Song of the Day 8/11: David Bowie, “Starman”

As far as I’m concerned, time travel has been proved impossible. I base this on the simple premise that if it could happen, somebody would have come back in time to rid us of Trump.

UFOs, on the other hand, offer a glimmer of hope. If aliens have been keeping tabs on us, as some ufologists believe, maybe they’ll step in to keep humanity from destroying itself.

We do seem to be getting a lot of interstellar traffic lately. In 2017 an object dubbed Oumuamua sped through the solar system. Its elongated shape led to speculation about alien space probes, though it showed no signs of being anything but natural. Just last month astronomers noticed another object moving too fast to have originated in our solar system and headed toward the inner planets. This one prompted a scientific paper from Harvard astrophysicist Abraham Loeb speculating that it could be an alien spacecraft.

The object, named 3I/ATLAS, drew his attention because its odds-defying approach angle brings it close to three planets but – suspiciously, to Loeb – not Earth. In fact, it will reach its closest approach to the sun when it’s directly opposite Earth, where it could maneuver unseen – EXACTLY WHAT SPACE ALIENS WOULD DO! Naturally, the rest of the scientific community has criticized him – also exactly what The Authorities would do if space aliens were approaching. Let’s just hope they don’t want us to take them to our leader.

What would happen if an alien landed? Great Britain got some idea on July 6, 1972, when Earthling David Bowie, in his androgynous Ziggy Stardust persona, played his latest single, “Starman,” on the BBC’s “Top of the Pops.” New Wave musician Gary Numan said it was “one of the pivotal moments of modern music, or, if not music, certainly a pivotal moment in show business.”

Impressionable youths across Britain were watching. Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Mick Jones of the Clash, Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Boy George are among the dozens of musicians who say it influenced them. Other reactions from the famous:

• Bono, who was 12 at the time: “The first time I saw [Bowie] was singing ‘Starman’ on television. It was like a creature falling from the sky.” Not coincidentally, Bowie went on to star as “The Man Who Fell to Earth” in Nicholas Roeg’s 1976 film.

• Robert Smith of The Cure, who was 13: “”Every person in Britain who saw that performance, it’s stuck with them. It’s like Kennedy being shot for another generation. … It really was a formative, seminal experience.”

• Elton John, who had just released “Honky Chateau”: “It was so different, it was like, wow. No one had ever seen anything like that before.” John’s wardrobe soon became much more flamboyant.

The song exists because record executive demanded a single for the Ziggy Stardust album. Bowie responded with a pastiche of his influences – the melody’s octave leap borrowed from “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” a staccato organ break cadged from the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and a la-la-la chorus filched from the T Rex’s “Hot Love,” along with an overall Marc Bolan vibe. Guitarist Mick Ronson arranged the strings. Musicians’ union rules at the time required live vocals, and Bowie departs from the recorded version quite a bit. The performance launched him to stardom.