Songs involving astronomy/physics in lyrics? (1 Viewer)

[andrew markworthy]

The Clint Black song is rather akin to the song in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, isn't it?



Another song by They Might Be Giants - Particle Man.



Vangelis - Albedo 0.39 [or some such fraction - it's the light reflected by the Earth, I think]

Vangelis - Pulsar



Pink Floyd's Pulse contains the 'voice' of Stephen Hawking



David Bowie - Starman



The Firm - Star Trekkin' [I think this may only have been a it in the UK]



Then there's Danny Kaye's song about the periodic table (okay, that's more chemistry than physics)



In classical music, there's Holst's The Planets

 

[Phil A]

"Aquarius" from the musical 'Hair'

 

[David Benkert]

Thanks everyone for your input so far. I am familair with a few of these, but I will definately have to check the others out.

If you think of any others, please let me know!

Thanks again,

David

 

[Malcolm R]

Likely not to the taste of most in this thread, judging to the responses, but it fits the topic :
Army of Lovers "The Particle Song"

The particle z
the particle y
travel fast in a concrete tube
underground
ride mile after mile
The particle z
the particle y
Macho men of the molecules
bound to clash
in maximal style
Very very small
not so very tall
atoms on the run
are they there at all
...
Einstein on the beach
science out of reach
atoms sing along
to Einstein on the beach
For the Nobel Prize
Atoms in disguise
Dressed like electrons
Speak through microphones

 

[KeithH]

"Dark Side of the Moon" -- Pink Floyd

"Bad Moon Rising" -- Creedence Clearwater Revival

 

[Jim Garbern]

The Bela Fleck and the Flecktones DVD "Live at the Quick" features an encore with a Tuvan throat singer (who uses physics to simultaneously sing 3 to 4 voices) and a reference to Richard Feynmann, who as you probably know had a yearning to visit Tunna Tuva and sadly didn't get his visa until after he died.

 

[Henry Gale]

2000 Light Years From Home - The Rolling Stones

 

[Seth Paxton]

Third Stone from the Sun - Hendrix (kinda fits)
And on Axis: Bold as Love there is an "interview" with an alien before Jimi makes his guitar sound like a UFO.
311 - Transistor includes songs like Transistor, Electricity, Jupiter, Galaxy, and Inner Light Spectrum.
An excellent example for electrical engineering (and helped influence me into the field) would be Tesla
Named after the great EE Nikola Tesla (true inventor of the radio among many awesome inventions) the band even did a song about Tesla's life - Edison's Medicine (Psychotic Supper) and of course their first album was named Mechanical Resonance after another of Tesla's pursuits (and alleged but unproven advanced discoveries)

 

[Rachael B]

How's abouts, CALLING OCCUPANTS OF INTERPLANETARY CRAFT & ANUS OF URANUS by Klaatu. George Clinton & Bootsy used to sing about UFO's, or live from UFO's in the Parliment/Funkadelic daze. George coined the term "afronauts", that was during the days of the "funkauhquest" as best I remember. Just to be a bit poppy, is it true that, EVERYONE'S GONE TO THE MOON?

 

[Grant B]

OMD - Tesla Girls

Polecats- Make a Circuit with Me

Harry Nilsson- Spaceman, Moonbeam

 

[andrew markworthy]

Ohm Sweet Ohm

Radioactivity

Both by Kraftwerk

 

[StephenA]

Departure the Moody Blues (which is another poem they did)

Be it sight, sound, smell, or touch,

There's something inside, that we need so much.

The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,

Or the strength of an oak, with roots deep in the ground.

The wonder of flowers, to be covered, and then to burst up,

Through tarmac, to the sun again, or to fly to the sun

Without burning a wing; to lie in a meadow

And hear the grass sing; to have all these things

In our memory's hoard, and to use them,

To help us, to find......

The Moody Blues also have other songs that references or deals with astronomy, such as:

Under Moonshine

Sun is Still Shining

My Song

Melancholy Man

Thinking Is the Best Way to Travel(also deals with physics)

Sunset

The Beatles also have some:

Mr Moonlight

Here Comes the Sun

I'll Follow the Sun

Across the Universe

Some from the Misfits:

Mars Attacks

Forbidden Zone

Teenagers from Mars

I Turned Into a Martian

Astro Zombies

Earth A.D.

 

[Rachael B]

My memory is working even better 2-day.

Automatic Man, the song AUTOMATIC MAN, INTERSTELLAR TRACKING DEVICES & VISITORS

Harvey Mason's SPACE CADETS

Every Hawkwind album I ever heard had some UFO mumbo jumbo.

 

[Keith Paynter]

Monty Python - The Galaxy Song!
(spoken)
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
(sung)
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
The sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
(waltz)
Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!
"Can we have your liver, then...?"

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

All sorts of Iron Maiden/Bruce Dickinson stuff (especially about half of Accident of Birth)

When Two Worlds Collide

My telescope looks out

into the stars tonight

A little speck of light

seems twice the size tonight

The Calculations are so fine

can it be growing all the time?

Now I can't believe its true

and I don't know what to do

For the hundredth time

I check the declination

Now the fear starts to grow

even my computer shows

There are no errors in the calculations

Now it's happened take no other view

Collision course, you must believe it's true

Now there's nothing left that we can do

When Two Worlds collide

The anger and the pain

Of all those who remain

Two worlds collide

Who will be left alive

No place to hide

When Two Worlds Collide

The anger, the pain

Of those who remain

When two worlds collide

When two worlds collide

So who will survive

there's No place to hide

When Two Worlds collide

 

[Mike Veroukis]

Not sure these are really what you want, but the best I could come up with without my cd collection handy.

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun - Pink Floyd

Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd

Subterranean Homesick Alien - Radiohead

Planet Earth - Duran Duran

Satellite Of Love - Lou Reed (covered by U2)

Subterranea Homesick Alien:

...Way up above

aliens hover

making home movies

for the folks back home,

of all these weird creatures

who lock up their spirits,

drill holes in themselves

and live for their secrets.

They're all uptight...

I wish that they'd sweep down in a country lane,

late at night when I'm driving.

Take me on board their beautiful ship,

show me the world as I'd love to see it.

I'd tell all my friends but they'd never believe me,

They'd think that I'd finally lost it completely.

I'd show them the stars and the meaning of life.

They'd shut me away.

But I'd be alright....

- Mike

 

[mike_decock]

Klaatu - Hope - "Around the Universe in Eighty Days"

Come aboard my ship

I've something to show you.

Some new equipment.

To take us where we're going.

A subspace machine.

A hole in the fabric

of the very being

of the Universe.

Ignition.

Atomic power on.

We must break our orbit

and soar right past the planets.

It took man a million years

to make it only this far

and we'll leave the solar system very soon.

Around the Univrse in Eighty Days.

Sit down I think you'll like it out in space.

There's nothing left to stop us now.

We're sure to win the race.

Sure to win the race.

---

Air Warp

Where Time and Space are one.

We can no longer see the sun.

In fact, there's nothing there for us to see.

For Light is nowhere near as fast as we.

-Mike...

 

[Kevin Matthews]

Into the Void - Black Sabbath
2112 - RUSH
Moondance - Van Morrison
Rock & Roll Creation - Spinal Tap
Planet Caravan - Black Sabbath
Martian Boogie - Brownsville Station ..well kind of.
Damn near all of the first album from Captain Beyond