Space Oddity
"Space Oddity" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was first released on 11 July 1969 by Philips Records as a 7-inch single, then as the opening track of his second studio album, David Bowie. Produced by Gus Dudgeon and recorded at Trident Studios in London, it is a tale about a fictional astronaut named Major Tom; its title and subject matter were partly inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Bowie's feelings of alienation at that point in his career. One of the most musically complex songs he had written up to that point, it represented a change from the music hall-influenced sound of his debut to a sound akin to psychedelic folk and inspired by the Bee Gees.
This article is about the David Bowie song. For other uses, see Space Oddity (disambiguation)."Space Oddity"
11 July 1969
20 June 1969
Trident, London
- 5:15 (album version)
- 4:33 (UK single edit)
- 3:26 (US single edit)
David Bowie
Rush-released as a single to capitalise on the Apollo 11 Moon landing, it received critical praise and was used by the BBC as background music during its coverage of the event. It initially sold poorly but soon reached number five in the UK, becoming Bowie's first and only chart hit for another three years. A 1972 reissue by RCA Records was Bowie's first US hit and was promoted with a new music video filmed by Mick Rock. Another 1975 reissue as part of a maxi-single became Bowie's first UK number-one single. Bowie re-recorded an acoustic version in 1979. A mainstay during Bowie's concerts, Bowie revisited the Major Tom character in his later singles, notably the sequel song "Ashes to Ashes" (1980).
A range of artists have covered "Space Oddity" and others have released songs that reference Major Tom. A 2013 cover by astronaut Chris Hadfield gained widespread attention; its music video was the first filmed in space. The song has appeared in numerous films and television series, and has a pivotal role in the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In 2019, Visconti remixed Bowie's original recording to mark the 50th anniversary of its first release, with a new music video directed by Tim Pope. Initially viewed as a novelty track, "Space Oddity" is now considered one of Bowie's finest recordings and remains one of his most popular songs. It has appeared in numerous "best-of" lists, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".
Composition[edit]
Lyrics[edit]
"Space Oddity" tells the story of an astronaut named Major Tom, who is informed by Ground Control that a malfunction has occurred in his spacecraft; but Major Tom does not get the message, because he either misses it or is in such awe of outer space that he does not hear it.[11] He remains in space "sitting in a tin can, far above the world",[20] preparing for his lonely death.[13] In 1969, Bowie compared Major Tom's fate to the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, saying: "At the end of the song Major Tom is completely emotionless and expresses no view at all about where he's at. He's fragmenting ... at the end of the song his mind is completely blown – he's everything then."[8] Authors David Buckley and Peter Doggett comment on the unusual vocabulary in the lyrics, such as "Ground Control" rather than "Mission Control", "space ship" rather than "rocket", "engines on" rather than "ignition", and the "unmilitary combination" of rank and first name for the character.[21][22]
Bowie's biographers have provided different interpretations of the lyrics. According to Doggett, the lyrics authentically reflect Bowie's mind and thoughts at the time. He writes that Bowie shone a light on the way advertisers and the media seek to own a stake in a lonely man in space while he himself is exiled from Earth.[22] Chris O'Leary said the song is a "moonshot-year prophecy" that humans are not fit for space evolution and the sky is the limit.[10] Similarly, James Perone views Major Tom acting as a "literal character" and a "metaphor" for individuals who are unaware of, or do not make an effort to learn, what the world is.[11] In 2004, American feminist critic Camille Paglia identified the lyrics as representing the counterculture of the 1960s, stating, "As his psychedelic astronaut, Major Tom, floats helplessly into outer space, we sense that the '60s counterculture has transmuted into a hopelessness about political reform ('Planet earth is blue / And there's nothing I can do')".[21]
Music[edit]
