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EXPjawa

EXPjawa

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OK, we've discussed rockets in movies at length, now how about a list of songs that are rocket/spaceflight related? Obviously, this doesn't pertain specifically to model rocketry per-se, but I'm looking to put together what could become a launch-day playlist. I'll start off with the easy low-hanging fruit:

Rocket & Space Songs
  1. Starman - David Bowie
  2. Rocket Man - Elton John
  3. Space Oddity - David Bowie
  4. The Final Countdown - Europe
  5. Major Tom (Coming Home) - Peter Schilling
  6. Countdown - Rush
  7. Cygnus X-1 - Rush
  8. Arriving UFO - Yes
  9. Come Sail Away - Styx
  10. Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra
  11. Public Service Broadcasting - Go!
  12. Rocket - Def Leopard
  13. Mr. Spaceman - The Byrds
  14. Space Trucking - Deep Purple
  15. Space Cowboy - Steve Miller Band

Songs tangentially related
  1. Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
  2. Life on Mars - David Bowie
  3. Cygnus X-1 Book II - Rush
  4. My Heart is a UFO - Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers
  5. Klaatu - Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft

These are just what come to mind off of the top of my head. I'm sure (well, hope) there are others. Let me know what you've got and I'll keep the list at the top updated.
 
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The entire Boston album Third Stage.

[video=youtube;OIGVT_YfdU4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIGVT_YfdU4[/video]

(actually, there's been a thread of this before... I don't have the energy to look it up right now.)
 
There is a band named Bell X1 and they have a song titled Man on Mir.

Oh!, How could we have missed "Fly Me to the Moon", best known by Frank Sinatra, but many other artists before and after.
 
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Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft... Klaatu [video=youtube;9URM_5R-vWk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9URM_5R-vWk[/video]
 
What about "Chuff the tragic rocket"?

[video=youtube;eeF_DvkMZjo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeF_DvkMZjo[/video]
 
K'Tesh said:
The entire Boston album Third Stage.

[video=youtube;OIGVT_YfdU4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIGVT_YfdU4[/video]
Click to expand...

I guess I'd debate that. Despite the cover art, there's not really anything lyrically on the album that's directly relevant to the theme.
 
Heinlein's Green Hills of Earth ( parts of it, anyway ) :
"
The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
ALL HANDS! STAND BY! FREE FALLING!
And the lights below us fade.


Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---


We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.
"
https://aeve.com/gazette/earth.html:

Magee's High Flight :
"
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
"
https://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/john-magee.html


Best if you can find a recording of a Nimoy reading.
 
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EXPjawa said:
I guess I'd debate that. Despite the cover art, there's not really anything lyrically on the album that's directly relevant to the theme.
Click to expand...

REALLY? :eyepop:

We're Ready? The Launch? Countdown? Ignition? Third Stage Separation?

Need I say more?

Track listing[edit]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Amanda"Tom Scholz4:16
2."We're Ready"Scholz3:58
3."The Launch:
a) Countdown
b) Ignition
c) Third Stage Separation"		Scholz2:55
4."Cool the Engines"Scholz, Fran Sheehan, Brad Delp4:23
5."My Destination"Scholz2:19
6."A New World" (Instrumental)Jim Masdea0:36
7."To Be a Man"Scholz3:30
8."I Think I Like It" (DeBrigard credited as Jon English)Scholz, Jon DeBrigard4:06
9."Can'tcha Say (You Believe in Me)/Still in Love"Gerry Green, Scholz, Delp5:13
10."Hollyann"
 
Def Leppard Rocket

[video=youtube;5o1G0GSiNQM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o1G0GSiNQM[/video]
 
A basic starter list:

Riding the Rocket - Shonen Knife
Supersonic Rocket Ship - the Kinks
Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls - godspeed you! Black Emperor
Rocket Minuet - Lou Reed
Mr. Spaceman - the Byrds
Rocket Roll - FM
Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra
Space Truckin' - Deep Purple
Space Station - Montrose
Urban Spaceman - Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

albums:
Rocket to Russia - The Ramones
Rocket Science - Clive Painter

bands:
Rocket from the Tombs
Rocket from the Crypt
Love and Rockets
the Rockets
Bottle Rocket
Modern Rocketry

but.......the one to rule them all has to be this song/video:
Jan Terri - "Skyrockets"

[video=youtube;YIpQbKs5lMs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIpQbKs5lMs[/video]

s6
 
K'Tesh said:

REALLY? :eyepop:

We're Ready? The Launch? Countdown? Ignition? Third Stage Separation?

