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- From: rsk@gsp.org (Rich Kulawiec)
- Newsgroups: rec.music.misc,rec.arts.sf.misc,rec.answers,news.answers
- Subject: SF-references-in-music List
- Keywords: science fiction, sf, music, fantasy
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- Organization: Fire on the Mountain
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- Version: $Id: sf.music,v 1.45 2000/01/21 11:56:01 rsk Exp $
-
- Copyright Rich Kulawiec 1997,2000.
-
- [ January 2000 update: currently being rewritten based on accumulated
- feedback. ]
-
- This is the SF-in-music list. It isn't comprehensive, but
- it does try to cover rock, jazz, folk, classical and electronic music.
- Most of the items listed here fall pretty well into these categories.
- There is also a list of SF-based operas, which was assembled by
- Evelyn C. Leeper and is reproduced here with permission. I've attempted
- to list everybody who helped in the large (and growing) montage at the end.
-
- SF can stand for whatever you'd like it to; science fiction, science fantasy,
- speculative fiction, you pick it. My personal definition is rather broad,
- which, coupled with the copious contributions of those of you on the
- various networks, accounts for the length of this list.
-
- One thing that I've changed since the last revision: I'm now listing
- purely instrumental pieces along with everything else, rather than
- bundling them at the end. This is mostly due to the large number
- of updates that folks have sent in which list instrumental pieces.
- I guess we'll see how it goes.
-
- I'm not really interested in adding filk or novelty records to this list;
- not that I have anything against them, but they would probably be
- more appropriate on another list.
-
- In most cases, I've relied on the contributions that have been sent in;
- in others, I've verified spellings and attributions. Thus, the accuracy
- of the information is uneven; so be it. Corrections (VIA MAIL ONLY)
- are quite welcome, as are additions. I will be maintaining this list
- and re-sending it periodically.
-
- Rich Kulawiec
-
- READ THIS NOTE:
-
- I receive an average of hundreds of mail messages per day. If you
- want to make sure that your update/correction/reply to this
- article comes to my attention when I'm working on the next
- version, please send your message as a reply to this article,
- i.e. make absolutely certain that you preserve the "Subject:"
- line. If you don't do this, your reply may sit in one of my
- numerous mail queues for months or even years.
-
- Please don't send an update more than once -- doing so only
- adds to the queue that I have to process when doing updates.
- If you want to make certain that I've received something, then
- make a note of the information on the "Version:" line above.
- If it has changed when you next see this article, and your
- information isn't included, then I've missed it. Otherwise,
- it's safe to presume I've got it and it queued for inclusion.
-
- The FAQ may be reproduced and propagated via http, ftp, gopher
- or other common Internet protocols by anyone provided that (1)
- it is reproduced in its entirety (2) no fee is charged for access
- to it and (3) it's kept up-to-date. This latter is probably best
- accomplished by mirroring one of the FAQ archives -- that way
- you'll get a new copy everytime I update it, which is
- approximately monthly. (If you do put it up on the web, I'd
- like to know the URL, but that's not a requirement. It just
- would be nice.)
-
- Reproduction of this FAQ on paper, CDROM or other media which
- are sold is permissible only with the express written consent
- of its author.
-
- If you are reading a copy of this document which appears to be
- out-of-date, there are a variety of methods that you can use to
- retrieve the most current method. If you are familiar with access
- to the FAQ archives via mail, ftp, and www, then you already know how.
- If not, then send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the command
- "send usenet/news.answers/news-answers/introduction" in the message,
- and a complete guide to FAQ retrieval will be mailed to you.
-
-
- 10 CC:
- Old Mister Time (from the album "Bloody Tourists") is
- a story about an old man (living in a broken shack on the railway)
- who is collecting junk to build a time-machine;
- eventually he makes it work and disappears.
-
- 1919:
- Has an EP "Machine".
-
- 801
- Track "East of Asteroid". (This track was originally named
- "Mummy was an asteroid, daddy was a small non-stick kitchen utensil".
- The track originally appeared on the "Mainstream" album by Phil Manzanera's
- earlier group Quiet Sun.) See also Eno, Brian.
-
- AC/DC:
- "Who Made Who" from the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack.
-
- Acen:
- Has a song called "Trip II the Moon (The Darkside)".
-
- Adam Ant:
- "Ants Invasion" (elsewhere reported as "Forbidden Zone")
- from "Kings of the Wild Frontier" is about the invasion of the earth by ants.
-
- Adolphson & Falk:
- This Swedish band had a hit with "Control is Flashing Blue", a song
- about how computers/sensors say everything is okay, but something
- is crawling in the shadows. Most of their albums have a very dominant
- SF theme. One example is 'Med Rymden I Blodet' (With Space In The Blood).
- (In the same sense that one might say that a family with a seafaring
- tradition "has the sea in their blood").
-
- After the Fire:
- "Suspended Animation" is either about weightlessness or genuine
- suspended animation, and "Starflight" describes interstellar flight.
-
- Alan Parsons Project:
- Albums "I, Robot" (but not based on Asimov) and "Tales of Mystery and
- Imagination (Poe). The title track from "Ammonia Avenue" is about a
- world destroyed by pollution. "Eye in the Sky" has the title track "Sirius". "Eye in the Sky" has the title track "Sirius".
-
- Alarm, The:
- "The Stand" -- about Stephen King's "The Stand".
-
- Alice Cooper:
- On "School's Out", the words "Klaatu barada nikto" occur in background
- vocals near the end of "My Stars". The album "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell"
- is a fantasy. "Clones (We're All)" appears on "Alice Cooper '80: Flush
- the Fashion"; it's about a collection of clones who revel against their
- situation. He also refers to "the twilight zone" in "The Quiet Room"
- from "From the Inside" and in "Wish You Were Here" from "...Goes to Hell".
- Also, check out "BB on Mars" from "Pretties for You".
- Finally, "No Baloney Homo Sapiens" from "Zipper Catches Skin" is about
- a human challenege to potential marauding aliens.
-
- Alien:
- Early '80's post-disco group whose album "Sons of the Universe" has SF
- themes running all through it.
-
- Alexander, Heather:
- Album "Wanderlust".
-
- Alphaville:
- The album "Afternoons in Utopia" include tracks such as "Afternoons
- in Utopia", "20th Century" and "Lady Bright" (which contains an old
- rhyming couplet about generally relativity). See also "For a Million"
- of "Breathtaking Blue", with its reference to dancing under an alien sun.
-
- Ambrosia:
- "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" is from the 53rd Calypso of Bokonon from
- Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut. Also "Time Waits for no One"; both
- are on "Ambrosia", which also contains a reading of Jabberwocky.
- Ambrosia is probably known to most readers for their mid-70's
- hit "Holdin' On to Yesterday".
-
- America:
- "Sandman" refers to Nolan's "Logan's Run."
-
- Bhatia, Amin:
-
- Shawn Bird sent along this great writeup on Amin Bhatia:
-
- Amin now composes film and television scores in Toronto, Canada.
- Interstellar Suite is a soundtrack without a film, but it is easy
- to follow the gist of the story from the song titles. Since 1987
- when the album first came out (1987) it has been used in star shows
- at several planetariums, including the Calgary (Alberta) Planetarium
- and the MacMillan Planetarium in Vancouver, BC. Amin's work tends
- to feature lush, orchestral sounds, all created by synthesizer, and
- he masters all of the 'instruments' himself. He did not use any
- digital samplings of any instruments in Int. Suite. You can hear
- more of Amin's work in movies such as Iron Eagle 2, Cafe Romeo,
- and John Woo's Once a Thief; as well as television shows like
- Ray Bradbury Theatre, Free Willy and Tales of the Cryptkeeper.
- Thankfully, after a decade wait, another album is in production;
- hopefully it won't be more than a couple of years away.
-
- Amon Duul II:
- Some sf-oriented material; German band from the mid-seventies.
- Two of their albums are "Made in Germany" and "Vive La Trance".
-
- Amos, Tori:
- "Tear in Your Hand" contains the line "If you need me,
- me and Neil are hanging out with the Dream King." Neil Gaiman is the
- creator of "Sandman", and is apparently a good friend of Tori's.
- (Side note: The "Sandman" issue "Brief Lives" includes
- some of the lyrics from that song. Tori also wrote the introduction
- to the "Death: High Cost of Living" trade paperback.) And the song
- "Happy Phantom" is about traipsing around the world after one is dead.
- Also see "Space Dog".
-
- Anderson, Ian:
- Vocalist from Jethro Tull. His 1983 LP, "Walk Into Light" contains a
- notable SF-related track, "User Friendly".
-
- Anderson, Jon:
- Vocalist from Yes. Solo album, "Olias of Sunhillow", from 1976.
- "Olympia" from "Animation" seems to discuss a futuristic world;
- "Boundaries" from the same album may be about the aftermath of a future war.
-
- Anderson, Laurie:
- Surrealism & sf-type music. Try "O Superman" and "Language is a
- Virus From Outer Space", which I seem to recall is derived from
- Burroughs (William S., that is). Anderson has released several
- works in collaboration/cooperation with Burroughs:
-
- "You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With"
- (This one is not very easy to find) (Laurie, William, and one other
- artist all contribute sections of this, but there is no tie between
- the sections; more like an anthology than a collaboration in effect.)
-
- "Home Of The Brave" (soundtrack from her movie "Home Of The Brave",
- which included Burroughs in person);
-
- "Sharkey's Night" (the album companion to "Home Of The Brave" movie;
- the movie's -artistic- companion, rather than its soundtrack)
- (Burroughs speaks once or twice)
-
- Her '94 album "Bright Red" featured "Same Time Tomorrow", about machines
- and recorded experience, and the VR sendup "The Puppet Motel".
-
- Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe:
- (With bassist Chris Squire, these are the five core musicians of Yes.)
- The eponymous album includes "Fist of Fire", a song about some sort
- of acension after death, and "Birthright", about British atomic testing
- carried out at Maralinga during the 50's and early 60's, which has
- left many Aboriginal sacred sites and traditional lands uninhabitable.
-
- Android Sisters, The:
- "Songs of Electronic Despair".
-
- Androids of MU:
- A punk band that never got anywhere; their album "Blood Robots"
- includes a track called "Lost in Space".
-
- Ange:
- (French progressive group) "Au-dela du delire" is a time-travel story.
-
- Angel Witch:
- New wave of British heavy metal band. Their first LP "AngelWitch" contains the
- song "Atlantis" (about... you guessed it...) - There are also other songs
- like "White Witch", "Sorcerers" and "Gorgon".
-
- Ant, Adam:
- "Apollo 9" is about a trip to the moon.
-
- Anthrax:
- The album "Among the Living" contains "I Am the Law" (about Judge Dredd,
- the 2000 AD hero) and "Among the Living" (about the antihero of Stephen
- King's "The Stand").
-
- Anvil:
- "Mothra", about the monster from the "Godzilla" movies.
-
- Aphrodite's Child:
- The album "666" is the veritable armageddon waltz; it is a musical
- retelling of the Apocalypse (Book of Revelations). Vangelis was
- in this band back then.
-
- Apocrypha:
- "West World" is presumably about the film.
-
- April Wine:
- A heavy metal band who indulge in fantasy imagery; note "The Whole
- World's Goin' Crazy" and its references to Lewis Caroll. Along
- with Nektar and Pavlov's Dog, cult heroes in the St. Louis area
- thanks to twenty years of airplay on KSHE-FM.
-
- Archer, Tasmin:
- Her first hit, "Sleeping Satellite" (from her album "Great
- Expectations") is a lament for the end of the Apollo programme.
- [ Damn...I thought it was about the end of a love affair! ---Rsk ]
-
- Art of Noise:
- "Paranoimia" features Max Headroom.
-
- Asia:
- "After the War", from "Astra" refers to post-WW III era.
- "Wildest Dreams", from the first album, might also be about a war that
- is yet to happen. "Sole Survivor", also from the first album, seems
- to be in a similar vein.
-
- Atlantics:
- An Australian instrumental band from the early 1960s, had popular singles
- entitled "Moon Man" and "War of the Worlds." The latter is
- amazing for its evocative sound effects.
-
- Atomic Rooster:
- (one of the early heavy metal bands) "Lost in Space". Organ player Vincent Crane
- also was with The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
-
- Automatic Man:
- Two albums of SF-ish mystic stuff; notable track "I.T.D."
- (Interstellar Tracking Device).
-
- Avatar:
- Savatage (already in this list) released a 7" EP under the name Avatar before
- they became Savatage. Two of the three tracks were "City beneath the surface"
- and "Sirens".
-
- B-52's:
- "Planet Claire", and "53 Miles West of Venus" from "Wild Planet".
- The title track from "Cosmic Thing" has aliens shaking their, uh, cosmic thing.
- The song "Topaz" is a depiction of a future Utopian earth.
- Also see the soundtrack to "Earth Girls Are Easy".
-
- B.A.L.L:
- "Little Tex in Trouble" and "Little Tex's Prelude" from "Trouble Doll"
- are about a cowboy who sees his cattle being taken by aliens.
-
- The Bags:
- "September", from the album "Night of the Corn People", is about
- a love affair between astronauts. "L. Frank Baum" is a tribute to the
- Wizard of Oz books.
-
- Ball, Edward:
- Releases under many names, including Teenage Film Stars, The Times and
- The Missing Scientists. Has done several songs with references to "The
- Prisoner" including "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape".
-
- Banks, Tony:
- See "Man of Spells" from "Fugitive".
-
- Barbarella:
- Their album "The Art of Dance" consists only of songs about
- Barbarella and containing samples from the film Barbarella.
-
- Barenaked Ladies:
- Another Canadian Band, with a song called "This is me in Grade 9", with the lines:
- "Some of my friends are crazy and the others are depressed,
- None of them can help me study for my math test.
- I got into the classroom and my knowledge was gone;
- I guess I should have studied 'stead of watching Wrath of Khan."
-
- Batt, Mike:
- His album "Zero Zero" (released 1982, also a music video) features an
- Orwell-like state where a man accidentally falls in love despite the
- fact that emotions are wiped out in that society. Some brain surgery
- takes care of the problem. The story concludes with a female neuro
- surgeon being 'infected' with the emotion of love as well. The album
- "The Hunting of the Snark" (1987) features Batt's interpretation of
- Lewis Carroll's work.
-
- Bauhaus:
- Did a cover of "Ziggy Stardust", and the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead",
- which opens the film "The Hunger" (they perform in it, too). Their lyrics
- are obscure enough so that most of their songs can be taken for SF - or
- anything else, for that matter. They broke up in '83. 3 members became
- Love and Rockets, the other, Peter Murphy, got a solo career.
- The song "Silent Hedges", which appears on the LP "The Sky's Gone Out"
- doesn't seem to make a lot of sense at first -- until you realize that
- the lyrics are a pastiche of phrases from Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World",
- at which point it becomes much clearer.
-
- Be Bop Deluxe:
- Tracks include "Jet Silver And The Dolls Of Venus" (vague reminiscences
- about '50s British SF-comics, also thought to be poking a little fun
- at Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars) and "Life In The Air Age" (a time
- traveller stranded in a Gernsbackian future). Also see
- "The Dangerous Stranger from the Highway to the End of Time" on "Modern Music".
-
- Beatles:
- The "Yellow Submarine" movie and accompanying soundtrack probably deserve
- a mention as an example of an interesting animated fantasy experiment.
- It's also been pointed out that there are a few science fiction
- allusions in the film: during the "When I'm Sixty-Four" sequence,
- they seemed to be getting involved in time-space continuum warps,
- and they talk about "holes", especially the one Ringo kept in his pocket.
-
- Bedford, David:
- Albums include "Star's End"; could this be a reference to Asimov's
- Foundation series ("Star's End", "Tazenda")?
- He also wrote a sort of Rock Opera, "Rigel 9", to text by
- Ursula le Guin. And "The Dark Nebula" to words by Arthur C Clark.
- Another album: "The Odyssey".
-
- The Bee Gees:
- "Edge of the Universe" is a space travel/love song
- which first appeared as a track on the "Main Course" LP in 1975.
- Two years latter was included as part of the "Here at Last .. Live"
- album. The live version was released as a single and was the last
- Top 40 hit for the Bee Gees before their "Saturday Night Fever"
- releases and disco fame.
-
- Beggars Opera:
- "Time Machine" (from the album "Waters Of Change", 1971). A song about
- escaping from nowadays life in a time machine and finding a better place/time.
-
- Belew, Adrian:
- "Phone Call from the Moon", as well as "Looking For a UFO" from "Young
- Lions" - a message of hope that aliens will come and save us
- from destroying ourselves. The song "The Momur" from "Lone Rhinoceros"
- tells the story of a man who's wife turns into a "momur" (a critic);
- probably not really science fiction.
-
- The Beloved:
- British conglomeration group, dreamy synth music. Released album "Conscience":
- "Sweet Harmony", optimistically Utopian; "Outerspace Girl", love separated by
- space (well done, albeit using tired sf metaphors); "Dream On", another of the
- many songs about, well, dreams.
-
- Benatar, Pat:
- "My Clone Sleeps Alone".
-
- The Bevis Frond:
- Lots of SF and fantasy imagery, eg. "The Miskatonic Variations" from
- "The Auntie Winnie Album".
-
- Big Country:
- Some songs have a magical theme, but the most outstanding is "The
- Seer" from the album by the same name, about a woman who foretells the Roman
- invasion of Scotland.
-
- Bjork:
- Former singer for the Sugarcubes. Her '95 album "Post" includes "The
- Modern Things", which suggests that all of today's modern inventions have
- simply been waiting for us, inside a mountain...
-
- Black, Frank:
- Frank Black is Black Francis from the Pixies. Two solo albums, "Frank
- Black" and "Teenager of the Year" with lots of SF references. On the
- first, "Parry the Wind High, Low" which is about a UFO/Trekkies
- convention and alien implants; "Places Named After Numbers" references
- black holes; "Old Black Dawning" talks about space colonization.. On the
- second, "Whatever Happened to Pong?" is about the classic video game and talks
- about delivering it to H.G. Wells; "Space is Gonna do me Good" is about
- colonization; "Pie in the Sky" is about travelling to the sun.
- "Two Spaces" and "Place Named After Numbers" are about spacewalking
- and teleporting. Also, "Ole Mullholand" may contain Bradbury references,
- and "Calistan" may be about a post-apocalyptic LA (talks about LA becoming
- a tar pit again).
-
- Black Sabbath:
- Sort of. Tends to black magic et. al. See "Paranoid" for
- "Iron Man" (mechanical golem?), "Plant Caravan" and "Electric Funeral"
- (nuclear war?);"Black Sabbath" (1st LP) for demented ravings like
- "Behind the Wall of Sleep" (Lovecraft). "Heaven and Hell" is all fantasy.
- Some speculation that "Iron Man" refers to the comic book hero (paraplegic
- w/special iron alloy suit and powers far beyond...) The song "Computer God",
- from "Dehumanizer" concerns a sinister cyberpunk-like virtual reality.
- "Tyr" (released 1990) features a lot of Norse mythology.
-
- Blake, Tim:
- Electronic New Age. Albums "Crystal Machine", "Blake's New Jerusalem",
- both SF. Was in Hawkwind 1979-80, and Gong 1972-1975.
-
- Blenner, Serge:
- Lotsa instrumental stuff, e.g. "Musique Esthetique", "Equateur",
- "Cosmos", "Liberation". (Maybe he should be listed with the other
- instrumental artists, though for example the titles of the album
- "Cosmos" include for example "Espace", "Dans l'universe", "Les
- Centaures", "La voie celeste"... )
-
- Blind Guardian:
- A German heavy metal band with at least one album containing lots of SF&F
- stuff: "Tales of the Twilight World", released 1990. Tracks include:
- "Traveller in Time" (about Dune), "Lord of the Rings",
- "Tommyknockers", "Altair 4", etc.
-
- Blitzkrieg:
- The song "Blitzkrieg" talks about aliens arriving and some sort of war.
- Song was covered by Metallica.
-
- Blondie:
- SF themes in some songs: e.g. the "Man from Mars" in "Rapture";
- also "Dragonfly" from "The Hunter", which is a half-spoken half-sung
- description of a race between spaceships that uses a collage of
- sf buzzwords. See also "The Attack of the Giant Ants".
- Debbie Harry (lead singer) and Chris Stein (lead guitar) sing in the
- animated SF/fantasy movie _Rock and Rule_ (along with Lou Reed and Iggy Pop).
-
- Blue Oyster Cult:
- Many tracks on many albums with SF themes; "Veteran of the Psychic
- Wars" (which also was on the "Heavy Metal" soundtrack; the narrator
- is Corum, of Moorcock's "Chronicles of Corum") from "Fire of
- Unknown Origin", "E.T.I.", "The Subhuman", "Flaming Telepaths" and most
- of the rest of the LP's "Tyranny and Mutation" and "Secret Treaties".
- Later work includes "Godzilla" (from "Spectres" and "Some Enchanted
- Evening"), which about our favorite Tokyo-bashing reptile; "Monsters"
- (from "Cultosaurus Erectus"), which is about a small group of people
- who escape a ravaged Earth but wind up battling each other over one of
- the women; "Black Blade" (from "Cultosaurus Erectus" and "E.T. Live",
- a song done with Michael Moorcock; the nararator is Elric, from
- his Elric saga) "Nosferatu" (from "Spectres"), which is a
- retelling of the Dracula story; "Vengeance (The Pact)" (from "Fire
- of Unknown Origin), which retells the "Taarna" segment from the movie
- "Heavy Metal"; and "Sole Survivor" (also from "Fire..."), tells the
- story of the last man alive on earth, who runs away when aliens come to
- rescue him. The LP "Imaginos" tells the story of a sorcerer attempting
- to release the demonic other-worldly beings called "Les Invisibles".
- "The Great Sun Jester" from "Mirrors" is based on the novel
- "The Fireclown" by Michael Moorcock (also released as "The Winds
- of Limbo"). "Joan Crawford" from "Fire..." might be SF depending
- on how you feel about wire hangers. Incidentally, a couple of
- Karl Edward Wagner's "Kane" series contain direct references to
- the BOC song "Astronomy" (from "Secret Treaties"); in particular,
- there's a chapter entitled "On the Origin of Storms". "Take Me Away"
- (from "The Revolution by Night") is about a guy who wants to go visit aliens.
-
- Boiled in Lead:
- Minneapolis-based folk-rock-world outfit. They record some
- folk/fantasy-sounding numbers. Their latest album, Antler Dance,
- includes some songs co-written by SF author Steven Brust (or is it Stephen?).
- There's also a "soundtrack" that they've released which is for
- the Steven Brust/Megan Lindholm novel "The Gypsy".
-
- Boney M.:
- "Night Flight to Venus" (title track of LP), and "Steppenwolf",
- a werewolf story, on the same LP.
-
- Bone, Richard:
- Early 80's synth-pop musician, has an LP called "Brave Tales" which
- contains songs like "Prelude to Mothra", "Alien Girl" and "Mutant Wisdom".
-
- Bonzo Dog DooDah Band:
- "Urban Spaceman" from "Tadpoles" and "There's a Monster Coming" from "Gorilla".
-
- Boom Crash Opera:
- Australian band whose song "The Best Thing" from "Look! Listen!"
- describes an astronaut's experiences in flight.
-
- Bored Games:
- Song "Joe 90". Classic Kiwi underground pop.
- This schoolboy band was one of the early proponents of the "Dunedin Sound"
- associated with the Flying Nun label, and band members went on to play
- in virtually every important Dunedin band, including the Chills,
- the Verlaines, the Clean, Straightjacket Fits etc.
-
- Boston:
- The LP "Third Stage" has a track emulating a spaceship take-off.
- (All three of their album covers tell the story of the Guitar Spaceship
- and its quest for a new home.)
-
- Bow Wow Wow:
- Punk. "I want my baby on Mars", "Giant sized baby thing!".
-
- Bowie, David:
- "Space Oddity" (most emphatically NOT "Major Tom") discusses eerie
- experiences in orbit. Also has a film, "The Man who Fell to Earth".
- See also "Diamond Dogs" (mutated life on earth after the bomb)
- and "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", about a rock band on
- an earth with five years left; this LP also contains "Five Years"
- and "Starman". From "Hunky Dory", see "Life on Mars", and from "Station
- to Station", see "TVC15". See also "Ashes to Ashes", "Memory of a
- Free Festival", and "1984". Also, "Cat People (Putting out the Fire)"
- from "Let's Dance", the title song to the movie. His collaboration
- with the Sales Brothers (Tin Machine), released an album with some
- SF-oriented tracks, such as "Tin Machine", "Video Crime", and "I Can't Read".
-
- --- Some commentary on Bowie...
-
- Bowie, David:
- A lot of his albums contain at least a few sf songs. The major ones are:
- "Space Oddity", the title track (often mistakenly referred to as "Major Tom")
- was apparently played on the BBC broadcast of Neil Armstrong's moon walk;
- "The Man Who Sold the World"; "Hunky Dory" which contains 'Life on Mars';
- "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", the first
- side has sf songs, the second is about a rock band whose lead singer self-
- destructs (presumably the band which sang the first side); "AladdinSane";
- "Diamond Dogs", a sort of Orwellian '1984' album which contains the song
- '1984' and other songs about big brother; "Heroes", "Scary Monsters (and
- super creeps)" which contains the title track and 'Ashes to Ashes', a
- followup to 'Space Oddity'. Also, 'Cat People (Putting out the Fire)'
- (tenuosly sf) from "Let's Dance", the title song to the movie of the same
- name. "Tonight" contains a song, 'Loving the Alien" and his latest
- album, "Never Let Me Down", has another. (But "Loving the Alien" is
- apparently addressed to the Christians and Moslems meeting each other
- at the time of the Crusades, and is a plea for understanding.)
- "Station to Station" was originally written, but not used, as the soundtrack to one
- of his films, "The Man who Fell to Earth", a classic about an alien stranded on earth.
- Bowie has done a couple of other sf films, "The Hunger", about vampires, and
- "Labyrinth", where he plays the goblin king who has kidnapped a young girl's baby
- brother after she brattishly announces, "I wish the goblins would take him away!"
-
- -- Scott Butler
- ---
-
- Note that "Diamond Dogs" started as a "1984" project, but the Orwell Estate
- denied permission, so the project mutated into "...Dogs".
-
- Bragg, Billy:
- His song "New England" (covered by Kirsty MacCol) talks about wishing
- on falling stars...except they're satellites.
-
- Breeders:
- "Metal Man" about a guy living at 2000 degrees.
-
- Brickell, Edie and the New Bohemians:
- The title track from "Ghost of a Dog" is, uh, well, about the ghost of a dog.
-
- Brightman, Sarah
- "I Lost my Heart to a Starship Trooper", "Love In A U.F.O.", and
- "The Love Crusader" (not quite sf, but has many snips of supposed
- intergalactic radio conversations, etc.) and "Lost in Space"
- are all from a 1979 album.
-
- Broderna Brothers:
- Swedish band, with an song "Karlek i rymden" ("Love in Space") about
- the boyfriend of a female astronaut.
-
- Brown, Arthur:
- In the late sixties, "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" had a big hit
- with "Fire". In the early 70's (1970-72), Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come
- released three albums, all on Voiceprint: "Galactic Zoo Dossier",
- "Kingdom Come", and "Journey". There's also a double LP entitled "The Lost Ears"
- which is a "best of" compilation. The track "Time Captives" is from
- "Journey" (a shorter version appears on "The Lost Ears"); it's
- about a group of people who have crashed their timeship.
- In 1993, he recorded a live CD "Order From Chaos (Live 1993)" where the
- medley "Time Captains" contains parts of tracks for all three of these albums.
- Another album "Strangelands" (CD on Reckless Records) contains sessions that
- fill the 1969-1970 gap in A. B.'s recorded career. It does contain a few SF refs.
-
- Brown, Julie:
- "Earth Girls are Easy". :-)
-
- Brownsville Station:
- "The Martian Boogie" was a 1977 single about an alien who learns to
- rock n' roll. The song was sort of a minor cult classic for this
- band in the midwest as they tried to follow-up on their "Smokin' in
- the Boy's Room" success. The single was issued on the Private Stock label.
- (Your editor would like to mention that he saw Brownsville Station and
- Styx on a double bill in a converted skating rink outside St. Louis around
- 1975 or so...it was an interesting pairing, to say the least. ---Rsk )
-
- Bruford:
- "One of a Kind" includes "Fainting in Coils", with words taken
- from "Alice in Wonderland".
-
- Buckner and Garcia:
- "Hyperspace", "Defender". (These *are* the guys that did
- that awful Pacman song.)
-
- Buffett, Jimmy:
- Yes, parrotheads, he occasionally references SF: "Could you beam me
- somewhere Mr. Scott" from "Boat Drinks", "Phasers on stun" from "When
- Salome Plays the Drums", "Stanley Kubrick, and his buddy HAL,
- now don't look that abstract" and "Captain's log, stardate, 2000 and somethin"
- from "Fruitcakes".
