Major Tom means…
The sounds of David Bowie singing Major Tom floated from the coffeeshop on the ground floor to my appartment three floors up. Coffeeshop is the ‘Dutch’ word for a place where marihuana is sold and enjoyed.
I realized how that sound anchored the place where it came from. If you sell weed, you play Bowie, and reggae, and Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. It was at once very trite and very reassuring.