"Space Oddity" has been characterised as a psychedelic folk[23] and folk rock[24] ballad.[25] It represented Bowie's new interest in acoustic music since joining Feathers.[9][26] Pegg and Doggett compare the song's style, structure, lyrics and arrangement to those of the Bee Gees' 1967 single "New York Mining Disaster 1941", which has similar minor chords and chorus. Hutchinson later stated: "'Space Oddity' was a Bee Gees type song. David knew it, and he said so at the time ... the way he sang it, it's a Bee Gees thing."[9][26]
"Space Oddity" is one of the most complex songs Bowie had written up to that point. He storyboarded each section, all leading into the next until completion.[10] According to O'Leary, in a little over five minutes, the song includes "a faded-in intro, a 12-bar solo verse, a 'liftoff' sequence, a duet verse, a bridge, a two-bar acoustic guitar break, a six-bar guitar solo, a third verse, another bridge, break and solo, and a 'Day in the Life'-style outro to the fade".[10] Bowie stated in 2002 he was "keen on ... writing in such a way that it would lead me into leading some kind of rock musical".[10]
Although primarily in the key of C major,[27] the song has a variety of chord changes and resonances that aid in telling the story. The intro has a pairing of F major7/E and E minor, while the first verse alternates between C major and E minor. Wayne's guitar harmonises E and B while on Stylophone, Bowie "drones" C and B.[10] A D major chord plays on the line "God's love be with you" during the pre-liftoff countdown sequence. In the second verse, an E7 chord on the line "really made the grade" counteracts the overall key of C major. O'Leary said this change "brightens" the song.[10] The bridge's "planet earth is blue" has a standard folk-style descending progression; (B♭ major 9th/A minor add9/G major add9/F). According to O'Leary, the B♭ major9 chord "ratifies Major Tom's choice (or doom) to stay out in space". The acoustic-guitar break has a C–F–G–A–A note sequence with the two A notes emphasised.[10]
Recording[edit]
Early demos and first studio version[edit]
One of the early demos of "Space Oddity", recorded in January 1969, differs greatly from the album version, including unused vocal harmonies and different lyrics. Rather than the softly spoken "lift-off", an American-accented "blast-off!" is present. "I'm floating in a most peculiar way" is replaced with "Can I please get back inside now, if I may?"[26] The demo also includes the later-revised lines:[26]
Live versions[edit]
"Space Oddity" remained a concert staple and a live favourite throughout Bowie's career.[84] On 22 May 1972, Bowie played the song for BBC Radio 1's Johnny Walker Lunchtime Show but the recording was not broadcast.[85] It was eventually released on the 1996 compilation BBC Sessions 1969–1972 (Sampler) and Bowie at the Beeb (2000).[85][86] For the BBC session, Bowie inserted "I'm just a rocket man!" between verses;[53] Elton John had recently released "Rocket Man", which is also about an astronaut and was also produced by Gus Dudgeon.[87]
A version of the song that was recorded at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 20 October 1972 during the Ziggy Stardust Tour was first released on Santa Monica '72 before becoming officially available in 2008 on Live Santa Monica '72.[88] A live performance that was recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on 3 July 1973[89] was released on Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture (1983).[90] During the 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour, Bowie sang "Space Oddity" while being raised and lowered above the stage by a cherry picker crane and used a radio microphone that was disguised as a telephone.[91] A July 1974 performance of the song was released on the 2005 reissue of David Live while a September performance from the same tour was released in 2017 on Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74).[92][93]
A concert performance that was recorded on 12 September 1983 was included on the live album Serious Moonlight (Live '83), which was included in the 2018 box set Loving the Alien (1983–1988) and released separately the following year.[94] The same performance appears on the concert video Serious Moonlight (1984).[95] Bowie effectively retired the song from live performances during his 1990 Sound+Vision Tour, after which he sang it on a few occasions, most notably closing his 50th birthday party concert in January 1997 with a solo performance on acoustic guitar; this version was released on a limited edition CD-ROM that was issued with Variety magazine in March 1999.[96] He then performed it at the Tibet House US benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in February 2002; this new version includes an orchestra conducted by Visconti, with string arrangements played by Scorchio and Kronos Quartet. Bowie's final performance of "Space Oddity" was at Denmark's Horsens Festival during the 2002 Heathen Tour.[70]