-
- Buggles, The:
- The LP "Age of Plastic" contains many SF themes;for instance, the title
- song has the lines "They send the Heart Police to put you under
- cardiac arrest" (1984 meets Harlan Ellison's Ticktockman?) Also "I Love
- You, Miss Robot". See also "Johnny on the Monorail". See also
- "Adventures in Modern Recording", with SF tracks such as "Vermillion Sands",
- "Inner City", "Rainbow Warrior", and maybe "On TV".
- For trivia fans: "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first video shown
- on MTV.
-
- Bunnydrums:
- "PKD", for Phillip K. Dick.
-
- Burnett, T-Bone:
- "We Are Humans From Earth" from the soundtrack of "Until the End of
- the World".
-
- William S. Burroughs:
- In addition to the spoken-word album "Dead City Radio", he collaborated
- with the Disposable Heroes Of Hip-Hoprisy on "Spare Ass Annie" and wrote
- the libretto to Robert Wilson & Tom Waits' opera "The Black Rider". The
- "Black Rider" CD consists of songs based on the opera; Burroughs sings on
- "'Tain't No Sin". Did a version of "Words Of Advice" with Material on
- their "Hallucination Engine" CD. See also Laurie Anderson.
-
- Bush, Kate:
- "Breathing", about breathing the fallout following a nuclear blast, (supposed
- to be sung by an unborn child) is from "Never For Ever", and "Experiment IV"
- from "The Whole Story" about designing a sound that can kill.
- "Cloudbusting" is about a boy (played by Kate in the video) whose father
- builds a rain-making machine and is kidnapped by the government.
-
- (This song was inspired by Peter Reich's "The Book of Dreams".
- The lines "I hid my Yo-yo/In the garden/
- what made it special/made it dangerous"
- is a reference to the fact that the rainmaking energy was inhibited
- by radiation, so Peter's father made him throw away his yo-yo.
- Peter buried it in the garden instead. -- Theo O'Neal)
-
- (Peter Reich's father, Wilhelm Reich, was actually a 'scientist'
- (regard the quotes) who did research in 'orgone energy'. Don't ask
- me seriously what 'orgone energy' should be, but one of it's
- abilities should have been to make it rain. The story
- behind that is not sci-fi at all, it is true life (more or less).
- Wilhelm Reich was actually arrested by the government and died in
- prison, something the nine (or so) year old Peter couldn't comprehend
- as a child. Peter later wrote 'a book of dreams' to cope with that
- experience. -- Ulrich Grepel )
-
- See also "Hammer Horror" from "Lionheart", a throwback to the
- horror films of the 60's. "Deeper Understanding" from "The Sensual
- World" is about computer addiction. "Hello Earth" from "Hounds of Love"
- refers to an astronaut viewing the earth from his spaceship.
- KB also covered Elton John's "Rocket Man".
-
- Byrds, The:
- "Hey Mr. Spaceman" from "The Fifth Dimension". "Space Odyssey"
- from "Notorious Byrd Brothers" is a retelling of Clarke's "The Sentinel".
-
- A comment on "Space Odyssey" from Norm Woodward:
-
- According to their introduction to the song at a concert I
- attended, the reason the song was about "the Sentinel", ie, a
- pyramid, was that there was a rumor that Stan Kuprick was still
- searching for material for the soundtrack for his long awaited
- epic, and they thought they had a chance to be in it. Since
- the only thing known about the project was that it was based on
- the short story, the Byrds tried to stretch the lyrics to fit
- the gig. Obviously, they were not in the final mix.
-
- Byrne, David:
- "In the Future", from the "Civil Wars" soundtrack is an
- often-contradictory list how we will be in the future.
-
- Camel:
- Lots of fantasy stuff on various albums, notably "Mirage", which
- contains the song "White Rider" (about Gandalf). "Moonmadness" contains
- the instrumental "Lunar Sea". See also "Echoes" from "Breathless".
-
- Campbell, Ian:
- Wrote "The Sun is Burning," about nuclear war. Recorded by Californian
- singer/songwriter Kate Wolf (1942-1986) in 1984 and included on "Out of
- the Darkness" (various artists) and her "Gold in California" 2-CD
- retrospective.
-
- Camper Van Beethoven:
- "The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon" from "Telephone Free Landslide
- Victory", 1985; cover of Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" from self-titled
- album, 1986. Other songs include some "fantastic" imagery. The title of
- their album "II & III" is an oblique reference to R.A. Wilson's
- "Illuminatus!" books (they also did the theme for a TV show Wilson did,
- apparently; it appears on their album "Key Lime Pie").
-
- Can:
- First album "Monster Movie", 1969; occasional spacey themes in songs
- ("Cascade Waltz" on "Flow Motion" mentions a spaceship and an astronaut).
-
- Candlemass:
- A Swedish heavy metal band - pretty much slow heavy doom metal
- with fantasy themes. LP's include "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", "Nightfall",
- "Ancient Dreams" and "Tales of Creation". This last often suggests
- Michael Moorcock characters, particularly Corum.
-
- Canto, Bel:
- "Picnic on the Moon" from the album "Birds of Passage".
- It's about a girl (the singer) who finds an old diary and reads an old story
- she dreamed up about taking a Baron's old balloon (hot-air, I assume),
- flying to the moon, and, upon arrival, well, having a picnic...
-
- Captain Beefheart:
- "Big Eyed Beans from Venus" and "The Floppy Boot Stomp". The latter is
- that tale of a farmer who accidentally summons the devil while squaredancing.
-
- Captain Beyond:
- "Astral Lady", "Voyagers From Distant Planets", etc.
-
- Caravan:
- "Cthulhu" from "Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night".
-
- Carlos, Wendy (Walter):
- The soundtrack recordings to "A Clockwork Orange" and "Tron".
-
- Carpenters:
- See "Klaatu".
-
- Jim Carrol Band:
- The song "Nothing is True" is as Robert Anton Wilson as you can get.
-
- Cassandra Complex:
- Their album "Satan, Bugs Bunny and Me..." contains "E*O*D", a track
- which discusses Cthulhu. The album "Cyberpunx" contains some tracks
- with cyberpunkish dark visions of the future, e.g. "Nightfall (over the EC)".
-
- Caswell and Carnahan:
- Do a song called "Borderlands" which is about a man who
- goes back in time to meet a woman but must return to his own time.
- [There is a novel called The House On The Borderland by William Hodgeson(?)
- Among its (sub)plots there is a man who goes back (or maybe sideways) in
- time to meet a woman but must return to his own time.]
-
- Cat:
- "Tongue Tied", from the British TV-Series "Red Dwarf". (If you don't
- understand why this is listed under "Cat", then (a) watch any one
- episode of the series and (b) try to comprehend the size of Cat's ego. :-) )
-
-
- Cheap Trick:
- "Dream Police" (title track).
-
- Chicago:
- Last side of Chicago III is a suite named "Elegy" about ecodeath and final war.
-
- ----Some commentary on this from Ed Eastridge:
-
- The side as a whole is named Elegy. Elegy's principal writer was trombonist
- James Pankow. It is about humans killing themselves off in the name of
- progress. Another song off of this album which is in a similar vein is
- "Mother" describing the Raping of the Earth by Highways and other man-made
- occurences. Anyway, If I can rememeber correctly Elegy consists of five
- movements, the names As I can recall are:
-
- "When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow" (a small poem)
- "Canon" (Brass quartet type of feel,interesting harmonies.)
- "Once Upon a Time"(Soft Jazz ballad featuring Flute and Trombone.)
- "Progress?" (Dissonant and forboding. Uses taped sounds of jackhammers,
- traffic, etc. Most interesting is the use of the toilet...:))
- "The Approaching Storm" (Normal Jazz type number like mid-60's "cool" sound)
- "Man vs Man = The End" (Contemporary almost 12-tonal in sound, definitely not
- like "normal" Chicago)
-
- All in all, this is a good piece. The songs are cohesive, transitions are
- smooth and subtle. (If you couldn't tell by now, yes, I am a Chicago freak).
- --- Ed Eastridge
- ----
-
- The Church:
- Their last three albums ("Priest = Aura", "Gold Afternoon Fix", and
- "Starfish") contain a good deal of SF material, such as:
- "Pharaoh", "City", "Terra Nova Cain", "Priest = Aura", and "Dome".
-
- Clannad:
- New-age Celtic-folk stuff; numerous songs about druids, Stonehenge,
- that sort of thing. Also did much of the music for the British
- "Robin Hood" TV show, as well as the film "Last of the Mohicans".
- Borderline for inclusion here, since they tend more toward New Age
- stuff rather than sf&f.
-
- Clark, Dave:
- "Time", a musical with a lot of notable musicians and singers (e.g.
- Freddy Mercury, Leo Sayer, Dionne Warwick, John Christie...) about the
- people of the Earth put on trial --- are they worthy to continue their
- existence?
-
- Clarke, Stanley:
- Jazz bassist, who spent considerable time with Chick Corea and Al Dimeola
- in "Return to Forever". His self-titled solo release (mostly instrumental)
- has a vocal track called "Vulcan Princess", about a woman he has loved
- "through eternity". This track also appears on a recently released CD
- of his live performances, "Stanley Clarke Live 1975-1976". "Modern Man"
- is about an invasion or Mars, some similar space-opera theme.
-
- Clash, the:
- A band pretty much centered in the (then) Now, but had a couple songs
- taking place in the future. "Groovy Times" (from "Black Market Clash")
- is roughly about a fascist state, apparently sparked by the sight of
- chain-link fences around a soccer stadium. "London Calling" (from the
- LP of the same name) is about the apocalypse, a possibility which is
- treated rather ambivalently. "Atom Tan" (from "Combat Rock") is about
- the apocalypse again, from sort of a Beat-Marxist angle.
-
- Clark, Anne:
- On her "Changing Places" album, "Sleeper in Metropolis" deals
- with loss of all human contact in a future (or present) world;
- "Poem for a Nuclear Romance" is about what will happen to two
- lovers in a nuclear war.
-
- Clarke, Allan:
- Formerly of the Hollies. The song "The Survivor" is specifically
- about reincarnation. "Driving the Doomsday Cars" on this album is also
- sf-oriented, while the title track refers to comic-book heroes, and "The
- Only Ones" refers to flying away from Earth to start a new life.
-
-
- Clinton, George (and Parliament/Funkadelic):
- Parliament released a series of albums during the seventies with overt
- SF themes: "The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein", "Mothership Connection",
- and others. Clinton had a solo hit with "Atomic Dog" in the mid-80's.
- All this music ranges from slow-burn funk to beat-heavy disco.
- (Their influence is still felt in a number of places -- e.g. one
- of the sequences in the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" film.)
-
- Clouds:
- Australian pop music quartet. Have a song "Fox's Wedding" inspired by
- a Japanese fairy tale. Their debut album "Penny Century" is named after
- the character in Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez' comic book "Love and Rockets".
-
- Colourbox:
- A track from their "Colourbox" LP entitled "Just Give "em Whiskey." has
- quotes from "Prisoner", "2001" and "West World" on it.
-
- Comsat Angels:
- Named after a J.G. Ballard short of the same name.
-
- Concrete Blonde:
- The entire album "Bloodletting" is about vampires, a la Anne Rice's
- vampire novels.
-
- Cooder, Ry:
- "UFO has Landed in the Ghetto" from "The Slide Area". Cooder is
- extremely well-regarded among other professional guitar players,
- and is known responsible (with Steve Vai) for the music in the
- film "Crossroads".
-
- Consolidated:
- Rap group, used a sample from They Live!. It's part of the speech that
- someone (the President?) is holding on TV. Part of it is "We have faith in our
- leaders".
-
- Cope, Julian:
- Lots of fantasy-new age stuff, but specifically on his album
- "Jehovakill" is a Philip K. Dick quote in the liner. "Upwards at 45
- Degrees" talks about alien abduction/harvesting humans?, two SF-ish
- instrumentals: "Necropolis" and "The Subtle Energies Commission" as
- well as "The Tower" about a boy/man who awakens in a land of hostile
- warrior women. His album "My Nation Underground" has a liner quote
- from the comic book "Watchmen" as well as a song about armageddon "5
- O'Clock World." His album "Autogeddon" is mostly about how cars are
- bad for the Earth, and includes the SF joyride "Starcar."
-
-
- Costello, Elvis:
- "Tokyo Storm Warning" from "Blood and Chocolate"; mentions the cheap
- sets found in some Japanese horror/sf movies. (In the sleeve notes to
- "Girls Girls Girls" (a retrospective collection of Elvis Costello + The
- Attractions songs) Costello says that Tokyo Storm Warning is influenced
- by "brutal SF stories", and mentions Philip K Dick as one of the
- influences.) "Waiting for the End of the World" from "My Aim Is True",
- (self explanatory) and "Night Rally" (fascist rally/totalitarian government)
- "Hurry Down Doomsday (the Bugs Are Taking Over)" from "Mighty Like a
- Rose". "Satellite" from the album _Spike_ is based on concepts from
- "Radio Free Albemuth" by Philip K. Dick. "My Science-Fiction Twin" from
- "Brutal Youth" mentions a lot of SF cliches, including "The Attack
- of the Fifty-Foot Woman".
-
- Crack the Sky:
- "Robots for Ronnie" off "Crack the Sky" (not about Ronnie Reagan, but
- could easily be adapted!). "Invaders from Mars" off "Animal Notes"
- (the martians are coming for our hero, but he doesn't care, 'cause
- it's probably better over there!). "Nuclear Apathy" off "Safety in
- Numbers" discusses how the situation looks to those on the Moon.
-
- Cracker:
- Led by David Lowery, formerly of Camper Van Beethoven.
- "Nostalgia" (from "Kerosene Hat", 1993) is about a stranded cosmonaut,
- also mentioned on the single "Low", from the same album.
-
- Cramps:
- Contributed a song to the soundtrack of "Return of the Living Dead",
- called "Surfin' Dead" (about zombies and the like, not
- to mention numerous uses of 50's-60's era hot-rod lingo.)
-
- Crash Test Dummies:
- A Canadian group. "Superman Song" from their first album, "The Ghosts that
- Haunt Me", is about the man of steel himself, comparing his lifestyle to that
- of Tarzan.
-
- The Cravats:
- A number of albums contain SF references. For example the album "The
- Bushes Scream While My Daddy Prunes" uses recordings from TV's "The
- Twilight Zone" and "The Prisoner" plus the film "Them!". The title
- track ends with the narrator's father being eaten by his roses. The
- Cravats later turned into The Very Things and released the album
- "Motortown!", which contains the track "The Land of the Giants" about
- the TV series.
-
- Cream:
- (Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce.)
- "Tales of Brave Ulysses" from "Disraeli Gears" is *not* about the
- well-known mythological character; it's about Eric Clapton's holiday
- in Greece. "Those Were the Days" from "Wheels of Fire" is about Atlantis.
-
- The Creatures:
- "Pluto Drive" from "Boomerang".
-
- Creedence Clearwater Revival:
- "It Come Out of the Sky".
-
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young:
- "Wooden Ships" is a resigned tale of survival in a post-nuclear world.
- (Written by Crosby, Stills, and Kantner; see "Jefferson Airplane".)
- "Teach Your Children" is part of the soundtrack to "Silent Running".
-
- The Cure:
- On the "Faith" LP there is a track called "The Drowning Man" based on
- chapter 75 in 'Gormenghast' by Mervyn Peake describing the death of Fuschia.
-
- Dalek I Love You (aka Dalek I):
- Who are these folks?
-
- (As always, somebody has the answer!) Chris Oxford writes:
-
- I also have a litle information on the "Dalek I (Love You)" Band,
- all of which comes from the December 1983 edition of the
- now defunct magazine "Electronic Soundmaker and Computer Music".
-
- The band was formed in Liverpool, England in 1979. Their first
- album, "Compass Kum'Pas", was released in 1980, and their second,
- "Ambition", in 1983. The single "Holiday in Disneyland" was also
- released in 1983.
-
- Members of the band have included:
- founder Alan Gill on guitars, vocals and rhythm programming;
- Gordon Hon, keyboard & vocals;
- Kenny Peers, keyboards & vocals.
-
- The name of the band is apparently a compromise between two
- suggested names: "Dalek" and "Darling I Love You". I am not
- familiar with their music, but seems that the title may be the
- only SF element; unless somebody else knows otherwise.
-
- Incidentally, Alan Gill joined "The Teardrop Explodes" for a while,
- during which time he wrote their hit single "Reward".
-
- The Damned:
- "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" (single + live on "The Black Album")
- deals with a future military state in the UK.
-
- Dandelion Lion:
- Canadian band with a number of recordings, including "Cheap Hooch", which
- has some mythical/fantasy tunes on it including "Windego".
-
- Danse Society:
- On their "Heaven is Waiting" LP is cover of "2000 Light Years from home".
-
- DeBurgh, Chris:
- "The Vision", "The Leader", and "What About Me?", a three-song
- series from "Into the Light" discusses the Revelation, which may or
- may not be a fantasy, depending on your viewpoint. See "A Spaceman Came
- Travelling" and "The Tower" from "Spanish Train", "The Girl With April
- in Her Eyes" from "Crusader", "Sight and Touch" from "Man on the Line"
- (post-WW3), and "Don't Pay the Ferryman" from "The Getaway".
- Also note "The Devil's Eye" from "Crusader", about the devil taking over the
- world through TV screens, and "Sin City" from "Far Beyond These Castle Walls",
- about the devil tempting people on Earth. Also from the same LP,
- "Windy Night" is about an angel coming to earth to help a soldier die.
- "Where Will We Be Going" from "Power of Ten" mentions "Childhood's End"
- and the Bowman child from 2001, both A.C. Clarke references.
- "Carry On" from "Crusader" has a verse that apparently makes no sense;
- but if read backwards, it says: " Set a course for the stars/destination
- unknown/The universe is calling the world/Towards her last and
- final resting place".
-
- Dead Kennedys:
- Their album "Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death" has
- at least one song which is set in a fascist state-future thing.
- Also their song "Message From Our Sponsor" for the soundtrack of Terminal
- City Ricochet is similar.
-
- Dead Milkmen:
- Have done a number of SF songs, including "Right Wing Pigeons" from
- "Big Lizard in my Backyard", and "The Thing That Only Eats Hippies".
- See also "Rocketship" and "Blood Orgy of the Atomic Fern"
- on "Buckey Fellini". Also "Stuart" from "Beezelbubba" is the ranting
- of a trailer park lunatic who is convinced that "the large
- underground homosexual population" of Des Moines is building landing
- strips for gay Martians!
-
- Deep Fix:
- Michael Moorcock's band of the late seventies-produced one album, "The
- New Worlds Fair". A sort of cross between rock and slow square dance.
-
- Deep Purple:
- Occasional forays into SF. "Space Truckin'", from "Machine Head".
- "The Mule", from "Fireball" (Asimov's 'Foundation'?). Also "Demon's Eye",
- from "Fireball", "King of Dreams" and "Fortuneteller" from "Slaves and Masters",
- and possibly "Child in Time" from "In Rock".
-
- Def Leppard:
- Heavy Metal. First album ("On Through The Night" has a futuristic track,
- "When the Walls Came Tumblin' Down", and a fantasy "Overture".
- The videos for "Foolin'" and "Rock of Ages" from "Pyromania" contain
- fantasy/SF elements, although the lyrics of the songs aren't explicitly
- SF-ish. The LP "Hysteria" includes "Gods of War", "Run Riot",
- "Armageddon it" and "Rocket" which have s-f themes (It sounds so, at least).
- The video for "Women" (also from "Hysteria")is about a s-f comic story
- (called "Def Leppard and the Women of Doom").
-
- Desolation Angels:
- New wave of British heavy metal, their self titled LP contains the
- tracks "Spirit of the deep" and "Valhalla".
-
- Devo:
- "Q: Are we not men? A: We are DEVO" and "Duty Now for the Future" are
- full of SF themes; examples are "Space Junk" and "Jocko Homo". "Freedom
- of Choice" and "New Traditionalists" also have some SF material.
- Also "Shout" has a couple of SF tracks on it: "Are You Experienced?"
- (the Hendrix song) and "4th Dimension". "Mr DNA" from "Duty Now for the
- Future" is apparently about genetic engineering.
-
- Diamond, Neil:
- "Heartlight" is based on "E.T."
-
- Diamond Head:
- New wave of British heavy metal, the LP "Canturbury" is a bit fantasy oriented
- with songs like "The Kingmaker", "Knight of the swords" and "Ishmael".
-
- Die Prinzen (The Princes):
- "Wir sind ueberall" (We are everywhere) "Die Prinzen" are a well-known
- German band who sing mainly acapella. This song is about aliens
- who are among us, take care for us and cherish us.
-
- Dio:
- Most Dio albums are fantasy in tone, i.e. covers & liners. "The Last
- in Line" is about a quest to find a witch. Other songs and videos
- have similar themes.
-
- Divinyls:
- Australian grunge band, did a track called "Science Fiction" on
- their "Desperate" album. It's more about your average sf fan
- "I thought love was science fiction...now that love is my addiction,
- I've thrown all my books away."
-
- DOEF:
- (the OE being O umlaut, DOEF stands for Deutsch-Oestereichische-Freunschaft,
- German-Austrian-Friendship) once wrote a song called 'Codo'. It's about
- a peace and love bringing alien.
-
- Dogzilla:
- Boston funk band with songs "Mr. Toad's WIld Ride", "Scarab of Ra",
- "The Two-Headed Baby Song" and "Giant Squid" as examples from "There's
- Always Something Wrong"/"Allizgod". Fun.
-
- Dolby, Thomas:
- "Golden Age of Wireless" is mostly (if not all) songs about
- science/technology and man. "The Flat Earth" also contains these themes
- to a lesser extent. The album "Aliens Ate My Buick" (an SF title if ever
- I heard one) includes the track "May The Cube Be With You" (first line -
- "Late one night a happy Martian with nothing to do"). See also the
- album "Astronauts and Heretics". And "Blinded By Science" deserves
- a mention, if only for its quaint British institutional imagery in
- the video, and for the catchphrase "SCIENCE!".
-
- Donovan (w/Paul McCartney):
- "Atlantis" (Georg Danzer translated and sang a German version.)
- See also "The Intergalactive Laxative" and the title track
- from "Cosmic Wheels". "Sunshine Superman" probably deserves
- a mention as well.
-
- Dorough, Bob:
- "Little Twelvetoes" is about an alien with 12 toes.
-
- Geoffrey Downes New Dance Orchestra:
- "Plastic Age" on one of their albums (which one, anybody?).
-
- Dr. John:
- "Gris-Gris" and "Gumbo" are heavily into New Orleans voodoo party mysticism.
-
- roids : "Star Peace"
- Released 1979. Droids is/was a French group I know nothing about.
- Alludes to "Star Wars". Instrumental (electronic) music.
-
- Dschinghis Khan:
- A German band with a song called "Kaept'n Nemo" about Jules Vernes'
- undersea captain.
-
- Duran Duran:
- (Note: The group's name comes from a character in the Jane Fonda/Roger Vadim
- film "Barbarella".)
-
- Some comments from Gabrielle de Lioncourt on Duran Duran:
-
- Their first album has "Planet Earth" and "Sound of Thunder" (the
- latter about waiting for the bomb to drop). A B-side, "Faster than
- Light", was also SF. Duran Duran have a very interesting video
- history for SF lovers. The majority of their videos were directed
- by Russel Mulchaey, director of Highlander. Some video plots:
-
- "Night Boat" - zombie horror video
- "Hungry Like The Wolf" - man chases woman who turns into panther.
- "New Moon On Monday" - near future story of peaceful revolt against
- totalitarian regime.
- "Union of the Snake" - man from Earth travels into the world
- beneath ours.
- "View to a Kill" - James Bond fantasy.
-
- "Wild Boys" wasn't a tribute to Barbarella. It was taken from
- their film "Arena", a _very_ surreal story that takes place half
- in the arena where Duran Duran are holding their concert and half
- in the strange underworld below the arena (where Wild Boys takes
- place). The videos by Arcadia, a splinter portion of the band,
- are also surreal and SF-ish.
-
-
- Dylan, Bob:
- "Talkin' World War III Blues". He quotes some Star Trek dialogue (from
- "Mayor of Castlebridge" on "Tight Connection to my Heart".
-
- Earth and Fire:
- A Dutch group from the late 70's to now (I think) with a lot of SF&F
- themes. Albums worth listening to: "Atlantis", "Andromeda Girl", "Gate
- to Infinity" (one side of the latter deals with reincarnation), "Reality
- Fills Fantasy".
-
- Earth, Wind & Fire:
- "Jupiter" from "All 'n All"; the singer is visited by an alien
- who wants to bring love and peace to the world by means of a
- flower from his plant. "Electric Nation" from the "Electric Universe" album
- tells how it won't be so bad to become a country of robots, as long as
- we can still dance. ;-)
-
- Earthling:
- Album 'Radar".
-
- Eat Static:
- Practically everything by Eat Static is ufo-based. First album
- "Abduction", second album "Implant". The track list for the latter
- is: Survivors, Abnormal Interference, Implant, Dzopha Dream, Panspermia,
- Area 51 (Nucleonic mix), Cydonia, Uforic Undulance. Lots of speech
- samples referring to UFO's, aliens, conspiracy theories, etc.
-
- Edelweiss:
- An Austrian band who've recorded a parody of the Star Trek theme entitled
- "Raumschiff Edelweiss" ("Spaceship Edelweiss"); they also have a
- corresponding video.
-
- Electric Light Orchestra:
- "Mission (A World Record)" on "A New World Record". The entire album
- "Time" involves a man from 1981 winding up in the 21st century (or perhaps
- the other way around). The "10538 Overture" is a dystopia set in that year.
- (Although closer examination of the lyrics indicates that "10538" might
- be a person, not a year.)
-
- Elektric Music:
- The Kraftwerk offshoot band's first album "Esperanto" has a song about
- making love to a machine ("Kissing The Machine"). Co-written by and
- features the vocals of OMD's Andy McCluskey.
-
- Elephant's Memory:
- The track "Old Man Willow" is apparently a reference to the sentient
- trees described by Tolkien.
-
- Eloy:
- (German/Swiss electronic progressive rock) See "Ocean", the atlantis
- myth; "Planets","Time to Turn", a two album story of fantasy with a
- twist. (It's about "the rise and fall of the most beautiful planet in
- the universe, Salta".) Also, "Giant" from "Colours" and "Night Riders"
- and "Metromania" from "Metromania", about the high tech near future. The
- LP "Power and the Passion" is based on a story involving a student who
- ingests some of his father's experimental timedrug. He travels back 600
- years and falls in love, gets involved in her father's fight with the
- peasants and eventually finds a wizard to send him back to the future.
- (The name of the band was based on the Eloi race from H. G. Wells'
- "The Time Machine".)
-
- Emerald Web:
- (small obscure west coast duo [flute & synthesizer]) New age material,
- but one album is "Dragon Wings and Wizard Tales", a fantasy story set
- to music.
-
- Emerson, Lake, & Palmer:
- Space battle in "Karn Evil 9" from "Brain Salad Surgery". (Artwork
- by H R Giger, of "Alien" fame.) See also "Tarkus", whose tracks
- seem to loosely correlate with the cover artwork, but which I've
- never been quite able to figure out.
-
- Enigma:
- (yes, the 'project' who had a hit with gregorian choirs): "Out From The Deep".
- A song about an ancient race who returns to make a new beginning and to
- teach mankind of their knowledge.
-
- Eno, Brian:
- Albums: "Apollo" and "On Land"; see also "The Fat Lady of Limbourg"
- from "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy", a bizarre story of
- SF and espionage. See also "Nerve Net".
-
- ----Some commentary on Eno from Tim Day:
-
- Re "Apollo": This is purely instrumental. It was apparently written as
- sountrack for a video documentary of the Apollo missions (bits were
- also used in the film "Static"), but I don't think this qualifies
- it for the main section of the list any more than <random Tangerine Dream track>
-
- "On Land" is also instrumental. #1 of a series entitled "Ambient" (sort of
- intelligent background muzak). It is intended to suggest large open spaces
- (and succeeds very well). But SF ? No way.
-
- Eno's philosophy towards song lyrics seems to be summarized by the first
- track ("Skysaw") on "Another Green World":
- "All the clouds turn to words;
- All the words float in sequence
- And no-one knows what they mean
- Everyone just ignores them"
- Eno's songs generally aim to invoke an atmosphere, mood or emotion.
- Like the music, lyrics are just another tool to serve this purpose; this can
- often be done using particular words or phrases. However, the song they form
- in combination is essentially meaningless (which is why it's so difficult
- to classify any of his stuff as SF !). "The Fat Lady of Limbourg" is
- probably the closest he's come. (Though it really seems to be just about
- bumbling espionage agencies.)
