Songs about UFOs, space and similar sci-fi things

[FunkyHiFi]

Just like with funny novelty songs, I don't think these types of songs are made anymore because so many modern labels are run by people with financial abilities but not much musical sense. :(

Anyhoo, here's some from a time when things were more e-z going in the music biz and btw, none of these were obscure tracks done by artists hidden in the back aisles of a music store.......


"Hypnotised" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZeTlMpnfHk) by Fleetwood Mac UFOs - dreamy feel for this track, before the band got so commercial by the mid 70s


"Veterans Of The Psychic Wars" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGKNaIXtBZQ) by Blue Oyster Cult sci-fi - included on the soundtrack of the non-CGI animated movie Heavy Metal


"In The Year 2525" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uw7phR9ucA) by Zager & Evans heavy/somber sci-fi - was #1 on the charts for six weeks back in 1969



"Eagle" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpUqY0brqWU) by Abba not exactly sci-fi but more of a haunting mystical feel


"I, Robot" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgJA7lPkb1o) by The Alan Parsons Project instrumental track [the homemade video is pretty cool!] probably inspired by the book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot) written by Isaac Asimov, one of the original "grandmasters" of science fiction; also on the same album, "Nucleus" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPNSxwZnLTM) is also science-fictioney :).


FYI: if you want to know who Matt Dodson is, google that name plus "Robert Heinlein". :)

[TurdBerglar]

almost everything by hawkwind?

[mate_spawn_die]

Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BrSVOOK610&feature=related) by The Carpenters

[Freebasser]

We can close the thread now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADBQx0AsXzs)

[mate_spawn_die]

Always Returning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsX7aUx3Dt4) by Brian Eno

more info here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind)

[Lyman Zerga]

We can close the thread now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADBQx0AsXzs)


i was so addicted to that song

[hpdrifter]

Peter Schilling's Major Tom (Coming Home) Apparently intended as a sequel to Bowie's Space Oddity.

[abcdefz]

"Mission (A World Record)" and the whole album Time - ELO

[FunkyHiFi]

I stand corrected! Didn't know that some modern musicians still wanted to do the space thing. :D (y)

[MC Moot]

P Funk “Mothership Connection”... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_akDbrXlmc&feature=fvw)

[MC Moot]

Dead Milkmen “Right Wing Pigeons from Outerspace”... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hez0kgdyUAM)

[thegoodmrbrodie!]

my friends have a nice song called UFO.

http://www.myspace.com/hunttheshy

[MC Moot]

Iron Maiden “Stranger in a Strange Land”... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7IdqkaGyU8)

[MC Moot]

Blondie with G.M.Flash “Rapture” ... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHPikUPlRD8)

[FunkyHiFi]

my friends have a nice song called UFO.

http://www.myspace.com/hunttheshyGood stuff, and liked the music though couldn't hear all the lyrics because for now I'm stuck using the teeny-tiny "speakers" built into this monitor on our new computer (the S.O. won't allow me to use my little JVC receiver plus Minimus 77 (http://www.angelfire.com/vt/audio/minimus.html) speakers I was using before because "They're so ugly!" :().

Dead Milkmen “Right Wing Pigeons from Outerspace”...(y) My kind of humor! Got another punk 80s band to start listening to now (no joke - I've been buying Bad Religion and Fugazi CDs and vinyl the past few months).

Got to mention something about this: the book Stranger In A Strange Land (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land) by Robert Heinlein caused a good-sized chunk of controversy when it debuted in 1961, sort of a "hippy" science fiction story that really freaked out a lot of people back then. FYI: this book is where the word "grok" came from ("Though his face remained placid back at the table in the restaurant, I grokked that he was really upset his iPod had fallen into the toilet.").

[Documad]

"Mission (A World Record)" and the whole album Time - ELO

ELO's out of the blue LP had some kind of fold-up space ship that came with it. My brother had the LP and the only reason I listened to it was because it came with a gimmick.

[FunkyHiFi]

^ Documad/abcdefz/anyone :) Not to get too off-topic here but I've always liked the ELO tracks I've heard on the radio - what would be a good "starter" non-greatest hits album to look for?

Btw the only album with "stuff" added to it I've bought in the last decade(!?) was Beck's The Information, which came with stickers that you could use to customize the front cover of the CD.

Anyone know if the vinyl version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon still comes with posters?

[Whatitis]

Mr. Nogatco - Night Flyer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sSqhGcSciU)

Dr. Octagon - Aliens (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfgwXkg4ywI&feature=related) and Earth People (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc8zdLQuZp0&feature=related)

Kool Keith is infatuated with aliens. In the movie Scratch, I think it was DJ Qbert said something about scratching was like talking to aliens. I'll have to dust off that DVD, if anyone hasn't seen it...highly recommended.

[EN[i]GMA]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_mwUEjuz3Q&feature=related

Sufjan Stevens - Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland Illinois

[mate_spawn_die]

I think it was DJ Qbert said something about scratching was like talking to aliens.

i believe it was Mix Master Mike that said that

[ericg]

outkast - atliens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ygqj3RbHFU

[FunkyHiFi]

Not fully sci-fi but more paranormal really.....but close enough for this thread! :)

Any "believers" like myself may enjoy the album Flow, River of My Soul by the Australian group Single Gun Theory. I still regularly listen to it, even after all these years.

