I made an attempt many moons ago to put this together, but wasn't happy with the way it was going and set it aside. After seeing PJ's Albums I Wish Existed blog with his version of David Bowie's 1984, I decided to take another crack at it.
SIDE A
1. 1984
2. Candidate (Part 1)
3. Sweet Thing
4. Candidate (Part 2)
5. Sweet Thing (Reprise)
SIDE B
1. Dodo
2. We are the Dead
3. Big Brother
4. Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family
5. 1984 / Dodo (Reprise)
In 1973, Bowie wanted to adapt George Orwell's novel "1984" into a play and record music for it. But Orwell's widow refused to give Bowie the rights to the novel. So Bowie took some of the music he'd already written, added unrelated songs and released Diamond Dogs instead.
I've no idea what Bowie's original plan was or if he even completed writing and recording the music for his play. But taking what's been released, I've put together a possible version of 1984.
From Diamond Dogs, we use seven of the 11 tracks, including "1984," "Candidate," "Sweet Thing," "Sweet Thing (Reprise)," "We are the Dead," "Big Brother" and "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family." With a lot of previously unavailable Bowie music continually being released, we also have some additional tracks to use, including an alternate version of "Candidate," as well as "Dodo" and "1984/Dodo (Reprise)."
With the collection of songs at our disposal, I arranged the tracks in a way I thought flowed and took into consideration the time constraints of what would have been two sides of a vinyl album. I renamed the alternate version of "Candidate" as "Candidate (Part 1)" and the originally released version as "Candidate (Part 2)." So after the title song, we have the alternating Candidate/Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing to complete the first side.
Side B opens with "Dodo" with "1984/Dodo (Reprise)" closing out the album. I honestly don't know if I prefer this to Diamond Dogs, but I think it works thematically as a concept. However, I can't help but believe that to have enough music for an entire stage production this would have to be twice as long.
For a cover, I spotted this book cover for a pulp paperback version of the novel, cropped it and added Bowie's name.