-
- --- Tim Day
- -----
-
- Enya:
- "Aldebaran" is dedicated to Ridley Scott; the liner notes about it read:
-
- "The Red giant star, Aldeberan, found in the constellation of Taurus,
- is the Eye of the bull. From the Arabic, Al Dabaran, it means
- 'the follower' as it 'follows' the Pleiades. This piece portrays
- future Celts passing Aldebaran on their journey to new territories,
- continuing the migratory pattern which was so predominant in their
- early history."
-
- Another track, Tolkien-derived, is "Lothlorien".
- The album "Shepherd Moons" is a sort of reference to moons found in
- the rings of Saturn, which, due to their gravitational influence,
- hold some of the rings in place. (See also Clannad: Enya is the sister of
- the former lead singer, and was part of their early line-up.)
-
- Eon:
- Their album "Void dweller" include several tracks with samples from SF
- and horror movies. For example, "Spice" and "Fear: The Mindkiller"
- have samples from Dune (saw that coming, didn't you?), "Electromagnetic
- Waves" has samples from "Prince of Darkness" and so on.
-
- Erasure:
- Their song "Sweet Sweet Baby" includes samples from the films "Dark Star"
- and "Barbarella".
-
- Erickson, Roky:
- Landmark Texas psychedelic. Used to tour with the backing bands
- Bleib Alien (where Bleib is an anagram for Bible) and then The
- Aliens. "The Evil One" has a track entitled "Creature with the Atom Brain"
- Also see "I Walked with a Zombie" (now you know all the lyrics :-) ).
-
- Etheridge, Melissa:
- Her 1992 release "Never Enough" includes "2001", a rocker with
- semi-cyberpunk lyrics about the near future.
-
- Europe:
- A Swedish pop-slanted hard rock band, which did the song
- "The Final Countdown", about being exiled from Earth.
-
- Eurythmics:
- Did the soundtrack to the recent version of "1984".
-
- FM:
- The album "Black Noise" is entirely SF, and deal with topics such
- as suspended animation; "RocketRoll" from "Surveillance" is about SF Rock.
- Also see "Phasers on Stun".
-
- Fagen, Donald:
- "True Companion", about a lonely starship pilot, appears on the
- soundtrack for "Heavy Metal". (Incidentally, some folks have
- interpreted I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year) to be futuristic;
- but it refers to the optimistic vision held *during* the IGY, 1957.)
- "Tomorrow's Girls" from "Kamakiriad", and, in fact, the entire "Kamakiriad"
- album -- it's an SF-oriented concept album. The action takes place
- at the turn of the century, and the central character drives his brand-new
- steam-driven satellite-navigated vegetable-garden-equipped dream car
- through a futuristic landscape. One of the central character's stops on
- his journey includes an amusement park attraction that lets you relive your
- memories in vivid detail.
-
- Fairport Convention:
- A few fantasy-related songs -- most notably "Tam Lin", the classic
- celtic tale of an encounter with the Queen of Faerie. F.C.'s music
- is mostly based around traditional English folktales. (See also
- Steeleye Span.)
-
- Faith No More:
- The last-minute addition of new singer and lyricist
- Mike Patton before they came out with "The Real Thing" necessitated
- that he write all the songs in about eight days, so he went on sort
- of a scavenger hunt for topics. Among the usual assortment of love
- songs, and some other truely weird topics, "Surprise! You're Dead!"
- is about getting turned into a Vampire. "The Morning After" is about
- a ghost, and is an adaptation of the film Siesta.
-
- The Fall:
- They have a song called "Lay of the Land" which starts with the
- chanting of some "Planet people" from the British TV series
- "Quatermass". "Spectre vs. Rector" on "Dragnet" is a story about
- exorcism/possession- the demon is called Yog Sothoth (from H.P.
- Lovecraft's horror books). "Jaw Bone and the Air-Rifle" on "Hex
- Induction Hour" is about a curse. See also "Elves", "Bug Day".
-
- Falling Joys:
- Australian band; the title trakck from the album "Psychohum" is the
- story of the galaxy being saved by the crew of a spaceship...until
- the lyrics abruptly change direction and start describing a genie.
-
- Farmer, Mylene:
- This French singer has a song "Tristana" which tells the story of that
- beautiful girl ("Schneewitchen" in German) with the seven dwarfs.
-
- Fiona:
- "Nights on Earth", from the soundtrack to "Hearts of Fire",
- features the chorus line "Remember all the nights we spent on earth, long
- before the colonies were planted in the sky".
-
- Firm:
- "Star Trekkin'". This is not the same "Firm" who did "Radioactive",
- i.e. it's not Paul Rodgers and Jimmy Page.
-
- Fink Brothers:
- "Mutants in Mega City One", from 2000AD comic (origin of Judge Dredd).
- America portrayed as three cities under police control.
-
- Fishbone:
- Off their self titled album, "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." stands for
- "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts" and is
- about a government attempt to convince everything that Hiroshima was
- actually caused by Godzilla farting. I kid you not.
- "Party at Ground Zero" from the eponymous album.
-
- Fischer Z (the Z is pronounced the Britisch way, sead with a soft s):
- The title track from their album "Red Skies Over Paradise" is
- about nuclear war in Britain.
-
- The Five Blobs:
- "The Blob".
-
- Five Man Electrical Band:
- (most known for the 60's anthem "Signs") recorded a song (title?) about a werewolf.
-
- The Fixx:
- Much of their first two albums are built around the theme of
- nuclear war. Most notable are "The Strain," "I Live," and "Red Skies" on
- Shuttered Room, and "The Sign of Fire" on Reach the Beach.
- Also, "Driven Out", about environmental disaster, from "Calm Animals".
- (Known for early-80's hit "One Thing Leads to Another".)
-
- Flaming Youth:
- The album "Ark II" is a concept LP about the trials and tribulations of
- a generation ship leaving earth. (Phil Collins was the drummer.)
-
- Flash & the Pan:
- "First and Last" is based on a combination of Olaf Stapledon's
- "Last and First Men" and Arthur C. Clarke's "The Sentinel" or "2001,"
- whichever you prefer. The song "California" is based on the novel
- "Fail-Safe". See also "Atlantis Calling".
-
- Flash Fearless and the Zorg Women, parts 5&6:
- Another weird IGTB type collaboration album from the
- late 70's with some well-known rockers on it.
- Includes "I'm Flash" by Alice Cooper.
-
- Fleck, Bela and the Flecktones:
- Self-titled album includes the two part "Mars Needs Women (Space is a
- Lonely Place/They're here)". "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" includes "Flying
- Saucer Dudes" and a track with the same name as the album. "UFO TOFU"
- has "UFO TOFU", a song with lots of palindromic figures. "Three Flew
- Over the Cuckoo's Nest" includes "Vix 9" (the video for this
- apparently features a computer-animated spaceship called the Vix 9),
- and "Interlude (Return of the Ancient Ones)" which is a solo number by
- Futureman. Speaking of which, one of the Flecktones is called
- "Future Man" and plays a futuristic SynthAxe Drumitar; he's allegedly
- travelled back in time from the year 2050 to play with the Flecktones.
-
- Fleetwood Mac:
- "Green Manalishi". (Judas Priest did an eminently forgettable version.)
- "Rhiannon" is about a Welsh witch.
-
- Flock, The:
- "Dinosaur Swamps" is an early LP. Notable for quality of musicians,
- including Jerry Goodman who later joined the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
-
- Flock of Seagulls:
- British band (circa 1982) very much associated with science fiction.
- Songs with titles like "Man Made", "DNA", "Modern Love is Automatic",
- and "Space Age Love Song". Some suggestions have been made that "I Ran",
- one of their more popular singles, is about a UFO abduction.
-
- Flying Pickets:
- Have an a cappela cover of Bowie's "Space Oddity".
-
- Flying Saucer Attack:
- (named after a Revillos song).
-
- Forbidden Dimension:
- Canadian B-movie garage rock. Have put out two albums, "Sin Gallery" and
- "Somebody Down There Likes Me", as well as numerous singles, full of songs
- about monsters and psychos and what-have-you. Sample titles: "Graveyard
- Line", "Mars Is Heaven", "Tall Dark and Gruesome", "Crawling Eye '95".
-
- Foreigner:
- "Starrider" is a track from their self-titled debut album in which
- the singer is taken to the stars and "sails the celestial ways."
- Reference is made to higher beings with the power to travel between the
- stars and the singer seeks to gain their knowledge to become a Starrider.
- A 3rd generation band, Foreigner followed in the footsteps of Bad Company,
- who in turn followed in the footsteps of Free.
-
- Foxx, John:
- Former lead singer for Ultravox -- slightly harsh electro-pop. Futuristic
- tracks include "20th Century" on the B-Side of the "Burning Car" single.
- Surreal tracks include "He's a Liquid". First solo album "Metamatic"
- is futuristic and minimalistic synth music, including "No-one's Driving"
- and "Underpass"
-
- Frank Chickens:
- "Mothra", based on the movie monster.
-
- Franke, Christopher:
- Former member of Tangerine Dream who wrote the Soundtrack of "Universal
- Solder" (1992) and is now involved with the soundtrack of "Babylon 5".
-
- Frankie Goes To Hollywood:
- Their 1984 "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" album has two tracks with SF'isch
- connotations. The title track is about the Coleridge poem ("In Xanada
- did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure dome decree", if memory serves ---Rsk),
- and 'Two Tribes' is about nuclear war.
-
- The Front's:
- "Violent World" from their self-titled album (as far as I know,
- the only one they ever recorded) - another nuclear holocaust tale.
-
- Front 242:
- Cyberpunk music. On "Official Version", you'll find "W.Y.H.I.W.Y.G.
- (invasion from flying saucers?) "Television Station" (corporate politics
- with a vicious attitude), "Red Team", and "Quite Unusual" (waking up
- to a nuclear war). On "Front by Front", see "Circling Overland"
- (stealth fighters?) "Headhunter v3.0" (headhunter, hired to kidnap
- someone), and "Work 01". Also use a sample from the movie Videodrome
- in one of their songs.
-
- Front Line Assembly:
- An industrial band, their latest album is titled "Tactical Neural Implant"
- and they have a single from that album called "Mindphazer". The video for
- this single has footage from a japanese live-action sci-fi film
- called "GUNHED".
-
- GWAR:
- Mentioned here mostly because these folks are sincerely weird. Its
- members all claim to be from another planet and to have been frozen in
- Antartica for countless years. Their music is heavy metal, and they
- (aided with lots of latex) really look unearthly. Currently they are
- on their 'World Maggot Tour' where they hope to awaken the sleeping
- world maggot from its nest underneath the Pentagon and ride it back
- into outer space.
-
- Gabriel Bondage:
- "Another Trip to Earth" (LP), religious/fantasy mixture.
-
- Gabriel, Peter:
- "Here Comes the Flood", with Robert Fripp, and "Solsbury Hill" are typical
- of his work. "On the Air" from his second album is about running a pirate
- radio transmitter under a totalitarian regime. Many of his other songs deal
- with aspects of science and technology and progress, and their effects
- on people, but many of them are metaphorical and interpretations vary.
- See also Genesis.
-
- Game Theory:
- "One More for Saint Michael" on the album "Lolita Nation" includes
- references to Captain Jim, the Prime Directive, T'Pau, etc. "Nine Lives
- to Rigel 5" from "Distortion" and "Regenisraen" from "Big Shot Chronicle"
- also have SF themes. Finally, "Room for One More Honey" from "Two
- Steps From the Middle Ages" is based on an old episode of "The Twilight Zone":
- A woman has a dream in which she meets this man at the entrance to a
- morgue. He smiles and says to her, "room for one more, honey!" Next
- day, she's about to board a plane when the guy boarding people says to
- her, in the same voice, "room for one more, honey." Needless to say,
- she freaks--doesn't get on the plane, which (of course) crashes,
- killing everyone on board.
-
- Gamma Ray:
- This German heavy metal group was formed by Kai Hansen from Helloween.
- The album "Heading for Tomorrow", released 1989/90, has some slight SF
- influences, e.g. in the songs "Spaceeater" and "Heading for Tomorrow".
-
- Ganymed:
- An Austrian (I think) band with several SF type songs, e.g. "Saturn"
- and "Hyperspace".
-
- Gayle, Crystal:
- When she appeared on "The Muppet Show", she sang "We Must Believe
- in Magic", about a voyage to Alpha Centauri. This was also released
- by EMI-Manhattan Records on CD.
-
- J. Geils Band:
- "No Anchovies, Please" frommm "Love Stinks" is about diabolical
- scientists who kidnap a woman and transform her into...
- Also, Peter Wolf (lead singer) did a great "Mars Needs Women".
-
- Geldof, Bob:
- "Thinking Voyager 2 Type Things" (album "The Vegetarians Of Love", 1990)
- One verse of the song is about this interstellar satellite.
-
- General Base:
- "Bidi bidi, do you wanna dance?" and "Mein Gott, es ist voller Sterne!"
- (My god, it's full of stars!) A german techno group. The first song has
- quotes from the 70's SF-movie "Buck Rogers" (you know the little robot
- who says "Bidi bidi bidi"?), the second quotes the movie
- "2010 - the year we make contact".
-
- Genesis:
- "Watcher of the Skies" (from "Foxtrot") could be either a "last man
- on Earth" story or a "alien comes upon a deserted Earth" story;
- some indication that it's from Keats' sonnet "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer".
- "One for the Vine" from "Wind and Wuthering" concerns time travel;
- perhaps "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" (Hello Triffids,
- from "Nursery Cryme"), "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (the entire album) is
- a surreal concept album about opening of a gateway into an
- alternative universe replete with mutants and monsters: The Colony of
- SlipperMen, the Carpet Crawlers, the Lamia [more Keats] and the efforts of the
- anti-hero Rael to rescue his brother and return to his homeworld.
- Also, try the entire "A Trick of the Tail" album (fantasy).
- Oh, and "Get 'em Out by Friday" (from "Foxtrot") which sounds like something
- the BBC should have turned into a Doctor Who plot -- tenants are being kicked
- out of their apartments by their new landlords, who just happen to be the
- directors of Genetic Control, who just happen to have just announced a new
- 'four-foot restriction on humanoid height', thus enabling them to fit twice
- as many people to a building...it's a downbeat retelling of Howard Fast's
- "The Vision of Milty Boil" from "The General Zapped an Angel", which is
- part fantasy, part vicious satire on marketing. See also "Keep it Dark"
- in which visiting aliens persuade the person they contact to remain silent
- about the visit. More stuff: "Am I Very Wrong", "Solitude", "The Knife"
- (--maybe, from "Trespass"), "The Musical Box" (horror, from "Nursery Cryme").
- According to the story told in 1970s concerts (and apparently on the liners
- of the original release, but on present in the current American release): A
- boy (Henry) is killed when his playmate (Cynthia) takes his head off with a
- croquet mallet (one concert telling of the tale begins, in fact, with the
- line, "Croquet is a particularly vicious British sport"). Upon reaching The
- Great Hereafter, he is rejected and sent back to Earth, only to manifest
- himself again when Cynthia comes upon his musical box. Upon her opening the
- box, Henry pops out (and the song begins). Over the course of the song,
- Henry's body ages rapidly, until, by the final strains, he is an old man,
- who finally collapses and dies (assumedly for good this time).
- "The Fountain of Salmacis" (fantasy, from "Nursery Cryme"),
- is a retelling of the myth of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis.
- Hermaphroditus, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, comes upon a pool wherein
- dwells the naiad Salmacis. Salmacis, smitten with love, asks the gods to
- make the two of them one being. The result -- a single being of both
- genders; hence, the term 'hermaphrodite'. "Supper's Ready"
- (the ultimate battle of good and evil, from "Foxtrot", possibly based on
- an experience Peter Gabriel had one night when his wife began speaking
- with another voice ), "Firth of Fifth", and Dancing with the Moonlit Knight"
- (both containing heavy fantasy elements, both from "Selling England by
- the Pound"). (It's also possible that "Dancing..." is political allegory
- instead -- which I tend to agree with, given the album title and a re-reading.
- "Cinema Show", from the same album, mentions the mythical figure of Tyresias,
- a being who has been both male and female (but not at the same time).
- See also "Squonk" from "A Trick of the Tail", and "The Lady Lies" from
- "...And Then There Were Three...", a fantasy about a traveller captured
- by a demon in the form of a young woman. See also "Little Nemo" and
- "Snowbound" from the same album, which also have fantasy elements.
- "Domino" from "Invisible Touch" is about nuclear war,
- death, damnation, and other cheery topics. BTW, Peter Gabriel used to
- tell stories before some of the songs in concert, although those stories
- seem to have nothing to do with the songs (occasionally).
- And (whew!), "Home by the Sea" from "Genesis" may be a description
- of the Giants <Caamora> in Stephen R. Donaldson's "Second Chronicles of
- Thomas Covenant". Whether it is or not, it's certainly a chilling tale, about
- a visitor (thief?) who enters a large, old house by the sea...and once inside,
- he is trapped along with the other ghosts who erred similarly and are doomed
- to tell their stories over and over again.
-
- Gentle Giant:
- Much material, tending towards fantasy including "The Advent of Panurge",
- and "Alucard" (spell it backwards).
-
- Gerry and the Holograms:
- The single "Gerry and the Holograms" is about a man who is split into
- several copies of himself. If I remember rightly the man behind this
- group was the singer from Albertos Y Los Paranoias.
-
- Gong:
- New Age before anyone had coined the label "new age". Three albums about
- the Planet Gong, Zero the Hero & the Pot-Head Pixies!: "Radio Gnome",
- "Angel's Egg", "You". Earlier albums had vaguely SF ideas, e.g.,
- "Fohat Digs Holes in Space" from "Camembert Electrique".
-
- Gillan:
- The title song from "Future Shock" and, from "Glory Road", "On the Rocks"
- describes a 1984-like world.
-
- Ian Gillan Band:
- "Clear Air Turbulence" is an album with some sf-related songs, such as
- the title track (5000 'astral explorers' swarm out and return holplessly)
- and "Five Moons" (describes the situation of people stranded somewhere
- in space).
-
- Girlschool:
- All girl British heavy metal band, their LP "Nightmare at Maple Cross" is
- pretty much a horror/fantasy type story.
-
- Gowan, Larry:
- See "Oceania" from "Gowan" (first LP) might refer to Oceana.
- See also "Strange Animal", his second LP.
-
- Graham, Mark:
- The album "Natural Selections" contains several humorous songs on
- various scientific topics, including "Big Bang Theory" (the story of
- the universe in six minutes), "Working on the Food Chain", "I Can
- See Your Aura and It's Ugly" and "Their Brains Were Small and They Died".
- Great harmonica playing, too.
-
- Grand Funk Railroad:
- See "Time Machine" and "Into the Sun" from "On Time", and
- "Life in Outer Space" from "What's Funk?"
-
- Grateful Dead:
- "Standing on the Moon" is a reflection by a singer who is standing on
- the moon watching petty wars on earth; possibly SF-ish although it
- seems to be more of a love song. In the post-apocalyptic vision/love song
- "Morning Dew", two lovers decide to walk out in the morning dew
- (despite the fallout) because "I guess it doesn't matter anyway".
-
- Greenslade, David:
- "The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony", a double album of electronic music.
- A derelict alien spaceship enters our solar system. Their language is
- decoded (details in the accompanying illustrated book); the music is
- the story of their race. Also "Music from the Diskworld" based on and
- using quotes from Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series. Most of the
- album is "theme" tracks for one or another of the books several having
- quotes from the text. And there are a couple of vocal pieces
- "The Shades of old Ankh- Morpork" and "A Wizards Staff has a Knob on the End"
- which relate to the series.
-
- Guided By Voices:
- Some of their songs have fairly suggestive titles such as "Hardcore
- UFO's", "Alien Lanes" and "Saturn X Radio Report", but their lyrics
- at their most understandable are fairly cryptic, and often just darn obscure.
-
- H.P. Lovecraft:
- Couple of albums...one contains "At the Mountains of Madness". Estimates
- place them in the late 60's. Another track is "The White Ship",
- directly referencing an H.P. Lovecraft story.
-
- Some commentary on H.P. Lovecraft from Hal Broome:
-
- H.P. Lovecraft lasted three albums. They were based in Chicago
- and named the group because one of the members had a dog
- named "Cthulhu", which meant that someone was always running
- around yelling "here Chthulhu, here Chthulhu!"
-
- The first album was creaky but the second was brilliant. The first,
- HP I, had "The White Ship" and the second, HP II, had "At the
- Mountains of Madness". The third came out years later in the
- early 70s and only had the drummer as an original member. One
- good song, but not very SFish except for the title ("Shadow of
- the Moon"?).
-
- Hackett, Steve:
- "Narnia" on "Please Don't Touch" (one of his solo albums;he was with Genesis).
- His album "Voyage of the Acolyte" isbased on the Tarot, and includes
- "Star of Sirius", "The Hands of the Princess", "A Tower Struck Down",
- "The Lovers", "The Hermit", "The Shadow of the Hierophant", and "Ace of Wands".
- "Guitar Noir" includes "Vampyre with a Healthy Appetite". See also Genesis.
-
- Hagar, Sammy:
- "There's a Crack in the Earth".
-
- Hagen, Nina:
- "Zero Zero U.F.O." (sung in German, album "freud euch", 1995) A song about her
- encounter with an UFO.
-
- Hamm, Stuart:
- "Radio Free Albemuth" is based on the novels of Phillip K. Dick, and
- includes the title track and "Flow My Tears".
- "Kings of Sleep" includes "Black Ice", "Terminal Beach", the title
- track, and "Count Zero", based on William Gibson's material.
- Hamm has also worked with Joe Satriani.
-
- Hammill, Peter:
- Has done an operatic treatment of "The Fall of the House of Usher".
-
- Happy the Man:
- "Time Considered as a Helix of Precious Laughs" is based on Samuel R.
- Delany's story "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones".
- Great story, lousy song...from the album "Happy the Man".
-
- Hardcastle, Paul:
- The "No Winner" album is filled with songs about nuclear attacks and SDI.
-
- Harper, Roy:
- "McGoohan's Blues" from "Folkjokeopus" is influenced by The Prisoner.
- "Nineteen-Forty Eightish" from "Whatever Happened To Jugula".
- Album "Descendants Of Smith" (also released under title Garden Of Uranium)
- is dedicated to Philip K. Dick.
-
- Hatfield and the North
- "Son of There's No Place Like Homerton" from their eponymous album.
- It's a lengthy song which has sparse lyrics and seems to be
- about an orchestra from Mars.
-
- Hackett, Steve:
- "Narnia" on "Please Don't Touch" (one of his solo albums;he was with Genesis).
- His album "Voyage of the Acolyte" isbased on the Tarot, and includes
- "Star of Sirius", "The Hands of the Princess", "A Tower Struck Down",
- "The Lovers", "The Hermit", "The Shadow of the Hierophant", and "Ace of Wands".
- See also Genesis.
-
- Hagar, Sammy:
- "There's a Crack in the Earth".
-
- Hamm, Stuart:
- "Radio Free Albemuth" is based on the novels of Phillip K. Dick.
- "Count Zero" is based on William Gibson's material.
- Instrumental music includes the song "Ice-9", a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's
- "Cat's Cradle". Hamm has also worked with Joe Satriani.
-
- Hammill, Peter:
- Has done an operatic treatment of "The Fall of the House of Usher".
-
- Happy the Man:
- "Time Considered as a Helix of Precious Laughs" is based on Samuel R.
- Delany's story "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones".
- Great story, lousy song...from the album "Happy the Man".
-
- Hardcastle, Paul:
- The "No Winner" album is filled with songs about nuclear attacks and SDI.
-
- Hatfield and the North
- "Son of There's No Place Like Homerton" from their eponymous album.
- It's a lengthy song which has sparse lyrics and seems to be
- about an orchestra from Mars.
-
- Hawkwind:
- The all-time consensus champion for sf-oriented rock. *Some* of their
- albums are: "Hall of the Mountain Grill", "In Search of Space",
- "Quark, Strangeness, and Charm", "Space Ritual--Alive in Liverpool &
- London", "Warrior on the Edge of Time", "In Search of Space", "Doremi
- Fasol Latido", "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music","25 Years On",
- "Levitation", "Sonic Attack", "Church of the Hackwind", and "Choose
- Your Masks". Michael Moorcock, long associated with the group, has
- in fact written much fantasy-sf, including co-authoring "Time of the Hawklords",
- a fantasy about the band saving the world. He co-wrote "Veteran of the
- Psychic Wars", from the soundtrack of "Heavy Metal". He also released a
- solo album late in the 70's (See "Deep Fix"). Many of their tracks are
- explicitly linked to SF books,e.g. "Lord of Light", "Jack of Shadows",
- "Damnation Alley" (Zelazny), "Steppenwolf" (Hesse), "High Rise" (Ballard).
- The lyrics of "Warriors" are taken from Moorcock's "The Eternal Champion";
- the lyrics to another spoken track on "Space Ritual" from his book
- "The Black Corridor" The lyrics of "The Awakening", "Spirit of the Age"
- and "The 10 Seconds of Forever", are SF poems from Robert Calvert's
- collection of poems, "Centigrade 232". Robert Calvert was lead singer
- of Hawkwind from 1976-1978 (or thereabouts) and produced a solo album,
- "Lucky Leif in the Longships" in the late 70's, and two more in the mid-80's.
- "Lucky Leif" is based on the premise "What if the Vikings had
- succeeded and colonizing America?", and features several Hawkwind
- regulars as guest musicians. The 1985 Hawkwind LP "The Chronicle of
- the Black Sword" is based loosely on Moorcock's Elric character.
- Debut album was called "Hawkwind". Another album is PXR5.
-
- Some commentary on "Live Chronicles" from Stephen Swann:
- "Live Chronicles" is the double-album concert rendition of their
- "Chronicle of the Black Sword" album, and features several events from
- the Elric books (especially "Stormbringer"), loosely intertwined into
- an 80-minute music-story performance. The tour also featured Michael
- Moorcock himself on stage with the band, doing narration between
- musical numbers. Moorcock's spoken parts didn't make it onto the
- final cut of the album, because of legal problems between himself and
- the band, but he -is- on the _Chronicle of the Black Sword_ video
- (which is a live performance from the same tour, even though it
- sports the name of the studio album).
-
- --- Stephen Swann
-
- For further info on Hawkwind, please see the rather massive entry
- at the end of the list.
-
- Hazard, Robert:
- A Philadelphia-area performer who released the album "Wings of Fire"
- in the mid-80's. It included a track entitled "Interplanetary Private Eye",
- which was essentially the Bladerunner story -- and there was even
- an attribution to it in the liner notes.
-
- Heaven 17:
- This band took their name from a band mentioned in "Clockwork Orange".
- "Let"s All make a Bomb" from their "Penthouse and Pavement" LP is about The
- Bomb and nuclear war, but is apparently not too SF-ish. See also
- "Five Minutes to Midnight", on the same theme.
-
- Hedges, Michael:
- Semi-new age guitarist/composer/singer. His album "Taproot" is
- described as "an autobiographical myth told in music," and appears to
- have a semi-fantasy theme.
-
- Heldon:
- French band that took it's name from Norman Spinrad's "The Iron
- Dream" and takes some song titles from the novel as well. A later LP called
- "Interface" has a beautiful female alien face on the cover and the titles
- seem suggestive of leading up to sex with green women.
-
- Helloween:
- Two loosely-related albums, "Keeper of the Seven Keys" Parts 1 & 2. The
- first has songs about a future world, including "Twilight of the Gods"
- which is about a planet that makes their own computerized gods, and the
- new and old fight, and the whole planet gets trashed. In the credits, it
- says thanks to Herman Frank for INSANIA 2016, which is mentioned in the
- song, that's possibly what it's based on. Also, on "Pt. 1" there is a
- song called "Halloween" (with an 'a' not an 'e') that is like a part one
- to the song "Keeper of the 7 Keys" which is on "Pt. 2". The second LP
- also contains "Dr. Stein", a comic Frankenstein, and the song of the
- title, which is some sort of fantasy adventure.
-
- Hendrix, Jimi:
- Delta blues, except that the delta is on Mars. See "1983...A Merman
- I Should Turn to Be","Hey Baby", and "Third Stone from the Sun",
- "UFO", and lots of other stuff. "Third Stone from the Sun" has a half-speed
- sound clip of a scout ship reporting to the mother ship on the.... 3rd planet
- (3rd stone from the sun). He ends by saying that there shall be no more surf music.
-
- Hillage, Steve:
- His album "Green" includes an instrumental called "UFO over Paris".
- Many albums have SF tinge, e.g. "Earthrise" from album "OPEN". See
- also Gong and Khan.
-
- Hitchcock, Robyn:
- See "The Fly", "Man with the Light Bulb Head".
