Major Tom's a Junkie

[collisionwork]

So, one of the acknowledged great landmarks of the music video form is David Bowie and David Mallet's video for Bowie's song "Ashes to Ashes," from Scary Monsters (and super creeps).

I saw it years ago at MoMA for a music video retrospective (in 1986 -- yeah, kinda early for an "overview," huh?), and the assembled crowd actually snickered when the title came up, announcing a Bowie video, then sat stunned at the piece:

I had read that Bowie had done a television appearance on the Kenny Everett show around the same time to promote his radical remake of "Space Oddity," released as a single in the UK that same year, singing it from inside a padded cell. I assumed this was the same padded cell set from the "Ashes to Ashes" video (correctly), and also assumed (incorrectly) that it was just a simple multi-camera TV appearance.


It's not. It's a whole video of its own, interconnected (as the song is) with the "Ashes to Ashes" video (and also using the same exploding kitchen set seen there and in Mallet's video for Billy Idol's "White Wedding"). If not as dense and rich as "Ashes to Ashes," it's still quite something:

Bowie fans, ENJOY!

Comments

[rockthefaces.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I remember seeing the "Ashes to "Ashes" video on Night Flight back in the day. It freaked me the hell out. The image of Bowie in that clown outfit, half-submerged in water and scolding me not to mess with Major Tom has been burned into my brain for years.

Seeing this also put me in mind of the other "sequel" to 'Space Oddity':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Hs2AQwDgA