DAVID BOWIE – “Space Oddity”
First of all, I was a daydreamy type of boy, and this song should really get a mark or so docked in petty revenge for the several teachers who used “Ground control to Major Tom!” type gags to get my classroom attention. If this seems unfair, just be glad the Dallas theme tune didn’t get to #1.
At the time, I don’t think I’d ever even heard “Space Oddity”. My first memory of it was on a school trip to Wales, where I initially thought “Oh so THIS is what all that was about”, and then I thought, “How mean that Major Tom dies!”. I became a huge Bowie fan a couple of years later but still skipped “Space Oddity” more often than not. So my appreciation of it has always been tinted a little – well, yes, obviously this is an excellent record but…. but…. and the buts never resolve into anything you could defend, but they don’t help you love the song either.
It was his first hit, and his first number one, but of course with a six-year gap between them, filled half with culty failure, half with pop-changing success, which shifts the emphases in “Space Oddity”. Imagine if he’d given up pop in 1970 or 1971, gone back to acting or art: “Space Oddity” would be a novelty hit, crap pun and all; a darker, trippier counterpoint to Zager and Evans, a useful earner for an earthbound David Jones, whenever moonshot anniversaries came round.
Instead it’s the start of something - pointing at themes of identity disconnect, science fiction, insanity and ambiguity that Bowie would built a career aroumd. It owes more than a winking title to Kubrick – a space mission goes disasterously wrong, and you feel Major Tom’s experiencing some kind of cosmic revelation. (Bowie’s mid-70s records are more firmly aligned to the SF New Wave – persona shifts, cracked futures, the alien in the head).
And it’s also the end of something – the reissue’s video (recorded in 1973) sees a worn, drawn Bowie at the fag-end of his Ziggy period singing the song. In 1975 he’d taken the leap out of SF and into “plastic soul” – more identity play, but less attractive to singles buyers: from a marketing perspective, “Space Oddity” is a farewell to the space-glam superstar Bowie.
None of which explains why the song’s endured so well. For that you have to look at the idea-laden arrangement (stylophones, countdowns), the originality of the concept (is this pop’s only existentialist sci-fi death ballad?), the hooks of course, and the record’s one real insight: “Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do” – the idea that near-space exploration is not a frontier but instead the limit of human endeavour, revealing nothing so much as impotence. Thought-provoking stuff: if only he’d been called Major Bob.
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Tom in FT / Popular • Pop • 2,740 views • Share/Save
o tempora o mores omg
5. Circus Maximus. W/ Jerry Jeff Walker, rhythm guitar and vocal. (Not the later Norwegian band of the same name.)
Well I had managed somehow to miss the ‘Starman’ moment on TOTP but certainly felt the full force of it in the next few days at school. Until that moment Bowie had only been known to me through Space Oddity which I had heard during 1969 and liked but not really taken it to heart. Over the next year or so I had played a friends copies of Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust & Aladdin Sane to death. By the end of 1973 I was a committed Bowie fan. In 1974 Bowie’s stock exponentially increased as he became the biggest selling artist of the year. Diamond Dogs also chimed in nicely with school studies of Orwell’s 1984, which had reinforced my obsessions with the album. It didn’t phase me that Bowie had already begun to change tack but Young Americans then Fame had not really set my world on fire to the same degree as Glam Bowie had. RCA had already exhibited a somewhat strange single release schedule (Life On Mars ? in 1973 & Rock in Roll Suicide in 1974) based on (I assume) keeping Bowie constantly in the public eye betweeen new releases so the appearance of Space Oddity in 1975 wasn’t entirely suprising. It was possibly an apt time to try to regain some of ground lost by the dearth of single material on Young Americans (my least favourite Bowie release). It also of course featured the previously unissued and excellent ‘Velvet Goldmine’ which must have encouraged every Bowie fan at least to buy a copy. Even this re-release of Space Oddity, though, didn’t really establish the song as a firm favourite (although I was pretty satisfied that Bowie had eventually reached number one) and it wasn’t until the sparse rendition featured in Kenny Everett’s TV show and it’s sequel released shortly after (they share the same video set) did it fully click into place. Since then I have come to regard it as one of Bowie’s key signature tunes and a modern masterpiece. Clearly indebted to 2001 (as admitted by Bowie) but open enough to encourage drug & inner alienation interpretations. Visconti (who produced the album) must rue the day he heard it and dismissed it as a novelty leaving it to his engineer Gus Dudgeon to produce.
