Astronaut / Cosmonaut part I

Space Oddity (song)

"Space Oddity" is a song written and performed by David Bowie and released as a music single in 1969. It is about the launch of Major Tom, a fictional astronaut; its title alludes to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The lyrics have also been seen to lampoon the failed British space programme. The song appears on the album David Bowie (also known as Space Oddity). The BBC featured the song in its television coverage of the Apollo 11 launch and lunar landing, which took place in the days following the release of the song.

The song was awarded the 1969 Ivor Novello Award, together with Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?". "Space Oddity" became so well known that Bowie's second album, originally released as David Bowie in the UK (like his first album), was renamed after the track for its 1972 reissue by RCA Records, and has since become known by this name.

Bowie would later revisit his Major Tom character in the songs "Ashes to Ashes" and "Hallo Spaceboy". German singer Peter Schilling's 1983 hit "Major Tom (Coming Home)" is written as a retelling of the song.

Space Oddity Lyrics

Ground Control to Major Tom

 Ground Control to Major Tom

 Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

Ground Control to Major Tom (Ten, Nine Eight, Seven, Six)

 Commencing countdown, engines on (Five, Four, Three, Two)

 Check ignition and may God's love be with you (One, Liftoff)

This is Ground Control to Major Tom

 You've really made the grade

 And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear

 Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

This is Major Tom to Ground Control

 I'm stepping through the door

 And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

 And the stars look very different today

For here

 Am I sitting in a tin can

 Far above the world

 Planet Earth is blue

 And there's nothing I can do

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles

 I'm feeling very still

 And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

 Tell my wife I love her very much... she knows

Ground Control to Major Tom

 Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong

 Can you hear me, Major Tom?

 Can you hear me, Major Tom?

 Can you hear me, Major Tom?

 Can you....

Here am I floating round my tin can

 Far above the moon

 Planet Earth is blue

 And there's nothing I can do.