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David Bowie "Space Oddity" or Elton John "Rocket Man"?
- Thread starter Eiknarf
- Start date
LegendOfKage
Member
I almost want to say I'd take Space Oddity over Rocket Man, but mainly because Elton John has a dozen songs just as good if not better than Rocket Man, while Bowie doesn't have too much that compares to Space Oddity, IMO. Both are quite good.
Modern Love, China Girl, and Let's Dance were all fantastic, though. Pop Bowie was my favorite Bowie.
Modern Love, China Girl, and Let's Dance were all fantastic, though. Pop Bowie was my favorite Bowie.
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DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Space Oddity.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road > Rocket Man
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road > Rocket Man
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LegendOfKage
Member
Not only can I see new posts, but I can see edits in real time. This new GAF gold feature is trippy. But it is neat!
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LegendOfKage
Member
Thinking about this more, I might have to go with the unlisted third option:
Eiknarf
Member
Hahaha yeah you can see why I chose SPACE ODDITY vs ROCKET MAN; they were both released around almost the same time (few years apart) and both about leaving earth for Space as a job
Eiknarf
Member
I feel like the line, “planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do” is a throw away line in Space Oddity. Just to make the rhyme work. Feels cheap.
But the FEEL of both songs are what I like
LegendOfKage
Member
Yeah, and I think it makes for a fun thread. I believe Major Tom was a sequel of sorts to Space Oddity, which is why I mentioned it. As for the line you mentioned above, I think it works for the hopelessness that is felt near the end of the song. I think Bowie left the fate unknown, while Peter Schilling gave the protagonist a happy conclusion to the story.
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FunkMiller
Gold Member
Come on, we all know the best space themed song ever written.
Werewolf Jones
Member
Shits on both of them. Not even joking.
Wildebeest
Member
Bowie wrote more subversive and more complicated songs than normal pop songs. I don't know if that makes him objectively better, worse, or a fool to himself. I prefer him, though.
LegendOfKage
Member
He did so because he was waiting out his music contract, so his manager wouldn't see any of the real money he could make. Instead he wrote artistic music that would never be a big hit. As soon as his contract was over, he made the biggest pop album of his career, and also recorded Under Pressure with Queen.
Wildebeest
Member
It wasn't totally planned like that. Nile Rodgers had to browbeat him into not overcomplicating his songs, and he went back to making less mass market songs after.
badblue
Gold Member
Tams
Member
NeverYouMind
Gold Member
Of the two I prefer "Space Oddity" and its melody. But Elton John has a few better songs in his repertoire than Bowie. His duet with Kiki Dee for "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is more timeless, his "I'm Still Standing Here" is far more upbeat, and his "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" is much more heartfelt than Bowie's discography.
If we are talking space-themed music that originated from the U.K. I am inclined to give the edge to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" track.
The space theme from U.K. also reminds me of the song "Because" by the Beatles.
P.S. Whenever I hear about Elton John I am also reminded of his more talented but less flashy American counterpart, Billy Joel, but that is a different topic altogether.
If we are talking space-themed music that originated from the U.K. I am inclined to give the edge to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" track.
The space theme from U.K. also reminds me of the song "Because" by the Beatles.
P.S. Whenever I hear about Elton John I am also reminded of his more talented but less flashy American counterpart, Billy Joel, but that is a different topic altogether.
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KrazyKrelian
Banned
There can be only one.
Badlucktroll
Member
David Bowie AI song
Eiknarf
Member
OMG
I see the second comment is something like, “if you all knew Elton John’s past, and all the drugs he was on, this is 100% believable”
Eiknarf
Member
So far, as of this writing, Bowie’s Space Oddity is winning, 92% to 8%
NeverYouMind
Gold Member
That melody chilled me out 100%. Its been a long time since I felt this relaxed. Thanks.
Grildon Tundy
Gold Member
I put "Rocket Man", and was surprised to see it so far in the minority.
