The glam rock icon David Bowie may have had countless hit songs loved by rock fans around the world, but the truth is he had a complex relationship with his first hit single. “Space Oddity” was the track that put Bowie on the map, as its themes of alienation, loneliness and space travel helped lay the groundwork for his alien reputation as The Man Who Fell to Earth. Although Bowie continued to explore themes of time and space over the years, notably as Ziggy Stardust on songs like "Starman," his feelings toward Major Tom's story were more complicated.
Bowie was an artist in the truest sense of the word, as he used his music to break down social and political boundaries, normalize LGBTQ+ representation and become a style icon who left an undeniable mark on the entire fashion industry. Bowie was just 19 years old when he had a hit with “Space Oddity”. and it was only natural that, in the years following its release, it struggled with the reputation of it being one of his defining songs. However, “Space Oddity” has remained a timeless hit and has accumulated over 350 million streams worldwide.
Space Oddity was David Bowie's first hit and hit in the US
The release of the song coincided with the moon landing
Influenced by Stanley Kubrick's science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey“Space Oddity” would become one of Bowie’s signature songs and his first hit single. After a string of flops and the lackluster reception to their 1967 self-titled debut album, it seemed like everything came together at the right time, as “Space Oddity” was released a week before the Apollo 11 mission became the first manned landing. on the Moon. As people all over the world had space on their minds, the song hit all the right notes, reached number one in the UK charts and later became a huge hit in the US.
The association with the moon landing made “Space Oddity” seem like a novelty song as well.
The psychedelic folk song featured Bowie's first significant character, Major Tom, and helped lay the groundwork for subsequent creations such as Ziggy Stardust and Halloween Jack. With a downbeat tone of pure alienation, “Space Oddity” was inspired by Bowie’s recent breakup with his girlfriend, Hermione Farthingale, who was also supposedly “the girl with mouse hair” featured on Bowie’s later hit “Life on Mars.” However, the association with the moon landing made “Space Oddity” also seem like a novelty song, and an artist of Bowie's caliber and ambition didn't want to be remembered as a one-hit wonder.
Why Bowie Hated Space Weirdness (And Retired It For Years)
Bowie retired the song along with other hit tracks in 1990
Although Bowie had many more embarrassing songs in his back catalogue, like the new chipmunk voices on “The Laughing Gnome,” his over-the-top cover of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows,” or the camp energy of his duet with Mick Jagger “Dancing in the Street”, the incredible success of “Space Oddity” seemed enigmatic as Bowie matured artistically throughout the 1970s. Although Bowie performed the song on many of his early tours he retired “Space Oddity” after his Sound + Vision tour in 1990playing again only sporadically for the rest of his career.
The folk-pop style of “Space Oddity” was soon replaced by the glam rock of his Ziggy Stardust era.
It makes sense that Bowie had mixed feelings about his early work, as he was famously a chameleon who reinvented himself musically over the years and always pushed to push creative boundaries. The folk-pop style of “Space Oddity” was soon replaced by the glam rock of his Ziggy Stardust era, which he quickly swapped for the soul style of Young Americans and From station to station albums. As an artist who has always been focused on looking forward rather than back, it's no surprise that being so heavily associated with a song ended up becoming frustrating.
Bowie threatened to eliminate the weirdness of space
Although Bowie resurrected Major Tom for a new song years later,
Not long after the moon landing, Bowie described his hit single as “a farce song” which he wrote as a “antidote for space fever"(through Steve Pafford.) However, this throwaway pop song soon became Bowie's main claim to fameto the point that people commonly call their self-titled second album Space Weirdnessdespite not even being its original name. Bowie's frustration with the track even led him to threaten to break into the New Jersey vault where much of his material was stored and burn the song's master tape.
While there is evidence that Bowie was overly critical of his first hit single over the years, there are also clues that he didn't entirely despise "Space Oddity." Aware of the iconic nature of the song, Bowie even mentioned Major Tom in 1980, when his name was mentioned in “Ashes to Ashes” as Bowie sang: “From ashes to ashes, from funk to funky, we know that Major Tom is a stoner..” If David Bowie really hated the song, there's also no way he would have chosen it as the closing track for his 50th anniversary show at Madison Square Garden in 1997.
Source: Steve Pafford