MRS MAJOR TOM by K.I.A.
HEAR: on SPOTIFY
YOU HEARD IT HEAR FIRST: :THE MAJOR TOM STORY SHOULD BE A BROADWAY MUSICAL
SONG STORY
“Mrs Major Tom” continues the story of Major Tom (from David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Ashes to Ashes” and later, Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom”) -- but now told from the point of view of the wife left at home. It’s in the tradition of an Irish lament, a song of longing, the sailor’s wife on the shore watching the sea, waiting for her husband to return.
Is Major Tom physically lost in space, or lost for other reasons? Addiction? Depression? Despair? Escape? Guilt? (The song is also an ode to my mother.)
Grammy-award winning singer Sheryl Crow is covered “Mrs Major Tom” for the William Shatner project “Seeking Major Tom”. The song was first released on the K.I.A. album “Adieu Shinjuku Zulu” as K.I.A., and later on the downtempo/chillout best-of release “DXLR8” . The track features the haunting vocals of Larissa Gomes.
The song is also a good example of memes - how ideas are built upon, remixed, spread. The song has been quoted in various acamdemic essays and books, the media from major newspapers around the world to countless blogs. There is a horse called Mrs Major Tom, and a performer in the Ukraine who has chosen it as her name.
Trivia: Sheryl Crow’s cover of the song drops (by accident or for artful choice) the word “satellite” in the phrase “and now your satellite eyes”. Her version also ends on the phrase “you didn’t burn up”, instead of the “you just burned out”, as in the original.
Prediction: some day there will be a Major Tom musical.
NFT:
Music/visual, and lyric/t NFT Here
ON ALBUMS:
- DXLR8
- That Groove Makes Me Shake Mrs Major Tom
- Adieu Shinjuku Zulu
- Seeking Major Tom (Sheryl Crow/William Shatner)
CREDITS:
Lyrics: Kirby Ian Andersen
Music: Kirby Ian Andersen
Vocals: Larissa Gomes
Performed by: K.I.A.
HEAR IT ON:
Apple
Spotify
Amazon
Tidal
LYRICS:
You went up, so bright Tom
Thought my love was rocketing you along
When you didn't come back, and didn't come back
My nova heart collapsed to a black, black hole
Floating on sine waves in inner space
Awaiting a signal of grace
From ground control, to lost control
Ballet to battle, halo to hole
You were so far gone
Right was wrong, up was down
By going still further on
You hoped to come around
It was light years long
Dear husband Tom
At last back you've come
Yet still, you're gone
Floating on sine waves in inner space
Awaiting a signal of grace
From ground control, to lost control
Ballet to battle, halo to hole
I watched the skies, for all that time
And now your asteroid eyes
Say you were never mine
Never mine, never mine
Never, never mine
Floating on sine waves in inner space
Awaiting a signal of grace
From ground control, to lost control
Ballet to battle, halo to hole
You didn't burn up
My Major Tom
You just burnt out
You just burnt out
LINKS TO OTHER SONG STORIES:
All master and synchronization rights to K.I.A. and Shinjuku Zulu songs are 100% owned by Kirby Andersen. To license K.I.A. or Shinjuku Zulu songs for film, tv or commercial productions, contact info[at]nu4ya[dot]com, with “song licensing” in the subject field.