Who was "Major Tom" from the David Bowie song? Peter Schilling also sung about him.?

Question

Was Major Tom a real person or just a fictional character?

Answer 1

Anyone into retro music knows the song Major Tom by Peter Schilling. A few of us were jokingly discussing what it was about, but now we're sincerely interested. Did you know there's a David Bowie song that also talks about Major Tom? Both songs are about space, but the rest is sketchy. Is Major Tom an actual event? Or a person? Or some sort of a factual story? --Ryan Murray, Milwaukee, WI

SDSTAFF Songbird replies:

Poor Major Tom has been floating in space for quite some time now.

It was David Bowie who first launched Major Tom in his 1969 UK album "David Bowie" (which was re-released in 1972 with the title "Space Oddity"). Released to coincide with the first moon landing, "Space Oddity" tells the story of Major Tom whose space adventure ends in tragedy as he floats away from the spaceship ("Here am I floating round my tin can far above the moon ..."), calling out, "Tell my wife I love her very much..."

In 1972, Elton John & Bernie Taupin's "Rocketman" (on the "Honky Chateau" album) appears to allude to Major Tom, though he is not mentioned by name. The unnamed astronaut preparing to go out into space in "Rocketman" worries about missing his wife and about it being a "long, long time till touchdown brings him 'round ..." In a live version of "Space Oddity" (on the "David Bowie BBC Sessions 1969-1972" album released in 1996), Bowie seems to make the connection for fans as he sings "Oh, Rocketman!"

Peter Schilling's 1983 techno-beat revision, entitled "Major Tom (I'm Coming Home)," was a hit when released on his "Error in the System" album. Schilling's version basically retells the tale of Major Tom, including the sentiments of love he sends to his wife, with the haunting chorus, "Earth below us, drifting, falling, floating weightless, calling, calling home."

In 1980, Bowie revisited Major Tom's plight with his follow-up "Ashes to Ashes" (on the "Scary Monsters" album). In this song, some time after the disappearance of Major Tom, ground control receives a message from the wayward astronaut: "I'm happy, hope you're happy, too. I've loved all I've needed to love." The opinion on earth is that Major Tom is a "junkie strung out in heaven's high," but hitting "an all-time low."

Was there an actual Major Tom? Not that the history books show. Though there were two Apollo astronauts named Tom, neither were Majors and both returned home safely (Thomas P. Stafford was on Apollo 10 and Thomas K. Mattingly served aboard Apollo 16).

Bowie's creation of Major Tom was certainly influenced by Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey." Bowie is said to have written his song shortly after seeing the movie. "Space Oddity" obviously is a pun on "Space Odyssey."
The bottom line: given Bowie's penchant for creating characters for and about himself (Ziggy Stardust among others) plus his well-known battle with drugs, most Bowie experts agree that Major Tom is an allegorically autobiographical character.

Always on the cutting edge, Bowie is preparing to start an online service called BowieNet which you can request a subscription to at: www.davidbowie.com.

Perhaps Major Tom is still floating out there somewhere ...


Fictional, definitely.

Answer 2

Major Tom Peter Schilling

Answer 3

David Bowie wrote & sung a song called "Space Oddity". The subject was Major Tom an astronaut. He's a fictional character, but some people think Bowie was allegorically speaking of himself and his life at the time.

Answer 4

Major Tom Song

Answer 5

Major Tom was a real fictional character. Space oddity was a great song, here's the words!

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown, engines on
Check ignition and may God's love be with you

(spoken)
Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Liftoff

This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

"This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much she knows"

Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you....

"Here am I floating round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do."

Answer 6

Major Tom is a fictional astronaut created by David Bowie. He appears in the songs "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes" by Bowie, the song "Major Tom" by Peter Schilling, and the song "Mrs. Major Tom" by K.I.A.. Due to some similarities in Elton John's "Rocket Man", some presume this song might also be an allusion to Major Tom. Bowie's lyrics in Ashes to Ashes reinterpreted Major Tom as an oblique autobiographical symbol for himself, who was addicted to cocaine throughout the 1970s.

Answer 7

But fun fact there was actually a Major Tom that was an astronaut, now General Thomas Stafford was selected among the second group of astronauts in September 1962 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to participate in Projects Gemini and Apollo. In December 1965, he piloted Gemini VI the first rendezvous in space, and helped develop techniques to prove the basic theory and practicality of space rendezvous. In June 1966 he commanded Gemini IX and performed a demonstration of an early rendezvous that would be used in the Apollo lunar missions, the first optical rendezvous, and a lunar orbit abort rendezvous. From August 1966 to October 1968 he headed the mission planning analysis and software development responsibilities for the astronaut group for Project Apollo General Stafford was the lead member of the group, which helped formulate the sequence of missions leading to the first lunar landing mission. As Astronaut Project Manager, he demonstrated and implemented the theory of a pilot manually flying the Saturn V booster into orbit and the translunar injection maneuver.

Answer 8

Some parts of Ukraine and other areas in the northwest of the former Soviet Union, appears to be the origin of a space race era neo-folk tale about a boy who was in love with the moon and later became a cosmonaut in attempt to reach the moon. The earliest recollection of this tale is unknown but the character was referred to as Major Tom as early as around 1968. In this story, Major Tom does make his way to the Moon, only to be stranded there alone. In popular slang, a person is sometimes referred to as a "Major Tom" if they are generally carefree and focused on chasing their own goals with no regard for having any way to get back or no regard for safety or whatever consequences.

You may wanna see:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmajorto.html

Answer 9

Major Tom was a recurring character in David Bowie's songs. Nope. He was not a real person.

Answer 10

Totally fictitious, though he appears in a lot of places aside from Schilling and Bowie. See below for more details.