Dead on This Day

For reasons that aren’t that interesting, I tripped across a fascinating and beautifully designed website for an online magazine called Obit. Here’s an excerpt from its statement of purpose:

Death gives life its immediacy. Because we know it will end, we savor and value life all the more. Obit examines life through the lens of death. Whether it’s the loss of a person, a place, an object or an idea, life’s constant change presents an opportunity for examination, discussion and even celebration.By examining the transformations we face, we can understand how the past influences our time and our future. Obit aims to offer a forum for ideas and opinions about life, death, and transition that you will find nowhere else.

I may write more about this site over at my sister blog, Culture Shock, but there’s a reason I’m mentioning it here. The site includes a section called “Died on the Same Day” through which the user can select any day of the year to discover who shared that date of demise. The two folks listed for March 2, 2008 were Dusty Springfield (who died on March 2, 1999) and Serge Gainsbourg, who passed to the other side on this day in 1991.

"Dusty in Memphis" is a great album. Here's a video of her performing "I Only Want to Be With You."



I'm also a huge fan of Shelby Lynne's tribute album to Dusty. Here's her version of the same tune:



Now Serge's turn, with the song “Mr. William,” which I presume was performed as part of the French Garden Implement Exposition.



This tune, “All That You Are” isn’t Gainsbourg’s (it’s by Nat King Cole) and he doesn’t sing, but the video is pretty cool and I wish I was that guitar player:



UPDATE: Reader Mead Hunter brought my attention to a version of "I Only Want to Be With You" performed by the Bay City Rollers, the Scottish pop/rock heartthrobs straight out of the early 70's. You gotta love that opening bass line: