Recorded in February of 1969 for a long-form promotional film called “Love You Till Tuesday”, this early version of David Bowie’s first chart single reveals how much the song evolved into the trippy tale of Major Tom’s ill-fated moonshot we all know and love.
Bowie claims to have gone “stoned out of my mind” to see Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which in part inspired the song.
The song’s style, lyric and minor key arrangement are said to have been influenced by the early work of the Bee Gees, specifically “New York Mining Disaster”, a similarly bleak bit of fiction.
In fact, “have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones” and “tell my wife I love her very much” link the two lyrically, as does the common theme of facing the worst-case scenario in a potentially deadly occupation.
One might say “Space Oddity” is “New York Mining Disaster” set in space.
The song was re-recorded in June of ’69 and rush-released to coincide with the Apollo 11 moon landing (the single came out just 9 days before Armstrong walked on the moon).
Bowie’s definitive version of the song ditched the ocarina solo for a spacier guitar-and-mellotron break, replaced “blast off” with “lift off”, and generally sounds much more polished.
But the early take on the song–and its accompanying video, worts and all (um, Bowie’s teeth at 2:50?) certainly remain a curiosity for fans.