-
- Holdsworth, Allan:
- Fusion guitar, for the most part. "Atavachron" is the instrumental title
- track about the Atavachron, a time machine from a "Star Trek" episode
- which an entire race used to escape from their sun which was about to
- go supernova. "The UnMerry Go-Round" from "Metal Fatigue" is a conceptual
- "soundtrack" to a story about a space traveler who must leave for a
- distant star, never to see his beloved ones again because his ten-year
- voyage, by Einstein's laws, will last several hundred earth years.
- The succeeding track, "In the Mystery" is about some sort of quest.
-
- Holy Modal Rounders:
- "Mister Spaceman", complete with yodeling.
-
- Hoodoo Gurus:
- Have a song called "Another World" which is about an alien. Also
- see the song "Mars Needs Guitars".
-
- The Horse Flies:
- "Human Fly" from album of the same name--a cover of the Cramps' song.
-
- Horslips:
- Their 1970's album "The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony" (IMHO one
- of the most underrated albums ever produced --Dave Weingart) is one long
- suite of magick and faerie. Good solid Irish rock 'n' roll, with nary
- a bad cut. (Horslips has produced some other similar works; would anyone
- like to add to the list? ---Rsk )
-
- Huey Lewis & the News:
- "Back in Time" from the "Back to the Future" soundtrack.
-
- Human League:
- "I Am the Law", also from Judge Dredd (futuristic cop) comic. Process
- of apprehension, trial, conviction, and sentencing telescoped into a
- very short time period. (This reminds me of the short story, "10:01 AM"
- by Alexandar Malec; it appears in a hard-to-find collection called
- "Extrapolasis" ---Rsk.) Also "Black Hit of Space" from the "Travelogue"
- album. Top 40 hit songs arrives from space and takes over the charts.
- "Circus of Death" from "Reproduction" (and misc EPs) mentions that the
- last verse is spoken by "the last man on earth"...it is actually a drug song.
- (And, to top it of, it mentions Steve McGarret from Hawaii 5-0.)
- Also "Seconds" from "Dare!", possibly about a scientist blinding the dictator
- of an African country with a laser. (The lyrics don't make direct reference
- to it, but the tour slide show does...on the other hand, some folks report
- that the tour slide show contained stills from the Zapruder film of the JFK
- assassination. Much dispute and confusion on this point.) See also
- "Tom Baker", on the CD of "Reproduction", which might be about Dr. Who.
-
- Husker Du:
- Song "Books about Ufoes" on their "New Day Rising" release.
-
- Hypnotic Clambake:
- "Chef Mobie's Gumbo Gator" is more nonsense than SF, but one verse
- talks about "a huge aligator on the planet neptune drinking wine".
-
- Icehouse:
- "Icehouse" contains "Icehouse" which seems to be a gothic tale of some
- sort and "Sister" which is about an android. The band was originally
- "Flowers". The "Icehouse" referenced was the band members' flat
- in Australia (probably Sydney).
-
- Icicle Works:
- English group best known for "Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)"
- (titled the other way around in Europe). The group's name comes from
- the short story "The Day the Icicle Works Closed", which I believe
- was by Alfred Bester.
-
- Ideal:
- A band from the "Neue Deutsche Welle" (New German Wave) in the early
- 80ies. The song "Der Herrscher" ("The Emperor") from the Album "Der
- Ernst des Lebens" ("The Earnestness of Life") describes a person who
- escapes from hir dull life into a SF world.
-
- Idol, Billy:
- His 1993 album, "Cyberpunk", features a number of SF themes,
- notably the works of William Gibson (one of the tracks is "Neuromancer").
-
- IGTB:
- Stands for Inter-Galactic Touring Band; Mish-mash album put out in 1977
- with all sorts of people on it, purporting to be a group on galactic tour.
-
- Immortal:
- "The Story of Immortal", a single released in 1978. It tells the story
- of a very powerful being that commits a crime (leading to the destruction
- of a whole inhabited planet) and is punished with immortality. Now he
- tries to redeem himself by doing good deeds, "but sometimes in my lonely
- nights the screams of million of dying people hurt me from the next
- world - and then I understand why I've been given immortality..."
-
- Intergalactic Orchestra:
- Their album "Super Nova" (early 80's), contains several SF themes.
- "Star Probe Navigator" is about an interstellar ship that gets lost
- underway. Other track are for example: "Star Flying", Demon God",
- "Heroes Return", "Time Slip", etc.
-
- INXS:
- The video for "Listen Like Thieves" looks like a slice of a "Mad Max" film.
-
- IQ:
- Several possibilities here; "Last Human Gateway" from "Tales From a Lush
- Attic"; "Outer Limits" from "The Wake"; "Human Nature" (about evolution)
- and "Screaming is About Dying" from "Nomazmo"; "Falling Apart at the
- Seams" from "Are You Sitting Comfortably?".
-
- Incredible String Band:
- "I Was a Young Man (back in the 1960's)", a future retrospective. See
- also "Swift as the Wind", wherein a child's fantasy-hero turns out to be
- more substantial. The double-LP "U (A Surreal Parable in Song and
- Dance)" includes "Robot Blues".
-
- Information Society:
- Their albums are peppered with audio excerpts from Star Trek;
- SF (or at lest computer) themes are common. "Mirrorshades" from "Hack"
- is pure cyber-bandwagonism (at least they beat most of the "mainstream"
- to it by a couple of years). See also "Where Would I Be Without IBM".
- Their latest album, "Peace & Love, Inc." has samples from Star Trek and The
- Outer Limits.
-
- Inner City Unit:
- Punk band led by Nik Turner of Hawkwind. Their first album, "Pass Out",
- includes the tracks "Fall Out" (nuclear war), "Polly Ethelene",
- "Cybernetic Love". Their second album, "Maximum Effect", starts with
- a track suggesting that Elvis has been given Everlasting Life Via
- Induced Suspendedanimation.
-
- Iron Maiden:
- The track "To Tame a Land" from "Piece of Mind" is about Dune. (Frank
- Herbert wouldn't let them call it "Dune", supposedly, 'cause he doesn't
- like heavy metal.) "Flight of Icarus" and "Quest for Fire" also appear
- on "Piece of Mind". "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" is a concept album
- about a mystical clairvoyant. The title track from "Powerslave" is about
- the death of an Egyptian god; "Flash of the Blade" from the same LP is
- about a young boy who is trained as a warrior and who avenges the death
- of his master/teacher. "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", from the same LP,
- is based on the Coleridge poem. They've also done two songs based on the
- TV show, "The Prisoner": "The Prisoner" from "The Number of the Beast"
- and "Back in the Village" from "Powerslave". The title track from
- "Number of the Beast" deals with the discovery of a Satanic ritual -- it
- might be based on "The Omen". Also from that album, "Children of the
- Damned" (more horror than SF). The album "Somewhere in Time" contains
- "Caught Somewhere in Time", which is about time travel, the devil, and
- other assorted fun stuff. "Stranger in a Strange Land" from the same LP
- is SF, but is apparently not related to the Heinlein book of the same
- name. It's based on a newspaper story about a body found in the ice
- near the North Pole. (The cover of that album really deserves note -- it's
- a sci-fi scene, lots of details. Ditto for the 2 singles from that album,
- "Wasted Years" and "Stranger in a Strange Land", which have sci-fi covers.)
-
- Itch:
- Piano-based punk. First CD "Dyin' To Be Jesus" includes "Energy Vampire"
- and "Open Letter To Dr. Strange"; 94's "Pull The Wool" includes
- "Frankenmouse" (and a rant about genetic manipulation in the liner notes).
-
- Jackson, Dee Dee:
- (real name: Deirdre Cozier) Album "Cosmic Curves" (released 1978/79).
- Features songs like "Automatic Lover", "Meteor Man", "Galaxy Police", etc.
-
- Jackson, Joe:
- "In the T.V. Age" from "Night And Day" (aliens as TV sets).
- The album "Blaze of Glory" is a concept album with two album-side
- long song sequences about (among other things) human interaction
- with technology, and living with myths of the future.
- "Tommorrow's World" especially deals with images of science and the
- future seen by those growing up in the sixties.
-
- Jackson, Michael:
- "Thriller", with narration by Vincent Price. Also, "Another Part of Me"
- written for a 3D SF short called "Captain Eo"; the lyrics are a message
- from aliens.
-
- Jad Fair and Kramer:
- "Nosferatu" (vampire) and "King Kong" from "Roll Out the Barrel".
-
- Jade Warrior:
- LP "Horizon" contains "Images of Dune: a) Prescient Dawn, b) The Fremen, c)
- Journey on a Dream". Other albums contain fantasy and SF themes; like
- Mannheim Steamroller, another prototype "New Age" group. Most work done
- 1974-1978; other LP's include "Kites", "Waves", "Released", and "Way of
- the Sun". Frequent references to Oriental and Egyptian mythology.
-
- Jam and Spoon:
- Have a techno-industrial song entitled "Stellar" with apparent spaceship
- homing sounds.
-
- Jazz Butcher:
- Has a song called "Harlan" on the album "Condition Blue",
- which is about Harlan Ellison's short stories and contains references to
- his story "Jeffty", amongst others possibly (not sure).
-
- Jefferson Airplane/Starship:
- "Blows Against the Empire" (album) done by JA+Crosy, Nash, Freiberg.
- etc. "Have you seen the Saucers?" from"Thirty Seconds Over Winterland".
- Also did Crosby, Stills, & Kantner's "Wooden Ships" (post-nuclear holocaust)
- and "Crown of Creation" from Wyndham's "Re-Birth". Finally, "War
- Story" from "Bark" tells of rebellion in the US, mind control.
- "Hyperdrive" from "Dragonfly", "Modern Times" and "Alien" from "Modern
- Times", "Lightning Rose", "Awakening", "Freedom at Point Zero" from
- "Freedom at Point Zero", "Back from the Jaws of the Dragon" from "Winds
- of Change", "Connection", "Rose goes to Yale", "Champion" from "Nuclear
- Furniture". See also Paul Kantner's "The Planet Earth Rock and Roll
- Orchestra", a followup to "Blows...". The 1971 LP "Bark" has a
- track called "War Movie" in which Kantner rants about a revolt against
- the government in 1975. Incidentally, "Re-Birth" was later revised
- and edited, and published under the title "Chrysalids".
-
- Jesus Jones:
- Besides *sounding* like science fiction, Jesus Jones' third album
- "Perverse" begins with the song "Zeros and Ones", about computer technology.
-
- Jethro Tull:
- "Passion Play" is about the afterlife (from the vantage point of
- the first person singular). There's some speculation that "War Child"
- is similarly constructed. "Dun Ringill" on "Stormwatch" is about some kind of
- druidic rites ("We wait in stone circles/'til the force comes through.")
- Folk tale "Jack in the Green" from "Songs From the Wood", and the songs
- "The Clasp", "BroadSword", "Beastie" from "Broadsword and the Beast".
- B & tB is probably their most fantasy-oriented album; nice cover art.
- "Orion" and "Flying Dutchman" off "Stormwatch", "Fylingdale Flyer"
- (Flyingdale is an ICBM early warning station in the UK, and this seems to
- be about the possibility of false alarms leading to a nuclear exchange),
- "Protect and Survive" (nuclear war), "Batteries Not Included" (android
- child), "And Further On" from the album "A". "Astronomy" on the CD
- version of "Under Wraps", and "Apogee" (either version). Also see
- "March, the Mad Scientist" from a 4-song EP (untitled, also contained
- "Ring Out, Solstice Bells" and two other songs).
-
- Jobson Eddie/Zinc:
- "The Green Album" has some interesting SF-style tracks; for instance,
- "Listen to Reason" and "Through the Glass".
-
- Joel, Billy:
- "Miami 2017" from "Turnstiles"; a backwards reflection on our own future.
- (Incidentally, "We Didn't Start the Fire" mentions "Stranger in a
- Strange Land".)
-
- John, Elton:
- "Rocket Man"...perhaps from Bradbury's "Illustrated Man"? Anyway,
- another road song. Also "I've Seen the Saucers"...from "Caribou".
- "I am Your Robot" from "Jump Up".
-
- Jones, Grace:
- "Slave to the Rhythm" is about man as a slave to machines; "Demolition Man"
- is a remake of Manfred Mann's song. (See also the Police's remake.)
-
- Jones, Howard:
- "Automaton" on "Dream Into Action" is about a man
- from the future who turns out to be a robot.
-
- Jonzun Crew:
- Album "Lost in Space" includes "Space Cowboy"--apparently not the same
- as the Steve Miller Band song.
-
- Journey:
- "Look in into the Future", from the album of the same name,
- "Spaceman" from "Next" and "Wheel in the Sky" from "Infinity".
-
- Joy Division:
- One of many bands in the industrial and gothic genres influenced by
- J.G. Ballard's work. For instance, their song "Atrocity Exhibition"
- referred to in New Order's "the Him" (a minor character in "The Atrocity
- Exhibition"); Ian Curtis's unused lyric "Driftwood" is based on Ballard's
- first novel "the Drowned World", and many of his lyrics have a generally
- Ballardian feel.
-
- Judas Priest:
- "The Green Manalishi with the Two-Pronged Crown". See also "Electric
- Eye" from "Screaming for Vengeance", an Orwellian song about covert
- surveillance drones in the sky. Some commentary on the latest Judas Priest LP:
-
- The band's last album, "Painkiller" (1990) is basically a science
- fiction concept album, a story set in a time/place frame similar
- to the future of "The Terminator", in which human beings are hunted
- down and killed after a third world war, but it seems less by outside
- forces (though one song is about a monster that hunts people down,
- the "Nightcrawler") than by internal strife. "Between the Hammer and
- the Anvil" is a song about priests who hunt down heretics in the
- collapse of civilization, and the title song is concerned with the
- post-apocalyptic world's hero, only known as The Painkiller.
- --- Brian Landwehr
-
- Also of interest: "Jawbreaker" from "Defenders of the Faith", perhaps about
- some kind of monster snake. "The Sentinel" is about some kind of killing machine.
- "Beyond the Realms of Death" on "Stained Class" is about a post-death experience.
-
- KLF:
- A British rap group, formerly known as both the JAMS (Justified Ancients of Mu
- Mu) and the Timelords (Dr. Who reference, of course). Both the JAMS and
- the KLF are Discordian groups mentioned in Robert Shea and Robert
- Anton Wilson's "Illuminatus!" trilogy. Jimmy Cauty from the KLF did an
- album called "Space" under the name Space - perhaps not really SF but it
- is very spacey (hence the name).
-
- Kaleidoscope:
- The song "The Sky Children", an epic fairytale.
-
- Kansas:
- Lots of stuff. See "Kansas", "Song For America", "Masque" and
- "Leftoverture" for details...note, though, that Kerry Livgren is
- heavily into Chrisianity, lending an alternative interpretation to many
- of the lyrics. But "Icarus: Borne on Wings of Steel" (from "Masque" is
- pretty clearly mythological, and "Portrait (He Knew)" from "Point of
- Know Return" is about Einstein. "Point of Know Return" also has
- sf-related stuff, such as "Nobody's Home". Livgren says that he didn't
- consciously think of himself as writing Christian-influenced songs
- until "Monolith", the LP after "Point...", so interpretation of his
- earlier work in an SF context is probably not reaching too much. Note
- also the influence of Native American mythos on several albums such as
- "Monolith". Finally, "Taking in the View" and "Tomb 19" from "Power"
- have a historical fantasy tinge.
-
- Kayak:
- Nearly all of their work is fantasy/sf-related. The tracks
- "Journey Through Time", "Daphne (Laurel Tree)", "Phantom of the Night"
- are interesting examples from the LP "Phantom of the Night". The first
- is an interesting time-travel song and the last two deal mostly with
- Greek-mythology and its associated fantasy story-lines. The album
- "Periscope Life" contains "Astral Aliens". The "Starlight Dancer" LP
- contains the title track, an interesting piece. The song "Relics
- from a Distant Age" from "The Last Encore" is an SF piece. Another is
- "Trust in the Machine" from their first LP, Kayak.
-
- Keel:
- 80's US-Metal band. Their 1986 LP "The Final Frontier" is dedicated to the
- crew of the Challenger Space Shuttle. It contains the track
- "The final frontier" about space exploration.
-
- Khan:
- Early Steve Hillage group. Had album "Space Shanty".
-
- Killdozer:
- The quentissential mid-80's Wisconsen grundge-hardcore band
- has a song off "Twelve Point Buck" named after that ancient British TV
- series "Space: 1999", but it's pretty much about "babes."
- The band's name is also the title of a terrible movie about a
- possessed Caterpillar D-8 bulldozer, which in turn quite probably
- comes from an old Theodore Sturgeon novelet of the same name, first
- published in "Astounding" in the late 40's.
-
- King Crimson:
- "Epitaph" and "21st Century Schizoid Man" from "In The Court of the
- Crimson King". Also "Dig Me", from "Three of a Perfect Pair",
- is about an automobile found in the wild which begs the listener
- to "Dig me, but don't...bury me". The LP "Lizard"'s second side
- is about a terrible war in a fantasy world. (Lyrics by Pete Sinfield.)
- "Earthbound" from album of same name (not released in U.S.).
-
- King Missile:
- Took their name from a Japanese comic-book [and
- 'Detachable Penis' could be seen as a farce on cybernetics].
- [Or not. :-) ---Rsk ]
-
- Kinks:
- "I wish I could Fly (Like Superman)", and "A Gallon of Gas" from "Low Budget",
- about a not-too-distant time when you can't buy a gallon of gas.
-
- Kiss:
- "(Music from) The Elder", a soundtrack for a never-made film.
-
- Klaatu:
- The group took their name from "Klaatu", the alien ambassador in "The
- Day The Earth Stood Still". Their albums include "3:47 EST", "Hope",
- "Endangered Species", "Sir Army Suit" and "Magenta Lane". (The first
- album was original released eponymously, but picked up the title
- later.) They're probably best known for "Calling Occupants of
- Interplanetary Craft", and "Little Neutrino". The former was
- apparently conceived as prayer to be recited all over the globe to
- induce aliens to visit; it was also covered by the Carpenters. The
- album "Hope" is a concept LP telling of the demise of a very earth-like
- society on the planet Venus which eventually destroyed itself with
- self-paranoia.
-
- Kraftwerk:
- Sf-themes occasionally. Certainly sounds sf-ish.
- Albums include "Autobahn", "Radioactivity", "ManMachine",
- "Computerworld", and "Trans-Europe Express"; tracks of note
- include "The Robots", "Spacelab" and "Metropolis". Also,
- see the track "Kometenmelodia (1&2)". (Alex Lasky claims
- that Florian looks exactly like Dr. Zachary Smith from "Lost in Space".
- I don't necessarily consider this an SF tie-in, but I agree with
- him and think there's a great joke buried in this somewhere.)
-
- Kooper, Al:
- "Childhood's End" based on the Arthur C. Clarke novel.
- A wild cover of Donovan's "Season of the Witch" appears on
- the Bloomfield-Kooper-Stills "Super Session" album.
-
- LDC:
- "T-Raumreise" (Traumreise = dream-voyage, Raumreise = space-voyage)
- A song about the journey through space and time in our minds and
- thoughts. It also refers to the Voyager probes.
-
- Landscape:
- On "From The Tea-Rooms of Mars...to The Hell Holes of Uranus", see
- "Einstein A-Go-Go"; nuclear terrorism ("You better watch out,
- you'd better beware; Albert said that E equals M C squared") a classic.
- Also "European Man", a life of leisure in an automated world.
- and still from that same LP, "Live... from the Tea-Rooms of Mars";
- synthesized tea-room dance music with some gently crooned SF lyrics,
- (e.g "Do you know what it's like to live where there's no trees and no sky ?
- Night and day are just controls.") See also "My Name is Norman Bates",
- which isn't exactly SF, but horror.
-
- Lavin, Christine:
- In her song `Bald Headed Men' (performed with the Bitchin' Babes)
- she says ``That guy from Star Trek: The Next Generation (love him).'' :-)
-
- Le Orme:
- Apparently a French art-rock band, did an album called "Beyond Leng",
- which is apparently Lovecraftian from the title.
-
- Lear, Amanda:
- In her Album "Never Trust a Pretty Face" (1979 ??) you'll find the songs
- "Black Holes", "The Sphinx" and "Intellectually", the latter a song
- about a romance between a woman and a computer.
-
- Leatherwolf:
- "Gypsies and Thieves" from their first album is Melnibonean
- (that is, it concerns "Elric of Melnibone", one of Michael Moorcock's
- characters who jointly are "The Eternal Champion". See the entry
- on Hawkwind.) and some of their other material is fantasy-ish.
-
- Led Zeppelin:
- A number of possible J.R.R. Tolkien references -- nobody really knows.
- "No Quarter" from "Houses of the Holy" is rather eerie, but no one is
- quite sure what it's about. There's some speculation that it might
- be about Aragorn and company's trek through "The Paths of the Dead",
- described in "The Return ofthe King". "The Battle of Evermore", from Led Zep IV
- mentions Ringwraiths. Also see "Ramble On" on Led Zep II for mention of
- Mordor and Gollum. See also "Misty Mountain Hop" on Led Zep IV. Some
- speculation that "Stairway to Heaven" is about Saruman's journey to the
- west, but nobody seems to be sure. It's probably as good an interpretation
- as any. :-) Also "Kashmir" from "Physical Grafitti".
-
- Level 42:
- Song, "Star Child" -- is this about the Star Child from 2001?
- (Level 42's name was based on the Answer to the Ultimate Question from
- the Hitchhiker's Guide.) "Foundation and Empire" from "A Physical
- Presence", and "Micro-Kid" from "Standing in the Light", about computer
- whiz-kids.
-
- Liebrand, Ben:
- "Eve of the War". Liebrand is a remixer and disco-musician. He made a disco
- version of this theme with quotes from the original recording
- (including Richard Burton's introduction speech).
-
- Limor, Gilead:
- You Are The Stars. This album is an instrumental epic
- describing a fantasy travel through solar systems and universes.
- The album (on CD and Cassette) was released by Nesak International
- Inc., New Jersey, and is part of a so-called "You Are..." series of
- instrumental titles. (I believe Gilead is the first person to submit
- one of his or her own works for inclusion in the list; congratulations
- are in order for making it through the daunting process of cranking
- out a release! Contact address: gileadgl@itexjct.jct.ac.il ---Rsk )
-
- Lister, Anne:
- English singer/songwriter with a lot of fantasy-based material; one of
- her songs is dedicated to Ursula LeGuin.
-
- Little River Band:
- "Orbit Zero" from "Time Exposure" is the sad story of an alien race with
- hopes of settling on Earth, only to find it already crowded by us humans.
-
- Love and Rockets:
- Rumored to have done songs relating to Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez'
- comic book for which they're named. See "Holiday on the Moon", a
- B-side to a single, and their cover of Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam".
-
- Lovich, Lene:
- "Telepathy" from "Stateless", about a maddening psychic gift.
- On the album "Flex" there are the songs "Angles" and "You Can't Kill Me"
- with SF aspects. "Rocky Road" from her Album "No Man's Land" describes
- the stony path to an utopian land.
-
- Lyon, Steve:
- "Deimos and Phobos" is about a guy who is homesick for Mars.
-
- M:
- "The Official Secrets Act" (an innocent gets caught up in government
- plots and secret police, a la 1984)
-
- MC-5:
- On "Kick Out the Jams", "Rocket Reducer" and "Starship".
-
- MacDonald & Giles:
- Two alumni of the early King Crimson, who released an LP who
- second side is a long suite called "Birdman" about a scientist
- who invents wings that work.
-
- Machover, Ted:
- "VALIS", an electronic space opera version of Philip K. Dick's novel.
-
- Magma:
- "Inedits", "Udu Wudu"...sort of cross between German language research
- and H.P. Lovecraft. Curious reference to "Ork" on Udu Wudu.
- Here's a bit of background on the band...
-
- About Magma & its founder Christian Vander...what he invented was rather a
- cult than a subculture. Most Magma material deals with a mythology that
- Vander claims to have been given knowledge of during a revelation. This is
- when he also was given the umlaut-seasoned language "Kobaian" that pervades
- the lyrics on the Magma albums. In short, according to the mythology, there
- is a "highest being" in the Universe by the name of "Kreuhn Ko:hrmann". (I
- use ":" after a letter to denote umlaut, two dots over it.) Vander sees
- himself as some sort of prophet, and the people of the Earth have to listen
- and convert their lives to be more in accordance with the Right Way or a
- global disaster, a sort of divine punishment, will be the result. Also
- appearing are "orks" which "are to machines what machines are to men". All
- this sounds like bad heavy metal fantasies but Vander has persisted for many
- years so maybe he really believes in it, who knows? A good example of the
- Vander/Magma type of stuff is the album "Mekhanik Destruktiw Kommando:h"
- that is a sort of mass with lots of mystical chanting. The second side of
- "U:du Wu:du:", "De Futura", is about travelling in time which according to
- the liner notes on the sleeve enables us to see the orks. --Bjorn Lisper
-
- Magnum:
- Many songs with generic SF&F themes such as "On A Storyteller's Night",
- "Firebird" and possibly "Don't Wake the Lion". (There's some speculation
- that the latter might really be about WW I.)
-
- Manhattan Transfer:
- Recorded a (snappy) version of the theme to the TV show "Twilight Zone".
-
- Man or Astro-Man?:
- [the question mark is part of the band's name] A current
- instrumental band who make science fiction part of their identity.
- The band has constructed an elaborate mythology about its members being
- visitors sent from space by The Unmentionable One. Their live shows
- feature half a dozen TVs on stage showing sci-fi images ranging from
- 1950s B movies to recent Ultraman episodes. Their 1993 debut album "Is
- it ... Man or Astro-Man?" (Estrus Records) features cover art by Richard
- Powers, who I'm told is famous for sci-fi novel covers. Song titles
- include "Invasion of the Dragonmen," "Illudium Q-36," "Escape Through the
- Air Vent," "Alien Visitors." Many tracks begin with dialogue clips of
- corresponding sci-fi content. They have lots more music, similarly
- themed, in the pipeline for late 1993 and 1994 release. For more info write
- them at Man or Astro-Man? HQ, 429 Moores Mill Rd. #4, Auburn, AL 36830.
-
- Mannfred Mann's Earth Band:
- "Solar Fire" (interpretation of Holst's "The Planets"), "Time is Right".
-
- Manowar:
- They generally sing about heroic deeds, from days of old, when
- men were bold. They like to dress like Conan, and their music
- brings to mind images of Viking feasts and adventures.
- "Defender", from "Fighting the World" is an example wherein the
- hero goes off on some mighty quest.
-
- Manufacture:
- An industrial band from Boston. "Pain Amplifier" on
- "Voice of World Control" takes its title from the device in _Dune_.
-
- Marillion:
- "Grendel", i.e. Beowulf & friends is the B side of "Market Square Heroes",
- a 12-inch EP. This track is now also available on an import CD called
- "B'Sides Themselves". (The band took its name from "Silmarillion".)
- "Season's End" from the LP of the same name, talks about global warming.
-
- Martha and the Muffins:
- "Echo Beach" seems to be about a desire to travel back in time to
- a beach at pre-war Hiroshima. Update: nope, doesn't look like it.
- It's apparently about a beach in northern Ontario (Canada), near Barrie.
-
- Mary's Danish:
- Their album "Circa" includes the song "Venus loves Leonard", which is
- sort of a '50s SF movie soundalike.
-
- Material:
- The entire CD "Seven Souls", with liner notes from William S. Burroughs.
- Appears to be about the effect of nuclear explosions on electromagnetically-
- constituted souls.
-
- Matthews, David:
- "Dune".
-
- May, Brian and Friends:
- "Star Fleet" from "The Star Fleet Project" is a rock version of the theme
- to a (children's?) science fiction TV show in the UK. The lyrics are
- full of sci-fi references. Eddie Van Halen and Alan Grazier (REO Speedwagon)
- played with Brian on this EP. See also Queen.
-
- McCartney, Paul:
- "Bogey Music" on "McCartney II" is inspired by Raymond Briggs'
- "Fungus the Bogeyman" (1977) which deals with a race living within the
- Earth. "Pretty Little Head" on "Press To Play" is about an ancient worker
- race on a distant planet. See also Wings.
-
- McGear, Mike:
- Paul McCartney's brother, who goes by Mike McGear, put out an album in
- 1975 which I think was called "McGear". It was produced by Paul, and most
- songs were either written or co-written by Paul, with the Wings crew
- playing backup. Included was a song called "The Man Who Found God on the
- Moon", co-written by McCartney/McGear, whose title is pretty descriptive,
- and which features sound clips of Buzz Aldrin, broadcast live from the Moon.
- The song was more adventurous musically than McCartney's own solo work.
-
- McKennitt,Loreena:
- Harpist; "The Visit" has an Arthurian track, "The Lady or Shalott"
- (lyrics are from Alfred Lord Tennysons poem of the same name).
-
- Meco:
- Schlock disco camp versions of things like the main title from "Star Wars".
- Possibly the only band to record a disco track worse than "A Fifth
- of Beethoven". Mired in a 70's timewarp somewhere. Thankfully.
-
- Megadeth:
- Has several songs with sf or sf-related themes. Of note:
- "Set the World Afire," from the album _So Far, So Good...So What!_
- is a cautionary nuclear holocaust song. "Psychotron," from
- _Countdown to Extinction_, is about a half-bionic, half-organic being
- something like the Terminator. Several of the songs from _Rust in Peace_,
- notably "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due," "Hangar 18," "Dawn Patrol,"
- and "Rust in Peace...Polaris." Several songs from _Killing Is My
- Business...And Business Is Good!" and _Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?_
- [ Anybody know if "Hanger 18" is related to the B-movie UFO story? ---Rsk ]
-
- Mekons:
- Who are these folks?
-
- Men at Work:
- "Helpless Automaton" from "Business as Usual" is about a robot falling
- in love with a human. "Doctor Heckyl and Mister Jive" refers to
- the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. "Underground", also from "Business..."
- is about a crisis; and "It's a Mistake" from "Cargo" may be about
- accidental nuclear war.
-
- Men Without Hats:
- "The Great Ones Remember" from "The Rhythm of Youth"; "Folk of the 80's"
- from "Folk of the 80's (Part III)"; "Moonbeam" from "Pop Goes the World".
- "In the 21st Century", "Hey Men", and "Here Come the 90's"
- from "The Adventures of Men and Women Without Hate in the 21st Century".
-
- Messiah:
- "Thunderdome (USA mix)" samples Mad Max 3 ("You know him, you love him").
- "Temple of Dreams" samples The Running Man ("It's time to start
- running" et al.).
-
- Metallica:
- "The Call of Ktulu" on "Ride the Lightning" (Lovecraft reference; the
- name was changed from "Cthulhu" to avoid legal entanglements)
- and "The Thing That Should Not Be" from "Master of Puppets" (also
- Lovecraft-ian, about a critter named Nyogtha -- it's unclear whether
- Lovecraft mentioned this particular beastie or not). However,
- the lyrics of the song are very similar to HPL's phrasing in a quote from
- the Necronomicon in "Call of Cthulhu", leading to the inference that "The
- Thing..." is in fact about Cthulhu. Also see "The Four Horsemen"
- from "Kill 'Em All". "Of Wolf and Man," from their self-titled album,
- is a werewolf story. "Blackened," from "...And Justice for All",
- is not really sf-related, but is an environmental-consciousness song
- somewhat futuristic in nature. "Through the Never" seems to be about
- the entire universe.
-
- Midnight Oil:
- Albums "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" and "Red Sails in the Sunset"
- both have nuclear cautionary themes running thru them. "Red Sails"
- depicts Sydney, Australia after a nuclear strike.
-
- Midnight Star:
- "Freak-A-Zoid" is about the perfect robot lover.
-
- Mike and the Mechanics:
- "Silent Running" is about a man who travels to another planet and gains foreknowledge
- of a major war; he is trying to contact his family on Earth and warn them of
- the crisis. The song was used as the theme for the movie "On Dangerous Ground";
- it's unrelated to the SF film starring Bruce Dern (the one dealing with an
- orbital greenhouse, etc.).
-
- Millions:
- "M is for Millions" has "West" where the narrator
- accidentally visits a recently-departed lover in the land of the dead
- and is distressingly sent away. The album "Raquel" has "Drain the
- Pool and Drown" about being in league with witches.
-
- Ministry:
- "Thieves" seems to have references to a future facist government.
- "Faith Collapsing" from "The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste"
- consists largely of samples from one or another of the _1984_ films.
-
- Misery Index:
- "The Power of 3" includes the single "Sixth Finger", which about the
- Outer Limits of the same name.
-
- Misex:
- An Australian-based band (really from New Zealand) released a
- minor hit single "Computer Games", from the album " Space Race".
- The rest of the album is also SF.
-
- Monitor:
- A German band which produced the single "Mensch aus Glas" (Man of Glass)
- about an Orwell-State where everything about everyone is registered etc.
- (released 1984 - fitting)
-
- Monkees:
- See "Door Into Summer" on their album "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn
- & Jones Ltd.". The song's writer, Bill Martin says "The title came from
- the Robert Heinlein book _The_Door_Into_Summer_, which was about time travel.
- The song is about the search for happiness, and is basically an anti-war song."
-
- Monks of Doom:
- Side-project-turned-spinoff from Camper Van Beethoven.
- "Off On A Comet" (instr.) and "Virtual Lover" (ick! how could they?) both
- from "Forgery", 1992; "The Insect God" (from an EP), based on a book by
- Edward Gorey, author and illustrator of countless strange, scary little books
- (he did the opening sequence to PBS' "Mystery!").
-
- The Tony Monn Concept:
- "Who Built The Pyramides", a song about an alien spaceship
- who landed on earth, helped the people to build the pyramids
- but couldn't take off anymore.
-
- Moody Blues:
- "To Our Children's Children's Children", which seems to be a musical
- score for Olaf Stapledon's novel, "The Star Maker"; also "On the
- Threshold of a Dream" begins with a man questioning his existence and
- turns into computer rantings. Spooky psychedelia...
- Also, the cover of "Long Distance Voyager" shows an 18th century
- scene with something in the sky that looks like a Voyager space probe.
- 1971's "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" has some relevant material; here
- are some comments by Wm. L. Nothstine:
-
- The first track, Procession, does a quick tour of human
- evolution and, through music and sounds, strongly hints that
- ETs were at the origin of it [no lyrics, except three words:
- "desolation, creation, communication"]. It's credited as cowritten by
- all members of the Moodies. [Procession mixes straight into The Story
- In Your Eyes, the best-known cut, which has no real sci-fi take to it,
- but sets some of the fear-of-the-future tone that the rest of the album
- floats back to from time to time.]
-
- The sixth track [on CD; track 1 side 2 of tapes and albums],
- One More Time To Live, recapitulates some themes from
- Procession and puts them into a more apocalyptic framework--humans
- evolving, civilization turning to chaos, technology out of control and
- turning back on the its makers and the earth--but managing to suggest
- hope at the end. It's by John Lodge.
-
- The last track of the album, My Song, briefly picks up the
- theme again in the bridge of an otherwise seemingly unrelated
- song, suggesting hope might come from ETs [perhaps those who attended
- the origins of the species on Earth?]: "where did I find all these
- words/something inside of me's burning/there's life in other
- worlds/maybe they'll come to earth/helping man to find a way." It's by
- Pinder [who also wrote the somewhat like-minded Thinking is the Best
- Way to Travel on In Search of the Lost Chord.]
-
-
- Moorcock, Michael:
- (Some commentary on M.M. from Jeff Berry; see also the entries
- for Blue Oyster Cult, Candlemass, Deep Fix, Hawkwind, and Leatherwolf.)
-
- Michael Moorcock is a very prolific science fiction fantasy writer,
- most widely known for the "Elric of Melnibone" series, a fantasy
- staple. That series is, however, part of a more sweeping
- "supra-series" concerning the Eternal Champion, a warrior who returns
- again and again to live out various lives in a grand and ultimately
- doomed cycle of birth and re-birth. (As an aside note, this concept
- is satirized in Craig Shaw Garnder's "Ballad of Wuntvor" as
- the Eternal Apprentice).
-
- Moorcock has published at least 30 or 40 books, in many different
- series, as well as a number of stand alone novels, both in science
- fiction and in fantasy. Musically he has collaborated with Hawkwind
- and Blue Oyster Cult, writing songs and occasionally performing.
- Futhermore, Elric cover art by Michael Whelan has appeared as album
- cover art in at least a few places (for example, Cirith Ungol
- uses one of his covers for one of their albums).
-
- The Chaosium Game Company has acquired rights to most of Moorcock's
- work for gaming purposes, and has released games based on both Elric
- and on Hawkmoon (yet another incarnation of the Eternal Champion).
- Moorcock books should be available at almost any reputable book dealer.
- More info available at request.
- --- Jeff Barry, nexus@isis.cgd.ucar.edu
-
- Moorcock, Michael and the Deep Fix:
- A companion single to "The New Worlds Fair" was also released called
- "Star Cruiser/Dodgem Dude" (on Flicknife records).
-
- Moore, Gary:
- "Nuclear Attack" from "Dirty Fingers" is about World War III; the
- title track from "After the War" seems to focus on the same topic.
-
- Moraz, Patrick:
- The entire theme of the album "i" is SF; also see another LP,
- "Transplanetary Flight".
-
- Moroder, Giorgio:
- (with Philip Oakey [Human League]): "Electric Dreams".
- The title song for the movie with the same name. It's about a
- computer, who developes emotiones and love for his programmer.
- Actually Moroder did a great part of the soundtrack (and has done
- a lot of soundtrack work in the past).
-
- Mortifee, Ann:
- Has done a few albums with fantastic themes on them. Her album
- "Journey To Kairos", includes the song "Centaur", about the mythological
- beast, "Shankarananda", about the afterlife as described by Eastern
- religions, "Streets of Banaras", which seems to be about a rather
- surreal search.. On her album "Born To Live", she does a song called
- "Merlin" about the mythical wizard, and a pair of songs at the end
- called "The Companion/Phoenix" about a strange creature called
- The Companion that attends an old man, or something like that.
- (There's also some speculation that it comes from the ST:TOS episode
- about Zephraim Cochrane.)
-
- Motley Crue:
- "Shout At The Devil" [from the album of the same name]
- includes a spooky voice-over about a future earth being run by a totalitarian
- government [demons? One-World antiChrist government?] and imploring the
- listeners to 'Rise up/and Shout at The Devil'. Other interpretations, though,
- consider this as an exhortation to rise up against evil.
-
- Move, The:
- "Yellow Rainbow". See also Electric Light Orchestra.
-
- Murder the Disturbed:
- The EP "Genetic Disruption" contains "Walking Corpses" which is about
- robots and "Ultimate System" which is about time travel.
-
- Murphy, Peter:
- The song "Shy" has a segment called "The Sister of Sleep" which
- is based on the comic "Sandman". He also is the physical basis for the
- character Klaus in the comic book Night's Children. (See also Bauhaus.)
-
- NRBQ:
- "Rocket 9".
-
- National Health:
- "Tenemos Roads", from their eponymous debut album, is about a war on Mercury.
-
- Nektar:
- "Remember the Future", "Recycle" and "Journey to the Centre of the Eye"
- are all LP's with SF-ish themes. "Remember the Future" is highly
- recommended on vinyl; the CD mix, at least the pressing I've heard,
- overemphasizes the keyboards at the expense of some terrific guitar work.
-
- Nelson, Bill/Red Noise:
- "Sound on Sound" has a number of songs with SF themes, including
- "Atom Man Loves Radium Girl". He's also done a lot of (mainly instrumental)
- tracks with SF/magic themes.
-
- Nena:
- "99 Luftballons" (WW3 & aftermath); the English version is
- "99 Red Balloons".
-
- The Neon Judgement:
- "Billy Tcherno and Pretty Petrouchka" from "Horny as Hell" is about
- Russian mutants after a nuclear accident.
-
- New England:
- "L-5".
-
- New Model Army:
- "White Coats" talks about genetic engineering and its problems.
-
- New Musik:
- "On Islands" asks the question whether there might be other beings
- in the universe, and "Living by Numbers" rehashes the old numbers
- instead of names theme; both are found on the "Straight Lines" EP,
- and on the "From A To B" LP.
-
- Nilsson, Harry:
- See "Spaceman" from "Son of Schmilsson"; and "Son of Dracula",
- the soundtrack for a very silly movie he made with Ringo Starr.
-
- Nine Inch Nails:
- "The Becoming", with vague references to unwilling/uncontrolled cybernetic
- transformation ["The me that you know/is now made up of wires/
- the blood has stopped pumping he's left to decay..."]
-
- Nirvana:
- Covered Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World" on the "Unplugged in New York" CD.
-
- Normaali, Eppu:
- "Science Fiction", which is mostly derogatory things about people reading SF.
-
- The Normals:
- "Warm Leatherette" was based on the J.G. Ballard novel "Crash".
-
- Nova:
- A Dutch synth band, with the track "Aurora", which might refer to
- the novel by Isaac Asimov.
-
- Nugent, Ted:
- "Hibernation" is an instrumental about being frozen inside a space ship?
-
- Numan, Gary:
- "Cars", of course, and an LP done with a band called "Tubeway Army",
- "Are Friends Electric", containing the title track and "Praying to
- the Aliens"; it's apparently about alien androids taking over the earth.
- See also "Down in the Park", "We Are Engineers", and "I Dream of Wires"
- (also covered by Robert Palmer on "Addictions II").
-
- O'Brien, Richard:
- "Science Fiction Double Feature", from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- Oh, and the entire rest of the music and lyrics too, by the way.
-
- O'Connor, Hazel:
- "Animal Farm (We will be happy?)" (album "Cover Plus", 1981)
- Very abridged but still meaningful version of Orwell's novel "Animal Farm".
- "Eighth Day" track. This is about how, as man advances, the world we know is
- destroyed - part of lyrics - "Nobody laughs, nobody cries". Very similar
- to Zager & Evan's "2525".
-
- O'Connor, Sinead:
- This well-known operatic diva :-) has recorded a track entitled
- "The Emperor's New Clothes", but it would appear that the title
- is the only reference to the fairy tale.
-
- The Object:
- "Theme from Terminator 2", a techno version of the T2-theme, originally
- by Brad Fiedel. It also contains several quotes from the movie.
-
- Oingo Boingo:
- "Perfect System" and "Controller" (both from the LP "Only a Lad") discuss
- Orwellian/Huxleyian societies. "No Spill Blood" from "Good for Your Soul"
- is based on "The Island of Dr. Moreau" by H.G. Wells. See also the
- soundtrack for "Weird Science", and "Dead Man's Party" for various
- songs on spooks and life after the bomb. They also did the soundtrack
- for a 1980 fantasy film, "Forbidden Zone" -- calling themselves The Mystic
- Knights of Oingo-Boingo.
-
- Oldfield, Mike:
- A track from "Discovery" called "Saved By the Bell" describes a trip
- through the universe. See also "Sentinel", "Dark Star" "Sunjammer",
- "Weightless", and "Altered State" from "Tubular Bells II".
- See also the album "Amarok", as well as the entire album "The Songs
- of Distant Earth" which is a soundtrack to A.C. Clarke's novel (with
- liner notes by Clarke).
-
- Oldfield, Sally:
- (yes, this is Mike's Sister) The album "The Water Bearer" is
- based primarily on the Lord of the Rings trilogy from Tolken.
-
- Omega:
- (Hungarian) has a record called "Idorablo" (add some dots and
- accentes here), meaning "Time Robber". The title suite contains
- one part called "Napot hoztam csillagot", "Sun and Stars I brought".
-
- The Only Ones:
- A New Zealand band with a song "Another Girl, Another Planet", which
- is about futuristic space travel....well, maybe. Some folks are inclined
- not to agree with this interpretation.
-
- Ono, Yoko:
- On the "Starpeace" album, "Sky People" refers to living in outer space,
- while the title track contains a phone conversation with aliens.
-
- Optic Eye:
- Contributed a track entitled "Blue Dreamers" to the compilation album
- "Feed Your Head", containing samples from the (bad) movie "Saturn 3".
-
- The Orb:
- Their album "U.F.Orb" includes songs such as "Close Encounters", "O.O.B.E.",
- "Blue Room" (supposedly the nickname of the room in the US where UFO's
- are kept), "Majestic", and the title track. Their first album, "The Orb's
- Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld" featured songs identified by orbits
- and probes instead of numbers, viz.:
-
- Earth Orbit One - Little Fluffy Clouds
- Earth Orbit Two - Earth (Gaia)
- Earth Orbit Three - Super Nova at the End of the Universe
- Earth Orbit Four - Perpetual Dawn
- Earth Orbit Five - Into the Fourth Dimension
- Ultraworld Probe Six - Outlands
- Ultraworld Probe Seven - Star 6 & 7 8 9
- Ultraworld Probe Eight - A huge ever growing pulsating brain that
- rules from the centre of the ultraworld: live mix mk 10.
-
- They also have all sorts of SF related singles.
- A double-album version of "Ultraworld" exists which has extra "Lunar Orbit"
- tracks. According to Keyboard magazine, "Towers of Dub" on "U.F.Orb" uses
- samples from the movie "Sleeper": in particular, the police car siren
- and the robot dog ("Woof woof woof. Hello, my name is Rags!"). They
- also took their name from the, uh, device used in that film. Other
- samples include the introductory dialogue from the "Flash Gordon" movie.
-
- Orbital:
- Their first and second albums (both untitled, but known as 'the
- green orbital album' and 'the brown orbital album') sample from the Star
- Trek TNG episode "Time Squared". They sample Worf saying: "There is the
- theory of the Moebius - a twist in the fabric of space where time becomes
- a loop and from which there is no escape." This is used on 'The Moebius'
- on the first album and 'Time Becomes' on the second. The track on the
- first album also samples a follow-on from Geordi: "When we reach
- that point, whaever happened _will_ happened again"
- Another SF reference on the first album is a sample from the second
- Planet of the Apes film (Beneath...?). It's spoken by a weirdo human
- mutant who worships a nuclear bomb... "Let everyone go to his private
- shelter... may the blessing of the bomb almighty and the <?> of the holy
- fallout descend on us all, this day, and forever more". This track _may_
- be called "Desert Storm". There's a track on the brown (2nd) album called
- "Planet of the Shapes" (sic) too. And a track on their third album,
- which _does_ have a title -- "Snivilisation" -- called "Science Friction" (sic).
-
- Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD):
- A lot of their songs have a futuristic feel to them. Tracks called "Genetic
- Engineering" and "Pretending to see the future" are examples. See also
- "Enola Gay", about the bombing of Hiroshima, and "Apollo XI" from
- their LP "Sugar Tax", which is an instrumental with quotes from
- the Apollo XI mission (ground control, astronauts, etc.).
-
- Orion:
- "Star Trek", a techno mix.
-
- PTP:
- A collaboration between Al Jourgensen of Ministry and Cabaret Voltaire.
- The name stands for Programming The Psychodrill, which is a phrase from a
- J.G. Ballard collage.
-
- Pallas:
- The album "The Sentinel" contains "Rise and Fall" and "Atlantis", which
- are both about Atlantis; also on this album is "Ark of Infinity", which
- is about a deep space hibernation ship.
-
- Pamela, Lucia:
- Legendary space diva. Arf Arf Records (see Space Negros) has re-released
- her "Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela", an album apparently recorded on
- the moon. Pretty much indescribable.
-
- Parker, Graham:
- "Waiting for the UFOs" on "Squeezing Out Sparks".
-
- Pearls Before Swine:
- "Ring Thing" -- Three rings for the elven kings...good rendition.
-
- Peek, Kevin:
- "Starship Suite" from "Awakening", actually managed to work the word
- "cryogenic" into a song.
-
- Penal Colony:
- This band named themselves after a Kafka story. Virtually all of their songs
- contain references to sci-fi; many of their references are to Robert Anton
- Wilson and William Gibson. They also use sample from sci-fi movies, like the
- sample at the beginning of "Blue 9" which is from "Tetsuo the Iron Man." Blue
- 9, incidentally, is the name of a substance used in Gibson's _Neuromancer_.
-
- Pere Ubu:
- "Worlds in Collision" SF-ish title has "I Hear They Smoke
- the Barbecue" about Martian refugees adapting to life on earth,
- "Goodnight Irene" mentions the "King of Mars, fell to earth and ended
- up behind bars" maybe related to the former, along with the title track.
-
- Perplexer:
- "Da Capo" -- a disco/techno version of "Also Sprach Zarathustra".
- Also the video refers to "2001".
-
- Pet Shop Boys:
- "The Sound Of The Atom Splitting" is the B-side of the single
- "Left To My Own Devices".
-
- Petra:
- Christian rock band with numerous SF allusions in their cover art and
- music; see "Computer Brains" on "Beat the System".
-
- Phillip Boa and the Voodoo Club:
- "Get Terminated" on the album "Boaphenia" (released 1992) is a song
- about a near-future dystopia.
-
- Phillips, Anton:
- "1984", inspired by Orwell's book (but completely instrumental except
- for a chorus of "1984" on the last track).
-
- Pickett, Bobby "Boris":
- Famous for "Monster Mash", he also recorded a song titled "King Kong"
- (chorus: "King Kong, King Kong, the white man done you wrong.") and a Star
- Trek parody called "Star Drek" (with Peter Ferrara).
-
- Pinhas, Richard:
- Has done an LP about Dune ("Chronolyse") and also has Norman Spinrad
- doing vocals on a piece on "East/West" that is about some air disaster.
- (Chronolyse is entirely instrumental, by the way.)
- Pinhas did and electronics and played guitar in Heldon (see above).
-
- Pierre Etoile ("Stone Star"):
- Song "In The Sun" on Rough Trade records.
- Can be found also on Indie Top 20 Vol.13.
-
- Pink Floyd:
- Of course. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" & "Astronomy
- Domine", (on "Ummagumma") are fairly representative. Much of their
- instrumental music has an sf/fantasy feel to it. See also "Piper at
- the Gates of Dawn", "Saucerful of Secrets", Some speculation that "Set
- the Controls..." influenced Douglas Adam's writing about the group
- Disaster Area, and containing "Interstellar Overdrive". Pink Floyd's
- "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" borrows its title from a chapter in the
- children's classic, "The Wind in the Willows," in which some animals
- innocently encounter the god Pan. (It might also be a Lovecraft
- reference; anybody know?) "Obscured by Clouds" includes "Childhood's
- End", which might be an A.C. Clarke reference. "Wish You Were Here"
- has "Welcome to the Machine"; "The Final Cut" has "Two Suns in the
- Sunset" about a nuclear holocaust. The video of "The Wall" show's Pink's
- out-of-control fantasies about becoming a facsist dictator ruling his
- audience through music. The album "Momentary Lapse of Reason",
- contains tracks called "A New Machine" parts 1 & 2, which seem to be
- spoken by a computer; it also has "Signs of Life", "Terminal Frost",
- and "Sorrow", which is about a future earth with a shattered ecology.
-
- Pixies:
- "Wave of Mutilation" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven" from "Doolittle",
- "Allison" and "The Happening" from "Bossanova". "Trompe Le Monde" has,
- in addition to the title track, "Palace of the Brine" and
- "Olympus Mons" (the large extinct volcano on Mars). Much of the whole
- album may be about an alien looking for the "Planet of Sound" (Earth)...
- or not. For example, "Head On" is a cover of a Jesus and Mary Chain song.
- In regards to "Trompe Le Monde": "Motorway To Roswell" is in fact inspired
- by the Roswell "incident" - it's about a lost alien who "ended up in army
- crates/and photographs in files".
-
- Some comments from Scott Sutton on the Pixies:
-
- On the album "Surfer Rosa and Come on Pilgrim" (originally an EP and
- album separately) is "Tony's Theme" about a boy who fantasizes
- about being a superhero. The album "Doolittle" has "Monkey
- Gone To Heaven" with lines such as "Creature in the sky got sucked
- through a hole, now there's a hole in the sky" about an alien and the
- Ozone hole? The B-side for "Here Comes Your Man" includes "Into the
- White" with "Go and you'll go real far, just past the blue quasar."
- The album "Bossanova" is mostly sf. "Allison" has "From this here bar
- to this here star ... when the planet hit the sun I saw the face of
- Allison." "All Over the World" is about an alien sky-surfing in a
- planet's upper atmosphere and wipes out, includes the lyric "when one
- side is hot, the other side of the moon is not" also used in a much
- earlier Pixies song, which I can't recall. "The Happening" is about a
- UFO landing in Las Vegas and mentions the suspected government UFO
- facility Area 51. The sound uses the classic sf sound-maker, the
- theremin. "Blown Away" is also sf-themed. The album "Trompe Le Monde"
- again is chock full of sf. "Trompe le Monde" mentions a song played
- "for outer space and those who paid." "Planet of Sound" is about an
- alien searching for Earth, source of rock n' roll radio signals with
- stops on Mars and the Moon. "The Sad Punk" is about evolution and
- extinction. "Palace of the Brine" is about the cloning of Sea
- Monkees. "Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons" is about the martian
- volcano. "Space (I believe in) includes a ride on a magic carpet.
- "subbacultcha" includes the line "what you call it when you look at the
- sky in a poetic kind of way, you know, when you grope for luna."
- "Lovely Day" is about sending money to a "martian honey" so she can buy
- a ticket on a rocket to earth to be with her love. "Motorway to
- Roswell" is about the famous 1946 ufo crash near Roswell, New Mexico
- with the alien's fate "he ended up in army crates and photographs in
- files." Finally, "The Navajo Know" is about the navajo knowing how to
- skywalk "quite high above the ground, fearless of looking down."
-
- Planet P:
- Albums: "Planet P" and "Pink World". Now known as Planet P Project.
- "Planet P" is the name that Tony Carey ("A Fine Day for a Reunion")
- uses when writing SF-oriented music.
-
- Platinum Blonde:
- The album Alien Shores is only half sci-fi...the B side is
- supposedly dedicated to the idea of UFO sightings. Unfortunately, the A
- side is Better. Earlier, on their first album, they did two great songs,
- -Standing in the Dark- and -It Doesn't Really Matter-, both of which had
- mild SF themes, and incredible sci-fi/post-holocaust videos, which are
- really what put the band on the map.
-
- The Pogues:
- On their album "If I Should Fall from Grace with God," there's a song called
- "Turkish Song of the Damned," which is about a sailor who is haunted by
- the ghost of a crewman who he had let drown. Another song from that album,
- "Sit Down by the Fire," is a bedtime story about demons.
-
- The Polecats:
- "Juvenile Delinquents from a Planet Near Mars"
-
- Police:
- "Synchronicity II" (Loch Ness monster references, but not really an
- SF tune) from "Synchronicity". Also "Synchronicity" (a different
- song on the same LP) is about action-at-a-distance; it seems to be
- part mystical, part quantum mechanics. (There's a short short SF story
- called "Synchronicity", by Thomas M. Disch.)
- The album cover has contains a definition of Synchronicity that goes
- with the theme of the first song. Apparently it has to do with an idea
- of Carl Jung's that we're all part of one conscience, etc.
- Also see "Wrapped Around Your Finger", which some claim is about a spirit
- trapped inside a sorcerer's ring; I tend to go with a more mundane
- interpretation. "Demolition Man" (also done by Manfred Mann) from
- "Ghost in the Machine"; borrowed for the soundtrack of the film.
- One could also find SF in "Walking on the Moon", "Omega Man" (possibly
- about the film) and "When the World is Running Down (last man of earth?),
- but these song also have more down-to-earth interpretations. [I can't
- help but think that somewhere Sting is reading this and chuckling
- to himself over our attempts to find meanings that aren't there. ---Rsk]
-
- Pop Will Eat Itself:
- This band often samples the movie "Blade Runner"; the song "Wake Up!
- Time to Die..." is built around that quote from the film. "Def Con One"
- from the album "This is th Day...This is the Hour...This is This"
- describes a nuclear attack. "X Y & Zee" from "Cure for Sanity"
- is a description of a future world.
-
- Porno for Pyros:
- "pets" on "Porno for Pyros" is about Martians coming
- to Earth and cleaning it up, making pets out of the human race.
- ("We'll make great pets.")
-
- Powell, Roger:
- Former keyboard player with Todd Rundgren's Utopia; has a solo
- album ("Cosmic Furnace"?) with tracks like "Sandworm of Arrakis".
-
- Praying Mantis:
- British metal, the LP "Time Tells no lies" has an amazing fantasy cover and contains
- the song "Beads of ebony"
-
- Prince:
- "1999" (album version), released in late 1982, starts off with
- God saying, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. I only want you to have
- some fun." And then Prince sings about how he's going to party and have
- fun like it's 1999 -- the year before the end of the world; thus, "2000
- zero zero, party over, oops, out of time!" The song ends with a child
- asking, "Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?" And then an explosion.
- In 1989, Prince was inspired to write the soundtrack for the first
- Batman movie. In fact, the Batman theme song was one of the very first
- songs Prince learned to play on the piano. The enclosed lyrics to
- Prince's soundtrack album show the listener which character(s) are
- singing which songs (Bruce Wayne, Vikki Vayle, Batman, Joker, and Gemini -- half
- Batman & half Joker). "Batdance" includes clips from the movie.
