Cat Power sing Space Oddity, sorta
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations, The World Of David Bowie
I’m kinda stumped here. I stumbled upon this video of Space Oddity as performed by a band called Cat Power:
Now, it’s only thirty seconds long.
What’s that you say? It’s a COMMERCIAL?
Sung by a girl band?
For a car?
That’s so tacky. So cheap. So, commercial.
I’d like to hear the full version tho. They actually accentuate my favorite part musically of the song. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone else do it that way.
Tags: cat power, david bowie, lincoln, mks, space-oddity
Flight of the Conchords
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
Sometimes life throws curves at you that you don’t really see coming. Sometimes those curves change your life in deep, profound ways. This is not one of those.
My son has been fascinated with Concords. The airplane that doesn’t fly anymore. He particularly LOVES the crash video. He buys toy Concords just to re-enact the crash, over and over. As such, I have been pretty much burnt out completely on Concords.
And of course, Bowie has been a running theme throughout a majority of my life. After thirty years of keeping up with Bowie and the strangeness that has been his world, I never bore of it. Although Bowie himself is slowing down, those influenced by him just keep cranking the weirdness out.
So, this is where these two elements of my life come crashing together. A bunch who call themselves Flight of the Conchords have redone a few Bowie tunes in a rather creative, if not odd to awful, way.
Here is their interpretation of Space Oddity:
Now, if you follow the leads on their Youtube video, they do all kinds of weird skits where Bowie appears to Bret in various costumes speaking words of wisdom. None of which really make any sense at all.
Now, the Concord/Bowie connection is a rather odd life meld. The other one is the actual interpretation the Conchords have of Bowie. That’s sort of been my connection to Bowie as well. Whenever things get me down, or life throws one of those complicated, depressing situations at me, I just crank up some old Bowie such as The Bewley Brothers or Moonage Daydream and seek all the guidance I need in the words of meaninglessness. Sometimes it’s best to just clear your mind completely. No one is better at that than Bowie.
H/T: Your civil Disobedience Servant
Tags: conchords, concord, david bowie, Interpretations, life, space-oddity
Kashmir’s Memory of a Free Festival
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
Was obviously looking for something completely different, but stumbled on this in the process. This is a band called Kashmir or something to that effect doing Memory of a Free Festival
Tags: david bowie, Interpretations, kashmir, memory-of-a-free-festival, space-oddity
Space Oddity on Hits A Go Go ( have you seen THIS outfit before? )
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Vision
If you wanna see the evolution of David Bowie in its entirity, just watch all the videos of Space Oddity. Or just do it here, I’ve got a bunch of them. And, I’ll probably have a bunch more. Never one of my favorite recordings, his live performances most often were much better than the studio. Unfortunately, this is not one of those. This is possibly the only time, outside of demo videos, you’ll see Bowie lip syncing here. However, the unusualness of this performance is worth watching. Remember Tommy James circa 1970 or so? Just watch, it’s a great chuckle to me:
Tags: david bowie, space-oddity, Vision
Space Oddity, the original motion picture
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Vision
Most people consider the RCA/Mick Rock video of a shock-red-haired androgynous Bowie as the original Space Oddity video. A lot of sources will cite it as such. However, about three years before that, while he was still David Jones, he actually prepared a demo for Space Oddity that is a hoot to me to this day. This is a very young Bowie showing some of the almost child-like imagination that seemed prevalant through his early years. I actually like it more than the glitzier RCA version of 1972. If anyone has better information on this video, I’d love to have it here. Here it goes:
Tags: david bowie, demo, space-oddity, Vision
Memory of a Free Festival
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations, Vision
Before Bowie was Ziggy, before he was The Thin White Duke, before he became African or animated, he was a long haired hipster singing folk songs, looking something like this:
However, also from the same album as Space Oddity was an odd little tune that gave everyone a truer idea of what he was thinking at that time, Memory of a Free Festival:
The Children of the summer’s end
Gathered in the dampened grass
We played Our songs and felt the London sky
Resting on our hands
It was God’s land
It was ragged and naive
It was Heaven
Touch, We touched the very soul Of holding each and every life
We claimed the very source of joy ran through
It didn’t, but it seemed that way
I kissed a lot of people that day
Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon
To paint that love upon a white balloon
And fly it from the toppest top of all the tops That man has pushed beyond his brain
Satori must be something just the same
We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size
We talked with tall Venusians passing through
And Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his head
And away they soared
Climbing through the ivory vibrant cloud
Someone passed some bliss among the crowd
And We walked back to the road, unchained
“The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We’re Gonna Have a Party”
OK, we’ve got Zen Buddhism, Woodstock, Heaven, God, ecstasy, aliens, bliss, and freedom. And, to finish it off, we’re gonna have a party. With the references to “Sun Machines”, bliss, and ecstasy, you’d think this song was written this year. However, it was written a long time ago, about 1967 or so. Somehow or another Bowie packed everything his world encompassed musically into one song. And, it also signaled a musical pattern Bowie would follow a lot for about a decade, meandering through a story without really saying anything. Who are the Children of the summer’s end? Hippies? Could be, we don’t really know. How many people would describe London as “ragged and naive, it was God’s land”? That’s not the London I know. Who is Peter and why do we care? Do Venusians speak English on Venus? So many questions, no answers. Just a strange, strange story. That’s what I liked about Bowie then. Every good song left you with the feeling of “WTF?”.
