![\"David-Bowie-Issue-No26\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/David-Bowie-Issue-No26.jpg\")
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WRITTEN BY: <\/b>DAVID BOWIE <\/b><\/p>\n
RECORDED: <\/b>TRIDENT STUDIOS, LONDON<\/p>\n
PRODUCED BY: <\/b>GUS DUDGEON<\/p>\n
DAVID BOWIE: <\/b>VOCALS, ACOUSTIC GUITAR,<\/p>\n
STYLOPHONE<\/p>\n
HERBIE FLOWERS: <\/b>BASS<\/p>\n
TERRY COX: <\/b>DRUMS<\/p>\n
MICK WAYNE: <\/b>ELECTRIC GUITAR <\/b><\/p>\n
RICK WAKEMAN: <\/b>MELLOTRON, PIANO<\/p>\n
PAUL BUCKMASTER: <\/b>STRINGS<\/p>\n
FROM THE ALBUM: <\/b>DAVID BOWIE (1969)<\/p>\n
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In the dark of London\u2019s Cinerama theater, 22-year-old David Bowie stared at the space embryo floating across the theater\u2019s huge 70 mm screen. It was the summer of 1968, and this was his third time watching 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/i>. \u201cIt was the sense of isolation I related to,\u201d Bowie said. \u201cI found the whole thing amazing. I was out of my gourd, very stoned when I went to see it, and it was really a revelation to me. It got the song flowing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Stanley Kubrick\u2019s film provided the setting and title for Bowie\u2019s first Top 10 hit, other inspirations helped shape the song. That summer, Bowie was hooked on Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s Bookends<\/i> album\u2014especially \u201cOld Friends,\u201d whose breezy chords he borrowed for the \u201ctin can\u201d section of his song. More significant was the downward spiral of Bowie\u2019s relationship with girlfriend Hermione Farthingale. \u201cIt was Hermione who got me writing for a specific person,\u201d Bowie said. The lonely void that Bowie felt in her absence found its perfect metaphor in the marooned space capsule of Major Tom.<\/p>\n
With the song complete, Bowie cut a demo in late 1968 for the short promotional film Love You Till Tuesday<\/i>. That version, thin and reedy, with Bowie mimicking the spaceship sounds himself, failed to make commercial waves. But it landed him a contract with Mercury. The first order of business was to record a proper full-on version. Bowie assumed that he\u2019d be working with his usual producer, Tony Visconti. But Visconti hated the tune, calling it \u201ca cheap shot\u2014a gimmick to cash in on the moon shot.\u201d Into the breach leapt Visconti\u2019s young engineer Gus Dudgeon.<\/p>\n
Recorded on June 20, 1969, at London\u2019s Trident Studios, the song was plotted with the precision of a space launch. From the well-timed entrances of Herbie Flowers\u2019 bass and Rick Wakeman\u2019s Mellotron to the controlled chaos of the lift-off and the spooky distress calls dotting the outro, the clever arrangement propelled the song into an atmosphere far beyond the demo. The song\u2019s majesty is even more remarkable when you consider the session cost under $750, with the musicians making just over $15 each. Dudgeon mixed the track in stereo, almost unheard of for radio singles at the time the new iPhone app \u201cRemix David Bowie\u2013Space Oddity\u201d allows one to match skills with Dudgeon.<\/p>\n
The record was rush-released on July 11, nine days ahead of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The song got little play in the States but the reception in England was far warmer. \u201cIt was picked up by British television and used as the background music for the landing itself,\u201d Bowie said. \u201cThough I\u2019m sure they really weren\u2019t listening to the lyric at all<\/i>. Of course, I was overjoyed that they did. Obviously, some BBC official said, \u2018Oh, right then, that space song, Major Tom, blah blah blah, that\u2019ll be great.\u2019 Nobody had the heart to tell the producer, \u2018Um, but he gets stranded in space, sir.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u201cSpace Oddity\u201d remains Bowie biggest-selling single in the U.K. It won the Ivor Novello Award in 1969. Though there were a few commercial bumps in the years following, it was kind of a scouting mission for the worldwide fame that would come in 1972 with the extraterrestrial Ziggy Stardust<\/i>. It has since been covered by many artists, including Def Leppard, Tangerine Dream and Cat Power, and featured in the video game Rock Band 3<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Intergalactic lullaby, break-up tune, NASA tie-in, \u201cSpace Oddity\u201d had it all\u2014a five-minute, wildly inventive story song that christened Bowie\u2019s fertile decade of pioneering pop.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2013Bill DeMain<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WRITTEN BY: DAVID BOWIE RECORDED: TRIDENT STUDIOS, LONDON PRODUCED BY: GUS DUDGEON DAVID BOWIE: VOCALS, ACOUSTIC GUITAR, STYLOPHONE HERBIE FLOWERS: BASS TERRY COX: DRUMS MICK WAYNE: ELECTRIC GUITAR RICK WAKEMAN: MELLOTRON, PIANO PAUL BUCKMASTER: STRINGS FROM THE ALBUM: DAVID BOWIE (1969) \u201cSpace Oddity\u201d DAVID BOWIE In the dark of London\u2019s Cinerama theater, 22-year-old David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5264],"tags":[206,6662,6663,6661],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9988"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9992,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9988\/revisions\/9992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}