"Space Oddity" by David Bowie

You’re a moron OP. Please go away now.

Last time I heard that song it was when I was driving home at night and it really hit me. Made me sad for him floating in his tin can.

Cocaine.

" My mother says to get things done, you'd better not mess with Major Tom. "

Ashes? An art rock, art pop and new wave song led by a flanged piano riff, the lyrics act as a sequel to Bowie's 1969 hit "Space Oddity": the astronaut Major Tom has succumbed to drug addiction and floats isolated in space. Bowie partially based the lyrics on his own experiences with his own experiences with drug addiction throughout the 70s.

How old are you, OP? Just curious. I'm 61.

I only learned about this song from the tv show Supernatural and the episode "Clap Your Hands If You Believe."

Dean was being attacked by a tiny "tinkerbell" fairy and this song started playing.

I thought it was hilarious, but it's the song Space Oddity that really made the scene.

I didn't know the title, so I googled "Ground Control to Major Tom" and came up with the answer.

This song really is a mind trip.

David Bowie most likely had Aspergers Syndrome, and many of his songs and personas can be seen as an attempt to understand and reconcile his feelings of alienness. Indeed, Ziggy Stardust and the Man Who Fell to Earth are both aliens.

A Quorum user writes:

If he was autistic (and it seems likely, but I'll get to that), it's doubtful he was ever diagnosed. Most of the contemporary understanding - “awareness" - of autism, outside of old pathologized stereotypes, comes from autistic individuals diagnosed in the late ’80s through today. Meaning, the new broader understanding comes primarily from people diagnosed as children or young adults who have since shared their experience. Due to the time frame, this has mostly only happened in the past 10–15 years, as those children reached adulthood. Prior to that, there weren't enough of us to create the voice, and diagnostic awareness, there is today.

Bowie died in 2016. Unless he was diagnosed in his last few years of life, and likely by a young clinician with at that time brand new awareness of broader expressions of autism in individuals (beyond DSM pathologies), it seems unlikely it would've been recognized in him at all… he's of the era where he just would've been seen as “quirky" or “eccentric". I also imagine he had other medical issues he was more focused on in his last years, and let's be real - he was David Bowie, what's the point of an autism diagnosis? He owned his own island, he was doing fine.

That said, as an autiste myself, I do think he was autistic, and very much recognize autistic traits - my own and of friends - in him, to a startling degree. Notoriously “gender nonconforming" (a very common autistic trait, though still not well known to people not themselves autistic), prone to locking himself away for weeks and hyperfocusing on topics, generally had poor eye contact in interviews, seemed to fidget (stim) near constantly (at times joked about how prone he was to “fidgeting" when alone), seemed to be generally pleasant but with “interpretive" social rules (and challenged social norms and values incessantly, at times - according to him and those who knew him - without being fully aware of the extent), hyperlexic, as an actor/performer noted for sometimes being hyporeactive to things that would bother others, etc… His facial expressions, when not performing (read: acting), also seemed limited - he wavered between straight-faced and a big smile, little in between. Others have mentioned his apparent sociability, though it's worth noting some autistic people are very sociable (differences in social understanding don't inherently equal asocial tendencies - those are probably more often the result of trauma, a coping mechanism for being always misunderstood). And failing that, it's not a stretch to assume he was an expert at masking. Even his sociability is iffy, as it's well documented he'd isolate himself from other people for weeks/months at a time when younger, while hyperfixated on his latest interest. One could argue he was just “weird", but as advancements in recognition of autism have increased, it might also be safe to assume most of the “weird but not crazy" people of yesteryear were autistic, but diagnostic criteria hadn't caught up yet (that is, they were too “high functioning" - note quotes, please - to meet the slim definitions of yesteryear). It's also worth noting, regarding his shows of empathy to autistic children, that recent studies show we communicate with fellow autistics just fine, and are able to express empathy in mutually understood ways; our cognitive empathy is not limited with each other. not to mention the higher degree of affective empathy we (generally, but not always) possess.

I recall a story where, in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, he bought a dress at a London shop, and wore it as much as he could. Someone called him some homophobic slur, and his response was, “well, I think I look pretty" and went on with his day. If that's not a textbook autistic response, I don't know what is.

Listening to this entire song for the first time, it really reminds me of "Life on Mars" from American Horror Story, which is another Bowie song which doesn't make a lot of sense.

But musically, it's very interesting.

Today Bowie’s body language would instantly be recognizable for its autistic traits.

I was just googling photos of David Bowie, and I had no idea that he had different eye colors, not to mention one big pupil and one small pupil.

I wonder if there's a correlation between the eye thing and autism?

Bowie’s pupil was the result of an injury from a bar fight.

However, he did have exceptionally beautiful eyes and many of his most iconic photos can be said to demonstrate the “Aspergers stare.”

The correlation between Autism Spectrum and beautiful eyes is well known and poorly understood. The stereotype of professional models as cold, humorless, aloof people may stem from the plurality of models with the syndrome.

Here’s an assignment:

Besides Bowie, name two of his peers (also deceased) who

-had exceptional, prodigy-level musical abilities

-had an artificially constructed persona with a high degree of androgyny

-were very softspoken

-had beautiful eyes

Mick Jagger?

John Lennon?

Drug addicts, both writer and subject.

You're welcome.

R11 Michael Jackson?

Maybe Freddie, but he was anything but soft-spoken.

Michael Jackson is one

The other one I thought was even more obvious

Prince!

'Ashes to Ashes' (1980) is a thematic companion piece to 'Space Oddity', wherein "Major Tom" has succumbed to drug addiction.

Both songs were an influence on the Adult Swim cartoon series 'The Venture Brothers.'

Very good R16

David Bowie, Michael Jackson and Prince all showed considerable ASD qualities.

The fucking Asperger’s troll again!

For CRYING OUT LOUD, would the autistic cunts PULEASE stop colonizing poor dead Bowie. Sheesh! You know what? NONE OF YOU AUTISTIC cunts are extraordinarily gifted and beautiful ROCK AND POP ICON for the ages, DAVID BOWIE. Now kindly keep your navel gazing rumination to yourselves and fuck off.

R20 sounds autistic, and exhibits ASD qualities.

R21 = OCD nutcase

R3, I think going by the lyrics of Ashes to Ashes, heroin is more likely than cocaine.

R20 do yourself a favor, if you don’t want to encounter ASD people, stop listening to music. All of it. They are everywhere.

The song Space Oddity was part of Bowie’s cabaret act back when he had long hair and dressed kind of like a hippie. He was kind of meandering in his career at that time and was heavily influenced by Lindsay Kemp. It wasn’t about cocaine, just about feeling alienated.

The flamboyant Ziggy character was created with a lot of influence from his wife Angie who was pansexual and androgynous. She liked playing with ideas of gender and sexual norms. It was a big risk to create the persona of Ziggy but it’s what helped Bowie break through.

The eye injury was from a fight with a friend during his school days.

I got all this info from the various books I’ve read on Bowie.

I'm just shocked that Bowie was actually straight.

I find it a bit insulting that he considers himself a "closeted straight person," despite his gender bending persona. But that's what he claims:

[quote] Bowie's sexuality has been the subject of debate. While married to Angie, he famously declared himself gay in a 1972 interview with Melody Maker journalist Michael Watts, which generated publicity in both America and Britain; Bowie was adopted as a gay icon in both countries. According to Buckley, "If Ziggy confused both his creator and his audience, a big part of that confusion centred on the topic of sexuality." He affirmed his stance in a 1976 interview with Playboy, stating: "It's true—I am a bisexual. But I can't deny that I've used that fact very well. I suppose it's the best thing that ever happened to me." His claim of bisexuality has been supported by Angie.

[quote] In 1983, Bowie told Rolling Stone writer Kurt Loder that his public declaration of bisexuality was "the biggest mistake I ever made" and "I was always a closet heterosexual". On other occasions, he said his interest in homosexual and bisexual culture had been more a product of the times and the situation in which he found himself than of his own feelings. Blender asked Bowie in 2002 whether he still believed his public declaration was his biggest mistake. After a long pause, he said, "I don't think it was a mistake in Europe, but it was a lot tougher in America. I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners nor be a representative of any group of people." Bowie said he wanted to be a songwriter and performer rather than a headline for his bisexuality, and in "puritanical" America, "I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do."

[quote] Buckley wrote that Bowie "mined sexual intrigue for its ability to shock." According to Mary Finnigan—a brief girlfriend of Bowie's in 1969—David and Angie "created their bisexual fantasy". Sandford wrote that David "made a positive fetish of repeating the quip that he and his wife had met while 'fucking the same bloke' ... Gay sex was always an anecdotal and laughing matter." The BBC's Mark Easton stated in 2016 that Britain was "far more tolerant of difference", and that gay rights (such as same-sex marriage) and gender equality would not have "enjoyed the broad support they do today without Bowie's androgynous challenge all those years ago"

He and Marc Bolan (T Rex) were friends and rivals - had the same manager. When Bolan died in a crash at 30, Bowie sent money to his widow to help raise their son, through college. Kind chap.

And I think Marc fits R11's challenge.

Bowie may have dabbled a bit with men in his younger years, then veered towards women for most of his life. He and Freddie Mercury may have had something going on in their younger years

[quote] When asked if there was more to his friendship with Mercury, David asked with a grin: “Did I shag him, you mean?” The star, who died in 2016, continued: “Doesn't it always boil down to that. Let's just say that he was out and about, and I was out and about.

But who knows... he never pinged to me. He was crafty and knew that playing with genders and sexualities gave him an extra bit of spotlight.

Velvet Goldmine was about him I assumed