David Bowie- Space Oddity Original Video (1969)

David Bowie- Space Oddity Original Video (1969) | Society Of Rock Videos

Space Oddity Launched Before Apollo 11 Mission

Created by David Bowie, one of the most famous British musicians of the 20th century, Space Oddity is a song that truly defined an era. As a single, it came out in 1969, barely a week before the landmark Apollo 11 mission successfully landed a man on the moon. It did not take too long before Space Oddity- David Bowie song became well-known thanks to its satirical lyrics about a fictional Major Tom, an astronaut who feels abandoned and disenfranchised in the vacuum of space.

While Bowie chose to ridicule the British space program in it, the song is also a tribute to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. In it, a subtle instrumental segment can be heard that is almost identical to the bass melody called Also Sprach Zarathustra, which appears in the Stanley Kubrick’s seminal science fiction film about space exploration.

But, while Space Oddity- David Bowie was intended to be perceived as a joking take on the space program, in following decades, it received a status of a huge classical hit song, both thanks to the talent of Bowie, but also because it captured a small essence of the thrilling notion of space exploration. That is why a Canadian astronaut by the name of Chris Hadfield who played the same song while actually being in space on the International space station became an international YouTube hit, showing that the spirit of Major Tom is still very much alive.

+ Space Oddity +

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills
and put your helmet on

Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown,
engines on
Check ignition
and may God’s love be with you

[spoken]
Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Liftoff

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 a 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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