The voting is still taking place (Actually, come to think of it, polls are still open for all of them) and turnout remains to be on the rise with Volume 5 of Cover Wars. Early on in the week it looked like Scarecrow Collection was going to pull it off, but Mr. Blotto is running away with it and Hidden Track can now project that Mr. Blotto will carry the 50 Ways edition of Cover Wars. Talks of a ‘Dream Ticket’ with both Mr. Blotto and SCC are being dismissed by both candidates.

Let us move onwards and upwards into this week’s edition where we’ll examine covers of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. You know this song, it’s called ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’, you can find it playing at happening college party sing-along’s with The Who’s ‘Teenage Wasteland’ and ‘Dirty Woman’ by Pink Floyd. This is a song that appears to be inspired both by the Apollo 11 moon landing and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bowie first recorded this song in 1969. Did you know that Rick Wakeman of Yes plays Mellotron/Keyboards on the original? I didn’t. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Assembly of Dust: Reid Genauer’s group used the tune as the countdown to ring in the year 2007. This is a good call when the song’s already got a countdown from 10 in it. Well played.

Read on for the full report on nine other versions of Space Oddity…

The Breakfast: These guys have been known to throw some huge jams after playing the composed parts of this tune, while I researched I found many lengthy versions on The Archive.

God Johnson: Strong vocal performance all around in this one…there’s a little volume fluctuation on the recording, so be careful with that if you’re listening in on headphones.

Langley School Music Project: I’ll just quote Bowie on this one, “The backing arrangement is astounding. Coupled with the earnest if lugubrious vocal performance you have a piece of art that I couldn’t have conceived of, even with half of Colombia’s finest export products in me” Hiyo! If you dig this, I recommend checking out the entire collection Innocence and Despair.

Local H: I had never heard of these guys before this week, but if half the stuff on their Wikipedia page is true, they are fucking crazy and I like it! Oh yeah, and the performance is great, especially for two dudes, nice extended intro.

Natalie Merchant: Smooth.

Perpetual Groove: Tasteful, rockin, and as always with these guys: Great Lights!

String Cheese Incident: Another holiday show addition, SCI busted this out in the encore of their NYE 2002 performance.

Trey Anastasio: I like Trey’s volume control where he’s almost whispering the lyrics half the time, but like a lot of the covers he pulled out in 2005, the polish simply isn’t there…

ulu: Oh ulu, to me you guys will always be that band that did that kick-ass version of the Mario Brothers theme music. Nice arrangement here as well, I miss these guys…

So that’s your 10 choices this week. Choose wisely and as always, please don’t play any versions of Space Oddity in my presence for the next 12 – 16 weeks.

Here’s some Bowie video before you go: