Friday, June 20, 2008

Weekend Listomania (Special Keep Watching the Skies! Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental flunky Hop-Sing and I are off to The Milford Mall, where I'll be participating in an open-ended pub crawl of the service bars (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Hooters) in the company of Brian "Lubyanka" Hardig, a/k/a The Ohio Douche a/k/a The Author of the Greatest Letter to the Editor Ever.

Consequently, posting by moi will necessarily be somewhat fitful for a few days.

But until then, as always, here's a fun project for you all to contemplate:

BEST POST-BEATLES SCI-FI THEMED POP/ROCK SONG!!!!

Sorry about the arbitrary post-Beatles thing, but otherwise we'd have to include Billy Lee Riley's "Flyin' Saucers Rock and Roll," "Purple People Eater," "Telstar," et al, and this blog already skews way too old. And speaking of arbitrary, I was going to explicitly ban the nomination of either David Bowie's "Space Oddity" or Elton John's "Rocket Man," but I figure one of you SOBs will nominate them no matter what I say, so go ahead. I will, however, taunt you mercilessly for your bad taste when you do.

Okay, here's my totally top of my head Top Seven:

7. Bjork -- Pluto



Let's be honest -- this broad has been in space since day one.

6. Marilyn Manson -- Mechanical Animals



Apparently, this song is about mechanical animals. Kind of Philip K. Dick-ish, I guess.

5. The Byrds -- Mr. Spaceman



A way too obvious choice, I know, but I wanted an excuse to post this video, which documents a brief period where Gene Clark rejoined the band after the ouster of David Crosby

4. Roky Erikson -- Creature With the Atom Brain



The one and only.

3. They Might Be Giants -- Particle Man



Well, it's sorta sci-fi. He's a particle, get it?

2. King Crimson -- 21st Century Schizoid Man



This is one of those prog songs that just strike me as hilariously funny, albeit unintentionally. Fripp really was a pretentious bastard even back in the day, wasn't he?

And the number one sci-fi song, gimme a break it's not even a fricking contest so don't bug me, is

1. The Rolling Stones -- 2000 Man



A song so good even Kiss covered it.

Awrighty then -- what would your choices be?

Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel movie Listomania is up over at Box Office. As always, if you can find your way to leave a comment, an angel gets his wings.

28 comments:

  1. how could you leave off this spectacular cover?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB51ehx1q9w

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  2. Astronomy Domine (Syd Barrett era) Pink Floyd

    Planet Claire - B-52's

    Space Junk - DEVO

    Fairies Wear Boots - Black Sabbath

    Moonage Daydream - David Bowie (!)

    Me I Disconnect From You - Gary Numan

    Another Girl, Another Planet - The Only Ones

    Where's Captain Kirk - Athletico Spizz '80

    and... (blushing) The Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

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  3. Iron Man - Black Sabbath

    Spaceman - Nilsson

    Adventure Rocket Ship - Robyn Hitchcock

    Galaxy - War

    Supersonic Rocket Ship - The Kinks

    It Came Out Of The Sky - Creedence

    Martian Boogie - Brownsville Station

    The Eggplant That Ate Chicago - Dr. West's Medicine Show And Junk Band

    Star Wars - Nick the Lounge Singer

    (and no vid clips, unfortunately)

    Here Come The Martian Martians - Jonathan Richman

    Martian Saints - Mary Lou Lord

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  4. I'm not sure this counts, since it's parody, but Flight of the Conchords have two v. funny Sci-Fi songs: "Bowie's in Space" and "The Humans Are Dead." "It is the distant future. The year 2000."

    And in a pinch I guess one could count "Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring," though it's never been completely clear to me the connection between Lord of the Rings and science fiction, since it, you know, isn't. But they seem to share an audience.

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  5. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and make an argument for XTC's "Another Satellite," which uses cosmic imagery as a metaphor for politely turning down proffered infidelity.

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  6. XTC: "Another Satellite"
    The Who: "905"
    Flaming Lips: "I Want My Own Planet"
    Jefferson Airplane: "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight"
    And dang it, I know this is pre-Beatles but I have to say "Martian Hop" by the Ran-Dells is one of the best of the Telstar era...

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  7. I'd say there's a lot of bleak sci-fi elements to much of Grandaddy's music -- check out Jed's Other Poem,He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot (sorry, that's not really a video), and Fare Thee Not Well, Mutineer, for example.

    Oh, and -- Jason Lytle solo album this year! Whoop!

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  8. Hokey smokes! How could you leave out Klaatu's "Calling Occupants (of Interplanetary Craft)"? I realize that, since they really WERE the Fab Four recording under an alias, they might not technically qualify as "post-Beatles," but you could have always chosen the delightfully wacky Carpenters' cover (I've always loved Richard's "homage" to Lennon on the bridge)...

