The song tells the story of Major Tom, an astronaut who has "really made the grade," and the eyes of the world are on him as he is about to be blasted into space. But Major Tom's solo trip ends in tragedy, as he mysteriously informs ground control that "I'm feeling very still, and I think my spaceship knows which way to go. Tell my wife I love her very much..." There are a number of takes on this early Bowie classic. One is that this is a song about self-destruction, a theme Bowie would return to in "Rock and Roll Suicide" and on his "Station to Station" album.
It goes on to say:
Clearly Major Tom's demise seems to have been less an accident than a conscious decision to detach himself from the planet below.
All the montage images, including 911, in the video represent "a" (not necessarily "the") state of the world today. Terror, War, Violence, Natural Disaster, Evil, Suicide, Death, etc, etc, etc...
Like Major Tom, there are times when I wish I could just rocket off into space and escape this depressing, chaotic world. Luckily, there are forces to counter those depressing issues, however there are just times when the bad seems to overshadow the good and you just wind up wanting to give up or surrender.
The lyrics in Major Tom talks about a "light" or "life" commanding him to come home. One could assume the "light" represents God, Death, or Drugs and outer space is Heaven, Nothingness, or being high...but ultimately something is influencing Major Tom to find peace and the tranquility of outer space is where he finds it.
Bowie later sheds some light in a followup song hinting that Major Tom has experienced all the "highs" of heaven, but is ready to return. Some people think this is an allegory about Bowie's drug abuse, which may be true, however for us, we all need to realize that this hunk of rock is our home, like it or not, and we should work towards accepting certain things about it and working towards ways for humanity to get along with one another. Trying to escape from reality isn't necessarily the answer.
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Not sure about the symbolism
Date: 2005-01-07 12:43 pm (UTC)Thanks
Re: Not sure about the symbolism
Date: 2005-01-07 08:34 pm (UTC)The song tells the story of Major Tom, an astronaut who has "really made the grade," and the eyes of the world are on him as he is about to be blasted into space. But Major Tom's solo trip ends in tragedy, as he mysteriously informs ground control that "I'm feeling very still, and I think my spaceship knows which way to go. Tell my wife I love her very much..." There are a number of takes on this early Bowie classic. One is that this is a song about self-destruction, a theme Bowie would return to in "Rock and Roll Suicide" and on his "Station to Station" album.
It goes on to say:
Clearly Major Tom's demise seems to have been less an accident than a conscious decision to detach himself from the planet below.
All the montage images, including 911, in the video represent "a" (not necessarily "the") state of the world today. Terror, War, Violence, Natural Disaster, Evil, Suicide, Death, etc, etc, etc...
Like Major Tom, there are times when I wish I could just rocket off into space and escape this depressing, chaotic world. Luckily, there are forces to counter those depressing issues, however there are just times when the bad seems to overshadow the good and you just wind up wanting to give up or surrender.
The lyrics in Major Tom talks about a "light" or "life" commanding him to come home. One could assume the "light" represents God, Death, or Drugs and outer space is Heaven, Nothingness, or being high...but ultimately something is influencing Major Tom to find peace and the tranquility of outer space is where he finds it.
Bowie later sheds some light in a followup song hinting that Major Tom has experienced all the "highs" of heaven, but is ready to return. Some people think this is an allegory about Bowie's drug abuse, which may be true, however for us, we all need to realize that this hunk of rock is our home, like it or not, and we should work towards accepting certain things about it and working towards ways for humanity to get along with one another. Trying to escape from reality isn't necessarily the answer.
Re: Not sure about the symbolism
Date: 2005-01-07 08:39 pm (UTC)