“David Bowie’s Brain” by Kelly Deco (2023)

I came across an article on the web site Anti Music about the release of a new album, Constellation, by Kelly Deco (click on “article” to link to the story). Never heard of him? Me neither, but he seems to have been influenced by Bowie and the article focuses on one of the songs off the album, “David Bowie’s Brain.”

I’ve posted the song here so you can hear it for yourself. I haven’t been able to find the lyrics but have listened to the song a couple of times and I think it’s roughly about trying to seek inspiration in the spirit of Bowie. Deco manages to work in some words and phrases associated with Bowie— “space ships;” “strange” (as in, “turn and face the strange”); “looking for someone lost in a role;” “change;” “control” (as in “ground control”); and “fashion.” At one point he sings, “tonight, tonight, tonight” (it’s funny how often “Tonight” is associated with Bowie, considering how many fans don’t like the album of that name).

I haven’t listened to the rest of the album, but it might be infused with further Bowie influence, with songs like “Destination Fascination” and “Waiting for the Girl” which evoke songs like Bowie’s, “Fascination” and “Waiting for the Man,” which was originally a Velvet Underground song but which Bowie covered. The album cover art features a space ship, though that image looks more like something from the band Boston than Bowie.

In the Anti Music article, Deco explains, “ In David Bowie’s Brain, we enter a world where trouble has happened on a space adventure and the mind of a lost astronaut is fading. To tell this story I had to borrow from known earth life events to get to understand what IS and to get to know David Bowie but all we have is traces in time. All the parts of David Bowie’s life are complicated and so the narrative stays simple.”

I didn’t pick up on the lost astronaut part of the song, and I don’t mean to argue with the guy who wrote and performed it, but I’m sticking to the search for creative inspiration. He’s looking to think like Bowie. This is more “Sound and Vision” than “Space Oddity.” Not that it sounds like either, but that’s what I’m taking from it.