Stuck In My Skull 411 -- "Space Oddity (Chris Hadfield Cover)"

Song: "Space Oddity" || Artist: David Bowie || Covering Artist: Chris Hadfield || http://youtu.be/KaOC9danxNo ||

Comments: Good morning, everyone! First, a little bit of housekeeping. As I alluded to in Monday's entry, I recently did some travelling. I'm going to do my level best to keep a consistent schedule of posts going up, but unfortunately, I'm in an earlier timezone now. This means my posts might be going up a little later in the day. I'm still going to try to make this a breakfast blog, though. In fact, I'm writing this entry while eating breakfast (leftover lasagna, yummy!).
Right, the song. If it wasn't clear from the video, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield covered the David Bowie song "Space Oddity" and made a video of himself doing it... aboard the International Space Station. Is that not epic? I confess I actually prefer this cover. Perhaps it's just because I heard Chris Hadfield's version before I listened to David Bowie's original, but I definitely prefer the cover over the original. (Yes, I'd never heard the original song before today. Yes, I know. There are some serious holes in my musical education.) Chris Hadfield actually has a pretty nice voice, and his accoustic guitar playing skills definitely appear to be up to snuff. I suppose it's possible that the original track was used and he's just pretending to play guitar in zero-gravity, but I don't think so. I mean, I've seen Chris Hadfield be pretty active in answering questions and doing science experiments (here's a good example: link), so I don't think he'd really be the type to fake it. But I'm getting off track. The song is good and the video is pretty cool too. Check it out!

Random thought: Randall Munroe -- the guy who does the comic xkcd -- determined that by most sane criteria, this is not the most expensive music video produced. His logic is explained here.

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AMANDA-- "HEROES" by DAVID BOWIE

Hey all! Ever hear a song on the radio or in a film and say to yourself "Wow, that's really something" ? That's exactly what happened to me with "Heroes." I recognized the artist as David Bowie and was instantly taken with the song. It is the title track of Bowie's 1977 album which shares its name. The song is a product of his so-called Berlin period in which he moved to West Berlin and his craft was influenced by the German music scene. The story behind it is beautiful and tragic, a tale of two star-crossed lovers who met at the Berlin Wall. Beyond that, what really stood out to me about the song was the instrumentation. The combination of guitars, percussion and synthesizers creates a very interesting and distinctive sound unlike any I've heard before. A powerful moment comes toward the latter half  as Bowie shouts, almost as if straining to be heard. We see this in the video, which is fairly simplistic;  multiple cameras focus on him as he stands there singing,sounding (and looking) positively gorgeous. For a song about a doomed relationship, "Heroes" doesn't sound overly romantic, sappy, or depressing. I suppose that's what I like about, that it centers on the possibilities or hope of a single day or moment shared with someone rather than lamenting  a loss (or that's my interpretation). Also, today  just happens to be the music icon's sixty-sixth birthday. Happy Birthday Mr. Bowie! Your music has shaped the face of modern music and inspired and delighted millions the world over. We won't soon forget it.  And on that note, enjoy the song!

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