Sci/Fi and Fantasy in music, an informal survey.

[Aeneas]

Every once in a while I hear a song that has a fantastical or sci-fi snippit in it and wonder how many sly references there are in the popular music world. For example,

In Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" one can hear: "Walk without rhythm, it won't attract the worm" repeated a few times. (reference to <I>Dune</I>)

In Ben Folds' <I>Fired</I>: "She says, 'Everywhere I go, damn! There I am.'" (This is probably an old quote but it reminds many of Buckaroo Banzai)

<I>Mr. Roboto</I> is pretty much just a sci-fi song.

I had one more in mind earlier but obviously since I'm now in a position to type, I cannot think of what it is. So what I am wondering is, how many other songs with catchy references to our favorite genre are out there? There has to be alot more than I can think of. I mean we can list Leonard Nimoy singing the Bilbo Baggins song too! I'm talking about popular music here, not "the Theme from Star Wars" and such.

[odo]

First of all, excuse for my English. It is not my native language and I do not master it...

There are several other songs inspired in SF books, specially in Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. For instance, Iron Maiden's "To tame a land" is based on Frank Herbert's "Dune" (an excerpt from the lyrics: It is a land that's rich in spice/The sandriders and the "mice"/
That they call the "Muad'Dib")

The Danish band Manticora released in 2002 a CD titled "Hyperion" based on the book by Dan Simmons.

Mike Oldfield's "Songs of distant Earth" is inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's book.

"I, Robot" by The Alan Parsons Project (Asimov's book)

I'm sure there are some more, but I don't remember any other by now. I will keep thinking...

[Aeneas]

There are probbaly quite a few that mention something Star Wars, the only one I can think of now is the Bloodhoud Gang's "I did not mean your lovely life was shacking up with a wookie." and goes on to compare the singer to Chewbacca. That is from <I>Why's Everybody Always Picking on Me?</I>

[k1w1taxi]

Not fogetting The Firm's homage to ST; Star Trekkin

Cheers
Lee

[Thanatos]

Also the Queen with "Bicycle Race" mention Star Wars and Superman (okey maybe not SF but close )

A lot of Hawkwind music had sci-fi themes especially since Moorcock wrote lyrics for them.

[UrbanSpaceman]

You often read that the Jefferson Starship album Blows against the Empire, which seems to be about a bunch of hippies hi-jacking a starship, was nominated for, or actually won, the Hugo award - or it might have been the Nebula award.

I've not been able to find a reliable source for this - anyone out there know better?

[admin]

Jefferson Starship did not win a Hugo. Good album, though.

They Might Be Giants songs have many sf or comic book references.

Leonard Nemoy, "In the middle of the earth in a land called Shire..." is best forgotten.

There are a number of Broadway musicals with fantasy themes: Camelot, The Rocky Horror Show, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Little Prince, Wicked.

[UrbanSpaceman]

Let's not forget Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds - not exactlly a "sly reference", I admit.

[admin]

I love Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. What else has he done?

[UrbanSpaceman]

I don't think Wayne's ever done anything else on a similar scale; he's spent much of his career as a producer, for David Essex among others.

Any UK folk may be interested to know that he will be taking WotW on the road for the first time ever next April; the Albert Hall show is already sold out.

[Brightonian]

On the subject of Jeff Wayne's WotW: whatever happened to Julie Covington?

[admin]

I think that "No matter where you go, there you are," is original with Buckaroo Banzi. It's been in a lot of other movies since, including Beyond Thunderdome and The Brady Bunch.

Let me add my voice to those recommending the War of the Worlds musical. If you haven't heard it, rush to amazon and buy a copy.

[Thanatos]

The Jamiroquai album Travelling Without Moving is a direct reference to the way Spice Navigators on Dune novels travel.

Also a lot of Hawkwind's lyrics were written with the assistance of Michael Moorcock.

Most of the lyrics by Yes from 1973 up until 1978 refer to science fictional elements.

Julie Covington has been working as an actress on several TV shows namely Playhouse, Ascendacy, The Healer and others.

[Zathras]

Lupe Fiasco sings about Klingons and mentions To Infinity and Beyond in his song Dumb it Down. Another rapper is singing with him on the song, this guy is ripping Fiasco for, among other things, liking skateboards and robots.

[Brightonian]

COuple more SF songs: Space Oddity by David Bowie, Beautiful Zelda (from Galaxy Four) by Neil Innes and the Bonzo Dog Band.

Beautiful Zelda, leave me alone
Just get on back to the Twilight Zone
Don't try your jive on a poor Earth boy
'Cause your kind of love don't bring me no joy