“Space Oddity” the Mick Rock Video

There are several short movies that count as “Space Oddity” videos, starting with the amusingly amateurish 1969 video that Bowie did as part of his Love You Till Tuesday compilation of promotional videos. By sheer coincidence, I am posting this the same week that a new AI version from “Panavision 70” was also released. You can see that HERE, and I’ll probably post that separately once I learn more about Panavision 70.

That said, Mick Rock’s 1972 video is considered the “official” video, created in conjunction with a 1972 re-release of the 1969 song. In my view, it is the least impressive of the Mick Rock Bowie videos.

Characteristic of all of Rock’s Bowie videos is that Bowie stays in one place for the duration. I have thought of this technique as a living photograph: the image stays within a frame but moves within that frame. Rock moves in and out and shows different angles, but Bowie sits there, playing his guitar and lip-syncing, and that’s it. Rock also intersperses some images of what, at the time, might have appeared to be advanced electronic equipment doing whatever it did. He also got a little creative with lighting—it’s mostly dim with a kind of reddish glow, like Bowie is singing from within a spaceship.

Bowie, on display without his eyebrows but with his Ziggy hairstyle, is the space oddity. The lack of eyebrows really makes him look strange. I recently read in Suzi Ronson’s book that neither Bowie nor Suzi had any idea what evolutionary purpose was served by eyebrows until Bowie shaved them off and sweat washed stinging makeup into his eyes during a concert. Well, sacrifice made, but the stunt had its intended effect in this video. Bowie doesn’t look unusual but sexy, as in the “Life on Mars,” “The Jean Genie,” and “John, I’m Only Dancing” videos—he just looks unusual here.

That look of otherness is enhanced by his seeming detachment from what he’s doing. That’s the charitable way of putting it. Less charitably, it looks like Bowie is bored doing this song again. He’s literally going through the motions. This is not a passionate performance (contrast, for instance, his 1979 performance on the Kenny Everett show HERE).

Fortunately, this was not the last of the Mick Rock videos. Sequentially, the masterful “Life on Mars?” video came next. That song, too, was already old for Bowie, but somehow Rock coaxed out of Bowie one of his most memorable performances captured in any video for that one. This one? Not so much.

None of this is to say that this crosses the line and is a bad video. No matter how many times Bowie performed “Space Oddity,” it remains a great song. Plus, there are only four official videos of Bowie as Ziggy, so I’m happy that the look was preserved here. It is surely interesting to see this “creature fair” sitting there, playing his guitar. Plus, the boredom-as-detachment works a lot better for this song than, say, for something like “Heroes” or “Modern Love.”

So, Bowie gets credit for the music, and Rock gets credit for doing the most with what he had.
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Although, as I mentioned, this was not sequentially the last of the Mick Rock Bowie videos, I have now covered all four of them. Bowie would take a break from making videos for a few years, though he started appearing on mainstream television shows outside the UK. Next up: Stanley Dorfman’s two videos from 1977. Which ones were they? You probably know, but if not, stay tuned…