Tin Shadows (or "Belaboring a Point")

It's hard to imagine a world without David Bowie, even though we've had to do without his company for almost two weeks now. When news of his death began to circulate, I came to the quick conclusion that any eulogies written for this site would ultimately be self serving. Sure, everything written here is self serving on one level or another ... the end goal for any website is to generate traffic, after all. But Bowie is so far afield from our regular content that it just felt exploitative to dogpile on his death.

My feelings on the subject haven't really changed, but my fascination with trivia refuses to let a few minor details pass. Bowie's influence on art was so far reaching that, yes, he even has a few tangential connections to DARK SHADOWS.

In 1977, Iggy Pop released "The Idiot," the first of his solo albums produced by Bowie. When Iggy went on tour to promote the record in March and April that year, Bowie tagged along as his keyboard player. Also part of the live band were Hunt and Tony Sales on drums and bass, respectively. The Sales brothers were the sons of television icon Soupy Sales and appeared on Iggy's next collaboration with Bowie, "Lust for Life."

(Note: "Sick of You," from Iggy Pop's 1975 demo album "Kill City," was featured in Tim Burton's DARK SHADOWS film. While the Sales brothers appeared on two tracks on the album, they actually don't perform on this song.)

A decade later, Bowie would feel the need to scratch a creative itch with the band Tin Machine. He recruited guitarist Reeves Gabrels and the Sales brothers for the controversial act, which continues to divide Bowie fans to this day (their first album is pretty great, in my opinion.) Gabrels would continue to work with Bowie after the dissolution of Tin Machine, eventually parting ways after the release of "Hours ..." in 1999.

In 2012, prompted by god only knows what, musician Jenna Vix released a song titled "In the House of Dark Shadows," featuring lyrics composed mostly of the great/goofy taglines used for 1970's HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS. "Come see how the vampires do it" is actually a lyric in this song.

Gabrels (who is apparently now a member of The Cure) plays guitar on the track. You can buy the song directly from Amazon HERE, though I can't really recommend it.

This seems like an awfully long way to walk for a minor piece of Bowie trivia, doesn't it?

Let's step backward in time to March 20, 1969. DARK SHADOWS cast members Jonathan Frid and David Henesy were guests that day on the short-lived game show THE GENERATION GAP. Frid and Henesy were among the first celebrities created by the series (as opposed to Joan Bennett, who was already a star) and the two made frequent appearances in teen mags in the late 1960s.

Also on the episode were Soupy Sales and his son ... Tony.

You can watch the entire episode streaming below.