Rocket Man is a crowd-pleaser where everyone knows the words and sings along
Space Oddity is a voyage of a song, but I don't think it has the same mass appeal
Rocket Man is a crowd-pleaser where everyone knows the words and sings along
Space Oddity is a voyage of a song, but I don't think it has the same mass appeal
midnightAI
Member
Metal Bowie is best Bowie....
(Well, technically, industrial, but you get my point)
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Alex Anderson
Member
Jesus Christ, anything David Bowie over anything from Elton John
Rockondevil
Member
Both absolute bangers. It’s such a close vote for me but Elton won me over as I can listen to it more often.
Very surprised at the poll though. I thought it would be much closer to a 50/50.
Very surprised at the poll though. I thought it would be much closer to a 50/50.
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nightmare-slain
Member
Elton John is rubbish and not even close to Bowie.
Shadowplay1979
Member
Bowie doesnt have too much? huh? Bowie had tons of songs on every album until he died that are top notch. Modern Love and Lets dance were def not even in his top 50. China Girl was more of an Iggy Pop song, though Bowie wrote the music with him, technically its a cover.
That line is wonderful, its literally the point of the song, which is more about existential dread then it is about going to space.
just some one hit wonder,not related to bowie other then being inspired by his songs, which kinda missed the point of the oriiginal song. But there already was an actual sequel to the song.....which is better then the original.....actually there are technically 3 followups which reflect on the character. But i always thought the second song was always the best.
Eiknarf
Member
I thought it might be closer too.
As it stands it’s
44 Space Oddity
10 Rocket Man
My whole life I assumed Elton was inspired by Bowie’s song, and assumed that’s why Elton made Rocket Man. “I wanna make my own song like this!!”
But I found out that wasn’t the case. But would one admit to that?
It’s not a big deal. Artists do that all the time in a particular genre
Anyway, I still preferred Rocket Man to Space Oddity my whole life, but as I got older it switched - and I now prefer Space Oddity to Rocket Man
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Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
I think there's more to it than has met your ear.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
I thought you were talking about the movies.
Trogdor1123
Gold Member
Rocket man is a great song. Space oddity isn’t quite there though. Nice songs to listen to on a drive
SJRB
Gold Member
Last year I was at a David Bowie tribute theatre show commemorating Bowie's life and his greatest musical achievements. And one of the singers was the vocal spitting image of Bowie himself.
I swear to god hearing Space Oddity live was a transcending experience. It is so good. The "lore" of the song also really resonates with me.
A masterpiece. And Bowie's space odyssey going full circle with Blackstar right before his death is just incredible.
Bowie was a remarkable man and extremely clever on the advancement of technology. He immediately realized the significance of the internet and when he was kind of mocked for voice acting a videogame character he instantly shut that shit down. I'm fairly sure CD Project Red wanted Bowie to be Johnny Silverhand at first, but he was obviously too ill to take on such a massive job. Can you imagine that? Not dunking on Keanu because he did great but man, Bowie would've elevated the entire game to a new level.
We lost a real one when Bowie died.
I swear to god hearing Space Oddity live was a transcending experience. It is so good. The "lore" of the song also really resonates with me.
A masterpiece. And Bowie's space odyssey going full circle with Blackstar right before his death is just incredible.
Bowie was a remarkable man and extremely clever on the advancement of technology. He immediately realized the significance of the internet and when he was kind of mocked for voice acting a videogame character he instantly shut that shit down. I'm fairly sure CD Project Red wanted Bowie to be Johnny Silverhand at first, but he was obviously too ill to take on such a massive job. Can you imagine that? Not dunking on Keanu because he did great but man, Bowie would've elevated the entire game to a new level.
We lost a real one when Bowie died.
Batiman
Banned
Tough choice. I like Elton a lot more than Bowie overall. SO is probably Bowie’s best song IMO. Rocket Man seems to be way overplayed compared to SO. If that wasn’t the case I’d pick rocket man. But I’m sick of that stupid rocket man remix. Sort of killed the song for me. Like they didn’t add nothing to it. Just made it worse in every way
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E-Cat
Gold Member
Lyrics have nothing to do with music. Maybe the aural characteristic, but def not the semantics
