A Spaceman Came Travelling

"A Spaceman Came Travelling"
Single by Chris de Burgh
from the album Spanish Train and Other Stories
Released 1976
Format Vinyl
Genre Progressive rock, space rock, soft rock
Length 5:10
Label A&M
Writer(s) Chris de Burgh
Chris de Burgh singles chronology
"Turning Around"
(1975)		 "A Spaceman Came Travelling"
(1975)		 "Just Another Poor Boy"
(1975)

"A Spaceman Came Travelling" is a song by Chris de Burgh released on the album Spanish Train and Other Stories in 1975. It has been released numerous times as a single, become a popular Christmas song and has appeared on many festive compilation albums.

Single release

The song was not an initial success in the UK and failed to chart. After its first release in 1976 it reached the top position of the Irish single charts stayin 15 weeks in the Irish charts[1] and climbed to number 22 in the Canadian airplay charts.[2] However, in 1986, following de Burgh's huge success with "The Lady in Red", its reissue reached number 15 in Ireland charting for only 1 week. The song was also issued as a double A-side with the song "The Ballroom of Romance" and charted for the first time in the UK in 1986, reaching number 40 and staying on the chart for five weeks.[3] It was also released as a single in the Netherlands in 1985.

Song history

De Burgh, who had just signed his first recording contract with A&M Records, was broke and "staying at a friend's flat" when he read Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken. The book made him think "what if the star of Bethlehem was a space craft and what if there is a benevolent being or entity in the universe keeping an eye on the world and our foolish things that we do to each other?" A fan of Irish poet William Butler Yeats, whose work "The Second Coming" avers that every 2,000 years or so there would be a major cataclysmic event happening, de Burgh saw the birth of Christ as "such an event and then 2,000 years later there would be a similar" one. He imagined "the nativity scene, the thing hovering over and I could see the shepherds in the fields and this weird, ethereal music was drifting into the air and they were 'what the heck is that'?" But he "had no ideas about trying to write a hit record." The song failed to chart when it was first released as a single, but De Burgh says it's been "much better to have a regular recurring song than a hit for three weeks." [4]

Narrative

The song is a narrative of a UFO religion tale. It is a retelling of how the angel Gabriel came to give a message to the shepherds, but with a spaceship and a spaceman instead. The song features the line "'Twas light years of time since his mission did start"; however, a lightyear is a measure of distance, not time.


De Burgh seems to make a prophecy of the Second Coming in this song:

"The stranger returned and said 'now I must fly. When two thousand years of your time has gone by. This song will begin once again, to a baby's cry..."

The baby represents the purity with which the Christ will be returning.

1989 version

A reworked version of the song was released on de Burgh's 1989 compilation album Spark to a Flame. This version features a re-recorded vocal track (highlighting de Burgh's more mature voice, thus matching the style of his 1980s work) overlaid with a remix of the original backing, and has a slightly different rendition of the final chorus. On subsequent compilation albums it is credited as "A Spaceman Came Travelling - 89" to distinguish it from the original 1975 version.

Cover versions

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.irishcharts.ie/search/placement
  2. ↑ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.5467&type=2&interval=20&PHPSESSID=vmmv63q3oamhtuoni62gukfir7
  3. ↑ David Roberts. British Hit Singles & Albums. Guinness World Records Limited
  4. ↑ "The stories of the Christmas hits" by Liam Allen, BBC News, December 25, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Ljósin heima – Páll Óskar og Monika Abendroth". Tónlist (in Icelandic). Retrieved 2011-12-12.

External links