Written by: David Bowie
Recorded: 1974
Producer: David Bowie
Released: 24 May 1974
Available on:
Diamond Dogs
Glass Spider (Live Montreal ’87)
Personnel
David Bowie: vocals, guitar, Moog, MellotronHerbie Flowers: bass guitar
Tony Newman: drums
Geoff MacCormack: percussion
Tony Visconti: effects
The climactic final track on David Bowie’s 1974 album Diamond Dogs, ‘Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family’ is a two-minute piece which emerge from the final notes of ‘Big Brother’.
Musically, the song is driven by Bowie’s phased guitar riff, which alternates between one bar in 5/4 time and one in 6/4. The chords are a looped sequence of of E, D, G, A and C major, over which Bowie sings a sparse set of lyrics: “Brother”; “Ooh-ooh”; Shake it up, shake it up”; “move it up, move it up”.
This is not your mother’s rock and roll. It’s not a 4/4 beat. This is like early fusion jazz in 5/4, then 6/4 and it keeps changing times and these sounds that repeat over and over and. This is outside Bowie well before Outside Bowie. #TimsTwitterListeningParty
— Mike Garson (@mikegarson) July 12, 2020
Bowie wished to end the song and album with a repeated loop of the word “Brother”. Tony Visconti, who mixed the Diamond Dogs album, was experimenting with a new effects unit, an Eventide digital delay. Due to the limitations of the machine, only the first part of the word could be captured.
The digital delay fascinated David. We were applying it to backing vocals, guitar solos, drum fills and several other elements. With David anything goes. I knew this was a future shock themed album and I worked out many ways to make things sound shocking when necessary. Probably the most radical thing we did with the Eventide was after I explained that the digital delay could sample and store sounds, then I gave him a demonstration. The sampler and its cousins, the Harmonizer, the Instant Flanger, the Instant Phaser, were the first digital devices that changed the music of the late 70s dramatically. David asked if I could capture the word ‘brother’ at the end of the last track, ‘Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family’, and repeat it ad infinitum. Of course I could, but lo and behold, that short word was too long for the puny memory banks in the machine. Storage was very limited in those days. So I managed to capture just ‘bro’ with a snare drum hit and that actually sounded amazing, like a robot with AI that was not working very well singing it.
Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) book
At the end here you keep hearing this avente-garde experimental looping of “bro, bro, bro, bro…” much like the Beatles did on their Sgt. Pepper album. #TimsTwitterListeningParty
— Mike Garson (@mikegarson) July 12, 2020
‘Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family’ was performed live during the Diamond Dogs Tour in 1974, as heard after ‘Big Brother’ on the David Live and Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles ’74) albums. A tape machine, used to recreate the loop and the end of the song, was unreliable, however, and occasionally played at incorrect times, as heard during ‘Time’ in the BBC documentary Cracked Actor.
The song was also played after ‘Big Brother’ during the Glass Spider Tour in 1987. A recording can be heard on the album Glass Spider (Live Montreal ’87), in the Loving The Alien (1983-1988) box set.
Lyrics
Brother
Ooh-ooh
Shake it up, shake it up
Move it up, move it up
Bro bro bro bro bro bro bro bro bro…
I am not a musician. I love music but I have very little understanding of it – and not to be pretentious but I am a scientist and a pretty good one. Anyway I think the last few paragraphs may explain the way the guitar in the song is manifest in the last 35 seconds or so. The sound , in my estimation , approaches becoming a tangible presence. I have never heard anything else like it….before or after. I am mesmerized by the song…as short and lyrically simple as it is
The first time I heard this it was like an epiphany. I actually blurted out “what the *** is that?”
Cue mellotron choir…
I was truly blown away with this. I had never before or since met such a tangible emotion or urgency in music that spoke to me in a personal way, like I had always known it. Catchy as hell and irresistible, I can listen to this on loop for many a time. And the sudden abruptness of the end is matched only with the inevitable ominous repetition of coming to an end. To me, this is true creative Bowie genius.
The first time I heard this song was when I got Diamond Dogs on vinyl. When the song reached the part where “Bro” repeated I honestly thought that something was wrong with the record and the needle was skipping.
I’ve gotten attached to Chant of Ever Circling …, playing it over and over. Nobody born after about 1969 can begin to create what was done while they were toddlers in the early ’70s. It might as well be a felony for them to try, for they can’t do a thing. Boring little things. Mommy should put them back in the mini-van and kiss them.
I enjoyed Mr. Bowie at Friday’s in Nashville, Tennessee in 1978. He had a sense of humour!
Bowie after glitter. I am a musician, considered talented by some, and when I could no longer play drums – which were/are my first love it was this album, this song that most influenced my ear/mind/direction as a new guitarist. I still consider it to be one of his two best records. Funny thing that most don’t know about Bowie is how universally popular he was with those who would be called ‘punk rockers’. We ALL loved Bowie. I hope there’s a heaven if for no other reason that I get to hear Bowie again.
Hey, I made this for anyone interested:
(Intro part)
5/4 = a – a – e – – c – –
6/4 = a – a – d – e – – d – –
5/4 = a – a – e – – c – –
6/4 = a – a – d – d – – g – –
6/4 = e – e – a/d – g – – d – – (Brother)
5/4 = a – a – e – – d – – (Ooh ooh)
__________________________
Circling chant:
5/4 = a – a – e – – c – – (Shake it up, shake it up)
6/4 = a – a – d – e – – d – –
5/4 = a – a – e – – c – – (Move it up, movie it up)
6/4 = a – a – d – d – – g – –
6/4 = e – e – a/d – g – – d – – (Brother)
5/4 = a – a – e – – d – – (Ooh ooh)
(Repeat measures below line)
1 hyphen ( – ) = pause
2 hyphens ( – – ) = legato
The time signature relates to guitar, bass, percussion parts and vocals. The drum kit plays a straight 4/4 beat throughout the song!
Percussion parts: tambourine, güiro and wood block
I spent almost a whole morning trying to record a cover of this. The best I could do was just follow the recording and I gave up. I had no idea how to set up my project in my DAW.
I would love to know the origins of the time sinature. It never dawned on me that it could be an actual Gregorian Chant.
And thank you for posting this. I am definitely going to give it another go. I guess I’ll record the drum parts first in 4/4. Skip the metronome and use a click track.
I always loved singing along to this when I was younger. And I enjoyed getting all the “ooh oohs” and ” shake it ups” in the right spot.