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The Story of... 'A Spaceman Came Travelling' by Chris de Burgh

3 December 2020, 13:15 | Updated: 16 November 2022, 16:27

By Tom Eames

"Peace and goodwill to all men, and love for the child..."

It might not be as iconic as 'Fairytale of New York' or 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday', and you might not even know it by name, but you'll no doubt know (and love) this festive track's soaring chorus.

But what is this intriguing song by Chris de Burgh all about and how did it become a Christmas favourite? Here's all the big facts:

Who wrote 'A Spaceman Came Travelling'?

Chris de Burgh wrote this song for his second album Spanish Train and Other Stories , released in 1975.

The British-Irish singer would not achieve any mainstream success in the UK until 'The Lady in Red' over 10 years later.

'A Spaceman Came Travelling' meaning: What is the song about?

Chris de Burgh - A Spaceman Came Travelling

De Burgh had just signed his first recording contract with A&M Records, and was broke and "staying at a friend's flat" when he read Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken.

The book made him ponder, "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?".

Already a fan of Irish poet William Butler Yeats, whose work 'The Second Coming' states that every two years or so there would be a major cataclysmic event, 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'?"

How did it perform in the charts?

The song was not a success in the UK and failed to chart entirely. However, it topped the charts in Ireland in 1976.

In 1986, following his huge success with 'The Lady in Red', a reissue reached number 15 in Ireland and number 40 in the UK.

He said: "I had no ideas about trying to write a hit record". Despite it never reaching higher than 40 in the UK, it has since grown to become a Christmas classic thanks to its use in various festive compilations.

He added that it's been "much better to have a regular recurring song than a hit for three weeks."

'A Spaceman Came Travelling' cover versions: Who else has recorded it?

John Gibbons - A Spaceman Came Travelling (feat. Nina Nesbitt)

A handful of artists have covered the song, including rock band Smokie and Irish vocal group Celtic Woman.

In 2018, Irish producer John Gibbons released an electronic dance version with singer Nina Nesbitt on vocals.

'A Spaceman Came Travelling' lyrics

A spaceman came travelling on his ship from afar, 'Twas light years of time since his mission did start, And over a village he halted his craft, And it hung in the sky like a star, just like a star He followed a light and came down to a shed, Where a mother and child were lying there on a bed, A bright light of silver shone round his head, And he had the face of an angel, and they were afraid Then the stranger spoke, he said "Do not fear, I come from a planet a long way from here, And I bring a message for mankind to hear, " And suddenly the sweetest music filled the air And it went La La Peace and goodwill to all men, and love for the child

This lovely music went trembling through the ground, And many were wakened on hearing that sound, And travellers on the road, the village they found, By the light of that ship in the sky, which shone all round And just before dawn at the paling of the sky, 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" And it went La La This song will begin once again To a baby's cry And it goes La La Peace and goodwill to all men, and Love for the child Oh the whole world is waiting, waiting to hear the song again, There are thousands standing on the edge of the world, And a star is moving somewhere, the time is nearly here, This song will begin once again, to a baby's cry

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A Spaceman Came Traveling by Chris de Burgh

Songfacts®:

• Written and recorded by Irish folk-rock giant Chris de Burgh, "A Spaceman Came Traveling" runs to over five minutes in length, and is one of the most original Christmas songs ever written. The theme is that the Christmas story of Jesus was inspired by an extraterrestrial visitor. It may have been inspired in turn by the works of Erich Von Däniken, whose first book on this theme, Chariots Of The Gods , was published in the UK in 1969. Although his claims - which were not new even then - later came in for serious criticism, including allegations of fraud, Chariots Of The Gods and Von Däniken's later books spawned a host of imitators and speculation that the pyramids were built using extraterrestrial or a long lost superior technology, that man was an extraterrestrial hybrid, and so on.
• The message of this song is the one that lies at the heart of all the world's major religions, which probably accounts for its universal appeal. >> Suggestion credit : Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
• More songs from Chris de Burgh
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• Lyrics to A Spaceman Came Traveling

Comments: 2

• Anonymous Seems like telling distance that spaceman had travelled!
• Snaga from Dundee, Scotland A spaceman came traveling on his ship from afar 'Twas light years of time since his mission did start Well Chris I hate (or is it love) to be pedantic but light years aren't a measure of time, it is a measure of distance A light year is the distance that light travels in a year

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A Spaceman Came Travelling

• Chris De Burgh

Lyrics submitted by Bobo192

A Spaceman Came Travelling Lyrics as written by Chris De Burgh

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First off, it never mentions a light year; it's "thousand years" not "light years". Misheard lyrics 4tw.

As for 'two thousand years' being a prediction well... predictions don't generally come true. Especially not ones with a timer attached, unless they're self-fulfilling prophecies.

Regardless, the idea isn't that "god" himself is an alien, but that the ANGEL that visted was. This's been explored many times before, since supposedly angels were made before humans, had a little war in their home, that kind of stuff. Now, since the universe supposedly wasn't even made until AFTER this war, that seems kind of odd; one would think they lived 'somewhere' right? Soooo an easy enough explaination is that it's just a misinterpretation and that it wasn't the universe that was created after the angels' war, but rather earth itself, which would mean that angels were just an alien race as the 'first attempt that went bad'. To be honest it makes more sense than the more literal translation that's generally accepted.

Also, just in referance to redcoat, the big bang's not really all that disputed; there's more than enough evidence to pretty much say that's pretty likely where things started... the question then becomes, how did it start? If it was all the matter and energy in the universe existing compacted incredably tightly, even more dense than a black hole, then WHY did it just randomly explode? One could claim that the big bang was the equivilent to god dumping out a box of lego parts onto the ground to make stuff with, and that the big bang itself was divine in nature, rather than a natural occurance. Of course that doesn't neccesarily mean it's true either, though there's only a handful of theories which even make the most vague of sense in explaining how it could even happen. Even the whole m-branes don't make total sense as it still relies on a previously infinite amount of time wherein nothing happened at all before the big bang.

So was the angel an alien? Was the big bang caused by god? Or is it all just a myth like everything else people used to believe and in a few thousand years we'll just look back on this in schools as foolishness? Guess we all find out eventually, shame by that point yeu're dead and it's not very useful information anymore XD

Anyways, nice song, the angel's singing lines are very nicely done, haunting and etherial, quite beautiful in their own way. Shame the lyrics only briefly touch on the concepts given, rather than exploring them more fully. But that's why it's a song and not an essay I suppose, any thought provocation at all is better than whot most artists can claim, so even if it's a bit blunt, it works well enough.

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No, whoever submitted these lyrics, he had the face of an angel, not an angle. Also, from what I can make out it's "love for a child" rather than "the child".

But it seems a handful of lyrics sites, and even one YouTube video, have copied each other and so ended up with these errors in them.

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"When two thousand years of your time has gone by" - Okay, expecting it was the sound that could be heard on Jesus' birth nearly 2000 years has gone by when Chris der Burgh sang it (once again) on his album "Spanish Train and other Stories 1975) and the mankind (a part of course) heard it "again".

This powerful song was divinely inspired at a time when the general atmosphere was prickling with a sense of Christ's return. The meaning is absolutely clear. He speaks of the 2nd coming being born 'in the flesh' (a baby's cry) 2,000 years after the 1st coming. It WAS the case: The Messiah and 2nd coming was born 1920, and the marriage of the lamb took place in 1960. ...I leave the rest for those who want to do their homework to find out for themselves who I'm talking about and what is happening providentially.

It's Christian science, claiming God is an alien hence the references to spacemen refering to the bible. Of course it's all aload of rubbish, BIG BANG RULES.

"When two thousand years of your time has gone by, This song will begin once again" I'm still waiting.

it's just a beautiful song. im glad it's christian friendly, more people can enjoy it.

The great Monobrowed one getting high on 'La Bise' again whilst reading the bible.

for further info see 'Lonely Sky' by de burgh.

"He followed a light and came down to a shed, Where a mother and child were lying there on a bed" is worthy of the great McGonagall. The whole lyric is so portentious and so deeply dreadful it brought me out in a thin sweat of embarassment. Also betrays basic ignorance of writer as a light year is a measurement of distance, not time.

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• Chris de Burgh

“A Spaceman Came Travelling” by Chris de Burgh

by Amanda London · November 9, 2021

As the story goes Chris De Burgh, who was in his late 20s when he wrote this piece (“A Spaceman Came Travelling”), was going through a trying time in his life during that particular juncture of his earthly existence. 

At the time he also came across a book entitled  Chariots of the Gods? . The said text, which was written by a Swiss author named Erich von Däniken , played a huge role in the formation of the conspiracy theory, if you will, that extraterrestrials visited and influenced ancient civilizations. 

And the fundamental aspect of that idea, that extraterrestrials have in fact directly interacted with human beings in days past, serves as the framework upon which “A Spaceman Came Travelling” is based – well that and the story of Christmas.

Or put more simply, you heard of the Three Wise Men, right? Well according to the account of these individuals as recorded in  the Book of Matthew , they were led to Baby Jesus by  “his star” . 

Said star is commonly referred to as the Star of Bethlehem (since that’s the town where Jesus was born). Furthermore, it has been concluded that it was not a standard celestial body, i.e. one that regularly and predictably appears in the night sky. As such there  has long been efforts  to identify what exactly the Star of Bethlehem was or is. 

The Spaceman

Well according to Chris de Burgh, it was a spaceship that “hung in the sky like a star”. Thus the “spaceman (that) came travelling” would be the pilot of that craft.

And it isn’t that the vocalist is trying to put forth that this is what happened literally per se. Or if anything the titular “spaceman” would actually be what in the Bible is referred to as an angel. And in visiting Mary, Baby Jesus, etc., he not only instructs them not to shake but also prophesizes, in musical form, the child’s idealized effect on the world. 

So the end of the first verse going into the second is a creative retelling of the first few passages from  Luke 2 .

The spaceman’s final message to those he visits is that he must bounce but will return in “2,000 years”. This is likely an allusion to what is called, in religious circles, the Second Coming. Put simply, the messiah’s re-arrival on Earth to firmly establish the Kingdom of God. And it can be deemed that Chris himself is a Christian, taking to account that he closes the story by noting a desire, amongst many, to welcome “the child”, i.e. Jesus, back when he returns.

The Conclusion

Conclusively, “A Spaceman Came Travelling” has been adopted by many as a Christmas song. However, to some other listeners, it may not lyrically read as such. But it does effectively and creatively take us back to story upon which the holiday is based, i.e. why, symbolically speaking, stars are placed on top of Christmas trees in the first place.

Chris de Burgh and “A Spaceman Came Travelling”

Chris is a tenured musician who actually began dropping tracks professionally in 1974. And this particular tune is from his second studio album, 1975’s “Spanish Train and Other Stories”. 

However, “A Spaceman Came Traveling” is officially listed as being released, through A&M Records, in 1976. And this tune proved to be the first de Burgh ever came out with.

Chris, who is also noted as being an instrumentalist, wrote this song himself, though the track was produced by one Robin Geoffrey Cable.

Upon its initial release, “A Spaceman Came Travelling” topped the Irish Single Chart, with Chris himself being primarily associated with Ireland. However, it didn’t get around to appearing on the UK Singles Chart until 1986, in the aftermath of de Burgh dropping “ The Lady in Red “, i.e. his signature song, that same year.

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A Spaceman Came Travelling

Chris de burgh, album no information.

The theme of the ‘A Spaceman came travelling’ is that Christmas and the story of Jesus came from an alien visitor. Originally inspired by the book ‘Chariots of the Gods’ for Erich Von Daniken! when De Burgh read the book he though “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?

Release Date: 1976

Songwriter/s: Chris De Burgh

Label: A&M

Chart Rankings: UK – 40 Ireland – 1 Canada – 22 The song topped the charts in Ireland for 15 weeks, in Canada it peaked at number 22. In the UK, the song peaked at number 40 on Official charts Company.

Artist’s age on Release Date: Christopher John Davison aka Chris De Burgh was 28 years old when he released this song.

Cover Versions: Eela Craig – Chyi Chin – Smokie – Paul Oscar – Mandaryna – Gregorian – Celtic Woman – Mrs Brown’s Boys – DJ Akira The Don – amateur artists covered this song on Youtube.

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