Comments on: DAVID BOWIE – “Space Oddity”

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.

By: Erithian

Erithian — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:37:28 +0000

If you can remember it, you weren’t really there, man…

By: crag

crag — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:25:15 +0000

I’ve heard that Pink Floyd supplied music for the Beeb’s Moon Landing coverage live in the studio-anyone recall this?

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:27:13 +0000

after ginger tom is spayed: ‘and i’m walking in a most peculiar way’ ISTR

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:26:45 +0000

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.

By: wwolfe

wwolfe — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:15:04 +0000

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.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:46:24 +0000

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…

By: Erithian

Erithian — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:39:20 +0000

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…