FXYou haven't lived until you've seen American Horror Story star Jessica Lange in a powder blue suit sing David Bowie's "Life on Mars" in a German accent. If you missed the American Horror Story: Freak Show premiere last night due to a crippling fear of murderous clowns, have no fear: you can start living now because the video is below.
In American Horror Story: Freak Show, the Emmy winner plays Elsa Mars, a German ex-pat who helms one of the last remaining freak shows in the United States. The show is set in 1952, and yes, Bowie's song was released almost 20 years later in 1971, but AHS doesn't care about historical accuracy when it comes to show-stopping musical numbers. In fact, you'll be seeing the cast cover modern songs on the regular as part of the new season. Next week Sarah Paulson takes on "Criminal" by Fiona Apple. Later this season Lange does a Lana Del Rey song.
"I really wanted to do an homage to my friend and idol Baz Luhrmann," Ryan Murphy told E! News, "who does such amazing things with music and period. We didn't want to do Happy Days, we didn't want to do all '50s music. So, what we did was, we decided to do musical numbers when they're needed, not all the time, that feature artists who have identified as odd, different freaks, that felt like outcasts. We did Lana Del Rey, Kurt Cobain, David Bowie. People who I admire who really changed the landscape of music, based on them feeling like outsiders."
Want to add Lange to your iPod library? Don't fret. Murphy tweeted that due to popular demand the American Horror Story cover of "Life on Mars" will be released on iTunes, just like American Horror Story: Asylum's "Name Game."
American Horror Story: Freak Show airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.