Space Oddity- accident or suicide?

Been learning to play this song on guitar- it’s fun to play, relatively easy but there are a couple interesting chords I hadn’t wrapped my fingers around before, and it fits my limited vocal range.

Anyway, all the years I’ve heard this song I always assumed it was about an accident that happens which strands Major Tom in space. But now that I’ve been paying a bit more attention to the lyrics it occurs to me that he also could have killed himself. He comes across as very depressed and anxious- “here am I sitting in my tin can”, “there’s nothing I can do”, “I think my spaceship knows which way to go”. And then “tell my wife I love her very much, she knows” which could be the words of someone either afraid he’s not going to make it back, or getting ready to take that big spacewalk out into eternity. The lyrics are nicely ambiguous. So what do you guys think- did I have it right the first time, or did I miss the suicidal subtext for years?

I suspect Ground Control would say he succumbed to a form of “space euphoria,” went off mission and died. In Right Stuff parlance, he screwed the pooch.

I suspect Major Tom thinks he achieved a form of transcendence and joined the Universe in a 2001-sorta way.

I always thought as you did, that he’s reacting to be stranded in space due to an accident.

But, in Peter Schilling’s “sequel” Major Tom, or at least the video version, Tom’s aware his wife is having an affair, and that would make the suicide angle more understandable.

Ashes to ashes.

Funk to funky

I think that you’re right in thinking that the lyrics are nicely ambiguous. We don’t really know what happened, and that’s part of the magic of this particular story song. Each time you listen, Tom could be caught in an accident, gripped by space madness, calmly committing suicide, or some combination mixed with something else I haven’t imagined.

The video on that isn’t very clear, and I’ve never actually seen an episode, so:

Is that Terry Jones as the vicar?

ETA: NM, I just googled it. Sorry for the derail. :slight_smile:

For those who didn’t google it: Yes, it’s Terry Jones.

I can’t think of the Bowie song (or funerals, for that matter) without thinking about that scene.

I always thought it was

  1. space accident strands astronaut with no hope of rescue
  2. astronaut copes with isolation and his impending demise
  3. astronaut suffers from hypoxia (symptoms of which include confusion and hallucinations)

(Though not necessarily in any particular order)

I’ve always assumed it was a deliberate act on his part - not so much “I want to die” suicide but “It’s so beautiful here, life back home is so mundane, I want to stay here forever.”

I was surprised when I heard that some people interpreted it as an accident.

Ditto. Before this moment, I never even knew of that interpretation.

I see no hint of an accident in the lyrics.

I always interpreted it as a funky sci-fi type of accident, that Major Tom’s ship was intentionally pulled away by an outside force. I like the idea that he’s still out there having crazy adventures with Zaphod Beeblebrox or something.

It is true that there’s no sign that GC thinks something is wrong until well after Tom has concluded there is nothing he can do, and there’s no mention of a specific type of damage or problem.

But it doesn’t make sense for him to say “And there’s nothing I can do” if there’s not a problem.

So my take is that “And I’m floating / in a most peculiar way / And the stars look very different today” is the sign that something is wrong with the ship’s movement - it’s off course.

The full lyric on that is “Planet Earth is blue/And there’s nothing I can do” - I figured Bowie/MT was riffing on the various meanings of “blue” there, that Earth was a sad place and he had no way to change that, and space was so beautiful that it seemed like the better option.

Always thought it was a suicide. Didn’t think to interpret it as an accident until this thread. But now that I’ve heard that interpretation, I find it is plausible. Still think of it as “the cosmos. . . wow! Think I’ll stay” kind of way.

Bear in mind that at the time individual astronauts did not fly into space every day. Many only went into space once. So Major Tom may not have ever experienced prolonged weightlessness, and the stars would look different from outside of the atmosphere. He’s floating in a most peculiar way because he’s floating in freefall for a long time instead of being in the Vomit Comet for 30 seconds. I don’t see anything that indicates something is wrong.

Planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do. He could be saying, ‘Hey! Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do about it!’ But I think it’s more like, ‘Oh, Earth is blue. Also, I can’t change a thing down there. I can’t change things down there when I’m up here. What’s the point of me being up here?’

Does that mean he’s committing suicide? Not as such. I agree with WordMan that he was experiencing euphoria. He’s had an epiphany that he is a very small entity from a very small world, and floating in his ‘tin can’ he has almost become one with the universe. To truly become one with the universe he needs to leave his capsule. Technically it’s suicide, but in context Major Tom is transcending his human existence and going on to a higher plane where his consciousness will be infinitely expanded. It reminds me of ‘Talby’ from Dark Star (1974) where he joins the Phoenix Asteroids (which admittedly did happen after an accident).

ETA: Or as Maggie the Ocelot said.

.

In the beginning, there was The Bomb…

But seriously folks, I always took “And the stars look very different today…” as being in comparison to how he’d seen them from the surface.

Close…

:smiley:

Yeah, I’ve seen too many movies over too long a period. I misremember quotes all the time.