Comments on: DAVID BOWIE – “Space Oddity”

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:58:41 +0000

Not so fast!

http://www.nme.com/news/david-bowie/60647

The musical as described in the Graun sounds right up there w/Glass Spider.

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:27:29 +0000

David Bowie says yes to futuristic musical based on his hits
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/nov/27/david-bowie-musical-heroes

and here’s a sneak preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ZtpYfNq74

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:11:45 +0000

Another blatant plug for my thoughts on a pre-fame Bowie b-side, just as dark if not as cosmic as SO:

http://besidethebside.blogspot.com

By: punctum

punctum — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:30:38 +0000

Bowie makes his Then Play Long debut.

(N.B.: I should point out that I have deliberately not been reading Pushing Ahead Of The Dame lest it influence my thoughts on Bowie too much. So any observations made in both blogs are entirely coincidental, though our conclusions may be completely different.)

By: swanstep

swanstep — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:32:30 +0000

The interpretative dance completely falls apart at the end but the first two mins are not bad at all.

Pan’s People and Legs Inc (and Hot Gossip too I suppose) are so utterly utterly UK pop for me that I pretty much love ‘em. I believe that the current BBC plan is to start playing whole archived episodes of TOTP again, so they’ll be back possibly to wear out their welcome quite soon, who knows?

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:15:46 +0000

Oh wow! Looks like it comes from the German ZDF archives. For a song that I cannot imagine dancing to – apart from perhaps smooching with a fellow Bowie fan – they do a grand job of interpreting it.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:57:57 +0000

“…No tape survives.”

It does on Youtube! Here’s that Pan’s People routine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQxMcJzjLNc

It’s…um…artistic? Proto-robot dancing, then they’re rockets, then some kind of slow motion thing where they embody the mysteries of space. I wasn’t around at the time, but I *love* that stuff like this existed. :D

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:31:29 +0000

The very excellent Pushing Ahead Of The Dame blog has reached this song:

http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/space-oddity/

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:21:31 +0000

If we’re talking 1975, it may be questionable whether Bowie himself knew what day it was.

By: richard thompson

richard thompson — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:03:38 +0000

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?

By: Mark G

Mark G — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:55:04 +0000

I must have seen it! But I don’t remember it! Sobs.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:38:22 +0000

But a fortnight too late to save Television’s Top Of The Pops appearance! I wish I’d seen that.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:34:51 +0000

It was the punk revolution wot dunnit!

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:34:43 +0000

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.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:25:13 +0000

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?

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:08:25 +0000

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.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:50:05 +0000

I tried searching the TOTP archive but the page is off.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:29:30 +0000

I don’t remember seeing it on TOTP and have the horrible feeling that Pan’s People did an interpretative routine.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:09:37 +0000

True, and I’m sure playing that on TOTP sent this one to the top.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:55:25 +0000

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.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:37:10 +0000

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!

By: crag

crag — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:37:04 +0000

Last word on the Bowie/Who connection- Bowie being rumoured to be playing Davros in the new series! Not true apparently, sadly…

By: Dan M.

Dan M. — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:25:01 +0000

re: #56

Dan Clowes=David Byrne

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:34:46 +0000

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.”

By: LondonLee

LondonLee — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:14:08 +0000

I’d heard Pink Floyd were actually on the moon playing when Neil Armstrong stepped out of his capsule.