what is space oddity from david bowie about?

Answer 1

An astronaut named Major Tom who goes into outer space but when he leaves to do an out of ship mission floats away and dramaticaly dissappears before leaving one final message (Tell my wife I love her very much) Although, this song could also be a euphemism about doing drugs, "Take your protein pills and put your helmet on" and then "Floating in the most peculiar way" the latter is mentioned in David Bowies 1980 hit "Ashes to Ashes" one of the lyrics is "Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Toms a junkie, strung out on heavens high, hitting an all time low"

It could be interpretated in many ways, one of them is that Major Tom was just a hippie who broke his connection with earth to float away into outer space and become part of the stars. A 1980s artist named Peter Schilling released a song called "Major Tom" in which he was just a regular astronaut whos ship exploded in outer space but his ghost lived on.

Answer 2

the song starts with "ground control to major tom" clearly is says about space and refers to that stanley kubrik classic but in actual fact, it means finding your place in society and adapting to life. otherwise it might be about drugs.