'Space Oddity' (originally released with the imaginative title 'David Bowie') is Bowie's second album, released in 1969, still a good few years before the megastardom that came with 'Ziggy Stardust' I wont go into all the biographical stuff. If interested, why not read THE best Bowie biography of them all; 'Strange Fascination' written by my good friend David Buckley - I'll add a link to his marvellous website at the end of this blog. (Was that okay David? Great. £20.00 should do the trick. No problem. Any time)
As you should all know by now (all five of you that read this anyway!) I always write about albums in terms of my own experience and impression of them. And so it came to pass that I first heard 'Space Oddity' the album in the dull summer of 1977. I had just finished my first year at secondary school, adolescence was kicking in and to make matters worse I was carrying a huge pre-pubescent torch for a friend of my life long and therefore long suffering friend Rachel. I dont remember much about this object of my affections now, other than she wore paisley headscarves and at the age 12 already had the demanour of an angry librarian who you have just told that you've dropped your books in a muddy puddle. It never came to anything you understand. Poor Rachel, she had to put up with a lot growing up two doors down the road from me, and I'm sure she did her best to fight my cause with the wonderful Headscarf Harridan. Thanks Rach!
The more I have gained in years, the more I regard 'S.O.' as a guilty but quite intense pleasure. Listening to it earlier this evening for a pre blog reappraisal I was relieved to find that I still love it to bits, still sing along with all the words and even still get a bit excited at the end of the lengthy hippy indulgence of 'Cygnet Committee' - a song that completely blew me away when I first heard it. The album is in places, let's be honest, as cheesy as a great big overripe Brie and with all its late 1960s fey folkiness it does sound at times like it was conceived, performed and recorded by Trevor and Simon's legendary early 1990s kids TV pastiche 'Singing Corner' but this all adds to its undoubted charm I'm sure.
Back in 1977 I hadn't read a single Bowie biography and had no real regard or concern for any chronology in his work so as far as I was concerned he had always been a big famous rock star and hadnt spent the whole of the 1960s in vain pursuit of a hit single or two. He was also, of course, light years away from the loved up hippy folk rock of Space Oddity by 1977 and was about to release 'Heroes'. I cared not.
Of course things get underway with the title track, about which I cannot say any more really and I expect if you are reading this then you may well have heard it a few times already. This is followed by the easy going bo diddley jam of 'Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed' which (honestly) prompted me to ask "Mum, what's a phallus?" because of the line 'I'm a phallus in pigtails'. 'Letter To Hermione' and 'An Occasional Dream' are (in my opinion) two of Bowie's most enduring love songs. Terribly dated of course, and there is still that urge to shout 'swing your pants' from time to time but I still reckon they are very sweet and slightly melancholy songs. 'Cygnet Committee' clocks in at just under 10 minutes and is Bowie's passionate rant against the hippy principles. It is a bit cringe inducing with hindsight, but I still love it and just a few hours ago I was relieved to still find myself bellowing out 'I want to livvvaaaah' at the end, the goosebumps rising on my arms once more. Bowie's ode to 'Janine' (a name given such a bad press in the aftermath of Spinal Tap and Eastenders) is a little more lively and the strange but beautiful 'The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud' sounds like something from an avant garde late 1960s stage show. Possibly that was the intention at the time? One of my favourite songs on the album is the Dylanesque 'God Knows I'm Good' - a genuinely sad tale of a poor and skint old dear reduced to pilfering from a supermarket (a tin of 'Stewing Steak' no less) and getting caught in the process. I was very moved indeed. Still am. The poor old woman. Someone give her a shilling to pay for it and let's let bygones be bygones you bastards!!! And so to the final song, the hippy anthem that never was, and none other than Bowie's own 'Hey Jude' (if I say so myself) - 'Memory Of A Free Festival' Actually, its great. OK there's the grimace inducing, posh Cambridge spoken intro ("errm, maybe I should announce it") and some pretty hairy hippy imagery ("We talked with tall Venuisans passing through") but so what. Just as I did (quietly) as a 12 year old, headscarf fixated, pre-teen oik back in 1977, I found myself singing (loudly); 'The Sun Machine is coming down and we're gonna have a party' over and over again earlier this evening with great passion, and feeling all the better for the experience.
As an early Bowie album this is indeed 'rugged and naive' but to me it is still incredible nonetheless.
More to follow.....
Col
PS Visit David Buckley's website here;
http://www.david-buckley.com/
He is a seriously good rock writer, a thoroughly decent bloke and I do hope to have the chance to get inebriated with him in person at some stage in the very near future.
Maybe I should give this another listen before commenting, but I’m too tired at this very moment in time, yet too awake to not want to share my love of this pleasure (a non-guilty one!)
ReplyDeleteYes, it’s somewhat naieve and sweet, but that’s its very charm I think. And it’s also probably somewhat responsible for my love of the 12-string guitar…
My first memories of this are at least a decade or more after CJC’s. I especially remember playing it on my clunky mono cassette player that sat on my car passenger seat (the luxury of having an inbuilt player was way beyond my peasant budget at the time) whilst driving to and from Glastobury – which fit the music perfectly actually.
A quick mention of my two favourite tracks on it:
‘God Knows I’m Good’ is a heartbreaking gem, made all the more so by the fact that I was a stellar shoplifter in my day, and getting caught was a trauma I can relate too. But an old woman? No!! The poor ol’ dear! Ahhhh, bless…
And one of my favourite Bowie tunes of them all - 'The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud' – a tune I fell in love with when first seeing the Ziggy Stardust concert at Hammersmith Odeon (just on TV, not the real thing you understand!) With that live version, he beautifully segues into ‘All The Young Dudes’ half way through. But when I finally heard the missing second half of that song, it blew me away!! I’ve always been a sucker for rock music that brings in orchestral elements, and none are better than this (for me at least!)
There’s my quick shilling’s worth for you. Although, like CJC suggests, I hope somebody takes that shilling and gives it to that old shoplifting woman, gawwwwd bless ‘er!!