Comments on: Space Oddity

By: Matthew Mathis

Matthew Mathis — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 19:26:15 +0000

I appreciate how you wrote that Major Tom reappeared in at least two other Bowie songs! I feel like Tom is sideway reincarnated in the Tin Machine song “Baby Universal” for a couple of cryptic but significant reasons embedded in the lyrics to this song:

– In the Kubrick film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the hero is named David Bowman (and as David had only recently changed his name to Bowie, and within another year or so, he would start a group called “The Hype” and go be “Rainbowman” in it, you can be sure he tripped out to that implication), and the sequence of the movie where Bowman goes is like being transported through a prismatic warp speed space rush (lyrics in “Baby Universal” include: “no sense of destination” “running for the love of speed” “a speck of dust just settled in my eye” and it not mattering as he has “seen everything anyway”….)

– Bowman (who is clearly the template for Major Tom) met his fate at the end of the movie by being subsumed on his death bed by a baby growing as large as the universe, presumably asking the human if he could feel him thinking, and assuming that a human could see everything the baby is thinking.

By: Marcelo

Marcelo — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 04:24:16 +0000

In reply to Joe.

“Not exactly on purpose, but tribute songs, covers and other non-directly-related recordings aren’t within my scope.”

Fair enough, good job and good day sir.
Signed: Mayor Tom, deceased.

By: B.K. Sonny Tassone

B.K. Sonny Tassone — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 20:42:01 +0000

Interesting enough I had a similar conversation with David en route from Chicago to L.A. he came back to where I was, obviously not first class, sat down, nails painted, makeup on, it was the Ziggy days, he asked the first question, I was petrified, I was en route to Camp Pendleton, then Okinawa then Nam. He said” Did you ever hear of Space Oddity?” My response” Sure, the Stanley Kubrick film, 2001 Space Odyssey” he laughed kind of that Bowie chuckle, and he began to ask about where I was heading. In the end he gave me his card, scrawled a number on the back, which ended up being his mother’s home number. Later that trip I ended up actually the next day, he was playing at the Santa Monica Auditorium, as I recall on the beachfront. Later that trip I spent the day with Ned Lagin, David Crosby, Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh. I did the album cover for Lagin’s very experimental album Seastones. Truth is, I got to do the cover because I had a flat top Marine Corps cut and Lagin didn’t know what to think, so they sent me out with a camera with one order “Take pictures of seastones on the beach, no babes, butts, breasts and or anything that isn’t a stone” That trip was worth the ride and it was the best welcome I ever have seen in My California History. David Bowie, a genus of culture.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:08:08 +0000

In reply to Marcelo. Not exactly on purpose, but tribute songs, covers and other non-directly-related recordings aren't within my scope.

By: Marcelo

Marcelo — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 01:53:48 +0000

Hi Joe, did you left Peter Schilling’s song out on purpose?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Tom_(Coming_Home)