R. O. pre-K.

Since we’ve been so quiet lately, here’s a bunch of songs to try and make up for it!

Recently, my daughter has been learning about the solar system in school. As part of this, they put on a class play about all the planets and various other heavenly bodies (the sun, stars, comets, meteorites, etc.), which was a lot of fun to watch. In addition to the parents, they also performed it for the grade below them. As a result of this, she had been looking forward to being in the play since last year when she saw the grade ahead of her do it. Knowing this was coming, I figured it would make a good theme for a post, so I’ve been thinking about it for a little while now. It’s funny; there are a lot of songs that mention the moon, sun and stars, but most of them mention them in the context of love. Not a lot of songs are actually about the solar system, but here is what I was able to dig up from our collection.

PS – When I grew up, Pluto was a real planet…imaging me surprise as an adult when I found out that it had been downgraded to a “dwarf planet”!

 

“Interplanet Janet” by Lynn Ahrens, 1978
From the compilation School House Rock!
“Interplanet Janet” lyrics

School House Rock! is a great series of short cartoons from the 1970’s. They were designed to run on the weekends, in between the regular kid’s cartoons. At first, they covered four basic topics; science, American history, multiplication, and grammar. In each of the following decades a new subject was added; computers (in the1980’s), money (the 1990’s), and environmentalism (2000’s). In hindsight, it is funny how each of the new series seemed to reflect a major theme of their decade. If you talk to anyone who saw the original series as a kid, the odds are good that they could immediately sing the chorus of at least a half dozen of the S.H.R. songs. And they used to say that all TV is mindless garbage! “Interplanet Janet” is from the original series and was created to help teach kids about the solar system.

 

“Mr. Bass Man (Mister Spaceman)” by Holy Modal Rounders, 1964
From the album The Holy Modal Rounders
“Mr. Bass Man (Mister Spaceman)” lyrics

The Holy Modal Rounders was a group that was part of the folk music revival of the 1960’s. At the time, many musicians were rediscovering what is best termed “traditional” music (blues, spirituals, railroad songs, Appalachian mountain songs, etc.), largely thanks to a classic collection called The Anthology of American Folk Music, which gathered together a bunch of 78’s (records for you digital kids) from the 1920’s and 30’s. This anthology was instrumental in helping a whole new generation of musicians rediscover traditional songs from across America. As for the Holy Modal Rounders, whenever they learned an old traditional song, if they couldn’t understand the lyrics from the original record, they just made up new words to fit the music. As a result, their versions of these songs tended to be very funny. “Mr. Bass Man” is an original song that they wrote.

 

“Supersonic Rocket Ship” by The Kinks, 1972
From the album Everybody’s in Show-Biz
“Supersonic Rocket Ship” lyrics

Ahhh, the Kinks. This one is about how they will take off for space and leave the problems of earth behind.

 

“Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra, 1964
From the compilation The Best of the Capitol Years
“Fly Me to the Moon” lyrics

Ok, this one is about love and not outer space itself, but it is such a classic that I couldn’t resist including it. However, it does have a connection to outer space; when the Apollo 10 space mission orbited the moon in 1969, mission control broadcast this song to the astronauts. This version was arranged by Quincy Jones and features Count Basie.

 

“Rocket Number Nine” by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, 1973
From the album Space is the Place
“Rocket Number Nine” lyrics

Sun Ra was quite a character. He was probably best known for the fact that he claimed to have visited Saturn in the late 1930’s, decades before most people even considered the possibility of life on other planets. From that point on, he adopted the name Sun Ra and considered himself an emissary of the universe. In addition to this, he was one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century (composing over 1000 songs across 100+ records), with the vast majority of his music based on the concept of outer space. “Rocket Number Nine” is a little bit on the weird side, but it’s also strangely catchy.

 

“Starship” (edit) by the MC5, 1969
From the album Kick Out the Jams
“Starship” lyrics

This one is a bit of a rocker, but it is still a lot of fun, especially the part where they start the countdown to blast-off. On the record, there is a lengthy improvisation (including the recital of a poem) which represents a voyage through space, but I cut that part out. The song and poem are based on a Sun Ra composition, as he was a big influence on the MC5.

 

“Space Oddity” by David Bowie, 1969
From the compilation The Singles Collection
“Space Oddity” lyrics

This is probably the best known song about traveling through space. It has a bit of sad ending, as the main character (Major Tom) ends up being unable to return to earth. David Bowie later recorded an album about a character named “Ziggy Stardust”, who was an alien being that came to earth in order to help save the human race.

 

“Major Tom (Coming Home)” by Shiny Toy Guns, 2009
From the single Major Tom (Coming Home)
“Major Tom (Coming Home)” lyrics

This song is a tribute to “Space Oddity”, and was originally recorded by Peter Schilling in 1983. In the song, Major Tom does not consider himself lost in space, but views himself as “coming home”. I wanted to post Schilling’s original, but all I could locate was the German language version, which he had recorded first. You have may have heard the Shiny Toy Guns cover already, since it has recently been used in a car commercial. In addition to this song, there is another “Space Oddity” tribute called “Mrs. Major Tom”, which tells the story from the perspective of his wife. I haven’t heard this though, so I can’t say if it is any good.

 

“Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” by Meco, 1977
From the album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk
This song is an instrumental.

Now what collection of “space” music would be complete without the Star Wars Theme? This is a disco (dance) version that incorporates the Cantina Band song in it.

 

“Jingle Bells” (edit) by Nina Rota, 1960
From the soundtrack to La Dolce Vita
This song is an instrumental.

You may be wondering what this song has to do with outer space. Well, it was actually the first song played in outer space! Here is the full story, as originally posted on our sister site http://musicalknowledge.org:

“In 1965, after the Gemini 6 space mission was cancelled, a new mission was designed and named Gemini 6A. Their primary objective was an in flight rendezvous with Gemini 7. On December 15, the mission was accomplished, with the two spacecraft spending almost 3 hours orbiting together, at some points as close as 30 centimeters. When it came time to sleep, they broke their orbit and drifted apart. However, before the crew of Gemini 6 went to sleep, they broadcast the following message;

“Gemini VII, this is Gemini VI. We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit…. Looks like he might be going to reenter soon. Stand by one…. You just might let me to pick up that thing…. I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit.”

Certainly, the first tinges of panic must have started to rise back at Mission Control. Had something happened to Gemini 7? Was there an unidentified spacecraft approaching Gemini 6A? Was 6A in any danger? What was happening?

All of a sudden, the song “Jingle Bells” was transmitted, played by the Gemini 6 crew (Wally Schirra on harmonica, and Thomas Stafford rocking the sleigh bells). After they finished, they reported that the UFO must have been Santa Claus making a test run for the upcoming holiday. Quite a twofer: not only the first song played in space, but most likely, also the first practical joke. Today the harmonica and sleigh bells are on display in the Smithsonian Institution.”

So the next time you hear “Jingle Bells” at the holidays, take a moment to think about a pair of lonely astronauts floating up above the planet and broadcasting the song through the universe.