Either I didn’t see TOTP that night or the ‘Starman’ performance didn’t rock my young planet at all because I don’t remember it. I think it touched the lives of my friends older sisters more than anything.
Though I did know all the words to ‘Life On Mars?’ which I learned from a copy of Disco 45. Had no idea what the song was about – still don’t really – but Bowie’s SF references were very appealing to a young boy.
Don’t think he’s Jack Kirby though, he always seemed more of a Heavy Metal sort of artist – big and noisy.
This is the first entry I’ve commented on that, even though I was only born in ’73, has deep nostalgic value for me. In the early 80’s Bowie was (thanks to a big sister who one day brought home Ziggy, Aladdin and Dogs, all going for £2.99 each in the Virgin on Princes Street) my first entrance into the world of Pop.
Looking back,i think the appeal for the 10 year old me lay in the sheer alienness of it all, which fed directly into my nascent imagination filling my young head w/ ideas that had nothing to do with drugs, homosexuality or the barely remembered previous decade the music and instead connected w/ my two cheif pre-pop obssessions of Doctor Who and Marvel Comics. Bowies records probably appealled on the same level as another early fave Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds- they were, w/ all their talk of skeletal families, homo superiors, the impending apocalypse et al,a door to a mysterious new world- the equivilent to a trip in the TARDIS or a visit to the Avengers Mansion.. with the added bonus you could also sing along!
The fact that my parents and sister shared my Bowie love only added to the enjoyment(the need to find “my own music” not being an issue for another 3 or 4 years)and this single -which we had in a curious foreign pressing w/”Man Who Sold the World” on the flipside-anyone any ideas where it originated?-will always remind me of a more innocent period in my life when factors such as critical opinion, historical context, musical technique etc etc meant nothing to me and the only things that influenced my appreciation of a record were the song, the sound and the places it could take you. I’m going to have to give this another 10.
Also- loving the pop-comics analogies. Here’s a few I thought of:
Stan Lee=Paul McCartney- Undisputed genius but prone to become trite, facile and self-parodic when not working with a decent collaborator
John Byrne=Noel Gallagher- creator of highly enjoyable(albeit lightweight)modernizations of classic styles who hasnt produced anything of any worth in years and is now reduced to bitching about rivals to anyone who’ll listen
Rob Leifeld=Limp Bizkit- Purveyor of macho bullshit designed to sell to idiotic teens who had a brief period of popularity followed by a rapid and well deserved fall from grace..
Nuff said?
or has anyone got anymore?
Wasn’t “The Man Who Fell To Earth” released around this time? Could “Space Oddity”’s re-issue be some kind of cash-in attempt?
PS It was only a hit in Australia the once, with the 1973 release, as far as I know (by this tme in 1975 Abba’s “Mama Mia” was scattering all before it).
It would probably be too simple to accuse Bowie of being mercenary here. His 1969 classic is offered for release again with two similar belters on the flip – “Changes” and “Velvet Goldmine”. Once that particular smokescreen has been removed, we are left with the simple question as to whether SO has any merit and whether those who missed out six years earlier would stump up this time around. The answer to both these questions is a resounding “Yes” and I was one of them. I remember Johnnie Walker saying with relation to Bowie when this hit the top that “no-one will be more surprised than him” – but I’m not convinced. Incontrovertibly this should have been number one at its genesis in the year of the moon landing, which I still remember as one of the momentous events of my lifetime (and yes, it did definitely happen!). Incredibly, it only peaked at number five. I suppose what one is saying is that the fact we are discussing this in 1975 is disingenuous, as SO belongs sooo much in 1969, as did Rolf Harris’ “Electric Finger”. We are thus left to analyse the track out of time but analyse it we do and conclude that it was certainly one of the most important pieces of the era, a work of sublime magnificence from one of music’s true geniuses.
Crag – check the entry on the Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There” for a Motown/Marvel analogy.
I was a tweenage Who fan and Marvelite too so I guess there will be more pulse-pounding comparisons to come.
