This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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 pulses 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 savior, savior, show us
Hear me, I'm graphically yours
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 think you'd overdose if you knew what's going down
Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool us, someone like you
Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool, someone like you
Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool, someone like you
We want you Big Brother
Or should we powder our noses?
Don't live for last year's capers
Give me steel, give me steel, give me pulses 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 savior, savior, show us
Hear me, I'm graphically yours
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 think you'd overdose if you knew what's going down
Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool us, someone like you
Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool, someone like you
Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool, someone like you
We want you Big Brother
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In the legend of the Trojan War, Apollo is bewitched by the mortal Cassandra's beauty, and promises her the gift of prophecy. When the time comes for Cassandra to receive her gift, however, things turn sour. Angered at Cassandra's refusal to sleep with him in payment for his generosity, Apollo curses Cassandra so that her prophecies will be disregarded by everyone. Later, when Cassandra warns of the Trojan Horse and its role in the downfall of Troy, the curse proves true. The Horse is wheeled inside the walls of the city and the Greeks slaughter the Trojan people. Cassandra herself is raped and killed later on as a Greek prisoner.
So Apollo/Big Brother deceives his faithful for selfish reasons while Winston-Julia/Cassandra try to escape their fate, even though they eventually fall along with everybody else. The Trojans were just as worshipful of Apollo as the citizens in Nineteen Eighty-Four were of Big Brother. And both sets of disciples were ultimately betrayed and destroyed by their respective deities. And maybe I'm just reading too much into this.
Vote Now! You Decide!
Don't talk of dust and roses Or should we powder our noses?
Ive always thought of those lines as eing about cocaine.
The chorus says it all: Someone to claim us, someone to follow/ Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo/ Someone to fool us, someone like you---what great lines for anyone that has bought into the political figures in the world. Bowie (within the 1984 theme) warns us not to trust leaders. Sound advice and what a great song. Love the distortion and the filtered vocals....
@Motown1 I really like the David Live version he changes the lyrics a little:<br /> Someone to LEAD us, someone to follow/ Someone to fool us, some brave Apollo/ Someone to shame us, someone like you.<br /> <br /> Listening to a song like this it absolutely blows my mind how genius he was.
I think this song is about Big Brother from George Orwell's 1984 (Bowie's quite a fan, if you haven't noticed) from the point of view of one of the brainwashed typical citizens who idolizes him.
I really enjoy the poetic quality of these lyrics. It flows very smoothly. I envision this song as sort of the origins of Big Brother. Sort of a sinless figure for people to look too. Someone to shame us. You get the idea.
"Don't talk of dust and roses Or should we powder our noses?" This is advice to avoid the waste of time that contemplating the inevitable of death("dust and roses") or wasting too much time on ever decaying appearances of ourselves or things("or should we powder our noses?"). In essense: "Get to the root of things!", which would be "pulsars/pulses unreal" with the objective certainty of them, solidity, being "steel" that is demanded.
The next phrase is more along the lines of telling of how one would remove themselves to seek such a state of mind to contemplate/experience such "steel pulses". You have to take these lyrics of Bowie's as monologues, conversations of the self with the Self. This whole album, 1984(and alot of his other work), may be a favorite book of his, but in the lyrics you can see him and his views woven in the manner he phrases these stories....they've become completely his own to describe completely a different thing (not society at large so much as one's individual, internal dealings with the very nature of being human).
Bowie wanted to do a musical "1984", but Orwells wife would not sanction it. This was one of the first songs written for the project
I thought that this was the central focus of this Orwellian album, until I heard '1984.' It's telling you not to waste time, and instead of treating Big Brother like this big camera that sees all, it sees it as a role model for others. "Someone to follow." Get it?
i love the saxophone work on this album
Is that saxophone? It sounds strange hmm, but good. Pretty obvious what it's about.
No, it's not saxophone - I play sax and no saxophone would ever make that kind of sound. It's a trumpet sound, and I'm fairly sure it's synthesized. Not only did I read that somewhere, but there is no trumpet or trumpet player listed on the credits and I'm fairly sure that even Bowie can't play trumpet [whereas he can play a synthesizer].<br /> <br /> This is a fantastic song, perfectly-placed on a bloody brilliant album. What an emotional trip, in such a context... this album leaves me spent like no other. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
No, it's not saxophone - I play sax and no saxophone would ever make that kind of sound. It's a trumpet sound, and I'm fairly sure it's synthesized. Not only did I read that somewhere, but there is no trumpet or trumpet player listed on the credits and I'm fairly sure that even Bowie can't play trumpet [whereas he can play a synthesizer].<br /> <br /> This is a fantastic song, perfectly-placed on a bloody brilliant album. What an emotional trip, in such a context... this album leaves me spent like no other. And I wouldn't have it any other way.