David Bowie’s Space Oddity

You’ve heard David Bowie sing “Ground Control to Major Tom” so many times, but can you believe it was put out into the universe in 1969? I grew up with this song, so I suppose that makes sense, but something about it just sounds so very modern. The song was the opening track of his second and self-titled studio album.

Now, what the heck has Timothée Chalamet got to do with this song? I’m so glad you asked! I could say that his second Dune movie came out this winter, based on the books by Frank Herbert, but that’s a different space oddity altogether. No, this connection to our unwitting theme material for this week is a bit more tenuous.

There’s a lesser known film that came out just before the smash hit Call Me by Your Name, and it didn’t really make a big splash. I suspect some of the over-the-top humor was just something that a lot of movie goers didn’t get. The wild example of the coming of age genre definitely has a base of appreciable fans, but maybe it just didn’t click with the mainstream. Elijah Bynum’s directorial debut included a different take on seeing fireworks when you have your first kiss. I’ll include the scene after the video from Bowie.

The Space Oddity video came out three years after the album, in 1972 and was used in the movie Hot Summer Nights almost five decades later in 2017! I hope you’ll forgive me for making this connection, but we’re doing a deep dive into niche Timothée Chalamet today.