Bowie + Sinatra, Seavey + Seavey, and the House of Freaks

Strange musical connections:

A French song was the basis of "My Way."

And not only did the song not originate with Frank…Bowie did an unreleased cover of it before Frank did, called "Even a Fool Learns to Love."

And when he heard the Sinatra song a few years later, it inspired him to write something of a parody, and that song, the best song discussed in this blog entry by my standards, was "Life on Mars."

History is complicated.

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Speaking of duplications and space aliens, I only just noticed -- right after mocking belief in malevolent extraterrestrials earlier this week -- that one of the tiny handful of other Todd Seaveys in this world (there being only two or three others of whom I know, located in New England and therefore probably distant relatives of some sort, another in Minnesota having passed away recently) lists as one of his main interests on his Facebook page Exopolitics Radio, which is a station devoted to the belief that UFOs influence earthly politics (MLK, Eisenhower, and others having supposedly been secretly visited). 

And there was a time when Bowie believed in this sort of thing as well, but he was doing a lot of drugs and wearing Nazi uniforms back then, too, so it's best to put that all behind us, marvelous as it is how much the combo makes him like a living Michael Moorcock character.

NOTE: My doppelgangers are not as cool as those of my friend Diana Fleischman (evolutionary psychology researcher).  When I told her about another Diana Fleischman (who is herself a Facebook friend of a friend), Diana #1 said she’d previously known of only three other Diana Fleischmans: a sailboat-maker, a private investigator, and a Blackhawk helicopter pilot.  That’s a lot for a namesake to live up to.  Come to think of it, I met a guy about my age named James Bond once.  (Since Diana #1 is a vegan, she may be unhappy both that her own name essentially means Huntress Meat-Person and that the most prominent Seaveys of all are arguably the family of accomplished Iditarod champions.  Perhaps McGregor, from my March 6 entry, could work with them.)

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On a grimmer musical note, I only just learned what became of the band House of Freaks, who did the wonderful rockabillyish song "Sun Gone Down."  The singer/guitarist -- and his wife and two young daughters -- were murdered five years ago (and the murderers later caught, one sentenced to death, one to life).

I haven't been this bummed about checking up on an 80s musical act since reading up on what became of Stuart Adamson, lead singer of Big Country.  He moved to Nashville and drank himself to death in 2001 (luckily, my singer friend Nick Beaudoing, newly relocated there, does not seem likely to follow a similar path).

All right, off now to IFC to see the 11am My Perestroika.