22-02-2025, 17:42
The Best of Bowie (1980) compilation was the third new record I ever bought.
![[Image: 220px-The_Best_of_Bowie.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/ca/The_Best_of_Bowie.jpg/220px-The_Best_of_Bowie.jpg)
I’ve been fascinated by outer space and mind-bending notion of infinity since I can remember and the first three tracks on that album are “Space Oddity”, “Life on Mars?” and “Starman”! And a few things have happened this week to put me in mind of Mr Bowie, who seems to have continuously reinvented himself throughout his life, almost becoming more substantial as he went along, and then even posthumously. Let me just say, that I do not love everything he did, musically, but he was undisputedly a charismatic, creative human being, and he had a great mind, which I like.
Bowie made “Space Oddity” prior to the moon landing - it was released on 11th July 1969 just days before the mission departed - machinations perhaps?? From Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Oddity According to Bowie: "It was picked up by British television and used as the background music for the landing itself in Britain ... Though 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." Upon realising the dark lyrics, the ceased playing it until the Apollo 11 crew safely returned home.
It’s a mere 56 years ago now, and only 44 years later that Chris Hadfield recorded his somewhat altered version aboard the ISS in 2013. The first music video ever to be recorded in space (which begs a few questions about copyright, I believe! Funnily Bowie did not hold the copyright on that song and he supported its return to the internet once the licence held by Hadfield had expired after one year.). And then today, I bumped into Fred in our library bookstore who had picked up a copy of Angie (Bowie) Barnett’s biography Free Spirit, while I nabbed Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. And then (it must have been subconsciously), I realised I’d included a Buzz Aldrin quote in the quiz I run once a month – “Fantastic view, magnificent desolation.” (Upon setting foot on la luna – apparently
)
It’s so strange to think that when we first heard these songs, that is all there was available – at least for most of us, at the time. Hearing them. No YouTube clips, no visuals other than live shows – you had to listen, which was really not a chore – it was magical. Now we have all those incredible photos of our beautiful earth, and a spaceman’s rendition going viral.
Because I’ll never forget the magic of listening to those three songs especially, today’s song is “Space Oddity”, with a Chris Hadfield interview thrown in for good measure. He and Bowie could not possibly be more disparate, in career and persona – so interesting how each one had such high regard for the other.
The Hadfield interview ...
I’ve been fascinated by outer space and mind-bending notion of infinity since I can remember and the first three tracks on that album are “Space Oddity”, “Life on Mars?” and “Starman”! And a few things have happened this week to put me in mind of Mr Bowie, who seems to have continuously reinvented himself throughout his life, almost becoming more substantial as he went along, and then even posthumously. Let me just say, that I do not love everything he did, musically, but he was undisputedly a charismatic, creative human being, and he had a great mind, which I like.
Bowie made “Space Oddity” prior to the moon landing - it was released on 11th July 1969 just days before the mission departed - machinations perhaps?? From Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Oddity According to Bowie: "It was picked up by British television and used as the background music for the landing itself in Britain ... Though 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." Upon realising the dark lyrics, the ceased playing it until the Apollo 11 crew safely returned home.
It’s a mere 56 years ago now, and only 44 years later that Chris Hadfield recorded his somewhat altered version aboard the ISS in 2013. The first music video ever to be recorded in space (which begs a few questions about copyright, I believe! Funnily Bowie did not hold the copyright on that song and he supported its return to the internet once the licence held by Hadfield had expired after one year.). And then today, I bumped into Fred in our library bookstore who had picked up a copy of Angie (Bowie) Barnett’s biography Free Spirit, while I nabbed Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. And then (it must have been subconsciously), I realised I’d included a Buzz Aldrin quote in the quiz I run once a month – “Fantastic view, magnificent desolation.” (Upon setting foot on la luna – apparently
)It’s so strange to think that when we first heard these songs, that is all there was available – at least for most of us, at the time. Hearing them. No YouTube clips, no visuals other than live shows – you had to listen, which was really not a chore – it was magical. Now we have all those incredible photos of our beautiful earth, and a spaceman’s rendition going viral.
Because I’ll never forget the magic of listening to those three songs especially, today’s song is “Space Oddity”, with a Chris Hadfield interview thrown in for good measure. He and Bowie could not possibly be more disparate, in career and persona – so interesting how each one had such high regard for the other.
The Hadfield interview ...
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson