Sunday, January 03, 2010

A song and a T-shirt from outer space

Jules Verne and many other great writers, musicians and artists of different times have been inspired by the moon, but only one was in the right moment at the right time. In August 1969, the world would experience one of the most important events of all time, when a group of US astronauts landed on the moon.


That same year, in London, a young and almost unknown musician called David Bowie released “Space Oddity”, a song about a fictional astronaut, Major Tom, who successfully departs from Earth but suddenly loses contact with ground control and prepares to spend eternity floating around in his tin can. “Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do,” he sighs because he knows he will spend his rest of his life alone in outer space floatin' 'round far above the world. His last words are: “Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows”.



Besides this sad finale, the song could have never been so on time. The BBC employed the song as the theme music to its coverage of the Apollo moon landing and Bowie had his first single. Influenced by Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in April 1968, the song was originally written and recorded for a 30-minute promotional film that same year. Releasing it in the fall of 1969 was a clever move from Bowie and his label and a trick of fate too, because the project was delayed after Tony Visconti turned it down and Bowie had to look for another producer.


40 years after the release of this musical classic, ILoveWaterloo is proud to present a T-Shirt exclusively designed by Pulpo, a Latin American fine artist (www.pulpocorporate.com.ar), Inspired by The Thin White Duke’s masterpiece, his use of colours and strange hairstyles, the T-shirt’s design is a very original tribute to Bowie and his Major Tom.


http://www.ilovewaterloo.com/t-shirt.php?estampa=Pulpo:%20Space%20Oddity