[net.sf-lovers] Science Fiction references in music

rsk@pucc-k (Wombat) (07/18/85)

Spurred by the ongoing discussion in net.sf-lovers about sf references
in (mostly pop) music, I'd like to assemble a list of such references;
of course I'll post it to the net eventually.

If you've got such a reference in mind, please send it along, including
a (short) explanation of what the piece refers to; for instance:

Led Zeppelin, "The Battle of Evermore", Led Zeppelin IV.
	-- mentions the Ringwraiths of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings"

1. Please note that references to music in sf are something entirely different.
2. Credit for the idea goes to Alan Greig <CCD-ARG%dct@ucl-cs.arpa>.
3. I think we can take the collected works of Hawkwind as a given.
-- 
Rich Kulawiec	rsk@{pur-ee,purdue}.uucp, rsk@purdue-asc.csnet
		rsk@purdue-asc.arpa or rsk@asc.purdue.edu

knf@druxo.UUCP (FricklasK) (07/18/85)

A couple of other sci-fi related songs are:
  Children of the Sun (I don't remember who by)
    about the landing of aliens on the earth.  I seem to recall a few
    of the other songs on this album were also realted to this topic.
  The entire "I Robot" album by the Alan Parsons Project.
  A song about video games on a recent Lou Reed album.
  And about half the songs David Bowie came out with between
    1969 and 1976.
  '`'`'
   Ken
  '`'`'
PS sorry if anyone's already mentioned some of these.

levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) (07/19/85)

There's the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" from a few
years back... anyone remember the artist?  (It wasn't popular for very
long.)

From the Crossposting Synapses of
a hacker
at&t [teletype corp.]

mike@bambi.UUCP (Michael Caplinger) (07/19/85)

Klattu did "Calling Occupants..." initially, I think, but it was later
popularized by The Carpenters.  (By the way, the Klattu album it
appears on also has "Little Neutrino", the only song supposedly
sung by a subatomic particle in music history, I bet...)

	- Mike

asente@Cascade.ARPA (07/20/85)

In article <910@druxo.UUCP> knf@druxo.UUCP (FricklasK) writes:
>A couple of other sci-fi related songs are:
...
>  A song about video games on a recent Lou Reed album.

Saying "Red Joystick" is about video games is like saying "Little Red
Corvette" is about cars.
(Apologies for disillusioning those who think that "Little Red Corvette"
really IS about cars.)

	-paul asente
	    asente@Cascade.ARPA		decwrl!Glacier!Cascade!asente

tynor@gitpyr.UUCP (Steve Tynor) (07/21/85)

In article <281@ttrdc.UUCP> levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) writes:
>There's the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" from a few
>years back... anyone remember the artist?  (It wasn't popular for very
>long.)
>
The band was called Klaatu (from the movie 'The Day The Earth Stood Still').
They wrote some pretty strange (though, perhaps over-produced) music. I
thought for a while I was hearing re-formed Beatles.

Check out Klaatu - Klaatu (has 'Calling Occupants')
      and Klaatu - Hope

Also, the Carpenters recorded 'Calling Occupants'.  Not nearly as interesting.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.   
                     
    Steve Tynor
    Georgia Instutute of Technology

 ...{akgua, allegra, amd, harpo, hplabs,
     ihnp4, masscomp, ut-ngp, rlgvax, sb1,
     uf-cgrl, unmvax, ut-sally}  !gatech!gitpyr!tynor

-- 
Steve Tynor
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,masscomp,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!tynor

allynh@ucbvax.ARPA (Allyn Hardyck) (07/23/85)

In article <304@Cascade.ARPA> asente@Cascade.UUCP (Paul Asente) writes:
>>A couple of other sci-fi related songs are:
>...
>>  A song about video games on a recent Lou Reed album.
>
>Saying "Red Joystick" is about video games is like saying "Little Red
>Corvette" is about cars.

I think he was referring to "Down At The Arcade".

knf@druxo.UUCP (FricklasK) (07/24/85)

The band is 'Klaatu' not 'Klattu'.

Another band with lots of sci-fi music is 'Amon Duul' and 'Amon Duul II'.

'Children of the Sun' is by Billy Thorper.

