Well she's a total blam-blam
July 11, 2019 1:08 PM   Subscribe

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the release of David Bowie's "Space Oddity", and assisting in the celebration is secret glamster Barbara Millicent Roberts.

Bowie previously, Barbie ditto.
posted by Halloween Jack (25 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
From the comments:
none of us live in the wrong generation. we live in a generation where we can replay this again and again, watch the video as much as we want, wherever we want.

🤘
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:53 PM on July 11, 2019 [13 favorites]


Somehow, that's perfect. Love it!

Related: A fantastic (as per usual) updated writeup from Chris O'Leary to mark the occasion.
posted by kryptondog at 2:05 PM on July 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


I do not know how it has not occurred to me until this moment to collect David Bowie-inspired toys and dolls, but here we are. She's great!
posted by bile and syntax at 2:17 PM on July 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


My best friend adores Bowie and loathes Barbie (actually the things Barbie represents: unrealistic body image, etc.) I have shared this with her--not sure if the cognitive dissonance will make her short out like the android's in I, Mudd.
posted by agatha_magatha at 2:36 PM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


none of us live in the wrong generation. we live in a generation where we can replay this again and again, watch the video as much as we want, wherever we want.

right? plus we've got Greta Van Fleet
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:40 PM on July 11, 2019


Don't think I didn't notice the eponystericality, Mr Jack.
posted by Grangousier at 2:47 PM on July 11, 2019 [6 favorites]


Bowie and now Barbie, beyond our Ken, that's for sure.
posted by chavenet at 2:49 PM on July 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


That nine-to-five chick just put his spine out of place!
posted by Paul Slade at 3:03 PM on July 11, 2019 [6 favorites]


Just checked & apparently I've been mis-remembering the lyrics to Suffragette City for the past 50 years. It's "mellow-thighed"? Really? I could have sworn...
posted by Paul Slade at 3:21 PM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


the liner notes say mellow-thighed....I've always heard it as mellow black.
posted by brujita at 3:35 PM on July 11, 2019


Heeeere I am, sitting in a pink box
Oooooonnn a K-Mart shelf
The Blue Light Special's blue, and there's nothing I can do...

posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:58 PM on July 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


First off you need to watch the 1969 version of space oddity video... that’s what I’m talking about.

Second... I am longing for the day that David Bowie / Freddie Mercury man-unitard comes back into fashion NON-IRONICALLY.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:05 PM on July 11, 2019 [9 favorites]


Just because it was fun and cool and worth remembering on the anniversary of Space Oddity.. previously on Metafilter.
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:06 PM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


I wish I could remember where I'd read it, but supposedly "Space Oddity" was played in public for the first time at Regent Park on 5 July 1969 as part of the pre-concert music for the Rolling Stones' free concert/impromptu memorial for Brian Jones. Which just happened to be the day that I was born.

I'm not getting a Barbie, though. What I would like is a Ground Control t-shirt from the video referenced above.
posted by droplet at 4:17 PM on July 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


I had no idea that Space Oddity came out before there was a man on the moon and that fact has blown my mind. Which I feel like David Bowie would appreciate.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:32 PM on July 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


DO WANT, of course, but where's Thin White Ken?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:40 PM on July 11, 2019 [13 favorites]


I had no idea that Space Oddity came out before there was a man on the moon

and it tells the tale of space travel gone wrong, Major Tom's ship loses track of earth, he'll never return. I seem to recall reading that the BBC held back airing it until after the moonlanding had proven successful. As for we in the Americas, it was a moot point. Space Oddity wouldn't land as a hit until 1973.
posted by philip-random at 4:57 PM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


Y'all are so cheerful and calm, and I'm just sitting here with my head in my hands, rocking, and muttering Fifty years?!!? . . . Fiiifty YEEEEEARS . . . oh my fucking god . . . .

(I remember buying the album. With money that I earned. At my first job. Oh sweet merciful jesus.)
posted by Kat Allison at 5:36 PM on July 11, 2019 [19 favorites]


I'm just relieved that although we are certainly living in a pretty dark timeline, still nobody celebrated the anniversary of The Laughing Gnome.
posted by Nerd of the North at 7:07 PM on July 11, 2019 [3 favorites]


I had no idea that Space Oddity came out before there was a man on the moon and that fact has blown my mind. Which I feel like David Bowie would appreciate.

My equivalent mind-blowing event was when I eventually realised that the lyric "I'm the Space Invader!" from 1971's Moonage Daydream was seven years prior to, you know, actual Space Invaders. I love Bowie so much. I'm not saying I'm all that and I've got the t-shirt, but I've totally got a t-shirt.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 7:58 PM on July 11, 2019 [4 favorites]


If this had only been posted on July 8, it would have been on Half-Bowiemas. We have fewer than six months to go until Bowiemas on Jan 8. Time to start planning your observances and celebrations!
posted by hippybear at 8:21 PM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


I've totally got a t-shirt.

That's not a t-shirt. That's an internet catalog mock-up of a t-shirt. Anyone can have one of those.
posted by hippybear at 10:03 PM on July 11, 2019


philip-random: thanks for clearing that up.

I was thinking 50 years? No way. I know I was in college when it hit stores here, not 16.
posted by james33 at 5:10 AM on July 12, 2019


the liner notes say mellow-thighed....I've always heard it as mellow black.

As far as I can tell, he clearly sings "black", which does not sound at all like "thighed". He may have given different lyrics to the label, I think, for the liner notes.
posted by thelonius at 6:22 AM on July 12, 2019


That is SO strange -- I've been listening to this song my entire life and always heard "mellow thighed." I just listened again and heard "thighed" clearly.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:40 AM on July 12, 2019


« Older All you need is the desire to look, long and hard...   |   Content Warning: Nature is Red of Tooth and Claw Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments