# Major Tom **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 4, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736 "2009-06-04T19:17:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Garethsspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4bbf92/32.png) [@Garethsspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garethsspace)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/1 "2009-06-04T19:17:54Z")
I just read your article about major tom and have found some evidence that major tom is real. It turns out that when the song was origionally wrote, Thomas Stafford was flying missions for NASA. But it turns out that he was a major at the time that the song was written, leading me to believe that Major Tom was actually Thomas Stafford and that this was a prediction by David Bowie of what could happen. The only reason that the other songs went out was that the first was soooo popular!:smack: * * * Link to Staff Report: [Was “Major Tom” the astronaut a real person? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1517/was-major-tom-the-astronaut-a-real-person) ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/2 "2009-06-04T19:41:24Z")
What’s the debate? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/3 "2009-06-04T19:41:35Z")
Hello **Garethsspace**. Welcome to the boards. Just FYI, it is considered a courtesy to provide a link to the column you are commenting on. [Link](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1517/was-major-tom-the-astronaut-a-real-person) ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/4 "2009-06-04T19:45:14Z")
Whether this should go in \*Cafe Society \*or _Comment on Cecil’s Columns_? ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/5 "2009-06-04T19:45:43Z")
I was going to ask about the song. I would love to know the backstory to the song. If it turns out to be a _real_ story, I would love that any more. Darn that MKS commercial. ---
**Author:** ![EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilHamsterOnCrack)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/6 "2009-06-04T19:46:57Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > I was going to ask about the song. I would love to know the backstory to the song. If it turns out to be a _real_ story, I would love that any more. > > Darn that MKS commercial. My roommate heard the Shiny Toy Guns version on that commercial and decided that it’d be a good idea to play it over and over in our apartment for 3 days. That was 2 weeks ago, and it’s still stuck in my head. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/7 "2009-06-04T20:50:07Z")
The column says specifically: > [@](#): > > Was there an actual Major Tom? Not that the history books show. Though there were two Apollo astronauts named Tom, neither were Majors and both returned home safely (Thomas P. Stafford was on Apollo 10 and Thomas K. Mattingly served aboard Apollo 16). What’s your evidence that this is wrong? ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/8 "2009-06-04T22:48:38Z")
It isn’t as if “Tom” is such a rare name that Bowie couldn’t have come up with it on his own, but Stafford was certainly a major and part of the space program _before_ 1969 (see footnote to **this article** ), so it’s remotely possible that Bowie could have borrowed his name. That still doesn’t mean the song is _about_ him in any meaningful way. Bowie has said it was inspired in part by **2001: A Space Odyssey** (duh), but mostly by the aimlessness and alienation he felt over just having been dumped. > [@](#): > > Hermione had run off with a dancer. I was totally head-over-heels in love with her, and it really sort of demolished me. That event, plus the 2001 movie, sort of set me off on the “Space Oddity” song. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/9 "2009-06-04T22:58:06Z")
This is pretty clearly a response to the Straight Dope Staff Report [Was “Major Tom” the astronaut a real person?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1517/was-major-tom-the-astronaut-a-real-person). While some such threads get sufficiently involved to be moved to **Great Debates** , the typical place to discuss such reports is in the forum on [Comments on Staff Reports](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=6), which is where you will next find this thread. [/Modding] ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/10 "2009-06-04T23:24:59Z")
I’ve merged the two threads started about this into one thread. It might read funny. **samclem** moderator who happened by… ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/11 "2009-06-04T23:25:57Z")
On second look, I see that I didn’t link to [the article](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,833899,00.html) after all. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/12 "2009-06-05T13:00:44Z")
I’ve edited a link to the Staff Report at the bottom of the OP. **Songbird** wrote that many years ago; alas, she no longer participates in the Straight Dope, so it is unlikely that she’ll come here to comment. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/13 "2009-06-06T01:41:39Z")
Wiki has quite a bit on Major Tom, some of which overlaps with **Songbird** ’s column: [Major Tom - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Tom) ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/14 "2009-06-06T23:37:03Z")
Just to complicate matters, former British Prime Minister John Major’s father, Abraham Thomas Ball, was a music hall performer with the stage name of Tom Major, and David Bowie has claimed in interviews that he may have subconsciously based the name “Major Tom” on a half-remembered childhood memory of seeing Tom Major perform. However, given that Ball/Major was born in 1879 and died in 1963, using the stage name Tom Major from 1901 onwards, whereas Bowie himself was not born until 1947, when Ball/Major was 68 and presumably long retired from performing {he had in fact become a manufacturer of garden gnomes}, the earliest Bowie could conceivably “remember seeing” Tom Major would have to have been around 1950. Alas for Bowie’s veracity, the dates simply don’t add up. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/15 "2009-12-16T05:46:50Z")
The [Staff Report by Songbird](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1517/was-major-tom-the-astronaut-a-real-person) is a bit misleading because it implies that the original Bowie song was an album track. The song, which was always called “Space Oddity,” was a huge hit single in the U.K. in 1969. (My memory says it got to number 1; [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Oddity) says it got to number 5 in the U.K. charts, but as several different charts were in use in the U.K. at that time, we might both be right. In any case, it was a big hit in an era when singles chart hits mattered.) Although it was on his album, I do not think the album itself sold well at the time (none of the other songs sounded anything like “Space Oddity,” or, indeed, like his later work). In fact, Bowie basically sank back into obscurity for about the next 3 years. Then, in 1972 he made a major comeback and established himself as a big star, and his new fans started buying up his older, previously obscure, records. At that time the original album with “Space Oddity” on it (initially called _David Bowie_ in the U.K. and _Man of Words/Man of Music_ in the U.S., where not even the single had been a real hit) was reissued under the title _Space Oddity_, presumably because many people still would have remembered the 1969 hit single. I have always assumed that “Major Tom” was just intended as a generic astronaut name. I never quite got why the press were so interested in his shirts. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/16 "2009-12-16T12:40:30Z")
> [@Scissorjack](#): > > Just to complicate matters, former British Prime Minister John Major’s father, Abraham Thomas Ball, was a music hall performer with the stage name of Tom Major, and David Bowie has claimed in interviews that he may have subconsciously based the name “Major Tom” on a half-remembered childhood memory of seeing Tom Major perform. > > However, given that Ball/Major was born in 1879 and died in 1963, using the stage name Tom Major from 1901 onwards, whereas Bowie himself was not born until 1947, when Ball/Major was 68 and presumably long retired from performing { **he had in fact become a manufacturer of garden gnomes** }, the earliest Bowie could conceivably “remember seeing” Tom Major would have to have been around 1950. Alas for Bowie’s veracity, the dates simply don’t add up. …bolding mine Whoa! Is it possible he was also the inpiration for the Bowie’s infamous [The Laughing Gnome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laughing_Gnome)!? ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/17 "2009-12-16T17:20:45Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > The song, which was always called “Space Oddity,” was a huge hit single in the U.K. in 1969. (My memory says it got to number 1; [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Oddity) says it got to number 5 in the U.K. charts, but as several different charts were in use in the U.K. at that time, we might both be right. In any case, it was a big hit in an era when singles chart hits mattered.) I’m pretty sure _Space Oddity_ reached #5 on re-entry (:)) to the UK chart in September 1969, after spending one week at #48 before dropping out of the top 50 earlier in the month. The song did reach #1 when reissued in September/October 1975. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-tom/498736/18 "2009-12-16T17:39:29Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > The song did reach #1 when reissued in September/October 1975. And was the first record I ever bought. Off down to Woolworth’s with my mum and 50p saved from my pocket money, and great excitement all round. I felt so grown up.