Space Oddity (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Space Oddity
Type = Studio album
Artist = David Bowie


Released = 4 November 1969
Recorded = Trident Studios, London June-September 1969
Genre = Folk rock, Prog rock
Length = 45:13
Label = Philips (UK)
Mercury (U.S.)
Rykodisc Reissue January 30 1990
Producer = Tony Visconti
Gus Dudgeon on "Space Oddity"
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ufjw7i2jg76r link]
Last album = "David Bowie" (1967)
This album = "Space Oddity" (1969)
Next album = "The Man Who Sold the World" (1970)
Misc = Singles
Name =Space Oddity
Type =studio
Single 1 =Space Oddity" / "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud
Single 1 date =1969

"Space Oddity" is a 1969 album by rock musician David Bowie. Originally released by Philips in the UK as "David Bowie" and by Mercury in the U.S. as "Man of Words/Man of Music", it was reissued by RCA Records in 1972 under the title "Space Oddity", the name by which it is still commonly known. Regarding its mix of folk, balladry and prog rock, "NME" editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have said, "Some of it belonged in '67 and some of it in '72, but in 1969 it all seemed vastly incongruous. Basically, "David Bowie" can be viewed in retrospect as all that Bowie had been and a little of what he would become, all jumbled up and fighting for control..."Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). "Bowie: An Illustrated Record": pp.28-29]

Held to be "the first Bowie album proper",David Buckley (1999). "Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story": pp.36-79] and his first deemed worthy by record companies of regular reissue, "Space Oddity" featured a notable list of collaborators, including session players Herbie Flowers, Tim Renwick, Terry Cox, and Rick Wakeman, as well as cellist Paul Buckmaster, multi-instrumentalist and producer Tony Visconti, and bassist John Lodge (not to be confused with The Moody Blues' bassist of the same name). Before recording for the album commenced, "Space Oddity" had been selected as the lead single based on an earlier demo.Nicholas Pegg (2000). "The Complete David Bowie": p.257] Tony Visconti saw it as a "novelty record" and passed the production responsibility on to Gus Dudgeon. Visconti thus produced all the songs on the album bar what would become, from its 1972 reissue onwards, the title track.

Still considered one of Bowie's best-known songs, "Space Oddity" was a largely acoustic number augmented by the eerie tones of the composer's Stylophone, a pocket electronic organ. The title and subject matter were inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s "" and introduced the character of Major Tom. Some commentators have also seen the song as a metaphor for heroin use, citing the opening countdown as analogous to the drug's passage down the needle prior to the euphoric 'hit', and noting Bowie's admission of a "silly flirtation with smack" in 1968. His 1980 hit "Ashes to Ashes" declared "We know Major Tom's a junkie".

"Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" reflected a strong Bob Dylan influence, [Nicholas Pegg (2000). Ibid: p.227] with its harmonica, edgy guitar sound and snarling vocal. "Letter to Hermione" was a farewell ballad to Bowie's former girlfriend, Hermione Farthingale, who was also the object of "An Occasional Dream", a gentle folk tune reminiscent of the singer's 1967 debut album. "God Knows I'm Good", Bowie's observational tale of a shoplifter's plight, also recalled his earlier style.

"Cygnet Committee" has been called Bowie’s "first true masterpiece".Nicholas Pegg (2000). Ibid: p.57] Commonly regarded as the album track most indicative of the composer's future direction, its lead character is a messianic figure "who breaks down barriers for his younger followers, but finds that he has only provided them with the means to reject and destroy him". Bowie himself described it at the time as a put down of hippies who seemed ready to follow any charismatic leader. Another track cited as foreshadowing themes to which Bowie would return in 1970s, in this case the fracturing of personality, was "Janine", which featured the words "But if you took an axe to me, you’d kill another man not me at all".

The Buddhism-influenced "Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" was presented in a heavily-expanded form compared to the original guitar-and-cello version on the B-side of the "Space Oddity" single; the album cut featured a 50-piece orchestra and was also notable for Mick Ronson's debut on a Bowie record, playing uncredited guitar and handclaps midway through the song. "Memory of a Free Festival" was Bowie's reminiscence of an arts festival he had organised in August 1969. Its drawn-out fade/chorus ("The Sun Machine is coming down / And we're gonna have a party") was compared to The Beatles' "Hey Jude";Christopher Sandford (1996, 1997). "Loving the Alien": p.60] the song has also been interpreted as a derisive comment on the counterculture it was ostensibly celebrating. [Nicholas Pegg (2000). Op Cit: pp.141-2] In 1970 Bowie cut the tune in half for the A- and B-sides of a more rock-oriented version featuring the band that would accompany him on "The Man Who Sold the World" later that year: Mick Ronson, Tony Visconti and Mick Woodmansey - an embryonic form of Ziggy Stardust's Spiders From Mars.

Although the opening song had given Bowie a #5 hit in the UK earlier in the year, the remainder of the material bore little resemblance to it and the album was a commercial failure on its initial release, despite some decent reviews. However the November 1972 reissue, released in the wake of Bowie's breakthrough "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" and featuring a contemporary Ziggy photo on the cover, made #17 in the UK charts and #16 in the United States.

Track listing

All songs written by David Bowie.

ide one

# "Space Oddity" – 5:15
# "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" – 6:55
# "(Don't Sit Down)" * – 0:39
# "Letter to Hermione" – 2:28
# "Cygnet Committee" – 9:33

ide two

# "Janine" – 3:18
# "An Occasional Dream" – 2:51
# "Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" – 4:45
# "God Knows I'm Good" – 3:13
# "Memory of a Free Festival" – 7:05

* "Don't Sit Down" was deleted from the album when it was rereleased in 1972 as "Space Oddity".

Release history

Single

Notes