Earth Odyssey

Album: Anagnorisis (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The title "Earth Odyssey" referes to Homer's epic Greek poem the Odyssey by way of David Bowie's "Space Oddity." Bowie had recently died, and Asaf Avidan was doing some deep thinking and intense personal reflection. He thought about how "Space Oddity" is a play on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which evoked about Greek mythology and the Odyssey.

    "I got to thinking about how we are always projecting our voyages onto the seas and the skies," he told Songfacts, "but what about dirty, dusty earth? The journey of life. So it became this song about the meaninglessness and hopelessness, but everybody keeps singing as the world is spinning into oblivion. It's a hymn to our powerlessness."
  • Like many of Avidan's songs, the title doesn't show up in the lyric. That's also the case with his most famous track, "Reckoning Song," which became a huge hit across Europe when a remixed was released in 2012.
  • Avidan recorded the Anagnorisis album at in Italy and Tel Aviv with his producer, Tamir Muskat. The album is very philosophical, with Avidan asking some big questions about his place in the Universe. "Anagnorisis" is a literary term used when a character suddenly discovers a fundamental truth.
  • The music video, directed by Adi Halfin, was made during the COVID lockdown, which made collaboration difficult. Halfin had several dancers record themselves improvising to the song, which she used for footage.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Music Video Director David Hogan

Music Video Director David HoganSong Writing

David talks about videos he made for Prince, Alabama, Big & Rich, Sheryl Crow, DMB, Melissa Etheridge and Sisters of Mercy.

Rock Revenge Songs

Rock Revenge SongsMusic Quiz

John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

Martin Page

Martin PageSongwriter Interviews

With Bernie Taupin, Martin co-wrote the #1 hits "We Built This City" and "These Dreams." After writing the Pretty Woman song for Go West, he had his own hit with "In the House of Stone and Light."

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)Songwriter Interviews

Chad tells tales from his time as drummer for Nirvana, and talks about his group Before Cars.