# Dear Major Tom,
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 12, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144 "2007-11-12T17:07:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@HighAnxiety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HighAnxiety)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/21 "2007-11-13T01:06:48Z")
[QUOTE=Von\_Erich]
I read somewhere it meant which football (soccer) team do you support, or whose jersey do you wear. The media wanted to know who his favorite football club was.
[/QUOTE]
Seems dubious to me. Any UK dopers that can confirm that, “Who’s shirt you wear?”, is a common or popular turn of phrase when asking someone what sports team they support?
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### Author:  [@Von\_Erich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Von_Erich)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/22 "2007-11-13T01:13:35Z")
[QUOTE=HighAnxiety]
Seems dubious to me. Any UK dopers that can confirm that, “Who’s shirt you wear?”, is a common or popular turn of phrase when asking someone what sports team they support?
[/QUOTE]
[Here](http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1201) is where I read it. It is the seventh fact listed, I believe.
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### Author:  [@HighAnxiety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HighAnxiety)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/23 "2007-11-13T01:17:27Z")
[QUOTE=Von\_Erich]
[Here](http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1201) is where I read it. It is the seventh fact listed, I believe.
[/QUOTE]
After your post I did some searching and ran across that cite as well. It could be true, but as I said it seemed a bit dubious. I’m interested in hearing from some football fans to see if the phrase is in common usage.
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### Author:  [@HighAnxiety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HighAnxiety)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/24 "2007-11-13T01:23:02Z")
[QUOTE=Von\_Erich]
[Here](http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1201) is where I read it. It is the seventh fact listed, I believe.
[/QUOTE]
Sorry for the double post but if you scroll down on the cite linked above with the so called “facts”, you’ll see this post.
"I’ve been a football fan for 20 years and I’ve never heard the phrase ‘Whose shirt you wear?’ meaning who do you support. I think the song explains how fame and drugs are quite similar and Bowie used the space programme as a metaphor. I think this line is a reference to being a celebrity, and your ‘15 minutes of fame’. The media build you up, follow you, photgraph you, want to know every little detail about you (where you shop, which labels you wear), only then to drop you when someone new comes along. This path can be applied to drugs, the amazing high and then the low that follows afterwards. A brilliant song by a creative genius.
- Dan, London, England"
So, ya…dubious.
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### Author:  [@Von\_Erich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Von_Erich)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/25 "2007-11-13T01:30:56Z")
[QUOTE=HighAnxiety]
Sorry for the double post but if you scroll down on the cite linked above with the so called “facts”, you’ll see this post.
"I’ve been a football fan for 20 years and I’ve never heard the phrase ‘Whose shirt you wear?’ meaning who do you support. I think the song explains how fame and drugs are quite similar and Bowie used the space programme as a metaphor. I think this line is a reference to being a celebrity, and your ‘15 minutes of fame’. The media build you up, follow you, photgraph you, want to know every little detail about you (where you shop, which labels you wear), only then to drop you when someone new comes along. This path can be applied to drugs, the amazing high and then the low that follows afterwards. A brilliant song by a creative genius.
- Dan, London, England"
So, ya…dubious.
[/QUOTE]
Agreed.
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### Author:  [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/26 "2007-11-13T01:43:57Z")
[QUOTE=El Cid Viscoso]
Side question: is it possible Major Tom can’t get no satisfaction with his laundry detergent?
[/QUOTE]
Not sure, but he can’t be a man. No smoking at all on those capsules. You know, that may be why he never came back. You know how much Major Tom “loves chimney stacks.”
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/27 "2007-11-13T01:49:26Z")
Here’s one for you “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?”
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### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/28 "2007-11-13T01:54:18Z")
[QUOTE=Mr Bus Guy]
Oddly enough, the question was never answered.
Whose shirt DOES he wear?
[/QUOTE]
[Tom Jones](http://www.jasondunn.com/archive/tomjones/fishnet.jpg) , which you can see is why they never answered it.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/29 "2007-11-13T02:04:30Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm]
For many years I thought this was “the papers want to know who shot you where”. Answers: NASA and space respectively.
[/QUOTE]
I would have thought it was Johnny Cash and Reno, respectively.
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### Author:  [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/30 "2007-11-13T02:07:55Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí]
Here’s one for you “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?”
