Peter Schilling’s ‘Coming Home – 40 Years Of Major Tom’ Is Out Now
40 years to the day, Peter Schilling released his landmark album Error in the System including his worldwide breakthrough single Major Tom (Coming Home). Celebrating the anniversary, Schilling and Warner Music are thrilled to release a new extended greatest hits collection spanning four decades of Peter Schilling, including remastered German and English versions of his greatest hits, four new songs (in both languages), and new edits. Coming Home – 40 Years Of Major Tom is available everywhere today.
One of the new tracks of the collection, Playground Earth, is accompanied by a music video premiering tomorrow tonight (March 25th) at 8:30 p.m on YouTube. The premiere coincides with this year’s Earth Hour. A worldwide event held annually, individuals, communities, and businesses are encouraged to turn off non-essential electric lights for one hour (8:30 – 9:30 p.m.) on the last Saturday of March, as a symbol of commitment to the planet and a call for more ambition in climate protection. As a passionate advocate for the future of the planet and future generations, it is an issue very close to Peter Schilling’s heart.
Schilling says: “This planet offers an infinite variety of opportunities for us to discover things, to live a beautiful life. And now look at how we treat it. In order to preserve our living environment, sustainability and environmental awareness are essential. It is up to us to think about our everyday behavior, what we expect from our living environment. We should always be aware that our planet is at risk, not least out of respect for future generations. There is absolutely no reason to lull yourself into a false sense of security. Each and everyone of us has to take responsibility.
“This is also what I refer to with Playground Earth. It’s about seeing the various ways of how we may live together, but at the same time, we all have to cooperate with each other and respect the rules of the playground. In real life, those rules mean: taking responsibility for environmental and climate protection.
“The instrumental parts, which were deliberately built in dramaturgically and in part also convey drama, provide an opportunity to reflect on the content. Its message is of course key to the song. It suggests that sometimes, it might be better to listen carefully rather than making noise, figuratively speaking.”
Previously, Schilling shared two new songs from the upcoming collection, World Hold On / German version “Rubikon (ein Weg zurück …)“, and The Promise / “Weiße Fahnen (…Hymne auf das Leben). The fourth new track of the collection is Rainsong (… I Love It When It’s Raining) / Regensong (… ich lieb’ es, wenn es regnet).
Throughout the years Peter Schilling has continued to be active on many levels – as a composer, lyricist, performer, arranger, and producer. And he still very much has his finger on the pulse of the time, as the collections’s new songs impressively prove. Setting his eyes on what’s to come, Schilling enters into dialogue with the next generation in the song’s lyrics, addressing those who have not yet been born.
“Rather, in my vision, they only exist as energies for now, waiting to be ‘brought’ here”, Schilling explains. “And so I focused on bringing out the voices of the unborn acoustically by slipping into these respective roles vocally. In the lyrics, those unborn souls – the next generation – are saying that they currently don’t see the point of being born, given the condition of the planet we’re probably going to hand over to them and the way we treat the environment we’re living in. The way I see it, we have to give a promise to the next generation that our planet earth is a place that is worth coming down to.”
1982 marked the beginning of an unprecedented musical career for the artist originating from Stuttgart – a global success story spanning from Europe to the US, where his English version of Major Tom (Coming Home) reached #14 on the Billboard charts. Speaking about his international journey spanning the last for decades, Schilling shares: “Because of my international success, I would sometimes sing in English first before retranslating for the current album or writing the German lyrics from scratch. This album will be released worldwide as well, so English as the world language was a natural choice for this anniversary album.”
Coming Home – 40 Years Of Major Tom comes out in various configurations (see below for all configurations). All of the tracks will be made available digitally as well, in the following formats: A complete international version with English and Spanish versions only (Coming Home – 40 YEARS OF MAJOR TOM); A complete German version with German versions only (“Coming Home – 40 Jahre Major Tom”). “Error In The System (2023 Remaster)” for the first time as stream/download. “Fehler im System (2023 Remaster)”.
To this day, Major Tom (…völlig losgelöst/Coming Home) stands as one of the most successful German productions, both domestically and abroad. Throughout the years Peter Schilling has continued to be active on many levels – as composer, song writer, performer and producer. Coming Home – 40 Years Of Major Tom celebrates 40 years of “Fehler Im System” and “Major Tom (völlig losgelöst)” as well as the influential work by Peter Schilling in its entirety.
Buy Coming Home – 40 Years Of Major Home here.