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"Ashes to Ashes" is a song by David Bowie, released in 1980. It made No. 1 in the UK and was the first cut from the ''Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)'' album, also a No. 1 hit. As well as its musical qualities, it is noted for its innovative video, directed by Bowie and David Mallet. The lyrics revisit Bowie's Major Tom character from 1969's "Space Oddity", which he referenced once again in 1995 with "Hallo Spaceboy". The song's original title was "People Are Turning to Gold." Interviewed in 1980, Bowie described the song as "a nursery rhyme. It's very much a 1980s nursery rhyme. I think 1980s nursery rhymes will have a lot to do with the 1880s/1890s nursery rhymes which are all rather horrid and had little boys with their ears being cut off and stuff like that...". Years later, Bowie said that with "Ashes to Ashes" he was "wrapping up the seventies really" for himself, which "seemed a good enough epitaph for it".〔Nicholas Pegg (2000). ''The Complete David Bowie'': pp.29–31〕 ==Music and lyrics== Melancholic and introspective, "Ashes to Ashes" featured Bowie's reinterpretation of "a guy that's been in such an early song", namely Major Tom from his first hit in 1969, "Space Oddity". Described as "containing more messages per second" than any single released in 1980,〔Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). ''Bowie: An Illustrated Record'': pp.109–116〕 the song also included plaintive reflections on the singer's moral and artistic journey: ::I've never done good things ::I've never done bad things ::I never did anything out of the blue Instead of a hippie astronaut who casually slips the bonds of a crass and material world to journey beyond the stars, the song describes Major Tom as a "junkie, strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all-time low". This lyric was interpreted as a play on the title of Bowie's 1977 album ''Low'', which charted his withdrawal inwards following his drug excesses in America a short time before, another reversal of Major Tom's original withdrawal "outwards" or towards space.〔 The final lines, "My mother said, to get things done, you'd better not mess with Major Tom", have been compared to the verse from a nursery rhyme:〔David Buckley (1999). ''Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story'': pp.366–369〕 ::My mother said ::That I never should ::Play with the gypsies in the wood Bowie himself said in an interview with ''NME'' shortly after the single's release, "It really is an ode to childhood, if you like, a popular nursery rhyme. It's about space men becoming junkies (laughs)."〔Angus MacKinnon (1980). "The Future Isn't What It Used to Be". ''NME (13 September 1980)'': p.37〕 Musically "Ashes to Ashes" was notable for its delicate synthetic string sound, counterpointed by hard-edged funk bass, and its complex vocal layering. Its choir-like textures were created by guitarist Chuck Hammer with four multi-tracked guitar synthesizers, each playing opposing chord inversions; this was underpinned by Bowie's dead-pan, chanted background voices.〔Chris Welch (1999). ''David Bowie: We Could Be Heroes'': p.136〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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