"Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" is a song written by David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 in 1974 ending his Diamond Dogs

Diamond Dogs

Diamond Dogs is a concept album by David Bowie, originally released by RCA Records in 1974. Thematically it was a marriage of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Bowie's own glam-tinged vision of a post-apocalyptic world...

album.

The song ends with the endlessly repeating sound of "bruh-bruh-bruh...", the first syllable of the word 'Brother' from "(Big) Brother" (the title and refrain of the preceding track) as though the record had broken. Bowie's initial intention had been for the machine to repeat the whole of the word 'Brother', but accidentally discovered that just the first syllable sounded much better. As the track fades out the repeating syllable sounds increasingly like the word "run", ending the record on a chilling note.

The Goth

Goth subculture

The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...

-band Skeletal Family

Skeletal Family

Skeletal Family were an English gothic rock band which formed in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England in December 1982. The band formed from the remaining membership of an earlier group, called The Elements, and took their name from the title of the song "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family"...

 took their name from this song.

Origin

This song is David Bowie's interpretation of George Orwell

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

's "Two Minutes Hate

Two Minutes Hate

In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Two Minutes Hate is a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting the Party's enemies and express their hatred for them.-Details in Nineteen Eighty-Four:The film and its accompanying auditory and...

" from his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...

. Its chanting refrain represents the mind-numbing influence that the two minutes has over the brainwashed citizens of Oceania, the totalitarian government depicted in the novel.

Live versions

• A live version from the 1974 tour was released on David Live
  David Live
  David Live is David Bowie’s first official live album, originally released by RCA Records in 1974. Recorded on the initial leg of Bowie’s US tour supporting Diamond Dogs in July of that year , it has been cited as one of the best live...
  
  , although on the same track as "Big Brother". Another live recording from the 1974 tour was released on the semi-legal album A Portrait in Flesh.

Cover versions

• Stevie Salas
  Stevie Salas
  Stevie Salas is a guitarist known for his work on George Clinton's albums, his collaborations with Koshi Inaba of B'z, and Hardware. He was in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, providing the fingerwork for George Carlin's guitar solo....
  
   - Presents the Electric Pow Wow (1994)
• The Wedding Present
  The Wedding Present
  The Wedding Present are a British indie rock group based in Leeds, England, formed in 1985 from the ashes of the Lost Pandas. The band's music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and Gang of Four to more varied forms...
  
  - Hitparade 2 (1992)