Finally found one track from it on Youtube, called "Fall" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvoEJqo5yjg).

Sort of trip-hop mixed with subtle new age flourishes, and heavily peppered with spoken word samples from all over the place from Rod Serling, Jonathan Harris a.k.a. Dr. Smith - Lost in Space, a military man who was there when the A-bomb was dropped, a segment pulled from a poltergeist researcher's documentary (the track called "Phenomena"), a psychologist's advice and many more. Some tracks very chilled out, some energetic enough to dance to, like "Metaphysical".

Good stuff!

[FunkyHiFi]

I've mentioned this soundtrack here before, but this fits in here too:

Chariots of the Gods? (http://weirdsville.com/featured11.html) - uses Real player to stream entire album (many non-profit music & college radio sites use Real, I wonder why)

Probably the best late-60's German pseudoscience documentary music you'll ever hear. Thomas combines crazed electronics, acid-exotica instrumentation, killer beats, and that haunting Title Theme into a cosmic score that goes way-out in search of Ancient Astronauts.

Here's the entry (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065702/) for this classic & controversial 1970 semi-documentary at the Internet Movie Data Base.

[FunkyHiFi]

These aren't sci-fi related, but just wanted to add them to show how radio has changed, especially since 1996. These tracks were regularly played on typical commercial stations back when they debuted - nowadays they wouldn't stand a chance since it seems no one with a feel for music works at the huge corporations who own most stations now. :(

"Valley Girl" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnVE3UTIgEM) by Frank Zappa - heard this a lot. Funny stuff! The album's cover art is clever too (shown in the video). I thought the movie of the same name with a young Nicholas Cage was quite good, and the movie was actually semi-serious rather than just the throwaway summer type of movie I had expected.

"Mr. Jaws" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut47JriJC-0) by Dickie Goodman - one of the many fun or in this track's case, just plain corny :D novelty songs played through the 50s, 60s and 70s up through the late 80s. For a track of this type nowadays, getting all the rights cleared for all those samples would be a legal nightmare and probably cost too much.

"Pacman Fever" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-MONIvP6kI) by Buckner and Garcia - no description needed here.......

"Nineteen" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byCCmBwRjGw) by Paul Hardcastle - I am 100% sure no modern commercial station except for maybe a privately-owned one would play something like this mid-80s track. It's a song about the Vietnam war, a very danceable song btw, with no overt political message but does include portions of the narration track contained on a documentary about that war (Hardcastle was sued for doing so). According to wikipedia, it made it to #1 in thirteen countries & I do remember it regularly being played here.

Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwGQKsFTK9Q).....disco-fied! :eek: This is actually the less offensive of the two disco versions of that cool movie's theme song. Actually I kinda like it! I own this 45 myself - no not THAT 45 seen in the video - which came with the LP of the soundtrack I bought back then and still own.

And some tracks I don't feel like looking for :)......

"Hooked On Classics" - a entire series of this stuff! Music guaranteed to empty the stomachs of classical fans everywhere!

"Disco Duck" by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots.

Theme from the movie Shaft, by Isaac Hayes. An excellent track that still sounds fresh to me.

[FunkyHiFi]

Skimming through another music forum just now, I was reminded of this energetic but somber track that was played on the radio a lot back in the late 70s when I was a little kid:

"Forever Autumn" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QAf5aE-YMw) from War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne, one of the 70's many concept albums. With vocals by Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) and narration by Richard Burton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burton).

FYI: the radio version lacked the spoken word parts.

[FunkyHiFi]

A tune from another prog rock concept album by Mr. Parsons and crew! :)

"(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHNxBheFAt4)

From the first "Project" series of albums by Alan Parsons (audio engineer for Dark Side of the Moon) with narration by Orson Welles: Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Edgar Allan Poe.

[FunkyHiFi]

Someone brought this up on another forum today - this track has an eerie, Stephen King-ish vibe to it:

"Angie Baby" by Helen Reddy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQKyGt_I5L4)

[saz]

Anyone know if the vinyl version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon still comes with posters?

none of the songs on the album are about space.

astronomy domine -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M-UtlpvBWk

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

set the controls for the heart of the sun -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_0iZQ-TuA

[FunkyHiFi]

This could be interpreted as sci-fi and actually, reminds me of those video games with a military theme.........

"Sole Survivor" by Asia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SknhwBX8QCY), one of those "big" and uplifting sounding songs that I believe are best experienced with a good car or home component system (sorry, earbuds and tiny 1" speakers in a laptop just won't work, I don't care what the commercials say*).

Asia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_%28band%29) is - yep they still exist and released another album just last year - a "supergroup" formed from members that had left other well-known groups. The self-titled album this song is found on did very well commercially, despite the non-formulaic and many times non-massmarket themes, particularly the track entitled "Wildest Dreams" which reminds me of what's happening today in certain hot & sandy countries. :(


* BUT.....an MP3 player or a laptop can make great source components, since nearly all of them can easily be hooked up to a home component system.

