Description
Music Love
The inspiration for our Major Tom Space Oddity print (much like some of our others) comes from our burning love of music. For me, when it comes to anything creative, music is usually the basis of where it all begins. At the very least we’re pumping beats while working on our always expanding ‘Submerged’ diver helmet print series.
Taking it a step further, sometimes we name pieces of our art after cool song titles. Or in this particular instance, we literally embraced two musicians and two songs, than dedicated a diver helmet piece to it. Nothing random about that.
David Bowie: Space Oddity
Ground control to Major Tom! Think it’s pretty obvious David Bowie and this song were an inspiration for this print. The iconic and enduring lightning bolt symbol has become synonymous with the rock legend. Bowie’s lightning bolt became a phenomenon way back then and today is still instantly recognizable. We’ve always liked it and the fact this same idea has made its way to one of our diver helmet prints really isn’t a surprise.
Although David Bowie literally invented Major Tom, about 14 years later another musician would come along and pay homage to Major Tom as well. Which we absolutely love and consider to be a big inspiration for this piece as well…
Peter Schilling: Major Tom
4, 3, 2, 1……Major Tom (Coming Home) was a song released in early 1983 by Peter Schilling. Originally recorded in German, the song is about our character being caught in an accident in space. Maybe not to the people in Germany but here in the US this was a big one-hit-wonder of the 80s. And obviously heavily related to the Bowie track from over a decade prior. The song featured a ‘character’ that was unofficially related to Major Tom the protagonist of David Bowie’s 1969 song “Space Oddity”.
Is it a sequel to the original song? Not really. Is it paying homage to David Bowie? Most certainly. Just like us we are paying homage to David Bowie, but also paying homage to Peter Schilling as well. Huge fan of this under-appreciated 80’s jammer. Major Tom Space Oddity is essentially an homage to an homage. Maybe one day someone will take it a step further and homage this.
Major Tom Space Oddity
So where does this all land us? Conclusion: Our diver helmet boy here is a mixture of the 2 crucial songs discussed above. The foundation & idea from the original space oddity David Bowie, himself. Plus the concept & idea Peter Schilling’s homage does to further the story of our special space boy Major Tom. The bow on top is of course putting my diver helmet spin on it, of course. The lightning bolt stands center stage! Four, three, two, one…Earth below us. Drifting, falling, floating, weightless Calling, calling home! It just never gets old.
Major Tom Space Oddity art & print is copyright ©2016 Jack Stoltz