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  9. I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned the other obvious choice from "Satanic Majesties" ... "2000 Light Years from Home."

    And then, of course, there's Steve Miller's "Space Cowboy".

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  10. ELO's "Yours Truly, 2095"

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  11. It's a whole album, not a song, but: Jefferson Starship, "Blows Against the Empire".

    I dunno, stealing the first viable star ship and getting the hell out of here still sounds like a good idea to me sometimes.

    But, being human, we'd just take all our problems with us....

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  12. Trademark Dave, check the link in Skip's post up at the top.

    Here's a link to Flight of the Conchord's "Bowie's in Space" - which was also the first thing I thought of, NYMary.

    There's another YouTube vid of the song where FOTC explain the background of the song - very funny.

    Back in the reality-based community, I would vote for Donald Fagen's "Tomorrow's Girls":

    "From Sheilus to the reefs of Kizmar
    From Stargate and the Outer Worlds
    They're speeding towards our sun
    They're on a party run
    Here come Tomorrow's Girls"

    Great song, wonderful video.

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  13. From the Court of the Scatology King (fun for the whole family!): Donovan’s Intergalactic Laxative will get you from here to Mars.

    And I actually think Dylan’s Talking World War III Blues qualifies, and even if it doesn’t, this is a truly great clip. Only problem is it makes me want to go out & buy a pack of smokes.

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  14. what, no love for XTC's "Science Friction"?

    Or even BOC's Godzilla?

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  15. lou reed - satellite of love

    (his best pop song?)

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  16. "This Time Tomorrow" - weekly token Kinks reference

    "This time tomorrow
    where will we be
    on a spaceship somewhere
    sailing across an endless sea..."

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  17. Five choices, one from each decade from the 1960's to the current one:

    1) 1960's: Pink Floyd: "Astronomy Domine" from the first LP, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

    2) 1970's: Be Bop Deluxe: "Superenigmatix", one of many sci-fi themed songs from the last Be Bop album, Drastic Plastic

    3) 1980's: Rather lost for ideas on this one for the moment, is "Monkey Gone To Heaven" by the Pixies sci-fi themed enough?

    4) 1990's: "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead, from OK Computer

    5) 2000's: "The Scientist" by Coldplay--an OK song, chosen mostly for its obvious subject tie-in, but also because the band has taken its share of lumps on this blog in recent weeks

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  18. "Have You Seen the Saucers?"
    Jefferson Airplane

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  19. Tons of great choices, but I'm truly irked I didn't nominate "Another Girl, Another Planet".

    Cripes, what a great song....

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  20. Let me add two other sources of SciFi materials, Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton.

    Jimi had a cosmic sensibility that was way out! 3rd Stone from the Sun contains intergallactic communications, backwards and off speed of course! And the Gods Made Love was certainly weird and other worldly, then there was Bold As Love which had that bit "Just like the Axis" which I still do not comprehend. All that acid gave Jimi an otherworldy perspectice!

    George Clinton did more than just Atomic Dog. There was Dr. Funkenstein and the whole Mothership Connection saga. I would have loved to have been at those Star Child and Sir Nose Devoid of Funk stage shows.

    Trey

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  21. Having gone to a school full of nerds back in the 70s where prog rock ruled, I would have to nominate:

    Karn Evel 9 - ELP
    Life in the Air Age - BeBop Deluxe
    and lots of stuff from "The Wall" and "Wish You Were Here", which both at least sounded futuristic...

    Elroy

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  22. Neon Serpant said, "This Time Tomorrow" - weekly token Kinks reference

    And what better time for such? For today is Ray's 64th birthday.

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  23. Sprites- "Bionic Hands"
    Tullycraft- "The Lonely Life of a UFO Researcher"
    Joe Jackson or Elvis Costello- "Invisible Man"
    Figurine- "International Space Station"
    Heavenly- "Space Manatee"
    Luna- "Astronaut"

    and if you're doing TMBG, you should have gone with "Destination Moon"

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  24. How did we forget Wooden Ships by Crosby and Jefferson Airplane?

    Trey

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  25. "How did we forget Wooden Ships by Crosby and Jefferson Airplane?"

    Maybe it was those purple berries...I've been eating them for six or seven weeks now, haven't got sick once...

    And what about Zager & Evans's musical attempt at writing the history of the future, "In the Year 2525"? Heinous, to be sure, but apt.

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  26. Porno for Pyros "Pets" for the amusement factor if nothing else.

    And then I'd add the theme song from "Firefly." I guess the lyrics aren't so explicitly SciFi, but well, it was for a SciFi show, right/

    And what about Zager & Evans's musical attempt at writing the history of the future, "In the Year 2525"? Heinous, to be sure, but apt.

    Absolutely. (On both counts).

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  27. and if you're doing TMBG, you should have gone with "Destination Moon"


    Couldn't find a video....

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