#RockInSpace - David Bowie - Space Oddity (1969)
Rock-‘n-roll en ruimtevaart, op het eerste gezicht geen evidente match. Toch gaan we deze week voor muziekjes met interplanetaire ambities.
Laten we groots aftrappen met één van de strafste spaceliedjes ooit. Bowie werd geïnspireerd door de juiste bron, want het was de Stanley Kubrick-film uit 1968 '2001: A Space Odyssey' die hem enigszins verdwaasd op weg zette.
De song vertelt het verhaal van majoor Tom, een fictieve astronaut die de communicatie met planeet aarde afsluit en de oneindigheid in zweeft. Bowie in 2003: "In England, it was always presumed that it was written about the space landing, because it kind of came to prominence around the same time. But it actually wasn't. It was written because of going to see the film '2001', which I found amazing. I was out of my gourd anyway, I was very stoned when I went to see it, several times, and it was really a revelation to me. It got the song flowing. It was picked up by the British television, and used as the background music for the landing itself. I'm sure they really weren't listening to the lyric at all. It wasn't a pleasant thing to juxtapose against a moon landing. Of course, I was overjoyed that they did. Obviously, some BBC official said, 'Oh, right then, that space song, Major Tom, blah blah blah, that'll be great.' 'Um, but he gets stranded in space, sir.' Nobody had the heart to tell the producer that."
Bowie schreef het als een klassieke gitaarsong, maar producer Gus Dudgeon voegde er de epische arrangementen aan toe. Een hit in 1969 en in 1972 nog eens opnieuw uitgebracht, toen zijn debuutplaat uit 1969 'David Bowie' werd omgedoopt tot 'Space Oddity'. Deze keer waren ook de Amerikanen mee en scoorde hij een eerste topveertighit in Amerika.
En in 1975 werd het dan nog eens opnieuw uitgebracht in de UK en scoorde hij een eerste Britse nummer één. Bowie zelf kreeg ook niet genoeg van Major Tom en schreef een vervolg, Ashes To Ashes, in 1980 op 'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)', waarin de majoor opnieuw contact neemt met de aarde en hij verklaart "happy" te zijn. Ground Control concludeert dat hij een junkie is.
In Uncut van juni 2008 verklaarde sessiebassist Herbie Flowers over zijn werk op ‘Space Oddity’: "The first time I played with Bowie was on the session for Space Oddity. Dear Gus (Dudgeon) was quaking in his boots. It might have been the first thing he ever produced. Space Oddity was this strange hybrid song. (Keyboardist) Rick Wakeman went out to buy a little Stylophone for seven shillings from a small shop on the corner where Trident Studios was. With that and all the string arrangements, it's like a semi-orchestral piece."
En Led Zeppelin-gitarist Jimmy Page vult aan: "I played on his records, did you know that? His very early records when he was Davy Jones & The Lower Third. The Shel Talmy records. I can think of two individual sessions that I did with him. He said in some interview that on one of those sessions I showed him these chords, which he used in Space Oddity - but he said, 'Don't tell Jim, he might sue me.' Ha ha!"
En tenslotte toetsenman Rick Wakeman, die als geen ander de mellotron in toom kon houden: "David said, 'Get him.' I was rehearsing with a seventeen-piece band in Reading, so I drove up. It was a doddle to do, to be honest. I loved the song, and all the credit has to go to David and Tony (Visconti) as I don't think anyone else at that particular time would have heard Mellotron on that piece, where it came in. There would have been other things more obvious to do. It was clever."