Major Tom Coming Home English Version

With '80s vibe, Hollywood retraces its steps

The upcoming movie season feels a bit like the second half of the 1980s, when studios were making big dramas and comedies, often with major stars. Those movies weren’t terribly risky but they were also satisfying entertainments that people wanted to see. Consider “Moneyball,’’ based on Michael Lewis’s baseball bestseller and starring Brad Pitt. Or “The Ides of March,’’ with George Clooney (who directed) starring as a presidential candidate.

Glenn Close and Meryl Streep duke it out again for chief grande dame of cinema stardom. Close plays a 19th-century Irishwoman who, for a good job, disguises herself as a man in “Albert Nobbs.’’ So you’re probably thinking: “The Oscar is hers.’’ But now we have to tell you that in “The Iron Lady’’ Streep plays Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher, and it all brings us back to 1980-something when Close and Streep were perennial nominees and - in the minds of some moviegoers - rivals.

Straw Dogs A remake of the 1971 Sam Peckinpah potboiler in which Dustin Hoffman and Susan George fight off English inhospitality. Somewhat predictably, the director Rod Lurie transfers the action to the American South. His hillbillification stars James Marsden and Kate Bosworth as the couple, and Alexander Skarsgard as the hunky harasser. An act of chutzpah that has “are you kidding me’’ written all over it.

The Story of “Major Tom (Coming Home)” by Peter Schilling | Cult of ...

In the United State, Peter Schilling is con­sid­ered a one-hit won­der for “Major Tom (Com­ing Home).”  Orig­i­nally recorded in Ger­man, “Major Tom (Völ­lig los­gelöst)” was released on Jan­u­ary 3, 1983 in West Ger­many, where it reached #1.  The Eng­lish ver­sion of the song was released in the U.S. on Sep­tem­ber 24 of that year and peaked at #14 on the Bill­board Hot 100 Sin­gles chart and #2 on the dance chart.  It was Schilling’s only Top 40 hit in the U.S., although his col­lab­o­ra­tion with Michael Cretu of later Enigma fame, “Dif­fer­ent Story (World of Lust and Crime)” peaked at 61 in 1989.

album.  Schilling’s work is known for fea­tur­ing sci­ence fic­tion influ­ences and dystopian themes of tech­nol­ogy tak­ing over or break­ing down, as well as aban­don­ing the planet.

The song was remixed and rere­leased in 1994, 2000, and 2004.

Ver­sions

Major Tom (Com­ing Home) [Ger­man Ver­sion] 3’57

Major Tom (Com­ing Home) [Eng­lish Ver­sion] 3’57

Major Tom (Com­ing Home) [Spe­cial Extended Ver­sion] 7’58

Major Tom (Com­ing Home) [Spe­cial Instru­men­tal Ver­sion] 4’53

Music Video

.  It still exudes an early 80s charm.  Scenes of Schilling and what I assume is his band sit­ting in clas­sic cars stacked on top of one another in a junk yard while home­less men drink around a fire below are inter­cut with footage of var­i­ous of astro­nauts and space mis­sions from what appears to be the 60s.  When Ground Con­trol loses con­tact with Major Tom, Schilling van­ishes from the car.  His wife gives an emo­tional good-bye on tele­vi­sion while a shirt­less body­builder irons behind her.  Major Tom seems to ascend to an after­life inhab­ited by car hops on rollerskates.

This is one of my favorite songs from the early 80s.  I don’t remem­ber ever hear­ing this song dur­ing the day­time; I always seemed to lis­ten to it in the glow of my stereo at night.  I was a big sci­ence fic­tion fan as a kid, so the astro­naut theme appealed to me.  The local radio sta­tions would alter­nate between play­ing the Eng­lish and Ger­man ver­sions of the song.

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