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From the forthcoming Johnny J. Blair album, WE'RE GETTING CLOSER TO THE SUN. Song composed by David Bowie. Copyright 1969 Bucks Music Group/Essex Music/Onward Music Ltd.

Some have thought of “Space Oddity” as a dystopian story of futility and failure. I beg to differ. If you study the indicators in David Bowie’s music, he enjoyed a spiritual quest, a pursuit of God’s heart in the cosmos, inner and outer. Also, there’s no sign that Bowie killed off Major Tom. Instead, Bowie reprised the Major Tom character as a conflicted man, “…Strung out on heaven’s high, making an all-time low,” seeking redemption from his own foibles while expressing awe at the vastness of creation. My goal in covering this Bowie song point towards the childlike faith-influenced sci-fi themes of my next full length album, WE’RE GETTING CLOSER TO THE SUN.

In 2007 I wrote a paper on “Space Oddity” (as follows):

Astronauts are “the best and the brightest” in their field. Theirs is also a life of danger. Great demands are placed on mind, body and soul.

“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…Liftoff”

In David Bowie’s Space Oddity, the astronaut-hero Major Tom took a fateful trip into the cosmos. Tom has become part of pop culture mythology, proving that great songwriting collapses time and challenges impulses. The song title is a take on the Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke, 2001 conveys Clarke’s theory on the future symbiosis of man and machine; that man is evolving from ape to man, man to machine, and man to 'Star Child.’

Was Tom a martyr/poster boy for the belief that science is salvation? There’s no evidence of that in Space Oddity. Bowie finished Oddity not long after viewing 2001 several times (saying the movie “got the song flowing”). He confirms the song is “about alienation” and that he had “a lot of empathy” with Major Tom. Some have interpreted that Tom died through some faithless act of despair, resignation or sabotage. Nicholas Pegg, an actor/author/critic and respected Bowie-anthologist, called Space Oddity a “Hamlet-like meditation on the consequences of inaction.”

Some Bowie-philes assume that Tom, feeling like an existential speck, is asking “What’s the point?” I don’t agree with this view. Ground Control and Tom pay tribute to God. Tom, in an obvious good mood, feels a kind of privilege in this spectacle of beautiful blue earth. He is simply expressing awe over something he couldn’t have created himself.

The original version fades in with a pensive march of reverb-drenched 12-string guitar, Mellotron cello and vibraphone, but while the F/Em chord progression seems ominous, these opening traces have always made me feel a promise of comfort. If there is melancholy in Space Oddity, it is transitional and warm-blooded.

“If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”—Psalm 139:8

The vastness of space avails astronauts to a profound sense of context. Meanwhile, back on earth, astronauts become heroes to science and public, sometimes becoming role models, fantasy-objects and pop stars. Bowie has penned many lyrics about the various meanings of the word “star.”

“This is Ground Control to Major Tom, You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear”

“Fame is finally only the sum total of all the misunderstandings that can gather around a new name.”—Rainer Maria Rilke

“Fame makes a man think things over.”—David Bowie, Fame (1975)

Clarke’s story is but a dilation on THE ILIAD, Homer’s earthbound classic. The word “odyssey” means “a quest.” Questing has never been reliant on machines. Space Oddity is a very human quest; a “sci-fi operetta” about estrangement from fame, society and technocracy.

Oddity was released in July 19, 1969, to coincide with Apollo 11 moon landing. The song was the music bed for BBC broadcasts of the event. However, the song was shrugged off as a novelty. Later that year (on a bill with Humble Pie and Love Sculpture), Bowie was booed as he performed it solo-acoustic. This stung him, particularly as he was grieving over the recent death of his father. Some Bowie-philes believe this era started Bowie on the trek of using stage-personas (Ziggy Stardust, Thin White Duke, etc.) to protect himself from the public.

It would be awhile before Oddity would become legend. It didn’t get American airplay until 1973 (after the splashdown of ZIGGY STARDUST).

Oddity has been done in an array of versions, from Mike Garson’s majestic arrangement for children’s choir and orchestra, to riveting acoustic guitar reductions. I perform it on a slide 12-string guitar tuned down to C, in an E Major position.

The definitive 1969 track is gorgeous and mind-sweeping. It features top session players (from the Donovan/Pentangle camp) and steller keyboard work by Rick Wakeman (in his second-ever studio job). Wakeman cites Oddity as a personal favorite and does it in his solo piano set.

Oddity emerged when the optimistic, flower-powered side of the 60s was being overcome by prophetic, visionary works by progressive rock acts like The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and King Crimson (soon to release their Mellotron-pillared masterpiece, IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING). Bowie succeeded in distinguishing himself from a tizzy of British Invasion folk-rockers.

“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”

Major Tom, the astronaut-hero, entered the cosmos as an agent provocateur against alienation (on technocracy’s dime). He celebrates popping out of the “tin can” for a nice stroll in anti-grav.

“For here am I sitting in a tin can, Far above the world”

Off-speaker, Tom could also be singing Over the Rainbow.

“Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do”

Some Bowie-philes assume that Tom, feeling like an existential speck, is asking “What’s the point?” I don’t agree with this view. Ground Control and Tom have stated belief in God. Tom, in an obvious good mood, feels a kind of privilege in this spectacle of beautiful blue earth. He is simply expressing awe over something he couldn’t have done himself.

“Don't have to question everything in heaven or hell/Lord, I kneel and offer you my word on a wing/And I'm trying hard to fit among your scheme of things”—David Bowie, Word on a Wing (1976)

“Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go”

In Tom’s last transmission, his radix is not Ground Control, but devotion, trust and love: “Tell my wife I love her very much... she knows”

Bowie said that Oddity was influenced by the orchestral rock sounds of The Bee Gees, whose 1941 Mining Disaster (1967) was a husband/wife message. Sadly, Mr. Jones’ wife was lost in the ground. Tom is in open space.

“Ground Control to Major Tom Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you....”

Death is said to be the ultimate career move. Is Tom only making a move? Did the celebrity-worn Tom cut a deal with Ground Control, saying “I’ll keep your secrets if you keep mine?”

Bowie never pronounced Tom’s death. He went on to inform many Bowie characters. Tom came out of moon-dusted spiritual exile to appear (by name) in Ashes to Ashes (1980) and Hallo Spaceboy (1995). In the end, Bowie lived a life in the dazzle of space, outer and inner.

credits

from Space Oddity / We're Getting Closer to the Sun (2020 EP), released January 5, 2020
Johnny J. Blair: bass, guitars, keyboards (Mellotron, piano, Stylophone, vibraphone), percussion, lead & harmony vocals
Uma Robin Mackey: “Lt. Uhura narration” & harmony vocals
Robert Powell: Ebow & pedal steel guitar
Prairie Prince: drums
Chris von Sneidern: mastering, mixing, obscure instrument retrieval, & electronic percussion

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Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large" San Francisco, California

"Johnny is a virtuoso"--Brian Wilson
"Pop music with a conscience.”--Goldmine
“the Harry Houdini of rock and roll.”-- Spotlight. Listen to Johnny's fast-paced mix of old school soul, psychedelia, punk/new wave, & classic pop/rock. Singer-songwriter in his own right, he was also a sideman for Davy Jones and The Monkees + performed with David Cassidy, Al Stewart, Buddy & Julie Miller, & others. ... more

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