come?) I'll keep a friend serene
(Will they come?) Oh baby, come on to 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
Young girl, they call them the Diamond Dogs
[Outro]
Oo-oo-ooh, call them the Diamond Dogs
Oo-oo-ooh, call them the Diamond Dogs
Bow-wow, woof woof, bow-wow, wow
Call them the Diamond Dogs
Dogs!
Call them the Diamond Dogs, call them, they call them
Call them the Diamond Dogs, call them, call them, ooh hoo!
Call them the Diamond Dogs
Keep cool, Diamond Dogs rule, OK
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
(Beware of the Diamond Dogs)
(Beware of the Diamond Dogs)
(Beware of the Diamond Dogs)
(Beware of the Diamond Dogs)
Diamond Dogs was written by David Bowie.
Diamond Dogs was produced by David Bowie.
David Bowie released Diamond Dogs on Thu Oct 24 1974.
Bowie said in 1974:
I had in my mind this kind of half Wild Boys/1984 world, and there were these ragamuffins, but they were a bit more violent than ragamuffins. I guess they staggered through from Clockwork Orange too. They’d taken over this barren city, this city that was falling apart. They’d be...