Legacy[edit]
Major Tom[edit]
Bowie revisited the character Major Tom in the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes", from Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980).[100][101] In the song, Major Tom is described as a "junkie" who is "strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all time low"[102] but Ground Control still believes Major Tom is doing as well as he was ten years prior. The song has been interpreted as Bowie's confrontation of his past; after years of drug addiction in the 1970s, he used those struggles as a metaphor for Major Tom becoming a drug addict.[103] The song's music video reuses visual elements from the December 1979 television performance of "Space Oddity".[84][104]
The 1996 Pet Shop Boys remix of the single "Hallo Spaceboy", from Outside (1995),[105] also revisits Major Tom. The idea for the song came from Pet Shop Boys member Neil Tennant, who informed Bowie he would be adding "Space Oddity"-related lines to the remix. Although Bowie was hesitant at first, he accepted. Tennant sang the "Space Oddity"-related lines in the remix: "Ground to Major, bye-bye Tom / Dead the circuit, countdown's wrong".[106]
Major Tom may have influenced the music video for Bowie's 2015 single "Blackstar", the title track from his final album Blackstar (2016).[107] The video, a surreal, ten-minute short film that was directed by Johan Renck, depicts a woman with a tail (Elisa Lasowski),[108] who discovers a dead astronaut and takes his jewel-encrusted skull to an ancient, otherworldly town. The astronaut's bones float towards a solar eclipse while in the town's centre, a circle of women perform a ritual with the skull.[109] Renck initially refused to confirm or deny that the astronaut in the video is Major Tom but he later said on a BBC documentary: "to me, it was 100% Major Tom".[110]
Retrospective appraisal[edit]
"Space Oddity" remains one of Bowie's most-popular songs[11][60] and has frequently been listed by publications as one of his greatest songs.[111] In 2015, Mojo magazine rated it Bowie's 23rd-best track in a list of his 100 greatest songs.[112] Following Bowie's death in 2016, Rolling Stone named "Space Oddity" one of the 30 most-essential songs of Bowie's catalogue.[113] A year later, the staff of Consequence of Sound voted it Bowie's tenth best track.[114] In 2017, the readers of NME voted "Space Oddity" Bowie's seventh-best track[115] while the publication's staff placed it at number 18 in a list of Bowie's 40 best songs.[116]
The Guardian's Alexis Petridis voted "Space Oddity" number 25 in his list of Bowie's 50 greatest songs, writing: "Bowie perfectly inhabits its mood of blank-eyed, space-age alienation".[117] In 2020, Tom Eames of Smooth Radio listed "Space Oddity" as Bowie's fifth-greatest song.[118] Ultimate Classic Rock listed it as Bowie's greatest song in 2016. Spencer Kaufman wrote: "The song was revolutionary for its time, musically and lyrically, and helped introduce the masses to one of the most dynamic and creative music acts we will ever know."[119] In a list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best, Ultimate Classic Rock placed "Space Oddity" at number four.[120]
"Space Oddity" has appeared on numerous best-of lists. In a 2000 list compiling the 100 greatest rock songs, VH1 placed "Space Oddity" at number 60.[121] In 2012, Consequence of Sound included it in their list of the 100 greatest top songs of all time, ranking it number 43.[122] In lists ranking the greatest songs of the 1960s, NME ranked "Space Oddity" at number 20,[123] Pitchfork placed it at number 48,[124] Paste magazine ranked it number three[125] and Treble magazine placed it at number two.[126] In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked "Space Oddity" at number 189 in their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The magazine stated as Bowie's first hit, it "offer[ed] just a glimpse of the ever-evolving star he would become".[127] Several publications, including Mojo (39),[128] NME (67),[129] and Sounds (41),[130] have also listed "Space Oddity" as one of the greatest singles of all time. Channel 4 and The Guardian similarly ranked it the 27th-greatest British number-one single in 1997[131] while NME ranked it number 26 in their 2012 list of the greatest number-one singles in history.[132]
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included "Space Oddity" in their list of "The 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".[133][134] The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018.[135]
Credits apply to the 1969 original release:[10]
Production
Ragazzo solo, ragazza sola (1969)