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4.6.9

Rockstars & Spacemen

I love the Killers. Their music is like U2, the Rolling Stones and New Order wrapped in one huge ball of light and awesome. Who wouldn't want that in one band, on one album, in one sitting?

But I'm not talking about the music. Well, I am...but truthfully I'm curious about one song in particular: SPACEMAN.

It's something David Bowie would do if he'd been an abductee. Not to say Bowie isn't in touch with the effervescent space deities but, not like this.

In 'Spaceman' the lyrics allude specifically to alien abduction. Yes, there's some flourish (about dream makers etc.,).

It begins with them ripping lead singer Brandon Flowers from his bed, and leaving strange impressions in his head. They take his blood type and cut him open. There are star makers, dream makers...allusions to things...to life being all in his mind. Isn't that what scientists have been saying for a while now?

He hears voices and he sends a message to human kind that as he puts it, wasn't 'televised'.

" They say the Nile used to run from east to west..."

A trajectory toward Egypt, which is where most ufologists and EBE enthusiasts look. Maybe it's Stargate's fault.

After listening to this song on heavy rotation, the video finally premiered. There are no spaceships or aliens. It's...yeah...Bowie-esque.

Has alien abduction become so mainstream that a band like the Killers can sing about it and no one blinks? Or is it because everyone else likes the beat but they have no frakking idea what the hell he's talking about?

I asked a few friends what they thought about the song. One commented that it sounded like an acid trip. Another said she figured it was a description of a lucid dream. And because three times' the charm, I asked a cousin who pointed out that lately everyone wants to be abducted and that perhaps Brandon Flowers is no different.

Wanting to be taken up into a spaceship and shown around the galaxy is a secret wish for people who feel that life down here, on solid earth is about as exciting as the line at the DMV. I can sympathize. Maybe if the whole E.T. lore didn't come complete with the horrors of being abducted and partially mutilated and brainwashed and then haunted from generation to generation, I'd want to be taken up into a spaceship myself.

I grew up on space operas. All I ever wanted was a trip around the universe; a quick stop on Mars to see if the FACE is in fact, a face.

But we all get older and I think a little wiser and we all stop expecting such whimsical things to happen. For those of us who've never actually been taken, atleast we can sleep easy tonight knowing that a song can be just a song. But for those who live with the nightmare of these beings invading their space and never, ever leaving them alone, this song could be a terror to hear.

On the flip side, I'm a huge Zombie fanatic and yet I can't sit through the THRILLER video and I can't stand to hear the song. It's true. I admit it. Now the world knows my secret. I don't foresee a zombie epidemic in our future, but I do see a possible E.T. encounter of epic proportions. So maybe oneday a song like 'SPACEMAN' will have more resonance.

That's cool.

But if this whole Alien thing turns out to be brain sucking mutants from Uranus...


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