| Peter Schilling – Major Tom (Coming Home) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| @[drew403:4224] This song is not about one person having a strange experience, but Major Tom is a symbolic stand in for each of us. The song describes the greatest adventure that we EACH take, but take in a sense alone: life. That is why it resonates so POWERFULLY. Each of us is on a journey through our lives. What we have in common? Earth below us. Each of us is Major Tom. | |
| Peter Schilling – Major Tom (Coming Home) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Looking at the song again, if you want to REALLY read into it... here's even a little more of an expansion on my previous take. That the entire song is a very carefully structured allegory about all of life, not just death. And it's verse by verse. Verse 1 - Conception, with the "ship" symbolizing our bodies - "we all enter the world alone..." Verse 2 - Birth. The crew being the doctor, nurses, midwife, whoever helps us transition from our pre-birth existence to our living existence. Also, babies do not breathe while in the womb, but they do immediately after. So if Tom's up in the "capsule" preparing for birth, maybe he would want to take one last "drink" (of amniotic fluid) before things get new, unknown, and crazy. Verse 3 - Life. "Second stage is cut" - umbilical - need say more? Then all is good. Things going great, but still Tom stops and wonders, as most people do at some point or another during life - "What will it effect, when all is done...?" What is the point - the meaning - of life? Verse 4 - Death. Ground control returns to the lyrics as the hospital team coming back into the picture. At the end of his life. Trying to resuscitate him. Rockets could be heartbeat, breathing, whatever system you want to imagine as failing, causing Major Tom to die. The medical team is trying to get him to restart that failing system, but his body is not responding. "MiniVerse" - Give my wife my love. Separation. Verse 5. After Death. I went into this at pretty good length in my last post, so I won't make you re-read it here. But I'll just say the world mourning, but Major Tom continues to experience living consciousness after the tragedy. He sees a light, and say's he's coming home. ----I had long seen the end of this song as being about a dying experience. But it was not until taking a new look at the lyrics today that I realized - if you allow yourself to consider it - this could also be an incredibly well crafted, and artistic allegory about the entire human experience, from conception through death and into the afterlife. Wow. Take it, leave it, laugh it off, or stand in awe of the possibility as I am. Up to you. But today, I am a whole new level of impressed with this song as a master-work of art! Hat's off to you Peter Schilling! |
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| Peter Schilling – Major Tom (Coming Home) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I can understand the interpretations about drugs and Bowie, but to me this song has always seemed to be about something else. Maybe it's because I have heard stories about Near-Death-Experiences (NDE's) since I was a grade school kid, but here's what I see. The mission really did go wrong. In a way. The mission was about exploration and collecting data about a realm that we know very little about (especially back when this song was written) - space. It becomes a mission about exploring and "collecting data" on another realm we know very little about - death. About which Major Tom says "No one understands." If it were drugs, many people would understand. "No one understands, But Major Tom sees...Now the light commands...this is my home...I'm coming home..." This to me is Major Tom describing a profound experience - not a drug induced high, not even an NDE - but a full dying experience. I see this as a tribute to the concept of life continuing after death. Not necessarily a religious kind of statement, but from a more secular human experience sort of perspective. How much more secular can you get than an astronaut with a military rank? So Major Tom's last statements are describing his mission of exploration continuing - and his life continuing - in a new way, on a new level. One of the most common characteristics of Near-Death-Experiences from all over the world and from people of all kinds of religious backgrounds is the presence of an overwhelmingly bright, peaceful, beautiful light. Everyone seems drawn to it...as if it is home. Anyway, just another idea. Another possibility. |
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