David Bowie “Space Oddity”

sfilzen — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 22:09:41 +0000

David Bowie “Space Oddity” originally released as “David Bowie” in the UK, 1969 and as “Man of Words/Man of Music” in the US – I’m spinning this 1972 reissue on RCA Records in honor of David Bowie’s birthday (b. David Robert Jones, 1947, d. 2016). David Bowie/Space Oddity was Bowie’s second studio album and his first big breakthrough with the opening track, “Space Oddity” which he released as a single in July 1969 in commemoration of the moon landing that month. “Space Oddity” was Bowie’s first single to chart in the UK: British radio only began playing the track once the mission was successful (on July 20th – Bowie released the track on July 11th) and the crew returned safely to earth (July 24th). “Space Oddity” hit #5 in the UK but failed to crack the top 100 in the US (#124). The album, however, did not chart until 1972 with the reissue when it to #17 in the UK and then to #16 in the US in ‘73 (when “Space Oddity” charted again, this time at #16). The rest of the album is a mix of weird-spacey, glammy Bowie (like “Space Oddity”) and hippie/folk prog rock (like the second track “Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed” which to me sounds like a mashup of Grateful Dead and early Tyrannosaurus Rex before Marc Bolan switched it to T. Rex, backed with a strong Bo Diddley beat). (Another aside – I recently listened to a Bowie tribute book, I think by Rob Sheffield, who recounted that back in Bowie’s early days when he and Marc Bolan were in stiff competition for a similar audience and Bolan was on the winning end, Bolan hired Bowie to open for one of T. Rex’s shows – but not as a musical performer. Instead as a mime. Hilarious. And rude. Though they must have made up to some degree because Bolan is one of the backing vocalists on this album’s closing track, “Memory of a Free Festival.”) Our ‘72 reissue does not include the hidden track after “Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed,” a 40 second Jerry Garcia-ish jam called “Don’t Sit Down” which appeared on the original UK David Bowie release but was subsequently included on reissues from the 1990′s forward. According to Wiki, Bowie wrote the next sweet little track “Letter to Hermione” for his former girlfriend, Hermione Farthingdale (and here I’d like to thank JK Rowling for giving me the knowledge of how to pronounce ‘Hermione’) and “Cygnet Committee” which concludes Side A is an epic spacey masterpiece that hints at 70′s era Bowie, especially Ziggy Stardust. Side B starts with “Janine” (rocking the folky, hippie vein), then “An Occasional Dream” (both folky and spacey, with pan flute!), “The Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud” (proggy, with a 50-piece orchestra), “God Knows I’m Good” (folky in the flavor of Bob Dylan) and “Memory of A Free Festival” (another prog-epic that features prominent organ and devotional Beatlesesque chant extended chorus – churchy!).

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David Bowie “Space Oddity”

sfilzen — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 20:24:15 +0000

David Bowie “Space Oddity” released 50 years ago today, July 11th, 1969. Inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the single was released to coincide with the first manned moon landing (which launched on July 16th, 1969), “Space Oddity” was Bowie’s first single to chart in the UK: British radio only began playing the track once the mission was successful (on July 20th) and the crew returned safely to earth (July 24th). “Space Oddity” hit #5 in the UK but failed to crack the top 100 in the US (#124). The original single had “Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud” as its b-side. Our version is the RCA 1973 reissue with “The Man Who Sold the World” as its b-side; in ‘73 “Space Oddity” did significantly better in the US, going to #15. That success, in turn, inspired a UK re-release by RCA a couple of years later: in ‘75 it re-entered the UK charts and went to #1, his first in England. It again re-entered the charts after Bowie’s death in 2016.

I love “Space Oddity” – it was the first song I listened to after Bowie died and I was in tears by the second line. I also love the history and trajectory that the track had in Bowie’s catalog throughout his career. He revisits the loneliness and isolation of the Major Tom character in “Ashes to Ashes,” “Hallo Spaceboy,” possibly “Starman,” and “Blackstar.” Recently I listened to the audiobook of On Bowie by Rob Sheffield, who argues that “Space Oddity” is also responsible for inspiring a host of other artists’ songs over the years, the most obvious being, of course, “Major Tom (Coming Home)” by Peter Schilling but also ones like Duran Duran’s “Planet Earth” and Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love.” It’s included in several “best of” song lists, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s, and certainly deserves to be there.

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David Bowie “Space Oddity”

David Bowie “Space Oddity”