Science Fiction Song List This list is to commemerate modern songs that have a Skiffy theme. (As opposed to all those ancient Sci-Fi songs....) Updated 4/30/02.

The lyrics of the song must contain a clear Science Fiction reference. Fantasy elements (such as Led Zepplin's many references to the Lord of the Rings) are the subject of another list (not here).

If the Sci-Fi element is only used as an obvious metaphore, the song is only eligable for "Honorary Mention".

The saucers () represent the quality of the Sci-Fi, the stars () represent the quality of the music. Disagree? Write me, making a thoughtful and well spoken case and I'll consider changes. Flames should be sent directly to /dev/null.

Additions? This list is new, I'd love to hear them......

And the winners are:

(in only the roughest of order)

• Rush, 2112. A 20 minute operetta about a young man struggling against the Iron Rule of the Solar Federation and the social controls of the Preists of Syrinx.
  Beauty, ehh?
• Billy Thorp, Children of the Sun. I do believe this one was at least partially inspired by Arthur C. Clark's "Childhood's End".
  
• Billy Thorp, 21st Century Man. Part 2 of the Children of the Sun trilogy (apparently #3 was never recorded, though). Contributed by George Whitaker.
  
• Rush, Red Barchetta. This is a song about a car. A car preserved against the wishes of the Powers that Be in a time where cars are illegal. A young man expresses his need for freedom by defying the authorities, in their "Brilliant Alloy Aircars", by taking a Sunday spin now and agian.
  
• Styx, Come Sail Away. "I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise, we climbed abord their starship, and headed for the skys." - Nuf' said.
  
• Styx, Mr. Roboto. "My Heart is Human, my Blood is Boiling, My Brain IBM"
  
• Steely Dan, True Companion From the Heavy Metal soundtrack, a group of space travelers searching for a new Earth-like home Contributed by George Whitaker.
  
• Elton John, Rocketman. Zero hour, 5 A.M.
  
• David Bowie, Space Oddity. The classic tale of Major Tom, a man lost in space - maybe because he wanted to be...
  
• Train, Drops of Jupiter. A girl returns to her boyfriend after leaving to explore the galaxy. He wonders if the wanderlust is out of her system.
  
• Blue Oyster Cult, Take Me Away. A bored man asks for an abduction. Let's hope they leave those probes behind. Contributed by Seffan Grund.
  
• John Carpenter and Bill Taylor, Benson Arizona. This was the theme song to John Carpenter's first film, "Darkstar". It also has the distiction of being quite possibly the only Country-Western song to have a Sci-Fi theme. A fitting subject for C-W, too. A man heads out to bee-bop around the galaxy. When he returns home, he finds his girlfriend is now some 70 years older than he is (due to relativity).
  His dog was probably dead, too.
• Pink Floyd, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.
  
• Thomas Dolby, Blinded me with Science. Not too much direct SF, but it has a good Mad Scientist feel....
  
• The Soundtrack to Rocky Horror Picture Show. While most of the songs are about sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll, (oh, and sex), the whole show is about aliens (kinda'), so overall it gets
  
  But Specifically
  • Let's Do the Time Warp, Again.
  • Science Fiction Double Feature.
  • Better Wise Up, Janet Weiss. ("Planet, Shmannet, Janet.").
• Yes, Starship Troopers. One line ("Starship trooper, go sailing on by..."), and of course titled after a RAH Classic.
  
• Yes, Homeworld. I know it by name, it needs some research beforeI give it a rating.

Honorable Mention

• Edgar Wnter's Group, Frankenstien. Shelly's work (Frankenstien) is considered the first Sci-Fi novel, but since Ed's work is an instrumental, I had to put it here. It was a tough call.
• David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders form Mars. Not much in SF, really, but the name of the 'band' gets an H.M.
• Frank Sinatra, Fly Me to the Moon. Well, it was just a metaphore for love, but for his choice of such a noble destination, Frankie deserves an Honorable Mention.
• The band - Soylent Green. I don't know much about their music, but they get an HM for naming their band after my company (heh, heh).

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