4.5 stars - Bowie's classic sophomore album

Space Oddity (1969.) David Bowie's second album.



David Bowie began his musical career under performing folksy-poppy tunes, under his real name, David Jones (he changed his last name to Bowie to avoid being confused with the guy from the Monkees.) After he changed his name to Bowie, he released his first album, which was self-titled, in 1967. Unfortunately, the happy folk-oriented pop tunes failed to make an impact at a time when music was welcoming many a new sound. If Bowie wanted to succeed in the music industry, he'd have to find a way to do it - and experimenting with a variety of different sounds is ultimately how he'd end up doing it. Bowie's second album, Space Oddity, got its original release in 1969. Read on for my review.



This was Bowie's first album that became fairly popular, due in no small part to the fact that he changed his sound. The sound Bowie uses on his sophomore album is unlike that of anything he'd done prior or beyond - he fused elements of glam rock and folk rock! It's as if Bowie took the past and the future and combined them. What's really odd is that this glam/folk fusion WORKS! The obvious hit on this album is the title track, which was Bowie's first hit. The classic rock and roll tale of astronaut Major Tom remains a classic rock staple to this day, and its popularity was helped greatly by the fact that the moon landing occured in the same era in which the album was originally released. The tune is definitely a prelude to the glam rock stardom Bowie would obtain a few short years later. The vast majority of the songs on this album try to create the perfect fusion between glam rock and folk rock, and they do it very well. The album tends to use more acoustic guitars than electric ones, oddly enough, but this doesn't detract from the experience. No other artist ever fused these genres successfully, making this a definite landmark classic rock album. I'm not going to deny that it lacks the expertise of Bowie's early-mid seventies work (such as the Ziggy Stardust album), but this effort more than holds it own. Bowie did glam rock on this album before glam rock even existed elsewhere, and the sheer innovative power of this album can not be denied. Though a bit uneven in places, Space Oddity is still an essential David Bowie album.



Many of David Bowie's albums were remastered and rereleased, but sadly, the import Ryko versions of these albums featured bonus tracks that didn't get put on the American versions! If you can find the Ryko versions for a decent price, get those instead of the standard American releases.



David Bowie's breakthrough album is one of classic rock's most important and most influential. 1969 was a year when rock and rollers were constantly trying new things, and Bowie's being among them was one of the stepping stones to the stardom he'd gain in the next decade. No classic rock collection is complete without Space Oddity - the ultimate (and arguably the only) album that fuses glam and folk rock!

Charming but dated

The folk singer/songwriter style of Space Oddity would later be perfected by Bowie on Hunky Dory, an album that did stand the test of time. Space Oddity unfortunately did not. That's mainly due to the lack of strong songs, but added with the dated and often quite silly lyrics it's just an album that's inferior to a good dozen other Bowie albums; the main one being Hunky Dory, cause it's so similar in style. That being said, Space Oddity remains a charming album with a couple of fairly good songs, and of of course the mother of all Bowie classics: the brillant title track.

One of Bowie's most overlooked albums

David Bowie's 2nd album, Space Oddity, is perhaps the 2nd most overlooked album in his catalog (the most overlooked would have to be the pure folk album, 1967's David Bowie). It's a shame, as there are some real good numbers in here. This album does however, feature one of his best songs. The mini-epic "Space Oddity". The story of Major Tom is a real great song with great acoustic guitar, and a totally strange, but totally fantastic stylophone part played by David. Essential Bowie. "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" starts off in a mystic sort of way, before it turns into total glam guitar and harmonica soloing. "(Don't Sit Down)" is 40 seconds of studio nonsense, where there is some very interesting guitar, and David sings a bit ("Don't Sit Down, Don't Sit Down") before he bursts into laughter and the track fades out. "Letter To Hermione" is a nice number with some beautiful guitar playing and singing, as David sings to his former love, Hermione Farthingale. "Cygnet Committee" is the hidden gem of this album, as Bowie weaves stories through shifting rhythm patterns in this 9-minute song, with his ending cry of "I Want To Live". "Janine" is a more upbeat rocker as compared to the rest of the album and a good one at that. "An Occasional Dream" is folk, acoustic guitars, recorders and all. It is another song about his relationship with Hermione Farthingale. "Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" is another song about space, and most noticeably features a grand sound, with David backed by horns and strings. "God Knows I'm Good" is pure folk, as it is about social commentary. A decent song with great acoustic guitars. "Memory Of A Free Festival" is a little on the weird side, but still good. David recalls memories from a festival he played recently and the ending chorus, with many people repeating "The sun machine is coming down, and we're gonna have a party" is great, and guaranteed to get stuck in your head. So overall, this is a good album. A little bit of glam, and a little bit of folk. I recommend you pick up some of Bowie's other albums (Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory) before you pick up this one. Heck, "Space Oddity" is worth the price of admission alone.