DAVID BOWIE – Ashes To Ashes (1980)

Ashes to Ashes (1980) is the lead single from Bowie’s album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and is notable for revisiting the character of Major Tom from Space Oddity (1969). The song features a melancholic and introspective tone, with lyrics that depict Major Tom as a washed-up, drug-addicted figure, possibly as a metaphor for Bowie’s own struggles with addiction.

Musically, Ashes to Ashes blends new wave with electronic and avant-garde elements, featuring a striking synth-driven arrangement. The song’s innovative production, along with its groundbreaking music video—one of the most expensive at the time—helped define the early MTV era. The video, directed by Bowie and David Mallet, includes surreal imagery with Bowie dressed as a Pierrot (a traditional French clown) against stark, dreamlike landscapes.

Do you remember a guy that’s been In such an early song? I’ve heard a rumor from Ground Control Oh no, don’t say it’s true

They got a message from the Action Man “I’m happy, hope you’re happy too I’ve loved all I’ve needed, love Sordid details following”

The shrieking of nothing is killing, just Pictures of Jap girls in synthesis and I Ain’t got no money and I ain’t got no hair But I’m hoping to kick but the planet it’s glowing

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky We know Major Tom’s a junkie Strung out in heaven’s high Hitting an all-time low

Time and again I tell myself I’ll stay clean tonight But the little green wheels are following me Oh no, not again I’m stuck with a valuable friend “I’m happy, hope you’re happy too” One flash of light but no smoking pistol

I never done good things (I never done good things) I never done bad things (I never done bad things) I never did anything out of the blue, woh-o-oh Want an axe to break the ice Wanna come down right now

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky We know Major Tom’s a junkie Strung out in heaven’s high Hitting an all-time low

My mother said, to get things done You’d better not mess with Major Tom

My mother said, to get things done You’d better not mess with Major Tom

My mother said, to get things done You’d better not mess with Major Tom

My mother said, to get things done You’d better not mess with Major Tom