Send In the Clowns

Woke up from a dream where Anthony Newly and David Bowie were dueting on Send In the Clowns.

‘the fuck?

Naturally, I unleashed my breathtakingly prodigious google fu to find out if I was dreaming a memory or putting two and two together and getting seven in that cracked brain ‘o’ mine.

While I didn't find a vid of the two of them together, I did find this:

From a post on the site Psychobabble, Heroes : 9 Artists Who Helped Shape David Bowie

Newley’s slightly vaudevillian show tunes were the key influence of David Bowie, but they also impacted Bowie’s more significant later works from Hunky Dory to Diamond Dogs. His zeal for the actor/singer/songwriter is also significant in Bowie’s view of himself as an “actor” who’d play innumerable roles on the rock stage, in the theater, and the cinema.

The other eight helpers?

The Who
Davy Jones—YES, of Monkees fame. No, the article doesn’t claim Davy Jones was a musical influence, it’s the name thing. Monkee boy was out first so Bowie’s publicist said, essentially, “Oh no, no, no. You’ve GOT to change your name NOW! God forbid anyone confuse you with that teenybopped midget!”
Bob Dylan ????? oh rilly?
Stanley Kubrick
Marc Bolin
Mick Jagger
Velvet Underground
Brian Eno

You can read the Psychobabble author’s theories and such on the particular influence each had.

I find this sort of bloviating on how this or that great artist came into being, just so tedious. It’s the conversation, the gee-aren’t-I-wickedly-wise-and-perceptive preening of freshman year college dorm rooms.

This article, at the Independent, also credits Newley.

Decca's in-house producer, Mike Vernon, was given the job of taking Bowie's strange songs and turning them into something the young, record-buying public might be interested in.
"I had never heard of him," Vernon says. "My first reaction was: he's a young Anthony Newley. There was a dramatic, show-tune influence in the songs and a storytelling approach that was unique at the time."

Additionally, it notes that Bowie was a fan of Pink Floyd.

Now, I totes can see how Pink Floyd may’ve had an affect on Mister Bowie. Hello — Major Tom anyone?

In any case, these two over the top performers were emoting the ever livin’ fuck outta the already bathetically sentimental tune Send In the Clowns, in my last dream of the night.

Nightmare? Overdose of Fabulosity?  Fevered dream memory of an old Mike Douglas Show? 

Who knows. I’m quite certain I need a double dose of extra strength Ibuprofen and another cuppa coffee right now though.