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Here’s my version, I just did it on my new PC.
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Here’s the original version via Sony
, it’s like 99 cents or so.
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Memory of a Free Festival originally appeared on
Space Oddity ( Man of Words, Man of Music ).
I’d suggest the album first. I like my version a lot, but I refuse to allow anyone else hear me sing it!
Tags: david bowie, Interpretations, memory-of-a-free-festival, space-oddity, Vision
Space Oddity
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations, Sound, Vision
It just suddenly struck me that in my desire to “interpret” some of my favorite Bowie tunes, I’ve forgotten probably his signature song, Space Oddity
It was basically the final farewell as Mick and David wouldn’t perform together for nearly two decades. The original demo to Space Oddity is a riot. But, it just doesn’t seem quite right here. So, I’ll save it for later. For reasons beyond my comprehension, the 1980 Floor Show has never been released in any capacity. Bowie would quickly ditch Ziggy after this show for the Young American and his glam days were over. But, boy, did he go out with a bang. More on that later.
Tags: 1980-Floor-Show, david bowie, Interpretations, mick ronson, scott-carpenter, Sound, space-oddity, Vision
Rick Wakeman
Posted by Moonage | Filed under The World Of David Bowie
Rick Wakeman is arguably the most gifted keyboardist to ever grace rock. His breakthrough came in 1973 with The Six Wives of Henry VIII. However, in 1969 he was still pretty much unknown, not having joined Yes for the first time. Somehow he teamed up with Bowie to do a couple of songs, one of which being Space Oddity. Rick then teamed up with Bowie again to do most of the songs on Hunky Dory. This album particularly showcased Wakeman’s talent. Changes and Life on Mars being two particularly good piano pieces. As far as I know, this ended the Bowie/Wakeman colaborations, much to the loss of both. Although Wakeman enjoyed some success for a few years, especially teaming up with Elton John for Madman Accross the Waters, the piano riffs of Changes remain probably the most memorable effort he ever made. With Bowie’s creativity and Wakeman’s talent, there could have been some really good stuff there. And, given Wakeman’s tendency to go way over the top in total absurdity ( see this description of the live performance of King Arthur ), I can’t help but wonder why it is whenever Bowie records with someone, they either die or go temporarily nuts?
Here’s my versions of a few Bowie/Wakeman tunes.
And here’s the originals:
Tags: changes, david bowie, hunky-dory, oh-you-pretty-things, quicksand, rick-wakeman, space-oddity, The World Of David Bowie
Cygnet Committee
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Sound
Another of my all time favorites. Bowie’s first truly production album featured Space Oddity. However, as great a song it is, Cygnet Committee was Space Oddity on steroids. At over nine minutes long, it tells the story of a rebellion from both the perspective of a financial supporter, and then from a rebellion leader as well. It meanders, the music builds somewhat, and it ends in a over-emotional plea that the rebellion member just wants to live. This to me was Bowie at his most bizarre and creative self. He didn’t have elaborate instrumentation, Wakeman and Ronson were yet to on the scene. It was primarily Bowie with accoustic guitar and little else. This was folk on acid. The lyrics are funny as hell in their bitterness and IMO, confusion. Before you listen to anything else from this pre-Ziggy era, listen to Cygnet Committee.
Here’s my version. I think it sounds better musically, but I’ve got a lot more to work with than Bowie did then. It’s also from another Lunamagic midi as well, which means it’s great.
Tags: cygnet-committee, david bowie, Sound, space-oddity
