With the Nebula Awards coming up in a week(ish), all things are science fiction. So, here is my list of the top 15 SF-related songs. Just so one or two groups/artists didn’t dominate, I’ve restricted it to one song per group. And I’ve given a little nudge to songs that truly show their love of SF. I’m pretty flexible on where songs ended up on this list–so just make a mix of all of them.
#15 Keeper Keep Us – Intergalactic Touring Band
The Intergalactic Touring Band was a concept album that barely appeared and then slipped into obscurity. I discovered it in the back bins of a record store in 1979, two years after its release. Half of the working rock musicians of the time seemed to pop up on the album, which told a vague story about a musical group flying about space in the distant future. The last track, Keeper Keep Us, was a religious hymn. Since the previous song had been about a planet where people leap into the fire so their burning bodies could give some warmth to those left behind, I think the Keeper isn’t doing his job.
(Edit: That song is no longer available to post, so I’ve replaced it with an earlier song, Star Ship Jingle a future ad used to persuade people to go into space.)
#14 Veteran of the Psychic Wars – Blue Oyster Cult
BLC has enough SF songs to fill half this list, and if you expanded the genre to fantasy, the number would triple. Collaborating with author Michael Moorcock didn’t hurt those numbers. The Great Sun Jester, based on one of Moorcock’s novels would have been a good choice, but this song is too deep into pop culture to leave it off.
#13 In The Year 2525 – Zager And Evans
The oldest song on the list, and perhaps the creepiest. Really, listen to the lyrics.
#12 ’39 – Queen
A song I hadn’t realized was sci-fi the first 20 times I listened to it. The retro feel is related to sea shanty, but the sea here is milky, and the sailors return from their trip to the stars aged just a year, while those they’ve left behind have grown old or died.
#11 Watcher of the Skies – Genesis
Genesis’ genre work was most often magical fantasy, but a few times they edged into science fiction, as with this tale of an empty Earth, that gives a nod to Clarke’s Childhood’s End.
#10 Phasors on Stun – FM
This prog-techno piece is a bit higher on the list than its pure musicality might call for, but come on, it has phasor sounds. And they are on stun!
#9 Iron Man – Black Sabbath
Not about the superhero, though few would know that now. This Iron Man is a time traveler who tries to stop the future he sees, only to end up causing it.
#8 Science Fiction Double Feature
The ultimate science fiction film love letter. I really got hot When I saw Janette Scott Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills. Didn’t we all?
#7 Astronomy Domine – Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd has plenty to choose from if you what to get dystopic. Even keeping to space rock it is hard to choose with Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun and A Saucerful of Secrets, but in the end, if you are going to travel in a psychedelic space haze, you do it with Astronomy Domine. The original is eclipsed by the live version off of the album Ummagumma.
#6 Rocket Man – Elton John
Vaguely related to the Ray Bradbury story, The Rocket Man, the song shows us a near future where being an astronaut is no longer a prestigious thing to be–it’s just a job. A lonely job. On the other hand, maybe this isn’t science fiction at all. Can you name who’s been in space in the last ten years?
#5 Wooden Ships – Crosby, Stills & Nash
Written with Paul Kantner (we’ll get to him), Wooden Ships presents a very sincere look at the aftermath of a nuclear war. The song, of course, has more to do with the now of the 1960s than the future, but the best tales are always about now. Metaphor. Hmmm. Wonder if anyone in the literary community right now is missing that.
#4 2112 – Rush
Rush loves their fantasy and science fiction. In another list I can talk about necromancers and snow dogs and gods battling. Keeping with science fiction, they have Red Barchetta–the story stolen for the Star Trek reboot–and Cygnus X-1. But their epic 20 minute 2112 is the winner. If you can get past the Ayn Rand gazing over it all (and that is hard to do), it’s a great ride.
#3 Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury – Rachel Bloom
Ahead of Rush, Genesis, Pink Floyd…? Really? OK, perhaps it isn’t the most complicated work here, but beyond the joke (and the joke is good), there is a real love for Bradbury here. The man himself got it, and invited Bloom to visit. If this song was good enough for Ray Bradbury, it is good enough for you. If there is a line that doesn’t make sense to you, you haven’t read enough.
#2 Have You Seen the Stars Tonite – Jefferson Starship/Paul Kantner
Kantner has intertwined science fiction and his music since he started Jefferson Airplane. That gives lots of choices for this list: Crown of Creation, from John Wyndham’s novel, The Chrysalids, Have You Seen the Saucers, Hyperdrive. But here I’ll skip my favorite, and give the nod to a great song which also has a bit of SF history. With some free time from Jefferson Airplane, Kantner created a solo project, Blows Against the Empire–a loose future tale of rebels who steal a spaceship. He used the name “Jefferson Starship,” a few years before he’d use that name when reconstituting Jefferson Airplane. The album was the first, and I believe only, rock album to be nominated for a Hugo Award, so it gets a few extra points for that.
#1 Space Oddity – David Bowie
There really wasn’t a choice for #1. It’s just… The One.