Now here’s a ‘Space Oddity’ for you. In summer 2002, journalist Andrew Smith (The Face, Observer) set out to find the men who’d walked on the moon. Only 12 had ever set down on the surface, between the summer of 1969 and about 3 weeks before Woodstock at the end of 1972. Smith found himself hearing about breakdowns, religious epiphanies and retreats into stony silence. His findings ended up in his book ‘Moondust’ which was nominated for two British Book Awards in 2006, and remained in teh top ten of the Sunday Times best-sellers list for four straight months, a rare feat for a non-fiction book.

Smith interviewed many of the surviving astronauts who went to the moon and instead of asking the obvious question - ‘What was it like to be on the moon?’ - he was more interested in how they coped with returning to their lives on earth, knowing that the highpoint of their lives was probably behind them. Smith also discovered that music intersected the story at every turn. For example, the astronauts were allowed to take with them on their missions a cassette of their favourite music. And so this album came about. Like the book, the album focuses on three distinct but related journeys - the Moonwalkers’ space odyssey, the quest to find them and America’s passage through the Space Age years from 1957-1973. Each was touched by music in a different way…

The tracklist has been selected by Smith who began his career as a music journalist at Melody Maker  and spent three years as The Sunday Times’ chief rock critic.

It’s a fascinating musical journey starting with Bernard Herman’s ‘Prelude And Outer Space (from the film THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL) which includes JFK’s spoken commitment to the Space Programme. There are no gaps between songs so it’s like a continous soundtrack. The Byrds ‘Eight Miles High’ is followed by Strawberry Alarm Clock with ‘Incense And Peppermints and then Credence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Bad Moon Rising.’

The list of artists included here is awesome and also includes David Bowies, Howln’ Wolf, Moby Grape, The Flaming Lips, Ringo Starr, Jeff Buckley, Richard Hawley, Grateful Dead, The Handsome Family, Jimi Hendrix, Last Poets, A.R. Kane, Brian Eono, Danny Williams, American Music Club and more.

Songs include: ‘Do You Realize’ (Flaming Lips), ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ (Ringo Starr), Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley), ‘Cry A Tear For The Man In The Moon’ (Richard Hawley), ‘Our Blue Sky’ (The Handsome Family), ‘Moon River’ (Danny Williams), ‘Western Sky’ (American Music Club), ‘Star Spangled Banner’ (Jimi Hendrix), ‘Mean Machine’ (Last Poets), ‘Candyman’ (Grateful Dead) and many more. In all there are 21 tracks.

This is a fascinating musical journey through time and includes many old and new classics. I loved the journey and I’m sure you will.

4/5