Major Tom

Major Tom is a fictional astronaut created by David Bowie. He appears in the songs "Space Oddity", "Ashes to Ashes" and "Hallo Spaceboy" by Bowie, the song "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling, a French cover of "Major Tom" by Belgian artist Plastic Bertrand, "I'm A Soldier" by Stefán, "Mrs. Major Tom" by K.I.A., "Rocket" by Def Leppard, and "Rain or Shine" by Five Star. Due to some similarities in Elton John's "Rocket Man", some presume this song might also be an allusion to Major Tom. In fact, Bowie made the connection during concerts, calling out during the song, "Oh, Rocket Man!" Bowie's lyrics in "Ashes to Ashes" reinterpret Major Tom as an oblique autobiographical symbol for himself.

Songs

In "Space Oddity", on the 1969 album also titled Space Oddity, Major Tom's departure from Earth is successful and everything goes according to plan, but then he loses contact with Ground Control. His last transmission is, "Tell my wife I love her very much."

In Peter Schilling's 1983 song "Major Tom (Coming Home)" 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 mean 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), though, confirm the word "light".

The German version differs from the English rendition in that it is implied that rather than being caught in an accident, Major Tom ends his life willingly due to information available to him, but not to Mission Control.

Also in 1983, Schilling's song was recorded by Plastic Bertrand, but with slightly altered lyrics, in which Major Tom prefers to stay away from Earth and its selfishness and danger of nuclear war.

In the hit single Rain or Shine from 1986 by British pop group Five Star the lyrics mention Major Tom in this way: "Robin Hood and Major Tom - all the super heroes rolled into one."

In 1995 Bowie's song "Hallo Spaceboy" was remixed by the Pet Shop Boys, with extra lyrics (sung by Neil Tennant) taken from "Space Oddity".

In "Mrs. Major Tom", released by the artist K.I.A. (on Neuphoria Recordings, 2002), the story is continued, but now told from the perspective of the wife left at home.

In 1999 the band Helloween released a cover of "Space Oddity" on their album Metal Jukebox.

The introduction to "Cosmonaut" on Relationship of Command (2000) by At the Drive-In contains a "final message" from Major Tom before he dies in space. The message was commonly used to introduce Cosmonaut at live shows.

Major Tom has also had passing references in other songs, such as Def Leppard's "Rocket", Tea Party's "Empty Glass", and Marilyn Manson's "Apple of Sodom".

Major Tom also appears in the spoken word a cappella "Pride's Paranoia" by American rapper Slug, which was remixed by UK house group Futureshock.

The American rock band I Hate Kate included a cover of "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling on their CD Embrace The Curse. This cover does not include the verses after the second chorus, which includes the message from Major Tom.

Colin Forsythe sang a cross-over mix of "Space Oddity" with "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)" on his debut album, 2007's "He's Just Not That Into You".

The lyrics "My mother said to get things done, you'd better not mess with Major Tom" appear on the song "Cicatriz: Part III" on The Mars Volta's live album "Scabdates".

Major Tom is mentioned in Fantastic 6 by Alphabeat in the lyrics "They have crash helmets on, Just like Major Tom".

In other media

Major Tom (or just his name) has been referenced in other media, including TV shows, cartoons, and computer games.

Major Tom is referenced as a character in the animated action-comedy television series The Venture Bros., as a test pilot with Jonas Venture's team who is killed in the crash of an experimental aircraft at the beginning of the episode "Ghosts of the Sargasso". Much of the dialogue in that scene is quoted verbatim from "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes". The Action Man, featured in Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes", is also featured as a character. Major Tom leaves him a message: "I’m happy, hope you’re happy too, I’ve loved all I’ve needed to love" (quoting a line from the latter song). The episode also makes a reference to another Bowie song, TVC 15, which is the name of the experimental jet the pilot flies.

In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the character of Major Zero uses the codename of Major Tom during the events of the Virtuous Mission (a line of dialogue even reads, "Can you hear me, Major Tom?"). Although the name was taken from the song, according to the developers, within the fictional context of the storyline Major Zero chooses the name based on one of the escape tunnels in The Great Escape, which was named Tom. He changes his name back to Zero later in the mission (after the "Can you hear me, Major Tom?" dialogue) because it contrasted the outcome of The Great Escape; Tom was not the tunnel used in the end. "Space Oddity" was also intended by the game's creator to be the game's final credit theme, according to creator Hideo Kojima. The game also features a line from one of the bosses The Fury, a former astronaut, who states "I'm Coming Home" upon his defeat. This line appears in Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)."

In the episode "Everybody Must Get Stones" of Dharma & Greg, a marriage counselor suggests that everyone count the pet names spouses have for each other. Abby proceeds to address Larry by the name "Major Tom", to which Larry responds by calling Abby "Ground Control".

Adam Sandler sang "Space Oddity" with a group of pilots flying to New York in the movie Mr. Deeds.

In Scud: The Disposable Assassin #10, Scud sings lyrics from "Major Tom (Coming Home)" to himself while floating aimlessly in space.

In Friends it is sung by Joey in "The One After Vegas" and by Chandler in the episode "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt", where Joey is on Law & Order and fakes a scene for his grandmother. "Ground Control to Major Tom, commencing countdown, engines on!!"

In the British sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf, episode "Back in the Red: Part 3", Lister hints "Major Tom" to Cat when the latter needs to quickly come up with a false name while talking to ground control.

A cover of "Space Oddity" by Chan Marshall is also heard in the commercial for the Lincoln MKS.

The newest Lincoln TV spot, features Shiny Toy Guns new cover of the classic “Major Tom” http://shinytoyguns.com/news/major-tom/

In the final episode of the US version of Life on Mars, Harvey Keitel's character is referred to in the ending scene as "Major Tom". He is a crewmember aboard the first manned mission to Mars, who (throughout the previous episodes of the series) had manifested himself in a virtual reality program as Gene Hunt.

Notes

The newest Lincoln TV spot (for the 2010 Lincoln MKZ), features Shiny Toy Guns new cover of the classic “Major Tom” http://shinytoyguns.com/news/major-tom/. Public demand prompted the company to make the song available via download at http://www.lincoln.com/extras/tvads.asp?id=7&intcmp=B_FreeSongDownload_MKZHome_LincolnTVAds_20090408, touting "It's here. Straight from the new 2010 Lincoln MKZ commercial, get the mp3 of "Major Tom (Coming Home)" performed by Shiny Toy Guns."

External links

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