(Still a Who fan, though my comics tastes have broadened a bit)
Thanks for the Four Tops link, Tom- did u happen to read Morley’s insane article in Observer Music Monthly at Xmas where he made various Doctor Who/pop analogies? Sylvester McCoy=James Blunt, Jon Pertwee=Dizee Rascal(!)and so on-great stuff..
I always thought it rather innapropriate the Beeb chose this to promote their coverage of the moon landings-seems about as optimistic and tactful as choosing the next Number 1 to soundtrack Charles and Di’s nuptials 6 years later..
crag, I don’t think I recall the BBC using Space Oddity to promote coverage of the Apollo programme. They used the opening bars of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, as used by Kubrick, in all coverage.
Talk of comic books go way over my head I’m afraid and I don’t think Bowie had a Robert Crumb phase. Once I had a very pleasant conversation with an engaging chap called Mark Buckingham who had just been nominated number 83 in the 100 Coolest People in Bristol and the West of England by Venue magazine, which described him as a “minor deity to millions of adolescent with twisted power fantasies”. I know little of Mr Buckingham’s work though – I expect it may be social death even to mention him!
haha I don’t think Bowie had a Robert Crumb phase –> thx b 4 SMALL MERCIES!!
i love crumb and i love b0wie (and i cannot lie): this is a mash-up gives me the ph34r
Rather brilliantly, the BBC didn’t keep its moon landing programming, so we may never know!
Like Tom and Crag, I have a Doctor Who past/ present – and a serious Bowie enthusiasm. They do seem to often go together.
And when Doctor Who first appeared Bowie was 16, Gerry and The Pacemakers were number one (creating the greatest football anthem of them all), and Jack Kennedy had been dead for less than twenty-four hours.
Coincidence? I think not.
I agree with Rosie (#59) – The BBC used “Also Sprach Zarathustra” throughout its coverage of the Apollo programme, and “Space Oddity” not at all. (Long haired hippy pop rubbish! The very idea!) Besides, “Space Oddity” didn’t even chart until three months later.
Meanwhile “Thus Spake Zarathustra” by the Philharmonia Orchestra went Top 40 in the month of the Apollo 11 landing, peaking at #33. Deodato’s funked-up version also hit #7 in May 1973.
That Deodato version is super good.
deodato >>>>> richard strauss IN EVERY RESPECT, they should have all his royalties even for stuff they didn’t ever cover
Not actually true, but nice try.
Also, Lionel Hampton did the same Deodato arrangement, but much better in the Frank Carson sense.
In every respect? Then I look forward to hearing Deodato’s Elektra for the first time, that should be quite something.
Of course, the thing about ASZ is that nobody ever knows any more of it than they know of Philip Larkin’s This Be The Verse!
Eumir’s Four Last Songs rock!
As one who’s enjoyed and admired Bowie without becoming a fervent fan, I wouldn’t be able to analyse his work with the insight of the excellent posts above, but I’ll just remark that whereas many other artists influenced those who came after them, Bowie seems to have influenced a different genre of artists with each successive album and image change at his peak, and in that respect at least there’s surely no-one to touch him.
The remarkable thing about this first hit single in isolation is the absence of the Tony Newleyisms and the Laughing Gnome whimsy that you’ll find in his other early material, and the sheer cleverness and originality of the arrangement. The first hooks for me were how the countdown led perfectly into the next development in the song, and how the “hear” in “can you hear me Major Tom?” elides into the “here…. am I floating round my tin can” as the two sides of the conversation are isolated from each other. So many other flourishes too.
I just found myself wondering, if “Telstar” had only reached number one in 1968, how odd would it have sounded?
I’ve mentioned before about the “Starman” TOTP clip, how I enjoy the sight of the lank-haired lad in the sleeveless pullover who gets his head into shot between Bowie and Ronson and watches himself in the studio monitor. He must be due a cut of the royalties…
Speaking of the futuristic aspect of the song – on the very Tuesday, 18 November, that “Space Oddity” was deposed by Billy Connolly, the future of rock’n’roll himself played the Hammersmith Odeon. Finally, the posters said, much to the dismay of the artist himself, London was ready for Bruce Springsteen…
More to the point – what if Joe Meek had survived to produce Bowie? The mind, as it were, boggles.