- Prince's 1992 album, _O(+>_ (the symbol) a.k.a. _The Opera_ includes
- a song called "The Morning Papers." At the beginning of the song is a
- clip from one of Prince's favorite movies, _Barbarella_. It's the part
- in the movie where Barbarella destroys the pleasure making machine, and
- the scientist says he will punish her and show her pain like she has
- never known -- "You will learn the whistle of the lash!" And then
- Prince's song begins. Also of note: one of the members of Prince's band,
- The New Power Generation, is named Tommy Barbarella (keyboardist).
-
- Prism:
- "Take Me to the Kaptain" was a minor hit for this Canadian band on
- AOR stations in 1977-78. The singer falls asleep and wakes up on
- a starship -- thus his plea to see the "Kaptain"!! The record was
- released in the U.S. under the Ariola Records - America label.
-
- Propaganda:
- On the album "A Secret Wish", the song "p: machinery" is about people
- commanded/directed by machines.
-
- Punishment of Luxury:
- "The Laughing Academy" is the name of the album containing a track
- about receiving signals from an alien civilization. The track itself is
- called "Message Received" (I think...). See also "Radar Bug/Metropolis"
- from the same album. The track "Brainbomb" (B side of the single
- "Secrets") is about telepathy.
-
- Quadrophonia:
- Album called "Cozmic Jam" contains songs "Djoum 1000", "The Wave of the
- Future", "Cozm'" and "Ovo", along with the title track.
-
- Quantum Jump:
- (group lead by Rupert Hine) "No American Starship".
-
- Queen:
- "Thirty-Nine", from "A Night at the Opera", discusses the problems of
- relativistic travel. Also "Machines (back to humans)" from "The Works";
- other albums include the Flash Gordon soundtrack and "Fun in Space", a solo
- album by drummer Roger Taylor. "Ogre Battle" (seems to be about the fantasy
- game Ogre) "March of the Black Queen" and "Seven Seas of Rhye" from "Queen II".
- The album "A Kind of Magic" contains fantasy tunes from the film "Highlander".
- And the video from "Radio Ga-Ga" includes clips from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis".
- The song "Don't stop me now" from the album "Jazz" also contains some
- SF imagery. "The Invisible Man" shows up on "The Miracle".
-
- --- A note on Queen from Elisabeth Anne Riba
-
- Both Brian May & Roger Taylor were big SF fans. Brian's first group
- was called 1984. Before Queen, Brian, Roger &Tim Staffell were a group
- called "Smile." They had only one single released, called "Earth,"
- about a lonely spaceman. The chorus goes "I have seen many worlds, for
- what it's worth. But I'll never see again, the planet Earth, my Earth."
- The song closes with "the green hills of Earth," a Heinlein reference.
-
- In addition, the cover for Queen's News of the World album comes from
- the October 1953 issue of Astounding SF. Likewise, Roger Taylor's Fun
- In Space features Roger reading Creepy #119 on its cover. The title
- track begins "Strangers In A Strange Land" and talks about "Little
- Green Stories." (I love that term)
-
- Also see "Dave Clark's Time", a musical about a rock star and fans who get
- transported to Andromeda to face trial for the human race. Freddy Mercury
- did "Time" plus several other big-name stars (e.g. Julian Lennon).
-
- Queensryche:
- Their first and second albums, "The Warning" and "Rage for Order" both
- contain songs about sentient machinery, e.g. "Screaming in Digital",
- "NM 156" and "I Only Dream in Infra-Red". Most of their self-titled
- EP is also fantasy. The album "Operation: Mindcrime" is a rock opera
- about mind control; it tell the story of a man who is programmed by
- revolutionaries to kill political and religious leaders (and his
- girlfriend). The track "Silent Lucidity" on "Empire" is about lucid
- dreaming - not quite SF, but maybe close enough.
-
- The Rah Band:
- Had a mid-80's hit single, "Clouds Across the Moon" which is about a
- woman taking a phonecall from her husband working on Mars,
- the phonecall is cut off by interference by the clouds of the title,
- before she can say how much she loves him.
-
- Red Hot Chili Peppers:
- "Subway to Venus" from "Mother's Milk".
-
- Renaissance:
- "Jekyll and Hyde" from "Azure D'Or", and "Kalynda (A Magical Isle)".
- "Faeries (Living at the Bottom of the Garden)" from the eminently
- forgettable "Camera Camera" album. And, of course "Scheherezade",
- an entire LP side's worth of it. Highly recommended if for
- no other reason than Annie Haslam, an operatically-trained singer
- with incredible range and power.
-
- Replacements:
- "Androgynous" off "Let it Be" discusses "unisex evolution" and how
- "Dick and Janes" who wear pants and skirts will be future outcasts.
-
- Return to Forever:
- Fusion jazz with Chick Corea, Al DiMeola & Stanley Clarke.
- "Romantic Warrior" is a medieval/fantasy concept album. Tracks include
- "The Sorceress" and "The Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant".
- Return to Forever's "Where Have I Known You Before" is Scientology
- (a weird religion invented by the late SF writer L. Ron Hubbard) set
- to kick-ass jazz-rock fusion music. It's all instrumental, but the
- pieces are linked with titles taken from a poem about some kind of
- quest through space. Fusion fans should also check out "Hymn of
- the Seventh Galaxy".
-
- Revolting Cocks
- "We Shall Cleanse the World" from the album "Big Sexyland" is based
- on, and contains samples from the movie "The Omega Man." "Attack
- Ships on Fire" is on the same album, but the only SF connection seems
- to be the title (Rutger Hauer quote from "Blade Runner.")
-
- Rezzilos:
- See "2000 AD", and "Flying Saucer Attack" from "Can't Stand the Rezzilos".
-
- REM:
- Single "Superman", which is actually a cover of a super-obscure 60s
- psychedelic tune by The Clique. For extra SF value, the beginning of
- the track is the sound produced by a talking Godzilla doll. "7 Chinese
- Bros" on "Reckoning" is based on an old children's book called 5 Chinese
- Brothers about 5 brothers with magical powers. Also, in general, the
- "Fables of the Reconstruction" album has a strong dose of Southern-fried
- fantasy, especially in songs like "Wendell Gee".
-
- Radiorama:
- This Italian pop/disco group released an album entitled "2nd Album",
- which contains ongs like "Aliens" (inspired by the movie), "Yeti"
- and "Vampire".
-
- Rainbow:
- Heavy Metal. Some fantasy tracks, e.g. "Temple of the King",
- "16th century greensleeves", "Kill the King", "Stargazer".
- See the album "Rainbow Rising". See also Deep Purple.
-
- Ramases:
- "Space Hymns", including great fold-out cover, studiowork by
- Godley & Creme; apparently expounds religious visions of infinite
- regress of microscopic universes.
-
- Ramatam:
- "In April Came the Dawning of the Red Suns" contains
- "Downrange Party". Band featured April Lawton, the female Jimi Hendrix.
-
- Rapp, Tom:
- The lead singer of Pearls before Swine broke out with two solo
- albums which included these songs: "The Rocket Man", based on the
- Bradbury short story of the same name; "Stardancer", based on the
- Bradbury story, Kaleidoscope; and "For the Dead in Space" an
- original (and equally depressing) song.
-
- Raven:
- More new wave of British Heavy Metal - Architect of fear's title track is sort
- of a horror thing. The LP "Wiped Out" contains "Faster than the speed of light"
- and "Star war". One track (faster than...?) has an voice over into, a voice
- through all kinds of effects saying "Listen here mission control, Einstein was wrong".
-
- Reed, Lou:
- "Red Joystick" and "Down at the Arcade". Also "Satellite of Love".
-
- Residents:
- "The Mole Trilogy", a conflict between two alien cultures. Other
- SF-ish songs and albums, included "God in Three Persons", which is
- about a pair of Siamese twins with healing powers.
-
- The Rheostatics:
- A Canadian band; on their album "Melville", the song "Aliens(Christmas 1988)"
- is about a woman getting kidnapped by UFO-style aliens, one of whom falls in
- love with her.
-
- Rhodes, Happy:
- Has a song called "Wrong Century", about a woman who somehow leaves the
- past for the present, but can't cope with this century and would like
- to return to her own time. On "Equipoise", there is a song called
- 'Save our Souls' questioning the reasoning behind humans trying to
- contact aliens, when we can hardly cope with our problems here on earth.
- Also on "Ecto", there is a song called 'Look for the Child' from which the
- following line is taken: 'When the ships come down from the sky'. It is
- about first contact, and how are we going to choose a representative,
- given the conflicts and prejudices that exist among us.
-
- Richman, Jonathan & the Modern Lovers:
- Their eponymous 1976 album includes "Here Come the Martian Martians",
- a funny song about the Martians' inability to deal with earth and
- the concept of capitalism, and "Abominable Snowman in the Supermarket",
- which is similar in nature. The album "Rockin' and Romance'" includes
- the song "UFO Man", about a visitor who flies around Jonathan's town
- in his flying saucer doing stunts at high speed.
-
- Ridgway, Stan:
- Ex-vocalist from Wall of Voodoo. Quirky subject matter in general,
- but sci-fi specifically on the album "Partyball". See the songs
- "I Want to be a Boss", "Overlords", and "Beyond Tomorrow".
-
- Riley, Billy Lee:
- "Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll" An example of rockabilly, one of the
- staples of the Memphis-based Sun record label. It's about a flying
- saucer whose crew play rock'n'roll - nothing too profound.
-
- Rinder & Lewis:
- Early 80's new-wave group that produced some SF songs, including
- "Apocalypse" and "New Malibu".
-
- Robinson, Tom:
- "Merrily Up on High", about a war that is yet to happen. (Co-written
- Peter Gabriel)
-
- Rolling Stones:
- Wrote the ultimate road song for astronauts, "2000 Light Years From
- Home", which is on "Their Satanic Majesties' Request". Also "2000
- Man", about how child-parent relationships still don't work, even in
- the 21st century.
-
- Roth, Uli John:
- "Electric Sun".
-
- Roxy Music:
- Eponymous 1st album, "Re-Make/Re-Model" concerns having a crush
- on a female android "CTA9538" (or may be a put-down directed towards dating
- supermodels). "Ladytron" is SF-related in name only. "Amazona' from
- "Stranded" is about a journey to Utopia. "For Your Pleasure" contains "The
- Bogus Man", a horror tale about a being who is not quite human and entirely
- homicidal. From "Manifesto" we get "Still Falls the Rain", a 1st-person
- retelling of Stevenson's *Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde* (or is it
- Jerry Lewis' *The Nutty Professor*?). Guitarist Phil Manzanera's solo album
- "K-Scope" has "Hot Spot" [vocal and instrumental backup by Godley & Creme], a
- ditty about partying during WWIII.
-
- Rudimentary Penii:
- This group did a whole album about H.P. Lovecraft. (Can't remember it's name).
- The lyrics are extremely witty.
-
- Rundgren, Todd:
- "King Kong Reggae" and "Sons of 1984" from "Todd". See also Utopia.
- "Healing" is about a man who recives the power to become a healer.
- "A Capella" includes "Miracle in the Bazaar" and "Lockjaw", both
- of which deal with traditional themes like ogres and genies.
-
- Rush:
- In "2112", based on the book "Anthem" by Ayn Rand, the protagonist
- discovers an ancient guitar and winds up battling the dictatorial
- priesthood. The LP also contains "Twilight Zone", about the TV show of
- the same name. "Red Barchetta" on "Moving Pictures"is similar, except
- the guitar is replaced by a car. (It's based on the story "A Nice
- Morning's Drive".) See also "Cygnux X-1" (thought to be a black hole),
- "Rivendell" (Tolkien reference), "The Necromancer". See also "The Body
- Electric" and "Red Sector A" from "Grace Under Pressure". See also
- "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" from "Fly by Night". "Hemispheres" (title
- track thereof) is a sequel to "Cygnus X-1". "Countdown" from "Signals"
- is about the space shuttle. See also "Manhattan Project" from "Power
- Windows". The song "Xanadu" from "A Farewell to Kings" is based on the
- Colerige poem of the same name. See also "The Fountain of Lamneth" from
- "Caress of Steel" and "Anthem" from "Fly by Night" -- both songs deal
- with individuality. See also "Natural Science" from "Permanent Waves",
- which deals with future dystopias, utopias, etc. Also check out
- "Alien Shore" from "Counterparts".
-
- Russell, Leon:
- "Stranger in a Strange Land" -- based on the Heinlein novel.
-
- S.P.O.C.K:
- Swedish space pop band. They were originally called 'Spock' but
- due to legal problems they changed their name to 'Space Pilots On
- Channel K' or 'S.P.O.C.K' Their synthesizer based music is heavily
- SF / Star Trek inspired. Their debut album 'Five year mission' contains
- the following songs: Neutral Zone, Never Trust a Klingon, Charlie X,
- Mr.Spocks Brain, Black Hole, Space Race, Edge of Forever,
- and Last Man on Earth.
-
- Saga:
- Canadian progressive synth-rock band with a series of songs which
- combine to tell a single story spread out over four albums, to wit:
-
- From "Saga": Chapter 4: Will It Be You?,
- and Chapter 6: Tired World;
- From "Images At Twilight":
- Chapter 1: Images,
- and Chapter 3: It's Time;
- from "Silent Knight":
- Chapter 2: Don't Be Late,
- and Chapter 7: Too Much To Lose;
- and from "Worlds Apart":
- Chapter 5: No Regrets,
- and Chapter 8: No Stranger.
-
- Roughly speaking, the story tells of space war, alien encounters,
- and the aftermath of war.
-
- Samson:
- Even more British heavy metal... "Survivors" contains "Big brother", "Wrong side
- of time". Head On contains "Hammerhead", and "Take me to your leader".
-
- Sanders, Ed:
- (A member of the Fugs at one time) released "Beer Cans on the Moon",
- which contains such gems as a song about a yodeling robot in love with
- Dolly Parton as well as some more topical songs. "Dark Carnival"
- sets a number of Bradbury's "Illustrated Man" stories to music.
-
- Sandy Bradley and the Small Wonder String Band(?):
- "Interstellar Sweetheart"
-
- Sangster, John:
- Australian jazz musician, has two albums "The Hobbit Suite" and "Lord of
- the Rings" which are jazz tone poems based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.
-
- Satriani, Joe:
- "Surfing with the Alien" and "Back to Shalla-Bal" are about the
- Silver Surfer of comic book fame. (In fact, he's on the cover of "Surfing
- with the Alien".) Also see the song "Ice-9", a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's
- "Cat's Cradle".
-
- Savatage:
- (heavy metal) "Fountain of Youth" from "Power of the Night", "Hounds"
- from "Gutter Ballet", "Beyond the Doors of the Dark", "Legions",
- "Strange Wings", title track, and "White Witch" from "Hall of the
- Mountain King", just to name a few. Here's a few more: "Sirens",
- "The edge of midnight", "Hyde", "Last Dawn (instrumental)",
- "Holocaust" and "I Believe", which is about a spaceship taking off
- from earth because it's too polluted to sustain life, flying around
- for a couple of thousand years, finding a decent planet to land on, and
- discovering it's Earth.
-
- Saxon:
- "Solid ball of rock" contains the tracks "Altar of the gods" and "Lights in the sky".
-
- Scanner:
- They are a German speed-metal, and their first album, "Hypertrace", is an
- SF story. 7 criminals were turned into supersoldiers during an experiment
- during WWII. They went berzerk, and were shot into space, and their rockets
- exploded, except one, who was found by aliens, and they taguht him to bring
- peace to the world. The aliens gave him the mechanical planet Galactoss, where
- he built 5 androids to send back to Earth, to collect data, so that he
- could save the Earth from destroying itself. Their second album (recorded
- with a new lead singer) and entitled "Terminal Earth" also
- contains a few SF songs.
-
- Schilling, Peter:
- "Major Tom (Coming Home)"; perhaps a sequel to or re-telling of
- Bowie's "Space Oddity" from "Error in the System" (originally
- titled "Fehler im System") [also possibly based on the Bradbury story
- Kaleidescope]; also "The Noah Plan" (about an exodus from Earth),
- "Error in the System" (Earth as lost interstellar colony),
- "Only Dreams" (computers plotting to take revenge on humans),
- "Lifetime Guarantee (mind-controlled Utopia) and others.
- There is some speculation that the translator may be responsible for the
- SF content of some of these; for instance, the original (German) version
- of "Only Dreams" ("...dann truegt der Schein") seems to be a non-SF song.
- "Things to Come" includes "Zone 804" (aliens come to bring peace) and
- "Lone Survivor" (man hides in bomb shelter, but war is averted; he's stuck).
- Also, the song "Berlin, City of Night" (about fighting to reunite Belin
- and Germany) was speculative fiction at the time that it was written.
-
- Schultz, Mark:
- There's a delightful short piece by Mark Schultz entitled
- "Dragons in the Sky" for horn, percussion, and electronic tape. This is
- supposedly the third work Mr. Schultz has written based on The Silmarillion,
- though I have not encountered the first two. This one musically describes
- the battle of the elves with the dragons of Morgoth. The only performance
- of which I am aware is with Thomas Bacon on horn, and Richard Brown on
- percussion on a Summit Records CD, DCD 135.
-
- Scorpions:
- "Robot Man" on "In Trance". See ex-Scorption Uli Jon Roth.
-
- Screaming Blue Messiahs:
- The album "Totally Religious", has some SF-related tracks:
- "Mega-City One" -- Very Judge Dredd-influenced lyrics, about policeman
- in a MegaCity of the future. If you're not familiar with Judge Dredd,
- he is an English comic character, who is a "Judge" in a future
- underground hyperviolent city called MegaCity One.
- "Four Engines Burning over the USA" -- May be stretching it a bit,
- but this song could be about a nuclear attack on the United States.
-
- Scruffy the Cat:
- Album called "Moons of Jupiter" with several songs about outer space.
-
- Sensational Alex Harvey Band:
- See "The Tale of The Giant Stone-Eater" from "Tomorrow Belongs to Me",
- and "Nightmare City" from "Rock Drill". Also "Vambo" and "The Faith
- Healer" from "Next". Bizarre Scottish lads.
-
- Seventh Wave:
- "Things to Come"
-
- The Shamen:
- The album "Boss Drum" contains "Space Time" and "Scientas".
-
- Sheila & B. Devotion:
- "Spacer" a single about - well, a spacer...
-
- Sheila E.:
- "The World Is High" (b-side) is a very apocalyptic sounding
- song (sound effects included) and makes many references to what life may
- be like during the end of the world, including a reference to the vision
- of a nuclear bomb. This was the b-side to "Hold Me" which was released
- in late 1986, early 1987.
-
- Shonen Knife:
- A Japanese band, they often sing about space travel and other SF-ish
- themes. "Parallel Woman" (Japanese) from the "Shonen Knife" album, is about
- a superheroine in a parallel universe. "Riding on the Rocket"
- (japanese), on "Pretty Little Baka Guy", is about visiting different
- planets in a space ship. "The Moon World" (japanese), on "712", is
- about visiting the Moon. "Neon Zebra", a single, is about a zebra
- who gets transformed by aliens. In "Space Christmas" (english), a
- single, Naoko asks for a space ship for Christmas so she can visit
- Pluto. Their latest album, "Let's Knife", includes an
- English-language version of "Riding on the Rocket", as well as "I am
- a Cat" (english), about turning into a cat and dancing on a flying
- saucer. The CD single "Riding on the Rocket" also includes an
- instrumental called "Milky Way".
-
- Shriekback:
- Did a song "Nemesis" about the comics character of the same name.
- (The video shows him/her/it prancing in the background.) However,
- the song may also have a second meaning: "Nemesis" is the name of
- the hypothetical "dark companion" to the sun which (according to one theory)
- is responsible for periodically disturbing the Oort cloud and causing a
- rain asteroids on the earth producing the periodic extinctions that
- (some say) are present in the fossile record. Much of the lyrics
- of "Nemesis" seem to refer to the death of the dinosaurs as the
- result of this sort of cosmic catastrophe. On the album
- "Oil & Gold" (whence Nemesis comes as well), they have "This Big Hush",
- about life after nuclear war, and "Health & Knowledge & Wealth & Power",
- which contains the lines "Touchdown on a different world/White eyes
- look 'round". On "Big Night Music", they have the song "Underwaterboys",
- whose title says it all..
-
- Sigue Sigue Sputnik:
- The album "Flaunt It" includes "21st Century Boy" along with other
- SF-sounding stuff; the lyrics are difficult to decipher. Their
- song "Love Missile F-11" includes samples from "A Clockword Orange".
-
- Sinfield, Pete:
- (See also Caravan, King Crimson, ELP.) His solo LP "Still" contains
- the track "Song of the Sea Goat" which may or may not be fantasy.
- Like much of Sinfield's work, the lyrics are very surreal and difficult
- to interpret.
-
- Sisters of Mercy:
- "Black Planet" from "First and Last and Always" is another
- one of those cheerful post-nuclear-holocaust ballads. :)
- This is another band influenced by J.G. Ballard's sand/desert/
- water/fire/urban-apocalypse imagery.
-
- Skinny Puppy
- "200 Years" from the album "Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse" is
- based on and contains samples from a Twilight Zone episode.
-
- Slayer:
- USA thrash/death metal: lots of Satanic themes some specific songs, LPs:
- "Divine Intervention" has the track "Mind Control"
- "Hell Awaits" has "At dawn they sleep"
- "Show no mercy" has "Crionics" (about being frozen)
-
- Smithereens:
- Just a quick note to mention that "Behind the Wall of Sleep" is *not*
- a Lovecraft adaption (see the entry for Black Sabbath) but is about
- having an obsession with a woman bass player.
-
- Snap:
- "Exterminate" Not only the title refers to "T2". In the booklet of the CD
- from 1992 is written "For the forthcoming 'Terminator 3'".
-
- Sonic Youth:
- On the album "Daydream Nation," a lot of sci-fi/cyberpunk
- themes, and direct references to 'jacking in' as in Gibson's "Neuromancer".
- See also the songs "Eric's Trip", "Hyperstation" and "Silver Rocket".
- Sonic Youth draws heavily on the material of Phillip K. Dick and
- William Gibson, in general; see "The Sprawl".
-
- Soup Dragons:
- The album "Hotwired" uses samples of 60's Star Trek sound effects.
-
- Southwind:
- "The Green Hills of Earth" -- lyrics by Heinlein (or Rhysling, if
- you prefer) from the story of the same name.
-
- Space Track:
- "Das Raumschiff tanzt" (The spaceship is dancing). A techno version of
- the Star Trek theme with the german voices of Kirk and Spock.
-
- Space Negros:
- Mostly the work of one Erik Lindgren. Experimental tape pieces, pop
- tunes, "Generic Ethnic Muzak", and silly stuff. Some pieces with
- space/industry themes: "Martians Have Landed", "Let's Go To The Moon",
- "Demolition Zone" (as well as what must be the definitive cover of "Iron
- Man".) Lindgren runs Arf Arf Records, who, among other things, have
- re-released "Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela" and a half-hour
- children's drama from 1967 called "Space Kids".
-
- Spacemen3:
- Covered "Starship" by Sun Ra and the MC5.
-
- Sparks:
- LP "Kimono My House" has a hilarious fantasy song called "Here in
- Heaven" dealing with a petulant teenage suicide's thoughts in heaven.
- He keeps wondering why his girlfriend didn't kill herself, too.
-
- Sphynx:
- Another band led by Nik Turner, produced the album "Xitintoday" which
- was based on the Egyptian book ofthe dead. The flute was recorded
- inside the sarcophagus of the Great Pyramid.
-
- Spin Doctors:
- Their album "Pocketful of Kryptonite" includes the
- single "Jimmy Olsen's Blues."
-
- Spirit:
- "Future Games" has interspersed fragments of old "Star Trek" episodes
- between tunes. Also see "Potatoland" -- the songs aren't at all SF,
- but are strung together by "The Adventures of Captain Copter and
- Commander Cassidy" in a totalitarian state -- very bizarre.
-
- The Leslie Spitt Treeo:
- A Canadian band, has done a song called "UFO" about someone going to watch for
- UFOs with hopes of getting picked up by one. From their first album--may be
- self-titled, but I wouldn't swear to it.
-
- Spizzenergi:
- "Where's Captain Kirk?"; band was then renamed "Athletico Spizz '80",
- and released a sequel called "Spock's Missing". Another sequel
- (released when they were named The Spizzles) was "Five Year Mission".
- Other songs include "Person-Impersonator" (Athletico Spizz '80),
- "Robot Holiday" (Spizzles), "Mega City 3" (Spizzenergi), and a remake
- of "Where's Captain Kirk" (Spizz Orbit).
- They had a policy of renaming themselves after
- each record; their incarnations were (in order of appearance):
-
- Spizz Oil (three EPs)
- Spizzenergi (two Singles)
- Athletico Spizz 80 (three Singles, one LP)
- Spizzo del Fuego (I think this name was only a rumor)
- The Spizzles (two? Singles, one LP)
- Spizzenergi 2 (two Singles)
- Spizz Orbit (two? EPs)
-
- There is also a compilation of early singles under the name Spizz.
-
- Split Enz:
- An New Zealander band; their song "Poor Boy" is about a romantic/sexual
- encounter with an alien.
-
- Spoons:
- Spoons were a Canadian group and had albums 1981-1988. On their first album
- "Stick Figure Neighborhood" [1981] there was a song with a computer theme and
- with 70's-era computer-sounding music (rather like how people imagined
- mainframes would sound like?) The song was about how he was "saving every
- word on diskette" of his lover. The chorus was something like "Rejecting
- every line, oh oh, oh oh, I'm emptying my mind For Tran, For Tran."
-
- Stackridge:
- UK band from the 70's: see "Purple Spaceships over Yatton", "Slark" (monster
- gets boy, boy gets girls), and "Frankenstein's Pillow".
-
- Starcastle:
- A Yes clone. First album has a nice piece, "Lady of the Lake".
- Believe it or not, they're from Pekin, Illinois (across the river
- from Peoria). If you like Yes's Fragile-era material then you should
- grab their first LP ("Starcastle") and later ones ("Citadel", "Fountains
- of Light").
-
- Starr, Ringo:
- The song "Hopeless" mentions aliens. His forgettable album "Goodnight Vienna"
- has a picture of his face superimposed on a photo from "The Day the Earth
- Stood Still" on the cover.
-
- Steeleye Span:
- Folk-rockers who tend to sing traditional songs with modern instruments.
- "Elf Call" is about elves; "The Demon Lover", a well-known song,
- appears on the LP "Commoner's Crown" along with "Elf Call".
- Note -- most of their work tends to be Olde Englishe Ballades, which of
- course have much to do with things fey and weird. (Prime example would
- be "Thomas the Rhymer", a rock version of "Thomas Rymer".)
- (See also Fairport Convention.)
-
- Steely Dan:
- Fantasy genre rather than straight science fiction: "Home At Last" is a
- retelling of the story of the Trials of Odysseus from Greek mythology -
- the chorus, "still I remain tied to the mast" evokes the story where he
- tied himself to the mast to resist the song of the Siren. Also,
- "The Caves of Altamira," fantasizing about cave dwellers who made the
- cave drawings in Altamira, Spain. "Sign in Stranger" features a "boom planet"
- named "Mizar-5" that is a haven for futuristic criminals and other undesirable
- elements. "King of the World" chronicles the daily doings of a survivor of
- a nuclear war; very surreal. There's an early demo recording called "Android
- Warehouse". One more note: there are a number of Steely Dan references
- in most Gibson novels. See also Donald Fagen.
-
- Stepford Wives:
- Apparently took their name from the old horror film.
-
- Stereolab:
- This UK-based band has a few song titles that are vaguely SF. Most
- notable is "The Stars Our Destination" which reminds one of "The Stars
- My Destination" by Bester but probably doesn't refer to it. A band that
- definitely _sounds_ like it is SF. (The title of one of their albums is
- Space Age Batchelor Pad Music. Very apt.) They're noted for their
- appropriation of hi-fi hype nabbed from the back of 60's Vanguard
- records, as well as for their music (aural op-art with philosophy-essay
- lyrics in French and English). Their '94 album "Mars Audiac Quintet"
- includes "Des Etoiles Electroniques", "The Stars Our Destination" and
- "International Colouring Contest", a tribute to Lucia Pamela.
-
- Steve Miller Band:
- "Brave New World" and "Space Cowboy" from the album "Brave New World".
-
- Stevens, Cat:
- "Freezing Steel" from "Catch Bull at Four"; also "Longer Boats"
- from "Tea for the Tillerman" is about flying saucers. (It may
- not be implicit in the lyrics, but Cat Stevens discussed it in
- an interview.)
-
- Stevens, Ray:
- Song, "Diana and the Robotics", which is about a group
- of appliances that form a band.
-
- Stevens, Steve:
- The title track "Atomic Playboys" is about nuclear war; there are
- probably a few more cuts of a similar nature on the rest of the album.
- Album artwork by H R Giger, of "Alien" fame.
-
- Stewart, Al:
- "The Sirens of Titan" (Vonnegut) from "24 Carrots". See also the title
- track from "Last Days of the Century" and "Red Toupee" from that same
- album -- apparently he cited it as SF in an interview. "Nostradamus",
- from "Past, Present, and Future" is a little bit occultish.
-
- Sting:
- "Dream of the Blue Turtles" has the track "Moon Over Bourbon Street" based,
- according to the liner notes, on Anne Rice's "Interview With A Vampire".
- On the album "Nothing Like The Sun", "Straight To My Heart" speculates, in
- 7/8 time, about forms of sharing love in the future; "Rock Steady" retells the
- story of Noah(which >could< be considered fantasy); "The Lazarus Heart" is
- based on a dream which is apparently a form of the Fisher King story, and has
- fantasy elements to it. The title track from "The Soul Cages" also has
- fantasy elements. Finally, his "Demolition Man" was updated and used
- as the theme song for the movie of the same name.
-
- Strange Advance:
- See "Nor Crystal Tears" from "Strange Advance 2wo" (not a typo).
- See also the album "Worlds Away"; several tracks with SF allusions and
- themes, notably the title track, "One Chance in a Million", and "Sister Radio".
- Cover artwork had examples of Arcologies for futurist-architect Paulo Soleri.
-
- Stranglers, The:
- The album "The Gospel According to the Meninblack" is about a race of
- people from another planet who are raising humans on Earth for their
- food. Considering there are over 5 billion people now, they should be
- very happy. The Meninblack are first introduced in the song "Meninblack"
- on the album "The Raven". See also "Rockit to the Moon", a B-side.
- There's also a song, "Time to Die" which seems to be based on Ray
- Batty's "Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion..." speech
- in Blade Runner.
-
- Strawbs:
- Song called "Fuschia", based on the character
- from Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" (Titus Groan) trilogy.
-
- Stray Cats:
- The title track of the LP "Blast Off" is as full of SF references as you're
- likely to find. For example: "Walking on the moon in blue suede shoes, well
- I saw Doctor Smith and the Robot too"
-
- Stubbs, Levi:
- "Mean Green Muther from Outer Space", from the musical "Little Shop
- of Horrors", in which it is revealed that Audrey II is actually
- an alien planning to take over the earth.
-
- Styx:
- Usually has one sf-ish piece on each album. All of "Kilroy was Here" is
- a fable (this is the LP with "Mr. Roboto"). See also "Man of Miracles"
- and "Come Sail Away". There is some speculation that "Lords of the Ring"
- on "Pieces of Eight" is Tolkien-derived.
-
- Sudden Sway:
- Little known synthesizer based independent band.
- Their "Spacemate" double album contains some futuristic advertising jingles
- for imaginary products. The LP comes with some instructions on how to
- "spacemate" which stands for "Super Dimensional Perceptive Aid Combining
- Every Manner and Type of Everything". A note of explanation from the LP
- cover - "which means it helps you expand your dimensions".
- There are some puzzles and other goodies included by the previous 'owners'.
- A non-musical track from a Peel session named "A Walk in the Park from the
- Hypno-stroll" has a very "Hitchhiker's" feel to it.
-
- Suede:
- "Stay Together", "We are the pigs" & "My Dark Star", all of which are
- about a nuclear winter.
-
- Sugarcubes:
- Iceland's most famous export. Lyrics are often (usually) dreamlike and
- surreal. Try their "Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week": songs include
- "Speed Is The Key", "Planet", "A Day Called Zero" and others. "Chihuahua"
- on "Stick Around For Joy" has "the other vocalist" Einar babbling about
- The Aliens. See also Bjork.
-
- Sun Ra:
- An unusual jazz musician who has been obsessed with space travel; his
- band is the "Arkestra". Some of his songs from the 70's are
- "Rocket Number Nine to the Planet Venus" and "We Travel the Spaceways".
-
- Supertramp:
- Album "Brother Where You Bound". "Fools Overture" is about the threat
- of nuclear war. Possibly "Crime of the Century".
-
- The Surprises:
- The single "Flying Attack" is about being invaded by flying saucers.
-
- Swann, Donald:
- Donald Swann provides music for a number of poems from J.R.R.
- Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings," and plays the piano on this album. The
- piano score is also available from Houghton Miffin in book form; the
- book also explains the motivation for adding music to the poems as
- well as other historical notes about the pieces. The B side of the
- album has J.R.R. Tolkien, reading some of the poems from his book, "The
- Adventures of Tom Bombardil."
-
- Sweet, Matthew:
- "Children Of Time (Forever)" from "Earth" is a story of the future.
- The video for "I've Been Waiting" is loaded with clips
- from the Japanese Animation series "Urusei Yatsura"; the video
- for "Girlfriend" has clips from another anime, "Space Adventure Cobra".
-
- Symphonic Slam:
- One album, with tracks "Universe" and "Fold Back".
-
- T99:
- Songs include "The Skydreamer", "Maximizor" (a single with some Japanese
- SF-style artwork). "Anastasia"(sp?) by T99 samples "...more powerful
- than you can possibly imagine" (Ben Kenobi, Star Wars).
-
- T'Pau:
- This band is named after the Vulcan child bride of Spock in the (original)
- Star Trek episode, "Amok Time". Their biggest hit, "China in Your Hands",
- is about Frankenstein. Most listeners never realised this because the
- version released as a single was missing a couple of crucial lines.
- They may be most well-known for the song "Heart and Soul".
-
- T. Rex:
- Before they hit it big with "Get it On (Bang a Gong)", they recorded
- music dominated by sylvan fantasy themes vaugely inspired by Tolkein.
- (Their percussionist went by the name Steve Peregrin Took, f'instance.)
- The album entitled "T.Rex" includes "Ride a White Swan" and "Wizard";
- two earlier albums, recorded when the band used the long form of their
- name, i.e. Tyrannosaurus Rex, are "My people were fair and had sky in
- their hair...But now they're content to wear stars on their brow"
- and "Prophets, Seers, and Sages."
-
- Talking Heads:
- "Life During Wartime" from "Fear of Music", about an America at war.
- "Moon Rocks" from "Speaking in Tongues", a surrealistic piece about
- nuclear physics and magic. "(Nothing But) Flowers" from "Naked",
- discusses a future return to an agrarian, nature-oriented lifestyle.
- "The Facts of Life" from "Naked" recapitulates human history
- extending it into the future.
-
- Taylor, Roger:
- LP "Fun in Space".
-
- Telex:
- Belgian electro-pop; futuristic tracks include "Rendezvous Dans L'Espace".
-
- Ten Years After:
- "Year 3000 Blues" on "Cricklewood Green" is about someone having to report
- to some sort of euthanasia center because he wasn't up to the society's
- eugenic standards. Also "Here They Come" from "A Space in Time",
- which is about some visiting space travellers.
-
- They Might be Giants:
- "For Science!" is about a man willing to date "the girl from Venus'
- despite the risk of radiation poisoning. Their latest LP is entitled
- "Apollo 18" (the Apollo program stopped at #17). See also "The Guitar".
- The also perform (live) a song called "Why Does the Sun Shine?" which is
- somewhat Mr.Wizard-ish; it's recently been released as a single.
- (They performed it live on Nicks Rocks _ages_ ago, and some people still have
- a copy floating around.) Strangely, it is a cover of an educational children's
- record. It starts out with "The sun is a mass/ of incandescent gas..."
- (It's originally from the album "Space Songs", an album of space songs
- for children performed by Tom Glazer (a children's singer) and
- Dottie Evans (a Country/Western singer). They also did an album called
- "Energy and Motion Songs", about Physics.) There's also a song on one
- of their CD-singles called "Moving to the Sun", sort of sf-ish.
- "The Statue Got Me high" is also sf-ish, and "Actual Size" may be
- about Armageddon. Another notable track: "Particle Man"
- (from "Flood", 1990) combines superhero imagery with quantum physics.
- TMBG were Musical Ambassadors for the International Space Year.
- And "My Evil Twin" is on "Apollo 18".
-
- Thin Lizzy:
- The title track of "Jailbreak" is about a (futuristic?) jailbreak.
-
- Thorpe, Billy:
- "Children of the Sun", a curiously popular song from the early 80's,
- is about an massive alien ship landing.
-
- Timelords:
- Formerly known as the JAMS, now calling themselves the KLF, the Timelords put
- out a single called "Doctorin' the TARDIS", which contains lots of samples from
- the TV show Doctor Who, and a remix called "Gary in the TARDIS" with samples (I
- think) from Gary Glitter.
-
- Titus Groan:
- A band named after, and taking most of their material from,
- Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" books. Relevant songs include "The
- Hall of Bright Carvings" and "Fuchsia".
-
- Tom Ze:
- Warped Brazillian pop. Has two albums out in the States on David Byrne's
- Luaka Bop label. The second, "Hips Of Tradition" features "Ogodo, Ano
- 2000" (Ogodo, Year 2000); a "Jingle do Disco" (Jingle of the Album), a
- self-promoting little ditty in tribute to that great huckster Tom Edison;
- and the nutty "Fliperama", inspired apparently by Clarke's "Childhood's
- End". (Lyrics in Portuguese but with full translations and blurbs in English.)
-
- Tomita, Isao:
- Highly influential electronic musician whose works often have SF themes
- or are derived from SF sources. Some citations by album:
-
- Kosmos: "Star Wars Theme," by John Williams and "A Space Fantasy"
- based on "Also Spracht Zarathustra" (R. Strauss) and
- "Die Valkure" (Wagner). "The Sea Named Solaris," which is Tomita's
- tribute to the Russian SF film "Solaris". The movie is about a planet
- covered by a sea of lava that seems to be sentient. Cosmonauts
- establish a station to study the sea, and the sea studies them by
- reincarnating dead loved ones from the cosmonauts' past.
-
- The Planets: Holst's superb work depicted as a travel through the
- solar system.
-
- "Firebird" includes Moussorgsky's classic "Night on Bald Mountain,"
- which is about a witches' sabbath.
-
- The Bermuda Triangle: A very complex work featuring compositions by
- Prokofiev, Sibelius and others. The album's concept suggests that
- there is a connection between the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon and
- aliens visiting from outer space. The work also includes a section
- with Tomita's electronic version of the famous musical dialogue with
- the alien spaceship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
-
- (Thanks to Gilead Limor and Kendal Stitzel for the writeup on Tomita.)
-
- Tonio K:
- "Mars Needs Women" from "La Bomba". "Life in the Foodchain" has the
- songs "How Come I Can't See You in My Mirror?" (Answer: because the
- subject is a vampire.)
-
- Too Much Joy:
- Album "Cereal Killers" has "Goodbye Ohio" about an
- astronaut who never got to go into space, and "Pride of Frankenstein"
- about surviving the villagers' scorn for those who are different.
-
- Tornados:
- "Telstar", a great surf-style instrumental from the 60's, composed
- for the launch of the Telstar satellite.
-
- Die Toten Hosen:
- A German punk band. Their album "Eine kleine Horrorshow" is an
- interpretation of Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange", the
- novel which Stanley Kubrick made into film.
- ("Tote Hose" translates to "dead pants", which is a German
- slang expression for "nothing going on". Thanks to Thomas Koenig
- for pointing this out, and to Horst Kiehl getting the grammar right. :-) )
-
- Toto:
- Several tracks of the "Hydra" and "Isolation" albums have SF themes;
- they also handled the soundtrack for "Dune".
-
- Pete Townshend:
- "Uniform", from "All The Best Cowboys have Chinese Eyes" discusses
- the use of computers in the service of the state.
- "The Iron Man" LP/rock opera is about an (alien?) robot who eats
- everything in sight that's made of iron, including tanks and guns;
- features the song "Heavy Metal". It also involves a dragon from space,
- flying to the sun, etc.; it's based on an SF-style children's book by
- Ted Hughes called "The Iron Giant". "Early Morning Dreams" from "Psychoderelict"
- is about virtual reality; the whole album contains materials from the Who's
- abandoned Lifehouse project. See also The Who.
-
- Toyah:
- "Sheep farming in Barnet" - Near future high tech (mind to machine transfer)
- Messianic story. "Anthem", story of a girl growing up in the present, but
- uses *lots* of SF imagiary. "The Changling" seems to be a pre-post holocaust
- story but is open to other interpretations. See also "Martian Cowboy"
- from "Love is the Law". Her Second Album "The Blue Meaning" (1979)
- features a Song called "Tiger Tiger" after Alfred Bester's novel
- "The Stars My Destination". The track "Vision" of "The Blue Meaning"
- has also science fiction aspects. The Song "The Vow" from her
- album "Love is the Law" has SF aspects as well.
-
- Transvision Vamp:
- Several SF-themed songs, notably "Hanging Out with Halo
- Jones", about the character from the British comic "2000 AD"; the same song
- also has a reference to William Gibson's "Neuromancer".
-
- Tresspass:
- New wave of British heavy metal again - they have the songs "Visionary"
- and "Stormchild" as a couple of examples.
-
- Tubes:
- "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman", on "Completion Backward Principle";
- also "Space Baby" and "Cathy's Clone".
-
- Turner, Tina:
- "Private Dancer" has the track "1984". She also sang the two theme
- songs from "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", "One of the Living" and
- "We Don't Need Another Hero", as well as acting in the movie.
-
- Twelfth Night:
- "We are Sane" from "Fact and Fiction" is about state control of thoughts
- by the implantation of a "component".
-
- U2:
- Bono and The Edge did the score for a new stage production of
- "A Clockwork Orange." One song is available on the single of
- "The Fly" -- no relation to the horror movie.
- They say their latest album, "Zooropa," is inspired by William Gibson/Cyberpunk.
- It's set in a very shallow, Godless world etc. Babyface is about a guy who
- falls in love/believes he has a relationship with a model through his tv. (lots
- of good puns in that one... 'coming home late at night to turn you on...'...
- Stay (faraway, so close) is another Wim Wenders title track, and in the video
- the band members play guardian angels for 4 Berlinners. Lemon is about using
- technology to watch yourself. Oh, and "Even Better Than The Real Thing"
- from "Achtung Baby" is about virtual sex.
-
- Ubangi:
- Swedish band wrote "Monster ombord" (Monsters on board,
- something has invaded the space ship) Some of their albums
- have English lyrics...also, the LP "Disco Baby" has a song
- "They Came From Outer Space".
-
- UFO:
- British hard rock band from the early 70s to the 80s. Lots of SF stuff,
- most predominant in their first two LPs (UFO and Flying). Tracks like
- "Unidentified Flying Object", "Star Storm", "Flying", etc.
-
- Ultravox:
- "All Stood Still" is apparently about an accident at a nuclear power
- station. "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" is about a nuclear attack.
- Futuristic/surrealistic tracks from the Foxx era include "Slow Motion" and
- "The Man Who Dies Every Day". Also, "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and "I Want
- to be a Machine".
-
- Underground Zone 0:
- A Hawkwind-connected band, did a song "Canes Vanatici" about a very
- powerful alien telling us to clean up our act.
-
- Uriah Heep:
- "The Magician's Birthday", and "Demons and Wizards". Both are
- concept albums, although the former is more cohesive than the latter.
- Musical quality varies from subtle to bombastic wretched excess...
- but then again, I tend to like bombastic wretched excess. :-)
-
- Utopia:
- (See also Todd Rundgren, Roger Powell.)
- "Winston Smith Takes It on the Jaw" from "Oblivion". (Orwell's 1984)
- Possibly "Adventures in Utopia". Also "Utopia", "Abandon City" from
- "Oops, Wrong Planet" and "Emergency Splashdown" (which also appears on
- one of Roger Powell's solo albums). "RA" is heavily fantasy, including
- the epic "Singring and the Glass Guitar, an Electrified Fairy Tale".
- "Zen Machine" from "POV" is cyberpunkish. "The Seven Rays" from
- "Another Live" might be SF.
-
- Vai, Steve:
- "Little Green Men" and "Next Stop Earth" from his album "Flex-Able".
- Vai claims his album "Passion & Warfare" is a conceptual SF story
- with the plot being too detailed to publish with the CD and says that
- "Passion and Warfare - The Novel" will be published soon, but until then
- it's pretty disjointed. Some instrumental pieces on Steve Vai's
- _Sex and Religion_ have fantasy titles or themes: "An Earth Dweller's
- Return" and "The Road to Mt. Calvary."
-
- Van der Graff Generator:
- "Pioneers Over c", and others. (c = speed of light)
- See also "Still Life" (immortality) and "Childhood's End" (destiny
- of mankind; presumably based on Clarke's book) from "Still Life".
- Also "After The Flood" (melting of polar icecaps) from "The Least Can Do
- is Wave to Each Other". From "Godbluff", see "Arrow" (fantasy),
- "Sleepwalkers" and "Scorched Earth" (programmed soldier?).
-
- Vaselines:
- Wrote a song called "Lovecraft", a tribute to the horror-meister.
-
- Velvet Underground:
- The song "I'm Sticking with You" from their eponymous album mentions
- "Moon people flying through the stratosphere".
-
- Ventures:
- (Yes, those guys with the Fender Telecasters and Stratocasters and
- Champ Amps with the tremolo turned up playing "Walk, Don't Run.")
- Had an album entitled "The Ventures in Space" on which virtually all
- tunes had sci-fi titles, like "Invasion of the Satellites" and "Moon Child."
- Also, one of their best known tunes is "Journey to the Stars," which appeared
- on "The Fabulous Ventures" and "The Ventures on Stage," and also (I believe)
- as a single. (They also covered "Telstar", originally done by The Tornadoes.)
-
- Violinski:
- "No Cause for Alarm" (WW3 breaks out in your neighborhood)
-
- Visage:
- Redid Zager & Evans "2525"; also did some other SF-type material.
-
- Visser, Ad:
- A Dutch multitalent who wrote the book "Sobrietas" and released
- "Sobrietas", the soundtrack to his book (!). Recommended tracks: "Head
- Over Heals in Paradise", "Futurian Symphony".
-
- VoiVod:
- Their lyrics are largely SF. Most of their albums are conceptual and
- loosely based around the VoiVod character. The earliest stuff is
- standard post-holocaust type business, although they developed
- considerably with "Dimension Hatross", an allegorical story in which
- the VoiVod creates a parallel microdimension and monitors the development
- of the inhabitants from tribal societies to technocratic states eventually
- to apocalyptic destruction. "Nothingface", contains more surreal
- cyberpunk(ish) SF lyrics with more introspective themes. "Angel Rat"
- deals with a variety of concepts from Chaos theory to robot sentience.
-
- David Vorhaus:
- "White Noise III, re-entry", released 1980. The album (mostly
- instrumental/electronic) "tells" the story of an astronaut deciding
- to leave Earth (tracks include "Countdown", "Lift Off", "Deep Space Drift",
- "Black Hole Blues").
-
- Wah!:
- "The Seven Thousand Names of Wah!" on "Nah Poo- The Art of Bluff"
- deserves a mention since its title is borrowed from Arthur C. Clarke
- and finishes with the lines "One by one the stars are going out" which
- is a direct quote from the Clarke story ("The Nine Billion
- Names of God"). The single "Better Scream" concerns a
- future apocalyptic war.
-
- Wakeman, Rick:
- "Journey to the Center of the Earth" retells Verne's story; "No
- Earthly Connection" has a fantasy slant to it. "Myths and
- Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" tells
- the story of Camelot. The album "1984" (released in 1981!) is
- a concept album based on George Orwell's book of the same name.
- It includes tracks entitled "Robot Man", "Julia's Song", "No Name"
- and "The Proles". Wakeman also released the album "Time Machine"
- in the mid-80's, but it's unclear that this has any relationship
- to the H.G. Wells novel. See also Yes and Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe.
-
- Randy Van Warmer:
- On the album "Terraform", the title track is a three part SF song, the last
- part of which is "I'm so 21st century" (repeated ad-nauseum). The song,
- as well as the album, is absolutely dreadful. ;-)
-
- Warp 7:
- "Theme from Enterprise", another techno version.
-
- Warrior:
- The LP "Fighting for the Earth" deals with saving the earth
- from demonic evil by forming a band of hard-core warriors to
- do battle with it. The band has been characterized as
- "a nontypically environmentally concerned metal band".
-
- Was (not Was):
- "Born to Laugh at Tornadoes" contains "Man vs. the Empire Brain
- Building" a cyberpunk piece in which the vocals mostly consist of
- the following line repeated over and over:
- "In my life there's just three things:
- Man vs. Nature
- Man vs. Woman
- and
- Man vs. the Empire Brain Building"
- Of course, "Walk the Dinosaur" is about...
-
- Waters, Roger:
- "Radio K.A.O.S." is a story about a psychic who hears radio
- waves in his head; he learns to control them and takes over
- a military computer system. His 1992 release "Amused to Death"
- exmaines mankind's fascination with television, and ends with
- the arrival of "alien anthropologists" who declare that mankind
- had evidently "Amused itself to death." See also Pink Floyd.
- Participated (with his Bleeding Heart Band) in the soundtrack
- for the English animated film "When The Wind Blows"
- about an old couple experiencing a nuclear attack.
- The second half of the soundtrack album (Virgin) is by them.
-
- Wayne, Jeff:
- "War of the Worlds". H.G. Wells' story with
- Richard Burton doing narration, and awful music (purely
- a personal opinion ;-) ).
-
- Weather Report:
- "I Sing the Body Electric" borrows the title from Ray Bradbury and
- shows an android on the cover.
-
- The Weathermen:
- LP "Ten Deadly Kisses" features a track "Space", which is about
- a space-age yuppie.
-
- Jimmy Webb:
- "The Highwaymen," a song about reincarnation in which the
- narrator imagines himself in last verse: "I'll fly a starship/across the
- universe divide/and when I reach the other side/perhaps I may become a
- highwayman again/or I may simply be a single drop of rain/but I'll be
- back again..." Also recorded by Nelson, Jennings, Krisofferson and Cash.
-
- Weezer:
- The song "In the Garage" references playing Dungeons & Dragons.
-
- White Zombie:
- Song, "More Human Than Human," which seems to be based loosely
- on _Blade_Runner_.
-
- Who, The:
- "Tommy" is half-fantasy, half-opera. "905" from "Who Are You?".
- Also "Rael" from "The Who Sell Out". "Baba O'Riley" from "Who's Next"
- seems to possibly be about some post-holocaust world. (Note:
- "Baba O'Riley" and other tidbits were part of the very SF-ish
- concept album "Lifehouse", which was never released.)
- See also "Dr. Jimmy" from Quadrophenia (depends on
- how you interpret it).
-
- Some commentary on The Who from Laurent Mousson:
-
- The Who dabbled quite a lot with SF, although little of it ever
- leaked out. In 1966, Townshend begun writing a musical called
- "Quads", set in 1999, at a time when people can choose the sex
- of their children. In a family who asked for four girls, a boy
- is born, and his mother can't cope with it. This is the
- storyline of "I'm a boy", which is the only song that was
- probably written for the project in the end.
-
- In 1967, you mention "Rael" from "The Who Sell Out", which is
- also set in the future, and has something to do with
- overpopulation. The "Red Chins" mentioned at the beginning of
- the lyric are a (thin) disguise for the Red Chinese, which were
- quite a cliche of the Era. A bit later, John Entwistle Wrote a
- B-side entitled "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", about coping with
- drummer Keith Moon's antics on the road (Which is SF indeed).
-
- "Tommy" (1969) once bore the "A Journey Through Space" working
- title. And when Kit Lambert, the band's manager, wrote a script
- to Tommy, in order to try and clear the confusion in
- Townshend's mind about the plot, he entitled it "Tommy : 1914 -
- 1984", which was anticipation at the time.
-
- In 1971, Townshend launched another project (quite a
- megalomaniac one) called "Lifehouse", a sort of Rock'n'Roll
- "Fahrenheit 451" mingled with Meher Baba's (Townshend's guru)
- teachings, including the Who playing a six-month long concert,
- in search for "the Note in us all". It was a resounding flop,
- but the debris surfaced in the "Who's Next" and "Odds and Sods"
- albums, as well as the 3 singles that followed "Who's Next"
- ("Let's See Action", "Relay", "Join Together"), as well as in
- Townshend's solo album "Psychoderelict" (1994). The question
- that remains, about this album is "Was the cover meant to be a
- send-up of the monolith in '2001, a Space Odyssey' ?". John
- Entwistle seems to have said once it was the case...
-
- In 1977, John Entwistle (bass player) started writing a
- "Science-Fiction Rock Opera" which aborted and led to both
- Entwistle songs eventually included in 1978 on "Who are You".
-
- That's about it for the Who. I know I'm being terribly
- pedantic, but I can't help it. All this info can be found in
- Dave Marsh's book "Before I Get Old : The Story Of the Who".
-
-
- Wilde, Kim:
- "Blade Runner" (album "Teases And Dares", 1986)
- Somehow related to Ridley Scott's movie, features samples from the film.
-
- Williams, Dar:
- Massachusetts-based singer/songwriter. "The Great Unknown", from her
- album "The Honesty Room", is primarily about mistrust of citizens by
- the government, using nuclear technology as the context. (And, if your
- editor may pause to indulge his musical tastes for a moment, this album
- and "Mortal City" are brilliant little gems that need to be on your shelf.)
-
- Tony Williams Lifetime:
- "Believe It" conatins the track "Mr. Spock" Re-released as "The Collection".
-
- Winders, Wim:
- The soundtrack "Until the End of the World" soundtrack from the
- Wim Wenders' film of the same name is listed here because a number
- of artists contributed to it. The movie is a futuristic thriller
- about the end of the world, and the music supports the action.
- Some terrific stuff from U2, REM, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, and many others.
-
- Wings:
- "Nineteen Eighty-Five" from "Band on the Run". Also "Magneto and
- the Titanium Man" and "Venus and Mars (Reprise)" from "Venus and Mars",
- which is set at a spaceport. Also "Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)" from
- "Red Rose Speedway" and the time-travel song "Backwards Traveller" on "London Town".
- See also Paul McCartney.
-
- Wishbone Ash:
- "The King Will Come", "Phoenix", and "Throw Down the Sword"
- (all from "Argus") are all heroic-fantasy type pieces. (By the way,
- W.A.'s double/triple lead guitar work is worth hearing. ---Rsk)
- Also see the title track from "Number the Brave".
-
- Winter, Edgar:
- Recorded an entire soundtrack for L. Ron Hubbards' ten-book
- series 'Mission Earth'. The material was written by Hubbard and recorded
- by Winter. Its available on vinyl in most record stores.
- L. Ron Hubbard also collected a bunch of artists to do a soundtrack for
- his novel 'Battlefield Earth'; chief among these is Chick Corea.
- And don't forget the instrumental version of "Frankenstein", which
- was a pop hit in the early 70's.
-
- Wood, Roy:
- "Miss Clarke and the Computer" from "Boulders" (computer falls in
- love with its operator). See also The Move, Electric Light Orchestra.
-
- Wooley, Sheb:
- "Purple People Eater"
-
- XL Capris:
- Australian band, did a song called World War III on their "Where is Hank?"
- album. (They have connections with New Zealand band Dragon, through
- Todd Hunter.)
-
- XTC:
- "Reel by Reel" (the government can hear and record your thoughts);
- "This World Over" from "The Big Express" which is a post-nuclear
- holocaust cautionary tale. "That's Really Super (Supergirl)"
- from Skylarking is about Supergirl's boyfriend becoming distraught
- over her "other life". "Science Friction" (yes it's supposed to have
- an 'r' in it) on "3D EP" (also on the CD version of "White Music").
- XTC have released under their alter-ego "The Dukes of Stratosphear" (sic)
- two fake-psychedelic albums, which do have a lot of SF-pointers.
- Most obvious in the songs: "Bike Ride to the Moon", "What in the World ???",
- and "Braniac's Daughter"
-
- X Ray Spex:
- "Genetic Engineering" from the album "Germ Free Adolescents" is about
- the dangers of creating genetically 'superior' beings.
-
- Yankovic, Weird Al:
- "I Think I'm a Clone Now" from "Even Worse" (parody of the 60's hit
- "I Think We're Alone Now", recently recut by Tiffany).
- "Yoda" (to the tune of "Lola") and "Slime Creatures from Outer Space",
- an original music-tribute to B-movies; both are from "Dare to Be Stupid".
- Also "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters From a Planet Near Mars"
- on the soundtrack for "UHF", and "Christmas at Ground Zero" from
- "Polka Party".
-
- Yaz:
- There's a song on the album "You and Me Both" about childhood
- during a nuclear war.
-
- Yellow Magic Orchestra:
- "Citizens of Science" from "X Infinite Multiples".
-
- Yes:
- Much sf-oriented work. Try "Astral Traveller" and "Starship Trooper"
- (Heinlein? maybe). See also Jon Anderson's "Olias of Sunhillow" and
- Anderson & Vangelis's song "Mayflower" from "The Friends of Mr.
- Cairo". See also "Then" with references to telepathy. Also, "Arriving
- UFO" from "Tormato", "Machine Messiah" from Drama
- (computer/controller), most of the entire album "Close to the Edge"
- (which your editor regards as unquestionably the most complex and
- finest piece of music ever written and performed by a rock band),
- "South Side of the Sky" from "Fragile", and "Awaken" from "Going for
- the One". "Shoot High Aim Low" from "Big Generator" might be about a
- futuristic war. The problem with figuring out much of Yes's work is
- that the abstract poetic style often obscures the meaning and multiple
- interpretations are possible. See also Rick Wakeman, Jon Anderson, &
- Anderson, Wakeford, Bruford and Howe.
-
- Young, Kenny:
- LP "Last Stage for Silverworld"
-
- Young, Neil:
- "After the Gold Rush", and "Ride my Llama" from "Rust Never Sleeps".
- ("After the Gold Rush" ends with a line about a mothership arriving
- and "...taking Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun".)
- On the album "Trans", see "Computer Age", "We R In Control", and "Sample
- and Hold".
-
- ZZ Top:
- Just a note to mention that the videos for the songs from their "Afterburner"
- album had SF themes; also the song "TV Dinners" from "Eliminator" had
- some SF references, and shows a little TV-channel-changing alien.
- "Sleeping Bag" from "Afterburner" shows the transmogrification of the
- Eliminator into a space-shuttle looking vehicle...this is continued in
- the video for "Rough Boy". The little alien above shows up again in the
- video for "Burger Man" from "Recycler", this time somewhat larger.
- Recorded "Double Back", the theme from "Back to the Future III".
- The band has expressed a desire to be the first lounge act on the shuttle.
-
- Zager & Evans:
- "In the Year 2525"; dated but cute; was #1 when Armstrong walked on the moon.
-
- Zappa, Frank, and the Mothers:
- "Cheapnis", from "Roxy and Elsewhere", is the story of a grade Z monster movie.
- "Thing-Fish" (evil scientist, etc.). "Inca Roads" from "One Size Fits All"
- discusses the question of whether or not extraterrrestrials made the
- huge patterns visible from the air in the Andes. See also "The Radio is
- Broken" (from "The Man from Utopia") and the title track from "Drowning Witch".
- See also "Billy the Mountain" from "Was Mothers Just Another
- Bands from L.A.?", the story of a sentient mountain which refuses
- induction into the U.S. armed forces. Also "Joe's Garage", a dystopian
- operatta about a society which controls its citizens by making as many
- things as possible illegal; presented as if it were an object lesson
- told by an enforcer from that society. This album also includes
- a parody of the Church of Scientology (Church of Aplientology)
- as well as a couple of songs about possible sex with a robot: "Stick
- it Out" and "Sy Borg". The former contains a fair smattering
- of lyrics in German since the robots are supposedly attracted to those
- who can speak conversational German.
-
- Zevon, Warren:
- "Werewolves of London" from "Excitable Boy", just for fun.
- "Transverse City" is a concept album which, according to interviews
- with Zevon, is based in part on "Bladerunner" and the works of
- cyberpunk author William Gibson. SF tracks on the album include the
- title cut, "Run Straight Down", and "The Long Arm of the Law".
- (Zevon also cut a track for grins called "Werewolves of Bryn Mawr",
- referring to the Philadelphia suburb.)
-
- Miscellaneous Notes and Comments:
- ---------------------------------
-
- Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michael Jarre, Return to Forever, Weather Report,
- Vangelis, Klaus Schultz, Deodata, Eno, Jean-Luc Ponty, Michael Urbaniak,
- Stomu Yamashta & Go, The Enid, Peter Michael Hamel, Bo Hansson, Mannheim
- Steamroller, Lancaster & Lumley, Lol Creme & Kevin Godley, Shadowfax,
- Larry Fast aka Synergy, Kitaro, Mark Shreeve, Kevin Braheny, Steve
- Roach, Constance Demby, Michael Sterns, Software and B.J. Cole:
-
- ...have all been listed down here because several people have pointed out
- that "sounding like SF" doesn't make it SF music. Note that some of these
- people have done some SF soundtracks, and that some of them have done
- instrumental material with SF/fantasy titles. Notable works include Hansson's
- "Lord of the Rings", Creme & Godley's "Consequences", an ecological parable,
- Mannheim Steamroller's "Fresh Aire V", a musical retelling of Kepler's
- fantasy about a trip to the moon and back, and Klaus Schulze's "Cyborg"
- and "Dune". Jarre's "Rendez-Vous" album was going to have had the sax part
- for the track "Final Rendezvous/Ron's Piece" played, in orbit,
- by Ron McNair on the ill-fated Challenger launch. Jarre's "Chronologie"
- (1993) was inspisred by Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time".
-
- Hitchhiker's Guide:
- Just a note that the theme music for THHGTTG is "Journey of the Sorcerer"
- from the Eagles' "One of These Nights". Marvin is credited with a single
- called "Marvin", backed with "Metal Man". Tim Souness did a single of
- the HitchHiker's Guide theme. Disaster Area is credited with "Only
- the End of the World Again", the B side of the theme single.
- A second single called "Marvin I Love You" was released later--in it, Marvin
- discovers an old recording of a female voice declaring her love for him
- while perusing his memory banks. (Of course, he doesn't know where it
- came from.)
-
- Doctor Who:
- Just a note to mention "Doctorin' the TARDIS" and "Gary and the TARDIS"
- by the Timelords (now The KLF), "Who is the Doctor" by Jon Pertwee,
- "Doctor...?" by Blood Donor, "Doctor in Distress" by Who Cares, and
- "S.O.S. Daleks have landed" by ??.
-
- SF Themes in Opera:
- This section was originally posted to rec.music.classical by
- ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper), who has kindly
- granted permission to reproduce it here.
-
- Benford, David & LeGuin, Ursula K. "Rigel-9"
- Standard sf fare - astronauts on strange planet, one sensitive,
- the rest rednecks. Only he sees the strange city in the forest etc.
-
- Benford, David "Star's End"
- A fantasy on SF themes.
-
- Blomdahl, Karl-Birger "Aniara"
- About a space ship leaving Earth (which is in an environmental
- crisis).
-
- Davis, Anthony & Atherton, Deborah "Under the Double Moon"
- Attempt of a government Inspector to force telepathic twins to
- accompany him to feed the powers of the Empress.
-
- Dresher, Paul & Eckert, Rinded "Power Failure"
- About an evil tycoon who has spent millions on a perpetual youth
- machine for himself. When the moment comes to use it, a power
- failure traps him, his assistant, secretary, and the janitor in
- the underground laboratory. Despite the morality-play aspects of
- what follow, it comes off as a powerful statement against rampant
- materialism and exploitation of people and the environment.
-
- Glass, Philip "Einstein on the Beach"
- Has a scene where a flying saucer appears.
-
- Glass, Philip "1000 Airplanes on the Roof"
-
- Glass, Philip "Hydrogen Jukebox"
-
- Glass, Philip "Juniper Tree"
-
- Glass, Philip & Lessing, Doris "The Making of the Representative
- from Planet 8"
-
- Haydn, J. "Il Mondo della Luna"
- "It isn't straight sci-fi in the modern sense; the setting was meant
- to provide a distant enough context to present a parody of powerful
- people and institutions." But it *isn't* set on the moon; it has
- someone tricked into believing they have traveled to the moon when
- they haven't.
-
- Janacek "The Excursions of Mr Broucek"
- Two stories, one of which is Mr Broucek goes to the moon.
-
- Janacek "The Macropoulous Affair"
- Original by Karel Capek; the story of a 400+ year old opera
- singer who possesses the formula for endless youth
-
- Ligeti, G. "Le Grand Macabre"
- I. The setting is the countryside in Brueghelland. Preceded by
- the drunken Piet the Pot, the two lovers Amando and Amanda look
- for a secluded place in which to make love. Out of a sepulchre
- to one side of the stage emerges Nekrotzar, Angel of Death,
- Great Reaper, Demon, Vampire etc, to announce the end of the
- world that day at midnight.
- II. Astradamors, court astrologer and hen-pecked husband, sees
- apparitions through his telescope portending disaster. His wife
- dreams of Venus, whom she asks to be sent a real man for a
- husband. Astradamors' fears are confirmed with the arrival of
- Nekrotzar, who first fulfils Mescalina's sexual desires and then
- kills her.
- III. The gluttonous ruler Go-Go receives word from the Chief of
- his secret police ('Gepopo') that a comet is headed on a collision
- course for Breughelland. Nekrotzar arrives with appropriate pomp
- and ceremony to announce once more the end of the world.
- Astradamors celebrates the death of his wife with Piet the Pot in
- a drinking bout, and Nekrotzar, imagining the cup is filled with
- sacrificial blood instead of wine, joins in. Becoming increasingly
- intoxicated, Nekrotzar boasts about his cruel misdeeds and fails
- to notice that midnight has already passed.
- IV. With everyone wondering whether or not the world has really
- ended, Mescalina breaks out of her tomb and recognises Nekrotzar
- as her first husband, who then sinks into oblivion under the
- weight of his failure. Having missed all the excitement, the two
- lovers reappear.
-
- Mackover, Todd "Valis"
- Based on the Philip K. Dick novel
-
- Menotti, Gian Carlo "A Bride from Pluto"
-
- Menotti, Giancarlo "Help, Help the Globolinks!"
-
- Monk, Meredith & Chong, Ping "The Games"
- About a human society in a spacecraft that has been en route to a
- distant star system for many generations. The games are simple
- children's games which have acquired ritual status in the spaceship
- culture. (Ballet?)
-
- Offenbach, Jacques "Tales of Hoffman"
- The story of an automaton.
-
- Offenbach, Jacques "Journey to the Moon"
-
- Rice, Jeff "The War of the Worlds"
-
- Swan, Donald "Perelandra"
- Based on the C. S. Lewis
-
- Swan, Donald various Tolkien songs (not opera)
-
- ? Robert Anton Wilson's stuff
-
- ? "A Wrinkle in Time"
-
- And some random comments:
-
- George Coates has a new work that takes place in virtual reality at
- a theater in San Francisco. I don't know the name or composer, sorry.
-
- For what it's worth I'm not sure I'd eliminate Wagner too soon: the
- Ring may seem pretty fantastic, but many of the plots turn on the
- appropriate use of technology (always Promethean, of course) and the
- power it confers on the user.
-
- Or sf novels with opera themes? How about Jack Vance's _Space
- Opera_? As I recall the plot, it concerns the adventures of an
- interstellar opera company.
-
- Much thanks to:
- alves@calvin.usc.edu@usc.edu (William Alves)
- arb@martigny.ai.mit.edu (Barb Miller)
- chrisi@lloyd.Camex.COM (Chris Ischay)
- diarmuid@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Diarmuid Pigott)
- etxmtsb@solsta.ericsson.se (Mats Bengtsson TX/DK )
- gal@bnr.ca (Gene Lavergne)
- gower@cis.uab.edu (Mr. Gower)
- haack@iscsvax.uni.edu
- hedrick@dumas.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick)
- jefrank@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Jason E Frank)
- jkp@ukc.ac.uk (J.K.Pearson)
- kaf8f@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Keith Andrew Falconer)
- kos@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu (Bob Kosovsky)
- lms@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com (Max Stern 310-524-6152)
- mgresham%dscatl.UUCP@mathcs.emory.edu (Mark Gresham)
- pdelafos@dsd.es.com (Peter Delafosse)
- pranata@watserv.ucr.edu
- rob@computer-science.manchester.ac.uk (Robert Marshall)
- rp04@Lehigh.EDU (R M Price)
- rtut@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Raymond Tuttle)
- rwilmer@zinka.mitre.org (R. Wilmer)
- steve@fid.morgan.com (Steve Apter)
- zornow@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Claudia Zornow)
-
- (end included material on SF themes in opera)
-
- ---------------------------------
-
- One of the readers of the list (fofp@castle.edinburgh.ac.uk)
- also sent along this material on Hawkwind, which I've included
- here. If this isn't enough to justify the title I gave them
- (all-time consensus champion for sf-oriented rock) then I don't
- know what is. ;-)
-
- (Begin included material on Hawkwind)
-
- Re the Hawkwind entry on your music sf list.
-
- The sf related songs that they've done are:
-
- Adjust Me
- Angels of Death
- Arrival in Utopia
- The Awakening
- Black Corridor
- Born to Go
- The Changing
- Children of the Sun
- Choose Your Masks
- Coded Languages
- Damnation Alley
- The Dark Lords
- Down through the Night
- Dragons and Fables
- Dreaming City
- Dream Worker
- D-Rider
- Dust of Time
- Elric the Enchanter
- Fable of a Failed Race
- Fahrenheit 451
- Fall of Earth City
- Fifth Second of Forever
- First Landing on Medusa
- The Golden Void
- Green Finned Demon
- Heads
- High Rise
- Hi Tech Cities
- Horn of Destiny
- Images
- Infinity
- In the Egg
- Jack of Shadows
- Joker at the Gate
- Levitation
- Lighthouse
- Living on a Knife Edge
- Looking in the Future
- Lord of Light
- Lords of Chaos
- Lost Chances
- L.S.D.
- Magnu
- Master of the Universe
- Messengers of Morpheus
- Micro Man
- Moonglum
- Needle Gun
- Neon Skyline
- Note From a Cold Planet
- Nuclear Drive
- Nuclear Toy
- Orgone Accumulator
- Oscillations
- The Phenomenon of Luminosity
- Processed
- Psi Power
- Psychosis
- PsychoSonia
- PXR5
- Quark, Strangeness and Charm
- Robot
- The Sea King
- Seven By Seven
- Silver Machine
- Sleep of a Thousand Tears
- Solitary Mind Games
- Song of the Swords
- Sonic Attack
- Space is Deep
- Space Travellers
- Spirit of the Age
- Standing at the Edge
- Star Cannibal
- Starflight
- Streets of Fear
- Sword of the East
- Ten Seconds of Forever
- Time We Left (This World today)
- Transdimensional Man
- Uncle Sam's on Mars
- Virgin of the World
- Waiting for Tomorrow
- Warrior on the Edge of Time
- Warriors
- Wastelands of Sleep
- The Watcher
- We Took the Wrong Step
- Web Weaver
- Welcome to the Future
- Who's Gonna Win the War
- Wings
- The Wizard Blew His Horn
- You Know You're Only Dreaming
- You'd Better Believe It
- Zarozinia
- Black Hole in Space
- Upside Down
- Dying Seas
- The War I Survived
- Raping Robots in the Street
- Where are They Now?
- Elements
- Mutation Zone
- My Armour's Killing Me
- The Timeship Will Not Sail Again
-
- and a list of their albums:
-
- 1970 Hawkwind [re-released as pic disk 1980]
- 1971 In Search Of Space
- 1972 Doremi Fasol Latido
- 1972 The Text Of Festival: Live 1970-2 (live)
- 1972 Glastonbury Fayre (with various artists)
- 1972 Greasy Trucker's Party
- 1973 Space Ritual Alive (live) [double album]
- 1973 Bring Me The Head Of Yuri Garagin (live)
- 1973 Hawkwind in Concert
- 1974 Hall Of The Mountain Grill
- 1974 US Forces Radio album featuring Hawkwind & Jefferson Starship
- 1975 Warrior On The Edge Of Time
- 1976 Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music
- 1976 Roadhawks
- 1977 Quark Strangeness And Charm
- 1977 Hawkwind/Van Der Graaf Generator [Swedish album on Phillips}
- 1977 Masters of the Universe (Compilation)
- 1978 PXR5
- 1978 Hawklords - 25 Years On
- 1979 Repeat Performances (Compilation)
- 1979 Hawkwind Live (live) [British release: Live '79]
- 1980 Levitation [original release was on blue vinyl]
- 1981 Sonic Attack
- 1981 Hawkwind Live at the Bottom Line (New York 1978)
- 1981? Hawkwind at Glastonbury 1981
- 1981 Sonic Assassins 12EP
- 1981 Motorhead / Valium 10 (single)
- 1982 Church of Hawkwind [originally with booklet]
- 1982 Choose Your Masques
- 1982 Hawkwind Live at Stonehenge and Watchfield (Festival Records)
- 1982 Friends And Relations - Hawkwind
- 1983 Friends And Relations II (Twice Upon A Time)
- 19?? Friends And Relations III
- 1983 Zones [also released as pic disk]
- 1984 The Earth Ritual Preview (EP)
- 1984 Utopia 1984 [Material from ERP, Stonehenge, and Zones]
- 1984 Stonehenge (This Is Hawkwind/Do Not Panic) (live) [LP & EP]
- 1985 The Chronicle Of The Black Sword
- 1985 Needle Gun (EP)
- 1985 Zarozinia (EP)
- 1985 Space Ritual II
- 1985 Live Chronicles
- 1985? Ridicule (live 1973)
- 1985 Welcome To The Future (Mausoleum Records)
- 1985 Live '70/'73
- 1985 In The Beginning (Live "Top Gear" BBC Session 1970)
- 1986 Bristol Custom Bike Show
- 1986 Angels of Death (compilation) [all tracks previously released]
- 1986 The Hawkwind Collection
- 1986 Hawkfan 12"
- 1986 Independent Days, Vol. I
- 1986 The Approved History of Hawkwind (Samurai Records)
- 1986? Independent Days, Vol. II
- 1987? British Tribal Music (live, compilation) [Good sound quality. Digitally
- 1987? Early Daze
- '77-82 The Hawkwind Anthology Vol. I
- 87-88? The Hawkwind Anthology Vol. II
- 87-88? The Hawkwind Anthology Vol. III
- 1988 Traveller's Aid Trust (with various artists)
- 1987 Out And Intake
- 1987 Hawkwind Box Set - The Official Picture Log Book
- 1988 The Xenon Codex
- 1988 Spirit of the Age
- 1988 Hawkwind Live [German CD: Imtrat]
- 19?? Hawkwind Zoo 12EP
- 19?? Silver Machine (live) 12EP
- 19?? Victoria double album
- 1989 The Night Of The Hawk (compilation)
- 1989 Ironstrike [Avanti Records ISTCD 004]
- 1990 Stasis - The U.A. Years 1971-1975 (Compilation)
- 1990 Night Riding
- 1990 The Best and the Rest of Hawkwind [Action Replay records.
- 1990 The Best of Hawkwind (volume #2 of Metal Classic series by EMI)
- 1990 Acid daze Vol. I LP
- 1990 Acid Daze Vol. II LP
- 1990 Acid Daze Vol. III LP
- 1990 Space Bandits
- 1991 Palace Springs (live)
- 1991 Hawkwind: Space Rock from London
- 1991 The Golden Void
- 1991 The Early Years Live EP
- 1991 Masters of The Universe [ Marble Arch Rock CMA CD 129]
- 1992 Electric Teepee
- 1992 Mighty Hawkwind Classics 80-85
- 1992 This is Hawkwind: Do Not Panic CD
- 1992 Psychedelic Warlords
- 1992 The Hawklords Live
- 1992 California Brainstorm
- 1992 Solstice at Stonehenge 1983
- 1992 Tales From Atom Henge
- 1992 Orgasmatron
-
- Hope this helps :-)
-
- FoFP
-
- (End included material on Hawkwind)
-
- ---------------------------------
-
- Well, that's it. Remember, please send your comments, corrections
- and additions via *mail*. Thanks!
-
- Rich Kulawiec, 11/97
-
- Hastily-assembled montage of names of people who sent this stuff in:
-
- Aaron Tucker, Al Crawford, Alan Greig, Alan Meiss, Alan Vymetalik,
- Alastair Milne, Alex Melnick, Andrew Priestley, Andrew Raphael, Andy
- Tucker, Becky Slocombe, Berry Kercheval, Bill Kaufman, Bjorn Lisper,
- Blake Sobiloff, Bob, Brad, Brandon Allbery, Breebaart, Brent Woods,
- Brian Ritchie, Brian Yamauchi, Bruce Holloway, Calle Dybedahl, Can
- Altinbay, Carl Fongheiser, Carlo N. Samson, Chisholm, Chris Klausmeier,
- Christopher Dollin, Chuck Koelbel, Corey Liss, Craig Wilcox, Dan Bloch,
- Dan Duval, Daniel Dern, Dave, Dave Berry, Dave Gourley, Dave Rosik,
- Dave Steiner, Dave Fiedler, David Adler, David Datta, David Gibbs,
- David Kuznick, David Cook, Dean Lawrence Higgins, Devin Ben-Hur, Doug
- Alan, Doug Mink, Ed Eastridge, edge!walker, Edwin Wiles, Eerke Boiten,
- Ellen Keyne Seebacher, Eric Pepke, Erland Sommarskog, Ethan Miller,
- Francini, Fricklas, Fujitsu, fyfesh, G. T. Samson, Gabrielle de
- Lioncourt, Gareth, Gerard Lachac, Greg Samson, Guy Harris, Guy
- Middleton, Hall, Hartman, Henry, Hirai, Husk, Imko Molenbuur, Jack
- Ostroff, Jay Freeman, Jed Hartman, Jef Poskanzer, Jeff, Jeff Rogers,
- Jessie Jim, Joanne Brooks, John, John, John A.Mariani, John Ockerbloom,
- John Turner, John Relph, Jon Reeves, Jonathan Watts, Jonathan D.
- Trudel, Joseph McLean, Kai-Miakel J{{-Aro, KarenColten, Ken, Ken
- Leonard, Kyle Grieser, Lance A. Sibley, larry@ssdevo, Leo, Lewis, Lewis
- Barnett, Lionel Marcus, Loren "Buck" Buchanan, Loring Holden, Malc,
- Malcolm Humes, Malcolm Mladenovic, Mark Schlagenhauf, Maroney, Matthew
- Belmonte, Mel, metlay, Michael Caplinger, Mijjil, Mike Holmes, Mike
- Swiston, Mike Linksvayer, Miles Bader, Neil Weinstock, Nicholas
- Simicich, Nick Smith, paszkows, Patrik Jansson, Paul Czarnecki, Paul S.
- R., PaulCzarnecki, Pete, Peter, Peter Alfke, Platt, Randall Shane,
- Randy Orrison, Richard Caley, Richard Smith, Robert Pietkivitch,
- RobynTarter, Romkey, Russ Williams, Ryk E Spoor, Samir Chettri, Scott
- A., Scott Butler, Sean Ellis, Seth Kadesh, Sheila Coyazo, Shelli
- Meyers, Smith Steve, Smithson, Stephen Mulrine, Stephen Pearl, Steve
- Herring, Steve Lionel, Stuart Sullivan, T. William Wells., Templeton,
- Terry Poot, The Roach Above Reproach, The Roach(dan'l), Theo Hong,
- Thomas Gayler, Thomas Koenig, Thomas Koenig, Tim, Tim Day, Tim Walters,
- Tim Smith, Tom Galloway, Tony Towers, Tynor, Vlach, Vogel, Walker
- Aumann, Wayne Barber, William Ingogly, William J. Richard, Dave Vernal,
- Ben Waggoner, Chris Mungall, Steve Greer, Jason O'Broin,
- Christopher Davis, Brian Kendig, Matt Maxwell, Richard Barrett, Dayne
- Miller, Mary Ellen Foster, Alfvaen, Ronny H. Arild, Paul R. Joslin,
- Alexander Yok-Wai, Ronald D. White, Kjetil Wiekhorst J|rgensen,
- Jim Gillespie, Diarmuid Pigott, Evelyn C Leeper, Christopher Haynes,
- Jim Atkinson, Robert Chansky, wakelins@fri.cri.nz, Michael Simla,
- Ray Charbonneau, TheO O'Neal, Alex Melnick, Richard K Fox, Dion Francois.
- Derek G Bacon, Daniel F Boyd, Jeff Berry, Richard Heritage, Joe Decker,
- James Gillespie, Ulrich Grepel, Mark Parker, Jim Freund, Mike Alberghini,
- Paolo Valladolid, Francisco X DeJesus, Scott Grier, Andrew Raphael,
- Steve W. Hill, Curt Wiederhoeft., Andrew Bettison, Jeff Wilson,
- Michael Burstein, Dennis Sacks, Steve (steven@syacus.acus.oz.au),
- J.H.M. Dassen, Paul W. Grimes, James Matthew Farrow, Mike Kring,
- Chuck Turner, Dave Weingart, John Purpura, Ilsa VanHook, Adrian Hassall Lewis,
- Corran J. Webster, Steve Wechsler, Brian Leibowitz, Rick Scaia,
- Andrew Phillips, William Rucklidge, Gregg T. Parmentier, Andrew Hatchell,
- Bengt Kleberg, Brian Landwehr, Dan Johnson, ]dne Brunborg, James Hartman,
- Richard C. Miske, Aaron Humphrey, Rajesh Goel, fofp@castle.edinburgh.ac.uk,
- nrp@csug3.cs.reading.ac.uk (Neilski), Tony Cummins, Terry Carroll, Brad Smith,
- Jeffrey L. Popyack, Steve Ward-Smith, Jerry (jerry@nick.csh.rit.edu),
- Daniele (dmp1@ukc.ac.uk), Lance R. Bailey, Heather Kendrick, Bec Hamadock,
- Glenn Mcdonald, David Wilkinson, Joseph Brenner, Bonnie L. Johnston,
- Arthur Delano, Laurent Somers, Angelos (kyrlidis@Athena.MIT.EDU),
- Brent C. Williams, Brad Smith, mayoff@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (rob), Len Jaffe,
- Kevin L. Wright, Chuck Jordan, Anthony J.R. Heading, Michael McAfee,
- Gladys (we@sfu.ca), Robert Bowdidge, Andreas Orphanides, Marc Ortlieb,
- David Wilkinson, Gilead Limor, Chandrasekhar Puranapanda, David Datta,
- Stephanie M. Clarkson-Aines, Russell Morrison, Stephen Swann,
- Michael S Shappe, Gary Nelson, Howard J. Browning, Michael McAfee,
- Christian Treber, Thomas W. Day, Kathleen (Jocelyn) Goldfein, Ronald Carrier,
- Chris Siebenmann, lwhite@rigel.econ.uga.edu, Jonathan Gowland,
- Kevin Grover, Suzan Humphrey, Tim Isakson, Kendal Stitzel, Jay Shorten,
- Mike McComas, Crone, Keith Neufeld, Aaron Sherman, Eli McIlveen,
- Elisabeth Anne Riba, Gareth Bellaby, Jens Wall, Anders Gabrielsson,
- Walter Roberson, Rich Ulisky, Bill Leue, Peter Fenelon,
- Sheri Hurt, Ross Smith, Marcus Deininger, Kristian MacCall,
- Christian T.S. Crumlish, Horst Kiehl, Gareth Bellaby, Genevieve R. Williams,
- Ian Levstein, Kevin Lauderdale, Adam D. Calow, Kate Orman,
- Peter Trenning, Rainer Deyke, William Silvey, Khalid Yaqub, Wolfram Wagner,
- Jeff Johnston, David Farmer, Chris Camfield, Timothy Binder, Dave Scocca,
- Tom Friday, Jordi Sod, Ian J. Greely, Kip Johnson, Jay Shorten,
- Micaela Pantke, Steve Zastrow, Bart Koop, Eddie Whetzel, Bradley M. Kuhn,
- Hal Broome, Colette Reap, Enrique Gamez, J.R. Barton, Raven,
- T'Vusa Llewelyn, Sandy McClearn, Alice E. Marwick, Jason Herr,
- Sion Arrowsmith, Joe Smyth, Andrew Mack, Stefan Wimmer, Peter Boeker,
- Steven Taylor, Chris Miller, Francois, Coulon, Harald Aanderaa,
- John Stimson, LaDona Johnston, Keith Sutton, Russell Sullivan,
- Stavros Efremidis, Benson Gardner, Steve Gunnell, Mike Giroux,
- Ggreg Perry, Todd Andrew Vierling, Danny McMillin, lmiller@mmc,
- smithnik@labyrin.com, Kent Gabrin, Charles Odell, Brian Boyne,
- Juhani Heino, Esq., Chris Terran, Rick Whitman, Spike, Eli McIlveen,
- Wm. L. Nothstine, Christian Treczoks, Virginia Foster, Williams@xavier.edu,
- John Butcher, Tim Leahy, Kevin Thomas, William Routhier, Raj Goel,
- Jeffrey Norman, Fan Atic, miller@itl.net, Jason Adams, Nicole Bourgoin,
- Bill Clarke, fnord, Ieuan W, Karl Nikolai Zaryski, Brett Pasternack,
- Steve (revfever), Rolf Peukert, Adrain Spink, Macarthur William,
- Laurent Mousson, Scott Andrew Borton, Drew Miller, Michael Stuart Donnelly,
- Aaro Koskinen, Joachim Uhl, Julian Warner, Christopher Winter, Smythe,
- Norm Woodward, Rich (rptaurie), Chris Oxford, Alex Lasky, Daniel Reitman,
- Vicky Hendley, Shawn Bird, Misha Lepetich.
-