Following Mr. Bowie's death on Sunday, the search for meaning in his own final works - the album 'Blackstar', which arrived on Friday, his 69th birthday, and the musical 'Lazarus' - has led back to Elvis. On this week's New York Times Popcast, the philosopher Simon Critchley, whose book 'Bowie' was released in 2014, points to the rare Elvis song 'Black Star', an alternate version of 'Flaming Star' from the 1960 Western of the same name.
Could it be ... at the very least, it's a fitting cosmic coincidence.
The lyrics speak for themselves:
Every man has a black star
A black star over his shoulder
And when a man sees his black star
He knows his time, his time has come
Black star don't shine on me, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There's a lot of livin' I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star
In 1960, Elvis Presley recorded 'Black Star'. It was intended to be the title track for a film, but when the film's title changed to 'Flaming Star', the song was ditched and re-recorded with the new title, and wasn't released until the Nineties.