Songs about rocketships......

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Last Rendez-vous By Jean Michel Jarre.

The the saxophone part was supposed to be played in outer space by astronaut Ron McNair, but on January 28, 1986 he and the entire Space Shuttle Challenger crew were killed 73 seconds after lift-off when the shuttle exploded.

I was first exposed to Jarre when I heard his Oxygen album playing in the movie theater while I was waiting to see Star Trek The motion Picture.

We're well acquained with Jean Michel Jarre here in Houston. ;)

Rendez-vous_Houston

I have to go with Countdown by Rush. :clap::clap::clap:

Countdown Video
 
The Shatner thread kind of brings this topic back up, but going through his set list, a lot of the songs have nothing (zero zip zilch nada) to do with space/rocketry (Bohemian Rhapsody, Iron Man, Twilight Zone) so how about putting together a setlist of songs which actually do mention space travel, rocketry or astronomy?

Elton John's "Rocket Man" is the obvious lead-off.

Bowie's "Space Oddity" (as well as its sequel "Ashes to Ashes") and "2000 Light Years from Home" by the Rolling Stones of course as already mentioned higher up the thread.

"Man on the Moon," R.E.M.: although the song at first seems to buy into the lunar-conspiracy theories, Michael Stipe has said it is actually about the gullibility of those who believe in them.

"Sleeping Satellite" by Tasmin Archer in the early 1990s, wondering why we haven't followed up the Apollo flights.

"This Life," by Bruce Springsteen, 2009: On track 6 of the album is, "A bang then stardust in your eyes, A billion years or just this night, Either way it'll be all right, A blackness then the light of a million stars..(it continues)...
At night at my telescope alone, This emptiness I've roamed, Searching for a home... A beauty in the neighborhood, This lonely planet never looked so good...(the song ends with the line)...This life, this life and then the next, I finger the hem of your dress, My universe at rest."
 
Dang you guys beat me to it with Space Truckin and Countdown.
How about YES- Starship Trooper.
 
I want to go to Pah-luto with a blue eyed kitty and eat marshmallow space food.

[YOUTUBE]3KT8bTRN73E[/YOUTUBE]

iko oh, iko oh, everybody let's go!
uka boo, uka boo, space walk, uka boo!

s6
 
Of course there's "Across the Universe" by the Beatles and "Venus and Mars" by Paul McCartney.

Not to mention about half of the Pink Floyd oeuvre.
 
There's an entire album from The Ventures called The Ventures in Space from 1964 - one of my favorites back when I was younger. I also have The Ventures NASA 25th Anniversary Commemorative Album from 1984 somewhere in my collection.

The 1964 album proudly stated on the cover that all the unusual space sounds were created with common, non-electronic, instruments. The 1984 album is mostly electronic instruments.

The 1964 album is a lot better. :)

Harry Nilsson's "Spaceman" has already been mentioned. Harry Nilsson (humor me, it's an obsession) also recorded "The Flying Saucer Song" which was inspired by John Lennon's claim of seeing a UFO. The orginal recording of the song was produced by Lennon.

Speaking of flying saucers, Harry appears (as "Lassie") in Albert Brooks's "Party From Outer Space," a parody of Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman's "break-in" song, "The Flying Saucer."

-- Roger
"Everyone should own a little jade box" - Harry Nilsson
 
Come Sail Away by Styx... the original alien abduction anthem. :D

There's also this (slightly misogynistic) rockabilly parody...

[YOUTUBE]z7_YNTQmtGg[/YOUTUBE]
 
OK, so technically Holst wrote these with more of an astrological mindset than an astronomical one, but that's not how I listen to them.
Mars
Venus
Mercury
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune


I also like the Planet of the Apes score by Danny Elfman

But how about this one?

Let's Take a Rocket Ship to Space
[YOUTUBE]NXxX42Gj18g&hl[/YOUTUBE]
 
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