David Bowie Cover Disappears: Astronaut’s Version Of ‘Space Oddity’ Taken Off YouTube
David Bowie hasn’t made it to space yet, at least not according to any news outlets on earth. That wasn’t the case last year for one of the singer’s most famous creative works as his song Space Oddity was covered by astronaut Chris Hadfield and beamed back to the blue planet.
The world’s first music video recorded in space was uploaded to YouTube on May 13, 2013. Today, the one-year license granted expires, and the video is set to be removed.
Hadfield tweeted about the event earlier today and prompted fans to take one last look:
Bowie’s last day – we had permission for a year, so our Space Oddity video comes down today. One last look: http://t.co/z6umXHoPCk
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 13, 2014
The reworked version of the Bowie classic had received more than 22 million hits on YouTube. It was uploaded by Hadfield as a goodbye tribute to his time as Commander of the International Space Station when he left his post last year. Hadfield had been on the ISS for five months.
Hadfield and his son Evan, who managed his father’s social media presence while he was in space, spoke online about the Bowie license today. They expressed hope the video’s license could be renewed:
“We had permission from David Bowie’s people to post the video on YouTube for a year, and that year is up. We are working on renewing the licence for it, but as there are no guarantees when it comes to videos shot in space, we thought you might want to have one last look before we take it down.”
When news broke about the Bowie video last May, Hadfield was already a mini-celebrity of sorts, with an active media presence aimed at getting kids involved in science. Hadfield retired from the Canadian Space Agency last June shortly after his return from the ISS.
Hadfield, notably, had reworked some of David Bowie’s original lyrics to conform to his present circumstances on the station: “Lock your Soyuz hatch and put your helmet on…. Detach from station and may God’s love be with you.”
The Space Oddity cover was promoted on Bowie’s official Facebook page when it first broke. The post highlighted the involvement of Emm Gryner, who was part of Bowie’s live band 1999-2000. She was part of the team who provided the musical backing arrangement to which Hadfield sung in space. The scribes at Bowie’s Facebook page called the track “possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created.”
[Image Credit: Macleans]