Need I say more?
Click to expand...
You're comment was that the entire album applied - and that's what I'd debate. Sure, one could make a case for The Launch based on the breakdown on the album jacket. But its an instrumental - there's nothing there that the casual listener would hear and associate with rocketry. Cool the Engines always sounded (to me) more about drag racing, again, nothing that directly relates - its at best vague. What I'm looking for is something that a listener that's never seen the album would know is about a rocket, or space travel. Rush's Countdown has the back and forth communication for STS-1 overdubbed. The Final Countdown is lyrically specifically talking about traveling to Venus (I always thought the lyrics were dumb, but that's beside the point). What can one point to on Third Stage that would do the same thing? I'm not trying to be critical, I'm asking since I might have missed something.
 
Little River Band - Orbit Zero

[video=youtube;XluBLoSNDv4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XluBLoSNDv4[/video]
 
[video=youtube_share;1e3m_T-NMOs]https://youtu.be/1e3m_T-NMOs[/video]
Neil Young
After the gold rush
 
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Ltvscout said:
Testing 1...2...3...
Click to expand...

Wrong quote..meant the green hills of earth

Besides reading it, have heard this on old time radio program, either X Minus 1 or Dimension X.

Last night i heard Pebble in the Sky by Asimov.

Kenny
 
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KenRico said:
Wrong quote..meant the green hills of earth

Besides reading it, have heard this on old time radio program, either X Minus 1 or Dimension X.

Last night i heard Pebble in the Sky by Asimov.

Kenny
Click to expand...

X Minus 1 , Amazon has it on Audible. To that scandalous accordianist's last song, cheers!
 
One of Bruce Springsteen's deepest B-sides -- so far, only performed three times live:


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
As you slip into my car the evening sky strikes sparks
This life, this life and then the next
With you I have been blessed, what more can you expect

At night at my telescope alone
This emptiness I've roamed
Searching for a home
The stars a brief string of shining charms
Rushing in red out of our arms into the drifting dark
This life, this life and then the next
With you I have been blessed, what more can you expect
This life, this life and then the next
I finger the hem of your dress, my universe at rest

We reach for starlight all night long but gravity's too strong
Chained to this earth we go on and on and on
Then a million suns cresting where you stood
A beauty in the neighborhood
This lonely planet never looked so good

This life, this life and then the next
With you I have been blessed, what more can you expect
This life, this life and then the next
I finger the hem of your dress, my universe at rest
Click to expand...

[video=youtube;uTfSLImSU8w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTfSLImSU8w[/video]
 
The two from my music library that immediately came to mind (other than Def Leppard's Rocket which was already mentioned):

The Crystal Method - High Roller
[video=youtube;eJr1AdT381E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJr1AdT381E[/video]

Fury in the Slaughterhouse - Down There
[video=youtube;f-lR-rVICqs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-lR-rVICqs[/video]

I should add that one of my all-time favorite albums (love every song on it), Failure's Fantastic Planet has an overall space/sci-fi feel to it I think, and includes "Another Space Song".
 
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Oi, that's almost too many to process, or at least sort through Dick! That's going to take a while.

Thanks to everyone that contributed. I'm trying to go through the suggestions and give a listen, and add them to the list as I have time. As noted above, the intent here is generate a space-themed playlist, so hopefully they'll all tracks I can then download later.
 
Bong in the winter and blue motor cases
Children at launches with bright smiling faces
AQM Jayhawks with big orange wings
These are a few of my favorite things




4F black powder in Wisconsin state parks
Thermite igniters in CTI skidmarks
18 inch parachutes tied on with strings
These are a few of my favorite things




(chorus)
When the fins strip
When the chute burns
When I zipper G-10
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I go launch again




PVC tripods and fields without big trees
Wading in water way up over my knees
White Lightning propellant and Buna-N O-rings
These are a few of my favorite things




Stainless steel quick links and launch pads in straight rows
Aerotech reloads and giant mosquitos
N-powered mach shreds and gravel paint dings
These are a few of my favorite things




(chorus)
 
A couple more that are a little weirder:

Adventure Rocket Ship by Robyn Hitchcock
Impostor by The Doubleclicks
 

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