SPACE ODDITY
DAVID BOWIE
SONGWRITER: DAVID BOWIE
COUNTRY: U. K.
ALBUM: SPACE ODDITY
LABEL: PHILIPS RECORDS
GENRE: PSYCHODELIC FOLK
YEAR: 1969
David Robert Jones (8 January 1947–10 January
2016), known professionally as David Bowie(/ˈboʊi/BOH-ee),
was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, Bowie is regarded
as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was acclaimed
by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the
1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual
presentation, with his music and stagecraft having a significant impact on popular music.
During his lifetime, his record sales,
estimated at over 100 million records worldwide, made him one of the best-selling
music artists of all time. In the UK, he was
awarded tem platinum album
certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, and released eleven number-one albums.
In the US, he received five platinum and nine gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone placed him among its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and named him the "Greatest Rock Star Ever" following his
death in 2016.
Born in Brixton,
South London, Bowie
developed an interest in music as a child. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a
professional career as a musician in 1963. "Space Oddity",
released in 1969, was his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart. After a
period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his
flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy
Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the
success of Bowie's single "Starman"
and álbum The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders
from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In
1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul",
initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering him his first major US
crossover success with the number-one single "Fame"
and the álbum Young Americans. In
1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who
Fell to Earth, directed by Nicolas Roeg, and
released Station to Station.
In 1977, he further confounded expectations with the electronic-inflected
album Low,
the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the "Berlin Trilogy"."Heroes"(1977)
and Lodger(1979)
followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical
praise.
"Space Oddity" is a song written
and recorded by English singer-songwriter David Bowie.
It was first released as a 7-inch single on 11 July 1969 before appearing as the opening track of his second
studio album, David Bowie.
It became one of Bowie's signature songs and one of four of his songs to be
included in The Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Inspired by Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space
Odyssey(1968), with a title that plays on the film's
title, the song is about the launch into space of Major Tom, a
fictional astronaut, and was
released during a period of great interest in space flight. The United States' Apollo 11 mission
would launch five days later and would become the first manned Moon landing
another five days after that. The lyrics have also been seen to lampoon the British space programme, which
was, and still is, an unmanned project. Bowie revisited his Major Tom character
in the 1980 lead-single "Ashes to
Ashes" from Scary
Monsters (and Super Creeps) and the 1995
single "Hallo Spaceboy"
from Outside,
the third and final single released from that album. In addition, Major Tom
possibly influenced the music video for "Blackstar",
released in 2015 off of Bowie's final album of the same name.
Written in the key of C
major, "Space Oddity" was Bowie's first
single to chart in the UK. It reached the top five on its initial release and
received the 1970 Ivor Novello Special Award for Originality. His self-titled second album was
renamed after the track for its 1972 rerelease by RCA Records and
became known by this name. In 1975, upon rerelease as part of a maxi-single,
the song became Bowie's first UK Nº. 1 single.
In 2013, the song gained renewed popularity
following its recording 44 years after Bowie by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who
performed the song (with slightly revised lyrics) while aboard the International
Space Station, and therefore became the first
music video shot in space. In January 2016, the song reentered singles charts
around the world following Bowie's death,
which included becoming Bowie's first single to top the French Singles Chart.
Ground control to
Major Tom
Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground control to
Major Tom (ten, nine, eight, seven)
Commencing countdown, engines on (six, five, four, three)
Check ignition, and may God's love be with you (two, one, lift off)
This is ground
control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
This is Major Tom to
ground control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in the most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here am I sitting
in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do
Though I'm past one
hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows
Ground control to
Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you?
Here am I floating
'round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do.
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