FEATURE:
Groovelines
David Bowie – Space Oddity
___________
I have been thinking about space…
as, a couple of weeks back, William Shatner travelled into space. For some reason, it got me thinking about David Bowie’s Space Oddity. It is surprising that this track was not originally a success. It got to number one in he U.K. in 1975, though it was a slow burner. It was first released by as a single on 11th July, 1969 before appearing as the opening track of Bowie’s second album, David Bowie. Following the commercial failure of his eponymous debut album in 1967, Bowie's manager, Kenneth Pitt, commissioned Love You till Tuesday. This was a promotional film intended to introduce Bowie to a larger audience. For this film, Bowie wrote Space Oddity: a song about a fictional astronaut named Major Tom. I want to bring in a couple of articles relating to Space Oddity. It is a song that has quite a story and history. This article from July reveals how, even when the song was recorded, there was a feeling that this was something very special:
“David wrote ‘Space Oddity’ for the two of us to sing”
In February 1969, Bowie went to Morgan Sound Studios on Willesden High Road to record a 28-minute film called Love You Till Tuesday, the title of a song Bowie had recorded for Decca in 1967. The film had been suggested by Günther Schneider, producer of German TV show 4-3-2-1 Musik Für Junge Leute. The promotional film was an attempt by Pitt to bring Bowie to a wider audience.
Bowie was playing alongside Yorkshire-born guitarist John “Hutch” Hutchinson, who had been touring with Bowie as part of a duo called Feathers. Bowie had picked him out at an audition a couple of years before. “David wrote ‘Space Oddity’ for the two of us to sing. It is a duet song, ‘Ground control to Major Tom,’” Hutchinson later told oneandother.com, in an interview to promote his biography Hutch And Bowie. During the recording session, the guitarist sang the “ground control” sections while Bowie sang as Major Tom.
All did not go smoothly that day, however. As Bowie was rehearsing the final scene, where the astronaut is caressed by two space seductresses – played by Samantha Bond and the production assistant Suzanne Mercer – Pitt clashed with director Malcolm J. Thomson, who wanted to make the scenes considerably more risqué. In the end, the film was shelved and was only eventually publicly released as a video in 1984. This version of “Space Oddity” is owned by Decca Records, after Pitt sold the rights to Love You Till Tuesday to PolyGram that year. A DVD of the film was released in 2005.
“It was clear that he had composed something extraordinary”
Despite the disappointment over the film’s non-release, Pitt was convinced that the 22-year-old Bowie had created a truly special song about a fictional astronaut. “It was clear from this first ‘public’ outing of the song that David Bowie had composed something extraordinary,” said Pitt.
Bowie subsequently demoed further versions of the song in an attempt to secure a record deal, which led ultimately to the hit version that was recorded on June 20, 1969, made with Elton John’s producer Gus Dudgeon. The song was released on July 11th, just over a week before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the Moon. The BBC played “Space Oddity” during their coverage of the Apollo 11 landing. “I’m sure they really weren’t listening to the lyric at all,” said Bowie later. “Of course, I was overjoyed that they did.”
“I have always dealt with alienation and isolation”
Bowie said that most people presumed the song was written about the space landing, without knowing the original inspiration of Kubrick’s film. He would later revisit his Major Tom character in the songs “Ashes To Ashes” and “Hallo Spaceboy,” and the music video for “★.”
“Thematically, I have always dealt with alienation and isolation. I have often put myself in situations where I am isolated so I can write about that,” said Bowie. “Space Oddity,” the atmospheric tale of an abandoned astronaut orbiting Earth, remains one of the most quirky and poignant songs of the late 60s. This masterpiece has continued to influence society into the 21st Century.
Cover versions have been recorded by artists as diverse as Sheryl Crow, Def Leppard, Tangerine Dream, and William Shatner. In May 2013, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, commander of Expedition 35 to the International Space Station, recorded a version in space that went viral – dedicated to the “genius of David Bowie”.
It is amazing to think how Space Oddity has affected so many people and been taking to heart by many other artists. One of David Bowie’s most-popular songs, it is as moving now as it was years ago. After Space Oddity was originally released, it has taken on a new life through the decade. The Financial Times produced a feature that mentioned ways in which Space Oddity has been adapted and adopted after Bowie’s original release:
“In 1970, Bowie voiced a version with romantic Italian lyrics, “Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Sola” (“Alone Boy, Alone Girl”). He issued a new acoustic interpretation of ‟Space Oddity” in 1980, and live recordings have surfaced down the decades, as have the spartan, atmospheric demos. Cover versions took some time to appear, probably because the song was strongly stamped with Bowie’s personality. Comedy group The Barron Knights snickered a feline parody in 1977 (“Birth control to Ginger Tom”), but from this point on, the song was treated reverentially. Most covers tightly followed the blueprint of the original, including Def Leppard’s, and versions by very different German bands, Helloween and Tangerine Dream. One exception to the Xerox treatment came from US jazz-fusion arranger Dave Matthews, whose 1977 take was at least different if not entirely convincing, breaking with convention by being sung by a woman, Googie Coppola. Natalie Merchant included the song on a live album in 1999.
Though ‟Space Oddity” cut Major Tom adrift, he enjoyed an impressive afterlife. Bowie revisited the character in “Ashes To Ashes” (1980), depicting the astronaut as a junkie, echoing his own troubles. 1995’s ‟Hallo Spaceboy” saw some of the lyrics rehashed at the prompting of collaborators Pet Shop Boys, and what is assumed to be Major Tom’s corpse took a grim curtain call in the video for ‟Blackstar” (2016).
In 1983 electro-popper Peter Schilling had a hit with “Major Tom (Coming Home)”, its hapless protagonist suffering another mishap. Canadian electronic artist K.I.A. offered ‟Mrs Major Tom” in 2002, with singer Larissa Gomes recounting the yarn from the wife’s point of view. This was covered by Sheryl Crow on William Shatner’s Seeking Major Tom, a 2011 album which also included the Star Trek actor’s clunky reading of ‟Space Oddity”.
Perhaps inevitably, the Major actually travelled into space when Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield sang ‟Space Oddity” on the International Space Station in May 2013. Careful not to tempt fate, Commander Hadfield amended the lyrics so Major Tom finally made it home. Though the video caused consternation for lawyers (was a song performed in orbit subject to terrestrial copyright?), Bowie was delighted, declaring it ‟possibly the most poignant version”.
I am going to end it there. There are many David Bowie classics to unpick and dive inside…though there are few as timeless and important as Space Oddity. I wonder whether Bowie knew, when writing the first few words of the song, that it would turn into such a seismic release. As I said, listening to the song today, it has definitely lost…
NONE of its power.