Music Day - Major Tom

Since I'm apparently on a 'secular oldies' kick, we're just going to lean into it.

Despite my love for '80s music and my copious oldies-radio-listening, I had not heard this song until early 2020 when I heard it on the local radio station on the way to my husband's family's winter vacation spot (literally weeks before the COVID shutdown). I was immediately captivated by it. Turns out this particular station really likes this song, so I heard it several times over the next few months.

It's the perfect marriage of Things I Like In Songs:

- space themes

- '80s keyboards

- rumbling bass

- harmonies

- melancholy/thoughtful/introspective lyrics

- singer with a good voice

- upbeat/danceable

- '80s production

- clear and well-built climax

- good emotional/aural dynamics

- cohesive storytelling

If you like all (or even some) of these things, have I got the song for you.

It starts out like just another '80s song -- a staccato keyboard line that builds on itself and adds in some fantastic sassy bass before settling into a subdued guitar that brings in the vocals.

Our narrator sketches out the story: a space launch, the final checks, the nerves of the crew both in the ship and on the ground, the countdown to liftoff...

The music is fairly basic during the actual storytelling, but what makes the song truly amazing is how, the second there are no lyrics, the music shoots into the stratosphere with layers of space-y keyboards that paint a rich, full, detailed scene of the galaxies as the ship hurtles farther into the deep. The story itself is compelling, but it's the musical arrangement that the lyric is placed in that takes the song a cut above all the other story songs in the world. This is not merely tone-painting, it is universe-painting.

Earth below us

Drifting, falling

Floating, weightless

Calling, calling home...

In the chorus, the music itself gives one a floating, weightless feel. The echo they put in the vocal emphasizes that 'alone in space' vibe. It's the musical representation of what one feels when they look up at the dark starry night sky in the country, times fifty.

In the second verse, Major Tom begins to doubt the reasons for the mission -- what will it affect; when all is done? His doubts begin to outweigh his confidence in the mission. Meanwhile, all that the ground crew knows is that Major Tom is not responding.

On that cliffhanger, the chorus swoops back in and carries us away again, in the suit of Major Tom alone in the vast fields of stars. There's a brilliant synth bit here that sounds exactly like a spaceship powering up and zooming off, further into the unknown.

The music settles into the backseat and Major Tom sends one final transmission -- give my wife my love... followed by a haunting harmony and sixteen counts of nothing but staccato keyboard to let the impact of what has just happened sink in to the listener -- an odd choice from a songwriting standpoint, but a brilliant choice from a storytelling/dramatic perspective.

The verse continues -- he is presumed dead, and he is content to let them believe it. His reasons for staying in space are ambiguous... is he an alien, returning home at last? is he escaping the world back home (and who wouldn't want to)? does he feel he doesn't fit in on Earth? has he been brainwashed by an alien king? Personally, I'm inclined to believe the second and third options, but Schilling gives no hints other than the ghostly words this is my home... I'm coming home...

Another eight counts to let the listener process, and then we are launched into the chorus again.

The chorus is repeated and here is where the magic really starts to happen -- it's subtle at first; the keyboard backing harmonies began to change very slightly in the second repeat, and then in the third repeat they're joined by voices and clearly building to something.

The word home explodes through the speakers/headphones in a firework display of musical and vocal harmonies that sounds so much like Shotgun Angel Daniel Amos that the first time I heard it I swore I picked out Jerry Chamberlain's voice. It's a beautiful marriage of music, voice, and concept. 'Home' in space, so far away from home; 'home' beyond the stars. It is the perfect song climax, tying everything up with a bow but at the same time showering the listener with the stars of the sky like confetti or fresh snow on our shoulders.

Fun fact: the song (actually the whole album) was originally written and recorded in German, which is, for all its harsh sounds, a very thoughtful and poetic language. It's actually ideal for writing songs that deal with complex emotions with enough logic to not be silly (looking at you, Italian). When I'm better at understanding German, I would love to revisit this song and focus on the German version of it.

Title: Major Tom (Coming Home)

Artist: Peter Schilling

Album: Error In The System (German version: Fehler Im System)

Year: 1983

iTunes here; YouTube here.

And I haven't even gotten to part II yet...

Music

If you've been around here long enough, you may remember the music-collector days, circa 2010-2013. However, five years of college and six of unemployment put a real damper on the whole 'buying obscure music from out-of-country' thing.

Now, for the first time in a very long time, I have both a relatively stable job and am not paying tens of thousands of dollars every couple months in tuition fees. You have no idea the financial freedom I have. I am working minimum wage, but I have more 'disposable income' now than I have EVER had in my entire life. I'm still not well-off by most people's standards, but I feel like I'm living a life of luxury. I can buy cheap muffins regularly now instead of only buying them on special occasions. There is a massive weight off my shoulders that I have not felt since before I left for college. Lecrae's sentiment that 'being broke made me rich' is spot-on.

Anyway, all this to say that now that I actually have a couple extra pennies to spare at the end of the month, I took advantage of a few Boxing week sales from a couple of music dealers who specialise in my obscure genre of choice. One such dealer was Girder Music, and one such deal I took advantage of was the Halo/Scott Springer remastered 4-CD pack. I've had my eye on both Halo albums (particularly Heaven Calling) for years now -- since before college, but there was always an album I wanted more... then, of course, there was that college-induced financial drought.

I didn't realise at the time I bought that CD pack that the purchase included full downloads of all four albums, so even though the CDs only shipped today, I get to listen to them at my leisure, starting now.

Due to all the aformentioned circumstances, I haven't been able to buy and enjoy any of these really rare albums for a long time now. And just sitting and listening to these included downloads from this obscure early-'90s band that nobody's ever heard of was such a powerful experience that it made me tear up.

This was the music of a time in my life when anything was possible, my mental health was at an all-time high, I was surrounded by talented, creative, fiery people (who were not yet dead), and my creativity was at its absolute zenith. Even the mere act of sitting and listening to music without thinking about how I should be working on an assignment instead was almost foreign to me. For just a few moments, I've been able to grasp hold of a thin thread of what my life used to be and relish that safe, secure, on-top-of-the-world feeling that I used to have without even realising it.

Hopefully I can do a more in-depth review of the albums once they arrive, but until then I just wanted to chronicle how much I loved simply listening to the music of my younger years after such a long drought.