   '`'`'
   Ken
   '`'`

knf@druxo.UUCP (FricklasK) (07/24/85)

Sorry, I was just going on a dim recollection:
'Red Joystick' is definitely NOT about video games,
any more than 'Ten Inch Record' is about a girl who likes
to listen to the blues...

   '`'
   Ken
   '`'

nancy@MIT-HTVAX.ARPA (07/24/85)

From: nancy@MIT-HTVAX.ARPA


    From: ttrdc!levy@topaz.arpa (Daniel R. Levy)

    There's the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" from a
    few years back... anyone remember the artist?  (It wasn't popular
    for very long.)

The pop version of the song was done by the Carpenters, however the
original was done by a group called Klaatu.  They've done about 4
albums, mostly filled with combinations of SF, fantasy, and off the
wall themes.  Their first album (the one with Calling Occupants on it)
was heavily SF, but some of the lyrics would be objectionable to the
very pure of heart.  If anyone wants more info on them, send me
private mail.

	-Nancy <nancy@mit-htvax.arpa>

jeand@ihlpg.UUCP (AMBAR) (07/25/85)

> There's the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" from a few
> years back... anyone remember the artist?  (It wasn't popular for very
> long.)

How about the song with the refrain
	
	...A lesson to be learned
	Traveling twice the speed of sound
	It's easy to get burned.

Or has this already been mentioned?  (I'm not sure that I would recognize
the title.)
-- 
					AMBAR
                    	{the known universe}!ihnp4!ihlpg!jeand

"To those who love it is given to hear
 Music too high for the human ear." 	--Bruce Cockburn

jcjeff@ihlpg.UUCP (Richard Jeffreys) (07/25/85)

> There's the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" from a few
> years back... anyone remember the artist?  (It wasn't popular for very
> long.)
>		Daniel R. Levy

"Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" was recorded by the Carpenters.

The song was taken up by some orginization (World Peace?) as their "anthem"
and as such the track was "beamed" into outer-space as a goodwill message to
any aliens that may be listening. As far as I know, the song is still being
"beamed" into outer-space.

I only hope any aliens who hear it like Karen Carpenters voice, otherwise we
could be in for trouble :-)

-- 
 [ I bought a ticket to the world, 
                              But now I've come back again - Spandau Ballet ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
||      From the keys of Richard Jeffreys ( British Citizen Overseas )      ||
||              employed by North American Philips Corporation              ||
||              @ AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, Illinois              ||
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
||  General disclaimer about anything and everything that I may have typed  ||
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bryanf@fluke.UUCP (Bryan Faubion) (07/26/85)

The album you want is called KLAATU or KLAATTU. It's a great album.
I made a tape of the album from a college roomate's disc and I still
listen to it 9 years later. Other songs on the album include:
THE NEUTRINO (not the exact title)
ANUS FROM URANUS
THE MAN WHO WENT TO HELL AND CAME BACK ALIVE (again imprecise)
and others. There are some interesting sound effects on some tunes but
the album is mostly musical. The Carpenters made a version of "Calling 
occupants of interplanetary craft" which received more airplay but is
an inferior version. If I run across this album again I will
definitely buy it. As Joe Bob Briggs says: "check it out"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Bryan Faubion
  John Fluke Mfg. Co.
  P.O. Box C9090    M/S 243F
  Everett WA  98206  
	
  {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utscrgv}!uw-beaver--.
							      |
  {decwrl!sun,decvax!microsof,ucbvax!lbl-csam,allegra,ssc-vax}--> !fluke!bryanf

david@infopro.UUCP (David Fiedler) (07/26/85)

Jefferson Airplane fanatics may or may not know that most of the lyrics
from the song "Crown of Creation" were taken from the wonderful
John Wyndham novel "Re-Birth".
-- 
          Dave Fiedler
{harpo,astrovax,whuxcc,clyde}!infopro!dave    People Phone: (201) 989-0570
USMail: InfoPro Systems, 3108 Route 10, Denville, NJ 07834
Caldwell Tower, this is 16 Lima inbound for Runway 4 with information Idiot...

lwb@watdcsu.UUCP (L.W. Borsato [DCS]) (07/26/85)

> The album you want is called KLAATU or KLAATTU. It's a great album.
> I made a tape of the album from a college roomate's disc and I still
> listen to it 9 years later. Other songs on the album include:
> THE NEUTRINO (not the exact title)
> ANUS FROM URANUS
> THE MAN WHO WENT TO HELL AND CAME BACK ALIVE (again imprecise)
> and others.

