"Future Legend" is the opening track of 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...

's 1974 album 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...

. Its spoken narrative introduces the album's setting in a "glitter apoocalyse".

Music and lyrics

Barely a minute in length, "Future Legend" begins with a distorted howl and features Bowie's spoken-word vision of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, now renamed Hunger City. He describes "fleas the size of rats" and "rats the size of cats", and compares the humanoid inhabitants to "packs of dogs".

Halfway through the narration, the Richard Rodgers

Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

' tune "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" is a show tune and popular song from the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey. The song was introduced by Vivienne Segal in the 1940 Broadway production, and also sung by Miss Segal both on the 1950 hit record and in the 1952 Broadway revival...

" strikes up (the song and its composer appear on the track list of the original vinyl album but this credit is omitted on CD releases). "Future Legend" then morphs into the album's title track

Diamond Dogs (song)

"Diamond Dogs" is a 1974 single by David Bowie, and the title track of the album of the same name.The lyric introduces the listener to Bowie’s latest persona and his environment; Halloween Jack dwells on top of tenement buildings in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan...

, with the cry "This Ain't Rock and Roll, This Is Genocide!".

The narrative has been compared to the writings of William Burroughs

William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...

, particularly such phrases as "a baying pack of people" in Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order...

.

Influenced various company names such as Future Legend (UK based film, music and theatre company), Future Legend Records

Future Legend Records (independent label)

-Future Legend Records:Future Legend Records is a UK indie record label founded in 1992 by former D.J., record producer and songwriter Russell C. Brennan...

(UK indie record label), Future Legend (US based NY music store).

Live versions

A backing tape of the track was played as the lead-in to "Diamond Dogs" at some performances on Bowie's North American tour in 1974.

Cover versions

• Rancid Vat - "Bowiecide" single
• Aimee Kristi - Hero: The Main Man Records Tribute to David Bowie (2007)