[FunkyHiFi]

none of the songs on the album are about space.Though to many people they are space-EY. ; :D

astronomy domine -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M-UtlpvBWk

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

set the controls for the heart of the sun -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_0iZQ-TuAThanks for the links - am listening to the first one right now (the 1960s sure liked those amoeba-like projection scenes......)

[TimDoolan]

All good stuff but don't forget Tom Waits.
An eeire peek into obsessive suspicion and paranoia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMqxNPsfN50&feature=player_detailpage

[HEIRESS]

TELSTAR!!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuA-fqKCiAE&feature=related)

[HEIRESS]

my backpack's got jets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOB6LeLraFM&feature=related)

[FunkyHiFi]

That Waits track was......creepy, and I didn't even watch the video (usually when listening to music I've never heard before I don't watch the video), so a good choice for this thread! Reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode but can't remember which.

The Telstar and especially the MC Chris vids were cool: the first because it's a good track but also because it reminds me of all the old (but still good) 40s and 50s sci-fi I grew up with reading & watching in the 70s; and the Star Wars track because it's just well written, the music too.

For anyone into sci-fi tunes, for a really experimental set of notes and isntruments, check out the soundtrack from the 50s classic movie Forbidden Planet (it's in color). Here's some of it. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIuc1_Qg4A8) Called "electronic tonalities" by its creators, the entire soundtrack sounds like this, though not sure if you can really call it music...............

[aa ninja]

My favorite space bands!
1. CHROME
2. Heldon
3. Kraftwerk
4. George Clinton
5. Cybotron
6. Hawkwind
7. Yellow Magic Orchestra
8. Kool Keith
9. Moonstone Continuum
10. Portion Control

[FunkyHiFi]

Well the band's name fits in here anyway. :)

This debuted earlier this year (you can listen to the entire album via the included player):

Ancient Astronauts' Into Bass and Time (http://www.eslmusic.com/shop/albumDetail/into_bass_and_time)

Btw this is not one of those "bass" albums you hear out on the local drag on Saturday nights pounding out colon-shaking beats & nothing else.

There's 15 tracks but by the time I got through the 11th track, figured it was good enough to post about. :D I already ordered it (yes I'm one of those weird people that don't do downloads - I like my "physical media").

[TimDoolan]

Carl Sagan A Glorious Dawn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc)

[Adrock'sGirlie]

Would anything regarding The X-Files or Fox Mulder count...like this little divvy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOP5wsSXY8w

I like the X-Files and did have a little crush on Fox Mulder when I was a wee lass but seriously, WTF....this is scary...I wonder if he ever heard this song and thought...Ok! Restraining Order!" I would.

[HAL 9000]

Carl Sagan A Glorious Dawn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc)
(y)(y)(y)(y)

[Guy Incognito]

virtually everything on the orb's first two albums

adventures beyond the ultraworld and U F Orb

and walkin on the moon by the police

[FunkyHiFi]

Would anything regarding The X-Files or Fox Mulder countDefinitely!

I bought a "Pure Moods" CD at garage sale years ago only because it had an instrumental/techno version of the X-Files theme by someone named DJ Dado, which is decent.

...like this little divvy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOP5wsSXY8wEr, the song is well constructed but the video was kinda...nauseating :)....and I had to hit the stop button halfway through it. I'm a major fan of that show & the Mulder character but that's as far as I go! :D

[FunkyHiFi]

(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)

In addition to the files you can download (at least a year ago or so, the song was on iTunes and the musician's own site), on the musician's site there was also a lossless FLAC version offered, CD quality in other words. There are several free convertors out there that will convert the FLAC file to a .wav file, MP3 or AAC.

Then a 7" vinyl single came out, here's a picture of it & the cover sleeve. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeena/4953855593/) And check out the back of the record (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeena/4953865897/in/photostream/), which features the symbolic line drawings of what was sent along with the Voyager space probe back in the 70s - very cool!

[FunkyHiFi]

virtually everything on the orb's first two albums

adventures beyond the ultraworld and U F Orb

and walkin on the moon by the policeI'm been wanting to get the Orb album that features "Little Fluffy Clouds" (I think that's the right name) - hopefully the rest of the album is good too..............

[Brother McDuff]

Couldn't find a link:

"The Flying Saucer Song" by Harry Nilsson from the album Pussy Cats

RIP

[TimDoolan]

Michael Jackson makes Rod Serling Rap in Threatened (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHBdSUUeSwI&feature=related)

[TimDoolan]

I have decided to go a step further and include horror movie soundtracks in with these other sci-fi sounds.
The criminally underrated Psycho sequels had some good music all their own:
A melody was peppered throughout the movie and Norman even played some of it on his piano!!

"Maureen in the Desert" Mellow but sort of sinister (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgkPLNg-wwo&feature=related)

"Warm as a Cry for Help" :the 80's pop rock version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx6oDudirMI)