David Bowie - Space Oddity (2x7'' - 50th Anniversary Box Set)

As part of the ongoing celebrations marking 50 years since David Bowie's first hit, this a very special double 7'' single of Space Oddity features brand new mixes by Tony Visconti. The double 7'' set comes in a box including a double-sided poster featuring an original Space Oddity print advertisement and a Ray Stevenson shot of David taken on stage at the 'Save Rave '69' concert at the London Palladium on 30th November, 1969, the backdrop featuring a N.A.S.A. astronaut. The set also includes an information card and a print featuring an alternative shot by Jojanneke Claassen from the Space Oddity promo single cover session. The cover of the original mono single is the rare UK promotional picture sleeve which, along with the label, features the original Philips trademark specifically cleared for this 50th anniversary release. The single itself has been cut from the original analogue single master tape. The jacket housing the 2019 mixes by Tony Visconti is a new design featuring alternative Ray Stevenson shot from the 'Save Rave '69' concert to that on the poster. First released as a 7-inch single on 11 July 1969, Space Oddity was also the opening track of David Bowie's self titled second studio album, David Bowie. Initially inspired by Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the song gained huge popularity when it was adopted as the unofficial theme of the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission which launched five days after the single's release.

Driven by an entirely deeper dynamic than most pop artists, David Bowie inhabited a very special world of extraordinary sounds and endless vision. Unwilling to stay on the treadmill of rock legend and avoiding the descent into ever demeaning and decreasing circles of cliche, Bowie wrote and performed what he wanted, when he wanted. His absence from the endless list of ''important events'' has just fuelled interest. Constant speculation about what the guy was up to has even led some to wonder if this is his greatest reinvention ever. David Jones!

David Robert Jones was born in Brixton on January 8, 1947. At age thirteen, inspired by the jazz of the London West End, he picked up the saxophone and called up Ronnie Ross for lessons. Early bands he played with - The Kon-Rads, The King Bees, the Mannish Boys and the Lower Third -provided him with an introduction into the showy world of pop and mod, and by 1966 he was David Bowie, with long hair and aspirations of stardom rustling about his head. Kenneth Pitt signed on as his manager, and his career began with a handful of mostly forgotten singles but a head full of ideas. It was not until 1969 that the splash onto the charts would begin, with the legendary Space Oddity (which peaked at No. 5 in the UK). Amidst his musical wanderings in the late 60s, he experimented with mixed media, cinema, mime, Tibetan Buddhism, acting and love. The album, originally titled David Bowie then subsequently Man of Words, Man of Music, pays homage to all the influences of the London artistic scene. It shows the early song-writing talent that was yet to yield some of rock-n-roll's finest work, even if it would take the rest of the world a few years to catch up with him.
www.davidbowie.com