Major Tom

Major Tom
First appearance	Space Oddity
Created by	David Bowie
Information
Occupation	Astronaut
Title	Major

Major Tom is a fictional astronaut referenced in David Bowie's songs "Space Oddity", "Ashes to Ashes", and "Hallo Spaceboy" (particularly in the remix by the Pet Shop Boys). Bowie's own interpretation of the character evolved throughout his career. "Space Oddity" (1969) depicts an astronaut who casually slips the bonds of the world to journey beyond the stars. In the song "Ashes to Ashes" (1980), Bowie reinterprets Major Tom as an oblique autobiographical symbol for himself. Major Tom is described as a "junkie, strung out in heavens high, hitting an all-time low". This lyric was interpreted as a play on the title of Bowie's album Low (1977), which charted his withdrawal following his drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, the choked and self-recriminating tone used in the lyrics "Time and again I tell myself I'll stay clean tonight." reinforces an autobiographical and retrospective interpretation. A short time later, there is another reversal of Major Tom's original withdrawal, turning 'outwards' or towards space.

Peter Schilling continued the story of Major Tom in his hit single "Major Tom (Coming Home)" (1983). Other artists who have subsequently made substantial contributions to the Major Tom story include K.I.A.. Due to some similarities in Elton John's "Rocket Man", there is a possible connection between the Rocket Man and Major Tom, a connection notably made by Bowie himself, who while singing "Space Oddity" in concert would sometimes call out, "Oh, Rocket Man!"

Major Tom in Bowie's work

In "Space Oddity", from the album David Bowie (1969, later retitled Space Oddity), Major Tom's departure from Earth is successful and everything goes according to plan. At a certain point during the travel ('past one hundred thousand miles'), he thinks that "my spaceship knows which way to go" and proceeds to say "Tell my wife I love her very much." Control then informs him, "Ground Control to Major Tom: your circuit's dead, there's something wrong" and attempts to reestablish contact with Major Tom. Tom's final words in the song (possibly not heard by Ground Control) are: "Here... am I floating in my tin can, far above the Moon. Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do."

In the promotional film from 1969, David Bowie plays as Major Tom, Ground Control (GC), and the Countdown Announcer. When the lyrics "And the stars look very different today" are said, two lovely women appear, portraying either angels or aliens, or perhaps both. The moment "Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still" are said, the two women can be seen removing Major Tom's helmet and spacesuit. Later a still fully outfitted Major Tom can be seen spinning around in space, with a panicked Ground Control attempting to contact him; the spinning Major Tom is either the reality of the situation, or Ground Control's imagination. The music video ends with Major Tom sitting in his tin can, far above the Moon, with the two women by his side in a ménage à trois style.

Bowie created a sequel entitled "Ashes to Ashes" (1980). The song was a Number 1 hit single and also appeared on his Number 1 LP Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). The song doesn't actually say much about Major Tom, except to call him a "junkie" (slang for a person with a heroin addiction or other compulsive habit). The context of the lyrics seems to indicate that the song is mainly about Bowie's own soul searching, rather than a literal continuation of the Major Tom story. There is an inclusion of saying "strung out in heavens high, hitting an all time low" referring to him getting high on heroin, while his life is low.

Bowie released a song entitled "Hallo Spaceboy" on his album Outside (1995). While this song itself does not directly reference Major Tom, references to Major Tom do appear in the remixed version that Bowie released with the Pet Shop Boys in 1996. The 1996 remix contains lyrics from "Space Oddity" that are sung by Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Tennant.

In the music video of Bowie's 2015 song "Blackstar" (on the album of the same name, released in 2016 two days prior to the artist's death), a dead astronaut is depicted. His skull is retrieved by an alien female who takes it back to what could be considered a cult which subsequently worships the relic. This astronaut has been speculated to be a depiction of Major Tom's final fate, although video director Johan Renck would not confirm this.

Appearances in songs by other artists

In Peter Schilling's song "Major Tom (Coming Home)" (1983) Tom sends a final message, "Give my wife my love..." with no transmissions back to Earth from that point. He then declares that he's "coming home", being commanded by the light, which can be taken to refer to the afterlife. The associated music video also shows an object falling back through the atmosphere, presumably either Major Tom or his ship. In this song the word "light" in "now the Light commands" is often heard or transcribed as "life" but the liner notes of the Error in the System LP (and the original German) confirm the word "light." The German-language version "Völlig losgelöst" is contained in Schilling's German LP Fehler im System (1983). Both albums also contain a different song without lyrics entitled "Major Tom, Part II".Schilling's song was recorded in French by Plastic Bertrand in 1983, but with slightly altered lyrics, in which Major Tom prefers to stay away from Earth and its selfishness and danger of nuclear war.

At the Drive-In's song "Cosmonaut" (2000) was sometimes introduced at live shows by a recorded "final message" from Major Tom before he dies in space. The message does not appear in the recorded version of "Cosmonaut", which itself has no apparent connection to Major Tom.

K.I.A. created a song entitled "Mrs. Major Tom" (2002) on his Adieu Shinjuku Zulu album, where the song is sung by Larissa Gomes. Here the story is told from the perspective of Major Tom's wife left at home. The song was also sung (solo) by Sheryl Crow in a new arrangement on William Shatner's album Seeking Major Tom (2011).

The Tea Party created a song entitled "Empty Glass" on its album Seven Circles (2004). The song is written from the perspective of an unnamed person who is questioning Major Tom intensely about the purpose of life. The song also references Ground Control and the Bowie phrases "star man" and "diamond dogs".

