The glam rock iconDavid Bowiemay have had countless hit songs beloved by rock fans worldwide, but the truth was 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 foundations for his alien-like reputation asThe Man Who Fell to Earth. While Bowie would continue to explore themes of time and space as the years progressed, notable as Ziggy Stardust in songs like “Starman,” his feelings toward the story of Major Tom 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, normalizeLGBTQ+ representation, and become a style icon who left an undeniable mark on the entire fashion industry.Bowie was just 22 years old when he hit it big with “Space Oddity,”and it was only natural that, in the years following its release, he struggled with its reputation as one of his defining songs. However, “Space Oddity” has remained a timeless hit and amassed over 350 million streams worldwide.
Space Oddity Was David Bowie’s First No 1 & US Hit
The song’s release coincided with the Moon landing
Influenced by the Stanley Kubrick movie sci-fi masterpiece2001: 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 his self-titled 1967 debut album, it seemed like everything came together at just the right time as “Space Oddity” was released one week before the Apollo 11 mission became the first manned Moon landing. As people worldwide had space on their minds, the song hit all the right notes, reached number one in the UK charts, and later became a major hit in the United States.
The association with the Moon landing meant “Space Oddity” also felt like a bit of a novelty song.
The psychedelic folk song featured Bowie’s first significant character, Major Tom, andhelped lay the groundwork for subsequent creations such as Ziggy Stardust and Halloween Jack. With a pessimistic tone of pure alienation, “Space Oddity” was inspired by Bowie’s recent breakup with his girlfriend, Hermione Farthingale, who also allegedly was “the girl with the mousey hair” featured in Bowie’s later hit “Life on Mars.” Yet the association with the Moon landing meant “Space Oddity” also felt like a bit of 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 Oddity (& Retired It For Years)
Bowie retired the song along with other hit tracks in 1990
While Bowie had plenty of more embarrassing songs in his back catalog, such as the novelty chipmunk voices on “The Laughing Gnome,” his overblown cover of The Beach Boys “God Only Knows,” or the camp energy of his Mick Jagger duet “Dancing in the Street,” the incredible success of “Space Oddity” felt gimmicky as Bowie matured artistically throughout the 1970s. While Bowie had played the song on many of his earliest tours,he retired “Space Oddity” following his Sound+Vision Tour in 1990, only sporadically playing it again for the rest of his career.
The folk-pop stylings of “Space Oddity” were soon replaced by the glam rock of his Ziggy Stardust era.
It makes sense that Bowie had mixed feelings about his earliest work, as he was famously like a chameleon who reinvented himself musically throughout the years and always pushed to break down creative boundaries. The folk-pop stylings of “Space Oddity” were soon replaced by the glam rock of his Ziggy Stardust era, which he quickly traded for the soul stylings of theYoung AmericansandStation to Stationalbums. As an artist who was always focused on looking forward and not backward, it’s no surprise that being so heavily associated with one song eventually became frustrating.
Bowie Threatened To Burn Space Oddity Out Of Existence
Although Bowie did revive Major Tom for a new song years later
Not long after the Moon landing, Bowie described his hit single as “a farce song” that he wrote as an “antidote to space fever” (viaSteve Pafford.) However,this disposable pop song soon became Bowie’s main claim to fame, to the point that people commonly call his second self-titled albumSpace Oddity, despite that not even being its original name. Bowie’s frustration with the track even led to him later threatening to raid the New Jersey vault where much of his material was stored and have the master tape of the song burnt out of existence.
While there’s evidence of Bowie being overly critical of his first hit single over the years, there are also clues that he did not entirely despise “Space Oddity.” With an awareness of the iconic nature of the song, Bowie even mentioned Major Tom in 1980 when he was name-dropped in “Ashes to Ashes” as Bowie sang, “Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, We know Major Tom’s a junkie.” IfDavid Bowietruly loathed the song, there’s also no way he would have chosen to revive it as the closing track for his 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden in 1997.
