♦️🌟 "𝑫𝑰𝑨𝑴𝑶𝑵𝑫 𝑫𝑶𝑮𝑺" 𝑩𝒀 𝑫𝑨𝑽𝑰𝑫 𝑩𝑶𝑾𝑰𝑬 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑮𝑬𝑶𝑹𝑮𝑬 𝑶𝑹𝑾𝑬𝑳𝑳'𝑺 "1984" 🌟♦️

💎𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬!
Hope you are having some pleasant time here with us, and hope you are enjoying all the surprises we have prepared for you on this special occasion.
We all already know the deep professional and spiritual bond between Placebo and their guiding light David Bowie, but what I'm going to talk about in this post today is a further link between our favourite band and the White Duke, exactly through George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984' which maybe not all of us know yet.
✨ Are you ready? So, let's start the journey together! ✨
What I am going to talk about today is David Bowie's record 'Diamond Dogs'! 💥

Photo credit: Diamond Dogs album cover,Jean Baptiste Mondino/ edit by Emanuela

💦𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 '𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐎𝐆𝐒' – 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌💦
Diamond Dogs is the eighth studio album by David Bowie, released on May 24th 1974 through RCA Records. It was recorded it in early 1974 in London and in Netherlands, following the disbanding of Bowie's backing band the Spiders from Mars. The absence of Mick Ronson led Bowie to play guitar on the record. Musically, it was Bowie's final album in the glam rock genre.
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.
Conceived during a period of uncertainty over where his career was headed, Diamond Dogs is the result of multiple projects Bowie envisioned at the time. One of these was a musical based on Ziggy Stardust (1972), which he ultimately scrapped, another was 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥'𝐬 𝟏𝟗𝟒𝟗 𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥 '𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟒'.
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.
Bowie biographers consider it one of his best works and, in 2013, NME ranked it one of the greatest albums of all time. Diamond Dogs has been cited as an influence on the punk revolution in the years following its release.

Book cover

💦𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐃 𝐁𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐄'𝐒 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐀𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐎𝐑𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋'𝐒 "𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟒" 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇?
𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌💦
Diamond Dogs contains several references to George Orwell's classic 𝐝𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐚𝐧* science fiction story '1984' (most notably in the final third of the album, which directly quoted Orwell multiple times: 1984, Big Brother and We Are The Dead), but originally, the relation between Bowie's album and Orwell's novel was supposed to be much closer.
- *𝐴𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑂𝑟𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙'𝑠 '1984' 𝑤𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑜𝑓 '𝑑𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑎' 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒, 𝑢𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑎, 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑥𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒.-
When Bowie started working on the material that would become Diamond Dogs, he initially intended for it to be a musical adaptation of 1984; unfortunately, negotiations between the musician and Orwell's estate eventually fell through, and the estate refused to sell Bowie the rights.
According to an excerpt from "The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s", the Widow Orwell refused the rights on the grounds that she had no intention of allowing '1984' to be turned into a musical.
David Bowie's reaction was not long in coming, and the words he used for the Orwell's widow were quite sharp:
"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒: 𝑀𝑟𝑠 𝑂𝑟𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑢𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠, 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑘.
𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟-𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑠𝑛𝑜𝑏 𝐼’𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒”. ‘𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑠, 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐?' "’
It really was like that.
Not that Bowie was given singular treatment: so protective was Sonia Orwell of her late husband’s legacy, and so appalled had she been by a 1955 film adaptation, that she had turned down everyone who approached her wishing to translate Nineteen Eighty-Four into another medium.


What form that musical was ultimately meant to take isn’t totally clear. According to Christopher Sandford’s biography 'Bowie: Loving the Alien', the adaptation would've been “a West End musical, with an accompanying album and film.”
But in a Rolling Stone interview with William S. Burroughs from February 1974—just months before the release of Diamond Dogs—Bowie himself mentioned he was “doing Orwell’s '1984' on television.”
Though Sonia Orwell passed away in 1980, Bowie never resurrected his original plans for her husband’s harrowing tale.
But in January 2020, producers at Australia’s New Theatre did stage a 1984 musical that Sonia surely would have disapproved of.

Album cover

💦𝐎𝐑𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐋𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐒 '𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟒' 𝐀𝐍𝐃 '𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑' 𝐁𝐘 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐃 𝐁𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐄:💦

💥𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟒💥
‘1984’ was written as the title track for David Bowie’s proposed theatrical version of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
During a day’s filming at the Marquee on 20 October 1973, Bowie introduced ‘1984’ with the words: “𝑊𝑒’𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑎 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 ‘1984’. 𝑊𝑒’𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟.”
The song pays worthy homage to the book. Despite his glam plumage, Bowie could do dreary nihilism with the best of them. “1984” maintains the novel’s oppressive weight, honing in on Orwell’s depiction of thought control, specifically the state-issued propaganda which makes intellectual amputees of its citizens.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑦 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑢𝑚
𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑖𝑟
Bowie cries over eerie, high-strung strings.
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢 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

Photo credit: Terry ONeill

💥𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑💥
The link between David Bowie and George Orwell is also represented by the song 'Big Brother', the penultimate song on Diamond Dogs.
It takes up the 'Big Brother' of the Orwellian novel, a very popular dictator who constantly observes the actions of men and keeps them under control. Actually, Orwell never specifies whether he is a human being or simply a symbol, but in the collective imagination he represents a constant presence that always monitors. It is a figure that is very much quoted in television, in the world of cinema, etc.
The lyrics of ‘Big Brother’ reflect the moment in Orwell’s book when its protagonist Winston Smith’s brainwashing was complete, and he became fully supplicant towards the state.


𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑢𝑠, 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢
𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝐵𝑖𝑔 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟

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.

‘Big Brother’ also contains two drug references:
𝐷𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠
𝑂𝑟 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠
and the confessional
𝐿𝑜𝑟𝑑, 𝐼’𝑑 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑜𝑠𝑒
𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛
Bowie had been using cocaine since the tail end of the Ziggy Stardust tour, and at the start of 1974 was descending into an increasingly severe habit.
“𝑀𝑦 𝑑𝑟𝑢𝑔 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑, 𝐼 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑝𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑍𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑦 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑. 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑦, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑒. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑤𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝐷𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑜𝑔𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑙. 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑦. 𝐼’𝑣𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡. 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒, 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝐼 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡.”
(David Bowie, Mojo, July 2002)

Photo credit: Aperture

💎Dear Soulmates, since we found out more about the amazing David Bowie's Diamond Dogs, how it came about and the references to George Orwell's novel '1984', let's enjoy together two live performances of the two songs I just told you about:
𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐞 - 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟒/𝐃𝐨𝐝𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 (𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭 / 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝) 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟎 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰:
👉https://bit.ly/39lcnnC

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐞 - 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 (𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧, 𝟔/𝟔/𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟕):
👉https://bit.ly/38IiqT9


Take care of each other, on this amazing International Placebo Day

Post by Emanuela