This is one of the key pieces of the first half of the album, which describes a gang of hedonistic nomads wandering around and living however they want and generally enjoying the lack of government (the first song, Future Legend, describes the destruction of society, presumably because of some nuclear holocaust). Eventually, when the narrative starts describing a brutal dictatorship which was inspired by the world of Orwell's '1984' one is left to assume that the wanderers, The Diamond Dogs, led some kind of assault against said government and were defeated. This is evidenced by the fact that Bowie cited the Burroughs novel 'Wild Boys' as a source of inspiration and the narrative is also very reminescent of 'Cities of the Red Night'. In both 'Wild Boys' and 'Cities of the Red Night' a semi-organized gang of rebels forming in the wake of the apocalypse attack a surviving all-powerful police state in the name of individual freedom. In both novels the gangs indulge freely and excessively in drugs and free love and in the first half of 'Diamond Dogs' this is also described (I suppose this is a rather dark take on 'free love' but I guess it still qualifies). The pace, mood and lyrics of 'Candidate' suggest the nihilistic behavior and the soul-deep boredom and jadedness that begets nihilism reaches an all-time high (or low) and after the brutal climax the narrator is pushed beyound the point of caring and mellows out. Afterword, in 'Rebel Rebel', one may suspect that a naive young person encounters the main character, sees what he is and falls in love with him for it (i.e mistaking his jadedness for worldliness?) or maybe the other way around (the burnt out tread falls in love with a young person's vigor and energy)...but I should save that for the 'Rebel Rebel' section.
This is one of the key pieces of the first half of the album, which describes a gang of hedonistic nomads wandering around and living however they want and generally enjoying the lack of government (the first song, Future Legend, describes the destruction of society, presumably because of some nuclear holocaust). Eventually, when the narrative starts describing a brutal dictatorship which was inspired by the world of Orwell's '1984' one is left to assume that the wanderers, The Diamond Dogs, led some kind of assault against said government and were defeated. This is evidenced by the fact that Bowie cited the Burroughs novel 'Wild Boys' as a source of inspiration and the narrative is also very reminescent of 'Cities of the Red Night'. In both 'Wild Boys' and 'Cities of the Red Night' a semi-organized gang of rebels forming in the wake of the apocalypse attack a surviving all-powerful police state in the name of individual freedom. In both novels the gangs indulge freely and excessively in drugs and free love and in the first half of 'Diamond Dogs' this is also described (I suppose this is a rather dark take on 'free love' but I guess it still qualifies). The pace, mood and lyrics of 'Candidate' suggest the nihilistic behavior and the soul-deep boredom and jadedness that begets nihilism reaches an all-time high (or low) and after the brutal climax the narrator is pushed beyound the point of caring and mellows out. Afterword, in 'Rebel Rebel', one may suspect that a naive young person encounters the main character, sees what he is and falls in love with him for it (i.e mistaking his jadedness for worldliness?) or maybe the other way around (the burnt out tread falls in love with a young person's vigor and energy)...but I should save that for the 'Rebel Rebel' section.