Franklin Sane sings “Five Years (till the storm overcomes us)” (2022)

Frank Szymanski is a Probate Court judge in Detroit. He’s also “Franklin Sane,” a Bowie-inspired rocker, and this is his Bowie inspired song about climate change. I think this is fantastic — at least as a concept. At this point in my own career in public service, I have a job that actually has to do with climate change (which I think is the world’s most important issue), and obviously I have a Bowie hobby— but I have no musical talent at all. So good for this guy.

The song obviously references to Bowie’s “Five Years,” and has a Bowie feel to it, but it isn’t “Five Years” with modified lyrics. Other than the words, “We’ve got five years,” this song doesn’t directly borrow from Bowie’s original. But Szymanski is open about being inspired by Bowie (if it isn’t obvious, his stage name is based on Aladdin Sane). According to a statement the judge issued along with his song, “The song Five Years echoes the concept of David Bowie’s song of the same name from the iconic album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie’s song written and released in 1972, 50 years ago, was based on fiction. That song said ‘earth was really dying’ however there was no real mention of how or why — just the statement that the ‘news had just come over.’ Today we find ourselves in a wholly different set of circumstances. Sure it can be said that the world will not simply end in five years but the new cycle of storms and record temperatures is already causing the great forests of the world to burn incessantly across the globe, multiple swaths of land are turning into barren drought wastelands of desert unable to sustain crops to feed local farmers and their neighbors.”