We Are the Dead

David Bowie is evidently versed in the art of the double entendre, and many of his songs rival even Bob Dylan's Desolation Row in lyrical complexity. This is most likely one of those songs. To me, We Are The Dead is a song of juxtaposition and comparison - the juxtaposition of tender affection and corporate avarice, and the comparison between totalitarian oppression and prostitution. The melancholy musings of the narrator as he regards his lover are broken the grotesque imagery of a corrupted society. Towards the end of the song, the juxtaposition disappears, as the beauty of a fragile relationship is crushed by the weight of the world.

The entirety of the first chorus appears to be an explicit description of street prostitution. The narrator is pimped out, instructed to stay close enough that his employers can maintain a hold over him, but also to keep a low profile. He prowls the streets and deceives other young people down on their luck, seducing them into his world of shame and abuse. Despite the allusion that the narrator does in fact carry out these tasks, he seems to feel even more ashamed for his participation in the deconstruction of innocence. Just another pathetic minion carrying out the commands of yet another pathetic minion, and, for whatever reason, he is powerless to rebel.

So the night-walking narrator of We Are The Dead is something of an alter-ego to O'Brien and Winston of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Ministry of Truth is symbolised by a brothel or group of pimps, and prostitution is another word for fascism. It's fascinating to get a look behind the scenes and into the mind of the enemy. O'Brien clearly possessed humanity and even a sense of individuality at some point, but he has allowed himself to become the shadow of a monster. In blind service, he continues to convert more souls into withered caricatures of living people, passing down his legacy of guilt and colourless existence. Winston and Julia are the innocents in the song, and O'Brien seeks to turn them into copies of himself.

And they're breaking. Winston looks at Julia or Julia looks at Winston, and both wonder whether or not they should simply give up and give in. When all is said and done, they do. They give up they're ideals, each other, and ultimately themselves. In the moment of the couple's capture, Winston implores Julia:

"Oh, caress yourself my juicy, For my hands have all but withered"

Thereby implying that his hands have not completely withered and are not completely dead. Of course, we know that both hero and heroine will be dead. A betrayal, although constituting weakened character, does not specifically indicate an utter lack of humanity on a person's part. It is the final betrayal in Nineteen Eight-Four that speaks of this deficiency. So who are The Dead? They are Winston, Julia, O'Brien. They are all who came before them and all that will follow after them, although even as they lay symbolically dying, they pray that someone will survive in a world where they themselves could not.

So there you have it: David Bowie's intellectually and emotionally stimulating masterpiece converted into my own especial brand of philosophical masturbation. Clearly, I Am The Dead.

This one is most definitely about Winston and Julia in "1984", a couple who are two of the only real rebels in a totalitarian, freakishly paranoid and emotionless society. The line, "Son, we want you, Be elusive but don't walk far," is especially a clue, as it makes reference to O'Brien, a character in the book who poses as an insurrectionary leader to attract the couple, but is then outed as a member of the Ministry of Truth, a group that tortures and occasionally kills anyone daring to question Big Brother.

Bowie is a master. This is a great song and the delivery in his voice are excellent. He sets the mood, and then really creates a masterpiece...what other rock star would sing this song?

This is the fragment of the book "1984" which inspired Bowie:

She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead, that from the moment of declaring war on the Party it was better to think of yourself as a corpse. "We are the dead", he said.

Eerie, sweet, and sad - like life in a paranoid emotionless society would be.

I know the song is about Winston and Julia but I have sort of adapted this song to be about the end of a relationship. Maybe when the couple realizes they should just cut their losses but it's never that easy... Oh, it's such a song. Makes me cry every time I hear it.

Winston & Julia? I have not read the book, but those two seem like John Lennon & his mum!! His middle name was Winston, her name was Julia

This song was written more than 30 years ago. In the 70's, 30 years before that was the forties. How much changed between the 40's & 70's, than the 70's & now. Listen to this track with young, new ears & there is very little advancement in music, or the arts. All of Bowie's stuff from that period stands the test of time.

'Oh, dress yourself, my urchin one For I hear them on the rails Because of all we've seen, because of all we've said We are the dead' Directly reminds me of the part where Wintson and Julia read the book and are then captured in the attic of the shop. The 'rails' part being the rails of the stairs.

Damnit, 1984 is so famous and I still haven't read it. This dude kept telling me that this whole album was shit, but I don't think so. "because of all we've said - we are the dead" that part gets me, not sure what it means but I feel it. It DOES stand the test of time.