Music Monday: Ashes to Ashes

This week we give Music Monday a big kick up the Eighties with this unforgettable song from David Bowie. Released in August, 1980, it reached number one in the UK and made the top ten in a number of other countries. It didn’t do much in the US, but I’m not entirely surprised. I find the British charts have a lot more wiggle room for a wide and eclectic taste in music. Sometimes this means deserving songs get a lot of attention they wouldn’t get elsewhere. Other times the Brits end up rolling their eyes and hoping no-one else is watching (I mean, “Mr. Blobby”??).

I’ve always liked this song. This was my kind of weird! For a 10-year-old, the fact it isn’t a love song was a plus (way too many of those in the charts), and the quirky and melodic nature of the song appealed to my developing musical sensibilities. And then there’s the music video. We’ll get to that in a minute.

But what’s the song about? I don’t know that Bowie’s ever giving a definitive answer, but it seems to me to be self-referential. Perhaps it’s meant to be an assessment of his own career to this point. The references to “Ground Control” and “Major Tom”–themes featured in Bowie’s first hit from 1969, “Space Oddity”–certainly seem to suggest a self-prod. The first line, “Do you remember a guy that’s been in such an early song…” also appears to set up some kind of retrospective. Beyond that, though, I leave you to figure it out for yourself!

Naturally, one of the things I like about the song is the chord progression and the way it changes keys. These are not particularly unusual key changes, but they flow well with the tune and add to the odd nature of the song.

Right from the get go we have the introduction throwing in an Ebm where we might have expected an Eb:

I also want to point out the ending fade-out. While Bowie sings, “My mother said to get things done, You’d better not mess with Major Tom,” the introduction chords are playing in the background (Bbm-Ab-Ebm-Bbm). Except they actually start after the last line of the chorus, so by the time you get to “My mother said…” you’re already on the Ebm. He then merges the last Bbm and the first into one, so the chords are actually: Bbm, Ab, Ebm, Bbm, Ab, Ebm, etc. This means when he comes to repeat, “My mother said…” he’s actually on the Bbm, not the Ebm. And when he comes around a third time, he’s hitting, “My mother said…” with an Ab. This creates an interesting effect, made all the more eye-opening by the fact that the tune fits this changing chord sequence.

Here are the words and chords both in the original key, and also for playing with a capo on the first fret to avoid a lot of barre chords (click the pictures to enlarge):

And here’s the music video. This video is quintessentially 80s–early 80s particularly. It has that mix of video effects, stream-of-consciousness directing, and strange images, that is distinctive of the period. Enjoy!