Whenever I listen to this song, I think of Major Tom still up there hopelessly orbiting the earth, too far out for anyone to reach, still taking the drugs to forget his plight (putting out fire with gasoline). And I imagine people looking up at the night sky, and then the thought of Major Tom still up there, and sensing his orbit is at present overhead, with our collective guilt at not being able to help him, making people pull their blinds.
“I can stare for a thousand years”: he's been up there so long now (was it 68, 69 he launched? - I can't remember now), and it will seem so much longer to one in solitary confinement (“Floating in a tin can / Far above the world”) - he must be at least half-mad by now.
There's a space reference: “colder than the moon”.
“Feel my blood enraged”: by the drugs. And even if “We know Major Tom’s a junkie” (Ashes To Ashes) does not refer to drugs, but to just being a junkie to his own plight and/or ego (and is Ashes To Ashes all about Major Tom, or more about David Bowie?), the blood being enraged and the eyes so red still fit.
“Still this pulsing night”: the pulsing black of space.
It was never clear whether something went wrong with the equipment on board ship or whether Major Tom deliberately severed communication with Ground Control (and thus the Earth and all his family and friends), but if he did: “A judgement made can never bend”.
I know this may well not have been in Bowie’s mind when he wrote the lyrics, but it’s what I like to imagine when listening to the song. It keeps Major Tom’s story going, and helps us not to forget him - and what he, if still alive, is still going through.
I think you are stretching it a bit for most....but if that's what you hear, then that's what it is for you. Bowie enjoyed letting people make up their own interpretations after all.
I think you are stretching it a bit for most....but if that's what you hear, then that's what it is for you. Bowie enjoyed letting people make up their own interpretations after all.
Whenever I listen to this song, I think of Major Tom still up there hopelessly orbiting the earth, too far out for anyone to reach, still taking the drugs to forget his plight (putting out fire with gasoline). And I imagine people looking up at the night sky, and then the thought of Major Tom still up there, and sensing his orbit is at present overhead, with our collective guilt at not being able to help him, making people pull their blinds.
“I can stare for a thousand years”: he's been up there so long now (was it 68, 69 he launched? - I can't remember now), and it will seem so much longer to one in solitary confinement (“Floating in a tin can / Far above the world”) - he must be at least half-mad by now.
There's a space reference: “colder than the moon”.
“Feel my blood enraged”: by the drugs. And even if “We know Major Tom’s a junkie” (Ashes To Ashes) does not refer to drugs, but to just being a junkie to his own plight and/or ego (and is Ashes To Ashes all about Major Tom, or more about David Bowie?), the blood being enraged and the eyes so red still fit.
“Still this pulsing night”: the pulsing black of space.
It was never clear whether something went wrong with the equipment on board ship or whether Major Tom deliberately severed communication with Ground Control (and thus the Earth and all his family and friends), but if he did: “A judgement made can never bend”.
I know this may well not have been in Bowie’s mind when he wrote the lyrics, but it’s what I like to imagine when listening to the song. It keeps Major Tom’s story going, and helps us not to forget him - and what he, if still alive, is still going through.
I think you are stretching it a bit for most....but if that's what you hear, then that's what it is for you. Bowie enjoyed letting people make up their own interpretations after all.
I think you are stretching it a bit for most....but if that's what you hear, then that's what it is for you. Bowie enjoyed letting people make up their own interpretations after all.