Also, on checking my well worn copy of England’s Dreaming I find that the NME for the week “Space Oddity” went to number one was the issue which contained CSM’s “Are You Alive To The Jive Of ’75?” epic which first warned us about those Ramones boys coming over the horizon…
Ian Hunter once remarked in the mid-1970s that David Bowie’s music was about the idea of rock and roll, rather than actually being rock and roll. That seems pretty on target to me. Not that it would be impossible to make good music starting from that perspective, but Bowie too often seemed to believe that simply having that perspective was the same as making an interesting observation. I don’t think it was and, as far as I can see, Dave Marsh was correct when he said that Bowie is a good example of an artist who gets credit for his aspirations, rather than his actual accomplishments.
On a simpler level, Bowie’s voice irritates me terribly. So even his good songs aren’t as enjoyable as they’d be if someone else was singing them. (I did enjoy Mick Ronson’s guitar, though.)
It’s not surprising, then, that Mott’s “All the Young Dudes” is far and away my favorite music ever to come from Bowie.
As far as “Space Oddity” goes, I like the version that a very drunk Chandler Bing sings briefly in an episode of “Friends.” That was a well-aimed custard pie in the face of a song that’s way too impressed with itself.
Not to mention the hilarious Barron Knights version – “Ground control to Ginger Tom, take your worming pills” etc. – yes, I shouldn’t really have mentioned it.
after ginger tom is spayed: ‘and i’m walking in a most peculiar way’ ISTR
I’ve heard that Pink Floyd supplied music for the Beeb’s Moon Landing coverage live in the studio-anyone recall this?
If you can remember it, you weren’t really there, man…
I’d heard Pink Floyd were actually on the moon playing when Neil Armstrong stepped out of his capsule.
In his book about Pink Floyd, Nick Mason says that a Floyd track was used to soundtrack the BBC’s moon landing footage but doesn’t say which one. At a semi-logical guess I would venture “Saucerful Of Secrets.”
re: #56
Dan Clowes=David Byrne
Last word on the Bowie/Who connection- Bowie being rumoured to be playing Davros in the new series! Not true apparently, sadly…
Wasn’t this single promoted with a film made in the sixties?
A proto video in a white studio that you’ll all have seen!
There was one he did round about ’68 with hornrims and possibly an orange on a table but that was an acoustic version (possibly a demo) of the tune.
True, and I’m sure playing that on TOTP sent this one to the top.
I don’t remember seeing it on TOTP and have the horrible feeling that Pan’s People did an interpretative routine.
I tried searching the TOTP archive but the page is off.
This sounds like a call for the man with the reference book!
9 October 1969: Performance recorded separately at Lime Grove with The Ladybirds (repeated 16th October, does not survive)
16 October 1975: Promo film (also 30th October, 6 November, 13 November).
23 December 1975: Interpreted by Pan’s People in the first of two Christmas specials that year, which was presented by Dave Lee Travis & Jimmy Saville. Also in the studio were Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and the Bay City Rollers, plus a lot of repeated footage. No tape survives.
I bet the BBC have been very careful to preserve Barbara Woodhouse’s How To Train Your Dog To Pee On Your Neighbour series from start to finish.
What on Earth were the Ladybirds given to do apart from, I’d guess, the “Planet Earth is blue” harmonies and maybe the countdown?
I can remember John Peel speaking of his absolute fury at going to the archives to try to find the (missing) first Captain Beefheart session, but discovering that every edition of ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’ had been preserved.
General rule of thumb with the BBC Television Archive: Systematic recording and keeping of television programmes started in late 1977.
It was the punk revolution wot dunnit!
But a fortnight too late to save Television’s Top Of The Pops appearance! I wish I’d seen that.
I must have seen it! But I don’t remember it! Sobs.
I first heard Bowie in 1973 with the Jean Genie, some of my neighbours worshipped him and the promo film for Space Oddity on TOTP when it was number one appeared to have been made in 1969 but did Bowie himself know it was number one?
If we’re talking 1975, it may be questionable whether Bowie himself knew what day it was.
The very excellent Pushing Ahead Of The Dame blog has reached this song:
http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/space-oddity/