	The name of the band is KLAATU, and the album to which you
	are referring is their first, entitled 3:47 EST. They have
	six albums altogether. These are :

	3:47 EST
	Hope
	Sir Army Suit
	Endangered Species
	Magentalane
	Klassic Klaatu  (a sort of greatest hits deal)

	These albums contain a lot of neat tricks. For example, there
	is a song called Silly Boys on Sir Army Suit that is actually
	Anus Of Uranus played backwards. There are some pretty wild 
	sounds too.

	The band was Canadian by the way, three displaced Englishmen
	based in Toronto. When Capitol Records picked them up in the
	States, they hyped them as the Beatles (about 1976). For the
	first three albums, they refused to reveal their identities.
	The albums are definitely worth a listen.


-- 


A memo from the desk of :

                       Larry W. Borsato


Just one step away from total mental collapse ... but fine otherwise.

{decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!watdcsu!lborsato

simpson@lll-crg.ARPA (Rea Simpson) (07/29/85)

In article <954@ihlpg.UUCP> jeand@ihlpg.UUCP (AMBAR) writes:
>> There's the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" from a few
>> years back... anyone remember the artist?  (It wasn't popular for very
>> long.)
>
>How about the song with the refrain
>	
>	...A lesson to be learned
>	Traveling twice the speed of sound
>	It's easy to get burned.
>
>Or has this already been mentioned?  (I'm not sure that I would recognize
>the title.)
>-- 
>					AMBAR
>                    	{the known universe}!ihnp4!ihlpg!jeand
>
This is from a Crosby, Stills and Nash song.  I don't know the title but it's
on the CSN (I think this is the name) album.


____

" Let there be songs to fill the air ... "

____
				Rea Simpson
				Lawrence Livermore Labs L-306
				P.O. Box 808
				Livermore, CA  94550
				(415) 423-0910

{dual, gymble, sun, mordor}!lll-crg!simpson
simpson@lll-crg.ARPA

brewster@crystal.UUCP (07/30/85)

> 
> How about the song with the refrain
> 	
> 	...A lesson to be learned
> 	Traveling twice the speed of sound
> 	It's easy to get burned.
> 
> ...

The Concorde DOES travel at twice the speed of sound at upper altitudes.
I always thought that was what CSN were referring to, since much of the song
is about leaving someone at an airport.  Why is that Science FICTION?

andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers) (07/31/85)

> There's the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" from a few
> years back... anyone remember the artist?  (It wasn't popular for very
> long.)

That was Klaatu, a group of Canadian studio hacks who did a mediocre ripoff
of middle-period Beatles and convinced a sizable number of gullible and/or
desperate fans that they were indeed the Fab Four, reunited under an alias.

This song was covered by (of all people) the Carpenters!  The way I heard it,
the late Karen C. believed she had had an encounter with extraterrestrial
beings and recorded the song as a result.

>How about the song with the refrain
>	
>	...A lesson to be learned
>	Traveling twice the speed of sound
>	It's easy to get burned.
>
>Or has this already been mentioned?  (I'm not sure that I would recognize
>the title.)

That's Crosby, Stills, and Nash; the title is "Just A Song Before I Go".  It's
a Graham Nash song from "CSN".

AWR

Jamie.Zawinski@CMU-CS-SPICE.ARPA (08/02/85)

From: Jamie.Zawinski@CMU-CS-SPICE


Ahhhahhhahhahh

She came from Planet Claire
I knew she came from there
She drove a Plymouth Satellite
Faster than the speed of light

Planet Claire has pink air
All the trees are red
No one ever dies there
No one has a head

Ahhhahhhahhahh

Some say she's from Mars
Or one of the seven stars
That shine after 3:30 in the morning
WELL SHE ISN'T

She came from Planet Claire
She came from Planet Claire
She came from Planet Claire

Ahhhahhhahhahh

               --"Planet Claire," the B52's


	--Jamie [jwz@cmu-cs-spice]
	"'Wierd' is a relative, not absolute, term."