stuart@webstr.DEC (07/17/85)
all this talk of sci fi in music prompted me to do a scan of my album
collection for things of like nature, and here's what i came up with ... some
of the examples may be stretching it a bit, but isn't sci fi all about using
your imagination?
rush: 'red barchetta', on _moving_pictures_. based on the story 'a nice
morning drive' by richard s. foster. all about getting in a motorcar
(forbidden in this postulated future), and getting chased by large
what-seem-to-resemble-hovercraft for enjoying the ride. if anyone can
point me to foster's story. i'd really appreciate the tip.
tubes: 'attack of the fifty foot woman', on _completion_backward_principle_.
weren't there a few fifties movies on this topic?
blue oytser cult: 'black blade', on _extraterrestrial_live_. seems to me to
be based on the elric series by michael moorcock.
bowie: _space_oddity_, the whole album. just about everyone's heard of major
tom, no? and let's not forget bowie's film, _the_man_who_fell_to_earth_.
elo: 'mission (a world record', on _a_new_world_record_. watching the days go
by on an insognificant street corner of an insignificant city on an
inconsequential continent on a planet revolving around a sun in the
backwaters of the western spiral arm of a rinky-dink galaxy about as far
away from the action as one can get, and not being able to do a whole lot
about it.
utopia: 'winston smith takes it on the jaw', on _oblivion_. a rendition of the
classic _1984_. in addition, the album _adventures_in_utopia_ is rumored
to actually be the soundtrack to a video production of todd rundgren and
his cohorts on a voyage through space in search of utopia. if anyone can
point me toward *that*, i'll give my eye teeth.
going the other way ... there are lots of stories where music palys an
important role, but there are the only ones i could find on-hand with the
central theme being music.
heinlein: 'searchlight', in _the_past_through_tomorrow_. a blind girl lost on
the moon is found due to her perfect pitch.
saberhagen: 'starsong', in _the_berserker_wars_. a man attempts to retrieve
his wife from a berserker, and almost succeeds bacause his music softens
the human elements the berserker had built into itself.
steve stuart
internet: webstr%stuart.dec@decwrl