jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) (08/06/85)
It's pretty silly to try to list all of the Science Fiction references in
(rock) music because there are so many of them, but one thing I've often
wondered is, "who started it all?" As far as I call tell it was Pink Floyd
who, as early as 1967 were doing songs like "Astronomy Domine", "Interstellar
Overdrive", "Point Me To The Sky" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The
Sun". These songs aren't Science Fiction stories the way some of the later
Science Fiction songs were; in fact, "Interstellar Overdrive" is an
instrumental, but the titles go well with the "cosmic" sound of the music,
and just the fact that they are Science Fiction references could have paved the
way for later compositions on related subjects.
I think that most of the above Pink Floyd songs pre-date the Rolling Stones'
"2000 Light Years From Home" by at least a couple of months. A friend of mine
claims that when the then-unknown Pink Floyd was recording their first album,
the Rolling Stones were in the next studio and heard what was going on, and
that's what gave them the idea for "2000 Light Years" and some other
spacey-sounding songs that they did around that time.
--
Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto (416) 635-2073
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