1975 David Bowie: Space Oddity

Though one of its biggest stars who's work came to define the Seventies, it's sobering to realise that Bowie's only number one of the decade came via a re-issue of a single originally released in 1969. In a way, it's quite a neat reclamation of the track; when it reached number 5 first time around, man was on the verge of stepping on the moon for and so it could easily have been seen every much of a gimmick song as the earlier 'The Laughing Gnome' - that is, an artist searching for an audience wherever he could find it. On reflection, the fact that something so 'now' didn't reach the top in 1969 could partly be due to a sense of contemporary 'bad taste' that pervades Bowie's tale of a space launch going horribly wrong.

If that in fact is what 'Space Oddity' is all about; with a further nod to it's title stealing source (Stanley Kubrik's '2001: A Space Odyssey'), dual meanings abound. Because unique for a number one single, Bowie released a 'follow up' in 'Ashes To Ashes' that also made the top of the charts and which suggests that Major Tom may have been a space cadet in more than one way with his problems having a more chemical than mechanical source. It's an interpretation that would make 'Space Oddity' an Ur 'Comfortably Numb'*, but regardless of what you do or don't read into it, it's quite endearing as to how up to date yet out of time 'Space Oddity' sounds in the 1975 charts.

And that's not 'out of time' in the sense of 'dated', but in terms of how it still manages to sound like nothing else around it, the same way it did in 1969. In 1975 it was far removed from Bowie's then left turn into 'white soul' and it made this re-issue something of a comfort blanket for the long term fans of the Starman aghast at his new direction (check out that cover shot for this re-issue). Indeed, one of the first things that strikes home about 'Space Oddity' is just how much Bowie manages to cram in to it's five minutes.

From the acoustic opening strum of the countdown to blast off and ultimate descent into oblivion, Bowie traces the Major's journey in both music and lyrics with tricks and motifs that never suffer the labour of wacky psychedelic gimmickry. Like the best examples of the genre, the spacey effects serve a purpose and aren't some cheap smeared on phasing designed to disguise shortcomings in the song or the playing. Even the much hyped (in 1969) use of the Stylophone is kept reined in and whatever you ultimately decide is going on here, there's something disturbingly final yet coolly understated in the deliberate pauses of:

"Ground control, to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong"

It's an icy and removed description of a life spinning out of control and it's where Bowie leaves the good Major, content in his splendid isolation. Not that the open ended ending renders the song unsatisfying. It doesn't. The whole space age adventure of the song is enjoyable in its own right while the (slightly pretentious) man in me likes to ponder the existential statement (ahem) of human helplessness in "Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do" line. My point being that there's depth there if you want it but 'Space Oddity' doesn't penalise you if you choose not to see it, a facet that makes 'Space Oddity' an endearing song with something for everyone.

* And to that end, compare Roger Waters:

"Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home"?

With Bowie's repeated refrain "Can you hear me Major Tom"? or "I have become comfortably numb". with that "'Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do". See what I mean? Oh please yourselves.