Where Is Major Tom?

In 1995, Pet Shop Boys were remixing a David Bowie track, ‘Hallo Spaceboy’. The original had no explicit connection to Major Tom, just the familiar territory of cosmic isolation. Chris Lowe suggested cutting up the lyrics of ‘Space Oddity’ and using the fragments as a new verse. Neil Tennant sang them: “Ground to Major, bye-bye Tom / Dead the circuit, countdown’s wrong.”

Bowie called to ask how the remix was going. They told him. Silence. Then: “Sounds like I’d better come in.”

When Tennant suggested the image of Major Tom trapped in one of those Russian spaceships they couldn’t afford to bring down, Bowie replied: “Oh wow, is that where he is?” The creator had lost track of his own character. Pet Shop Boys had to tell him where he was.

By then Major Tom had been drifting for fifteen years. Launched in ‘Space Oddity’ (1969), darkened in ‘Ashes to Ashes’ (1980), taken by Peter Schilling in 1983 and given a different ending. William Shatner – Captain Kirk himself – built an entire concept album around him in 2011 (Seeking Major Tom), covering both Schilling and Bowie on the same record, as if they were always the same story.

In 2013, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded ‘Space Oddity’ aboard the International Space Station – the most literal performance of the song imaginable. His son Evan suggested it, on one condition: rewrite the lyrics so the astronaut doesn’t die. Evan’s wife is Hungarian. His father was up there singing about Major Tom, photographing Budapest from the ISS, tweeting a hello to his Hungarian in-laws. Bowie tweeted back: “CHRIS HADFIELD SINGS SPACE ODDITY IN SPACE! Hallo Spaceboy…”

In 2016, Bowie played Major Tom himself in the Blackstar video – directed by Johan Renck from Stakka Bo, who directed Chernobyl three years later – knowing he was dying. The character and the man finally became one.

Amber Smith, a Hungarian band wrote “didn’t mess with Major Tom / but couldn’t get clear transmission from here.” These things accumulate.