[/QUOTE]
context?
the one that always makes me say “WTF is that” is
“…I speak of the pompatous of love”
I may have the spelling wrong, but I would love to know if anyone, anywhere really knows what this means
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/31 "2007-11-13T02:35:37Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí]
Here’s one for you “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?”
[/QUOTE]
That’s a line from Urban Discharge’s 1996 release “Drop A House (On That Bitch)”, so they’re basically saying, “This woman’s a real witch…wonder what she’s gonna look like with a house on her?”
Like the Wizard of Oz.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/32 "2007-11-13T02:42:07Z")
[QUOTE=anyrose]
context?
the one that always makes me say “WTF is that” is
“…I speak of the pompatous of love”
I may have the spelling wrong, but I would love to know if anyone, anywhere really knows what this means
[/QUOTE]
Some guy named Cecil, apparently.
[In Steve Miller’s “The Joker,” what is “the pompatus of love”?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html)
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/33 "2007-11-13T04:17:19Z")
[QUOTE=HighAnxiety]
After your post I did some searching and ran across that cite as well. It could be true, but as I said it seemed a bit dubious. I’m interested in hearing from some football fans to see if the phrase is in common usage.
[/QUOTE]
I’m not a football fan, I don’t follow sports at all.
But to the best of my (limited) knowledge, it’s rubbish. Back when that song was made football fans only wore scarves and hats in their team colours. Dressing up in replicas of their team shirts didn’t happen till years later. (I think)
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### Author:  [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/34 "2007-11-13T09:32:50Z")
[QUOTE=HighAnxiety]
After your post I did some searching and ran across that cite as well. It could be true, but as I said it seemed a bit dubious. I’m interested in hearing from some football fans to see if the phrase is in common usage.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve been a footie fan for 40 years and I’ve never once heard that phrase used like that.
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/35 "2007-11-13T10:05:17Z")
[QUOTE=Algher]
go read The Right Stuff - it will give you a great read, and an understanding of the media hoopla surrounding the space program.
[/QUOTE]
In the movie, while one of the astronauts is on his mission, the wives have barricaded themselves in one of the houses to get away from the reporters, who are quite literally trying to rip the place apart to find anything they can report on. They ransack the trash cans and even attack the neighbor’s diaper delivery guy.
I first heard the song shortly after I saw the movie, so the line always made perfect sense in that light.
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### Author:  [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/36 "2007-11-13T11:00:31Z")
I think the fact that the actual lyric has “shirts” in the plural ought to knock the “football fan” theory out of the running.
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### Author:  [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/37 "2007-11-13T14:53:17Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight]
In the movie, while one of the astronauts is on his mission, the wives have barricaded themselves in one of the houses to get away from the reporters, who are quite literally trying to rip the place apart to find anything they can report on. They ransack the trash cans and even attack the neighbor’s diaper delivery guy.
I first heard the song shortly after I saw the movie, so the line always made perfect sense in that light.
[/QUOTE]
Also, if you ever watch old TV shows, there’s a bit right at the end of the credits where you learn exactly whose shirts the male lead wears. Something like, “Mr. Van Dyke’s wardrobe provided by Botany 500.”
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/38 "2007-11-13T15:01:18Z")
Though we may never know who’s shirts he wears, we were given this bit of info in the song Ashes to Ashes:
_Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom’s a junkie
Strung out in heavens high
Hitting an all-time low_
I always assumed that Space Oddity was a metaphor for Bowie’s own dealings with celbrityhood. When he says in Ashes to Ashes that Major Tom’s a junkie, he’s talking about his own drug use.
So my guess is that Major Tom’s shirts are quite glam.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/39 "2007-11-13T15:05:15Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay]
That’s a line from Urban Discharge’s 1996 release “Drop A House (On That Bitch)”, so they’re basically saying, “This woman’s a real witch…wonder what she’s gonna look like with a house on her?”
Like the Wizard of Oz.
[/QUOTE]
It was more popularly (here anyway) used in the song Feel It by The Tamperer feat. Maya.
[http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gary.hart/lyricst/tamperer.html](http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gary.hart/lyricst/tamperer.html)
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2007, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/40 "2007-11-14T09:24:27Z")
I heard it was rhyming slang: chimney **stack** = **black** eye.
However, if it’s a sample from an earlier song about a literal house dropping, I shall have to revise my opinion.
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