I remember hearing that song for the first time during the summer of 1969 when it was initially released. It was played briefly around the time of the moon landings in July. Then it disappeared but it made an impression on me. I heard it again in 1970 when there was a guy in our barracks that had that 1969 Bowie album on cassette tape and played it a lot. It really was a weird album at the time. I was very surprised in when that song and that album were re-released in 1973. I bought it in early 1974.
His record company was obviously releasing this earlier album as a result of the success of his subsequent albums Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars and Aladdin Sane. The new cover made it obvious. For many years I thought Bowie was with his wife on that cover but later found out it was the model Twiggy posing with him. I hadn't looked at the photo credits on the cover.
I was not aware of how much Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey affected David Bowie and this song. Apparently in 1968 he watched the film a many times. He was obsessed with it and incorporated the themes and ideas into his music. He was recording demos of Space Oddity in early 1969 and his record company released his single of the song five days before the moon landings to celebrate the event although the song was actually about a failed mission with the astronaut Major Tom getting stranded in space. The BBC initially used Space Oddity as their theme song for the coverage of the lunar landings until they released the full content of the lyrics. LOL.
Over the years Bowie has revisited the fate of Major Tom in other songs such as Ashes To Ashes, Hello Spaceboy and Blackstar.
I had previously written about Bowie starring in the science fiction movie The Man Who Fell To Earth.
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