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Space Oddity
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Singles from Space Oddity
1."Space Oddity""
Released: 11 July 1969

2."Memory of a Free Festival"
Released: 12 June 1970

Composition
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 2001: A Space Odyssey 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, 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". 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"; the song has also been interpreted as a derisive comment on the counterculture it was ostensibly celebrating. 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.


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

Side two
1."Janine" – 3:18
2."An Occasional Dream" – 2:51
3."Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" – 4:45
4."God Knows I'm Good" – 3:13
5."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.

[edit] Release history
Region Date Title Label Format Catalog
UK 4 November 1969 David Bowie Philips Stereo LP SBL 7912
USA 1969 Man of Words/Man of Music Mercury Stereo LP 61246
USA 1972 Space Oddity RCA Stereo LP LSP 4813


CD releases
Space Oddity was first released on CD by RCA in 1984. In keeping with the 1972 RCA LP release, the track "Don't Sit Down" remained missing. The German (for the European market) and Japanese (for the United States market) masters were sourced from different tapes and are not identical for each region.

In 1990, the album was rereleased by Rykodisc/EMI with an expanded track listing including a restored "Don't Sit Down" as well as "Conversation Piece" and the two-part re-recording of "Memory of a Free Festival" that had been released as a single in 1970.


1990 bonus tracks
1."Conversation Piece" (1970 B-side of "The Prettiest Star") – 3:05
2."Memory of a Free Festival Part 1" (1970 single version A-side) – 3:59
3."Memory of a Free Festival Part 2" (1970 single version B-side) – 3:31
The album was reissued again in 1999 by EMI, without bonus tracks but with 24-bit digitally remastered sound and retaining the original "Don't Sit Down". The Japanese mini LP replicates the cover of the original Philips LP.

Charts
Album

Year Chart Position
1972 UK Albums chart 17
19723 Australian Kent Report Albums Chart 21
1973 Billboard Pop Albums 16

Single
"Space Oddity"
Year Chart Position
1969 UK Singles Chart 5
1973 Billboard Pop Singles 15
1975 UK Singles Chart 1