The New Zealand comedic folk duo Flight of the Conchords allude to the character in their tribute song "Bowie" (2008) where they place Bowie himself in space, and give him the rank of Lieutenant.

In 2011, Jimmy Fallon appeared on the Piers Morgan Tonight television program, playing the guitar and singing a broad parody of "Space Oddity" along the lines of: "This is Tim Tebow to Jesus Christ", using a Bowie-esque vocal style. He also performed the song on his late night talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in the character of an amalgamation of Tim Tebow and David Bowie called "T-Bowie".

Major Tom also has had and continues to have passing references in other popular songs, such as: Five Star's "Rain or Shine" (1986), Def Leppard's "Rocket" (1987), Marilyn Manson's "Apple of Sodom" (1997), Lorraine Bowen's "Space" (2002), The Mars Volta's live rendition of the song "Cicatriz" (2005) featuring a lengthy jam, which would evolve into the song "Cassandra Gemini", Cold's "Happens All The Time" (also 2005), Alphabeat's "Fantastic 6" (2007), The Cab's "Angel with a Shotgun" (2011) and Lana Del Rey's "Terrence Loves You" (2015).

References in other media

There are several references to the character and the songs in the video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. A character otherwise known as Major Zero briefly used the codename Major Tom (although the character in-game describes his name as a reference to the movie The Great Escape). At one point in the game however, while Major Zero is using the Tom codename, calling him by codec causes Snake to recite the "Can you hear me Major Tom" section of lyrics from the song. An enemy boss known as The Fury was a former cosmonaut, and wears a protective uniform that resembles a space suit in battle. His final words upon his defeat are "I'm coming home.", a reference to Peter Schilling's song. The director of the game, Hideo Kojima, has mentioned these were intentional references, and originally planned to have "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes" play in the end credits of the game. Space exploration was intended to be one of the major themes early on during the development of the game, most of which was eclipsed in the final product, save for the prior mentioned Major Tom references and several lesser story elements.

Major Tom, and his partner 'The Action Man', are used as the names of two minor characters in the television program The Venture Bros. Major Tom (and later his ghost) play an important role in the episode "Ghosts of the Sargasso" where a flashback reveals he was killed in the crash landing of an experimental rocketship. A large part of the dialogue in the flashback scene is taken from the lyrics of "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes". Also, it is later revealed that The Action Man had gone on to marry Major Tom's widow.

In the television show Chaotic, a character has the name Tom Majors, and his username in the show is MajorTom.

In the book Wonderstruck, Ben's mom's favorite song is "Space Oddity", which she listens to near the beginning of the book.

In the American remake of the television show Life on Mars, in a twist, Gene Hunt in 1973 turns out to be astronaut 'Major Tom' Tyler – Sam's father – in the conclusion.

Ladybird Books published a series of children's books by Peter Longden titled 'The Adventures of Major Tom'. The heroes are a cat named Major Tom and his robot assistant Oddball.

In the British television show Red Dwarf series VIII, prior to lifting off in a space craft, Cat is asked to identify himself and gives the name "Major Tom".

Animal puppeteer group "Fluff & Such" has created a puppet video version of "Major Tom (Coming Home)".

In the iOS game Astronut from developer The Iconfactory, there is an achievement called 'Major Tom'. The player has to quit mid-game 20 times to acquire this achievement.

Illustrator Andrew Kolb has created a PDF illustrated children's book based on the song; a print version published by HarperCollins may appear in the future.

In the TV drama series Breaking Bad during Season Four the leads find a recording of the character Gale (David Costabile) singing a camp karaoke version of Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)."

In a Hong Kong online scientific horror novel "The Midnight After" the story was mainly focused on Major Tom and "Space Oddity" provided an idea to writer Mr.Pizza. The novel was later made into a movie and selected for the Panorama section at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

In the popular video game League of Legends the character Corki says in one of his lines: "This is Major Tom to Ground Control." in a reference to a line in the song "Space Oddity"

In the TV show "Defying Gravity", Major Tom is the name of the astronauts bar.

In the video game "Dungeons of Dredmor," there is an enemy called "undead cosmonaut". This enemy's flavor text is a reference to Major Tom. The monster also has a unique variant called Major Tom.

French cartoonist Boulet had his character sing "Major Tom to Ground Control!" at the end of a 2013 blog post.

Major Tom was referenced in the Looking for group web comic on page 700

The film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (2013), produced by and starring Ben Stiller, features the phrase "Ground Control to Major Tom" as a recurrent reference to Mitty's episodes of daydreaming. The song ("Space Oddity") motivates Mitty to go find the elusive photojournalist Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn). As he daydreams of his crush Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig) singing the song to him in a remote karaoke bar in Greenland, Mitty runs to catch a helicopter piloted by a very drunk and emotionally unstable man, he then begins a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

In the 10/26/2004 comic strip "Pearls Before Swine," presidential candidate Rat proclaims, "I'm against gun control... in fact, I'm against all control... mind control, self control, birth control, remote control and ground control to Major Tom."

In the title song on the album "Supernova" (2014) by Swollen Members there is the Verse 'Planet earth to Major Tom: Have the time of your Life'.

In DCI drum and bugle corps Carolina Crown's show, "Out of This World" (2014), the lyrics are used in the pre-show as well in the third movement, where he says, "I'm coming home."

A Spanish artist called "Mayor Tom" in honor of "Major Tom" did a sequel to Space Oddity song where Major Tom returns home alive.

In the 1999 Martin Scorsese film Bringing Out the Dead, Tom Sizemore played a New York City paramedic who went by the name "Major Tom".

External links

• Analysis of Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)"