24 H2: Sci-Fi References in Music List
Description
This article is from the SF references in music List FAQ, by Rich Kulawiec rsk@gsp.org with numerous contributions by others.
24 H2: Sci-Fi References in Music List
Hagar, Sammy:
"There's a Crack in the Earth".
Hamm, Stuart:
"Radio Free Albemuth" is based on the novels of Phillip K. Dick.
"Count Zero" is based on William Gibson's material.
Instrumental music includes the song "Ice-9", a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's
"Cat's Cradle". Hamm has also worked with Joe Satriani.
Hammill, Peter:
Has done an operatic treatment of "The Fall of the House of Usher".
Happy the Man:
"Time Considered as a Helix of Precious Laughs" is based on Samuel R.
Delany's story "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones".
Great story, lousy song...from the album "Happy the Man".
Hardcastle, Paul:
The "No Winner" album is filled with songs about nuclear attacks and SDI.
Hatfield and the North
"Son of There's No Place Like Homerton" from their eponymous album.
It's a lengthy song which has sparse lyrics and seems to be
about an orchestra from Mars.
Hawkwind:
The all-time consensus champion for sf-oriented rock. *Some* of their
albums are: "Hall of the Mountain Grill", "In Search of Space",
"Quark, Strangeness, and Charm", "Space Ritual--Alive in Liverpool &
London", "Warrior on the Edge of Time", "In Search of Space", "Doremi
Fasol Latido", "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music","25 Years On",
"Levitation", "Sonic Attack", "Church of the Hackwind", and "Choose
Your Masks". Michael Moorcock, long associated with the group, has
in fact written much fantasy-sf, including co-authoring "Time of the Hawklords",
a fantasy about the band saving the world. He co-wrote "Veteran of the
Psychic Wars", from the soundtrack of "Heavy Metal". He also released a
solo album late in the 70's (See "Deep Fix"). Many of their tracks are
explicitly linked to SF books,e.g. "Lord of Light", "Jack of Shadows",
"Damnation Alley" (Zelazny), "Steppenwolf" (Hesse), "High Rise" (Ballard).
The lyrics of "Warriors" are taken from Moorcock's "The Eternal Champion";
the lyrics to another spoken track on "Space Ritual" from his book
"The Black Corridor" The lyrics of "The Awakening", "Spirit of the Age"
and "The 10 Seconds of Forever", are SF poems from Robert Calvert's
collection of poems, "Centigrade 232". Robert Calvert was lead singer
of Hawkwind from 1976-1978 (or thereabouts) and produced a solo album,
"Lucky Leif in the Longships" in the late 70's, and two more in the mid-80's.
"Lucky Leif" is based on the premise "What if the Vikings had
succeeded and colonizing America?", and features several Hawkwind
regulars as guest musicians. The 1985 Hawkwind LP "The Chronicle of
the Black Sword" is based loosely on Moorcock's Elric character.
Debut album was called "Hawkwind". Another album is PXR5.
Some commentary on "Live Chronicles" from Stephen Swann:
"Live Chronicles" is the double-album concert rendition of their
"Chronicle of the Black Sword" album, and features several events from
the Elric books (especially "Stormbringer"), loosely intertwined into
an 80-minute music-story performance. The tour also featured Michael
Moorcock himself on stage with the band, doing narration between
musical numbers. Moorcock's spoken parts didn't make it onto the
final cut of the album, because of legal problems between himself and
the band, but he -is- on the _Chronicle of the Black Sword_ video
(which is a live performance from the same tour, even though it
sports the name of the studio album).
--- Stephen Swann
For further info on Hawkwind, please see the rather massive entry
at the end of the list.
Hazard, Robert:
A Philadelphia-area performer who released the album "Wings of Fire"
in the mid-80's. It included a track entitled "Interplanetary Private Eye",
which was essentially the Bladerunner story -- and there was even
an attribution to it in the liner notes.
Heaven 17:
This band took their name from a band mentioned in "Clockwork Orange".
"Let"s All make a Bomb" from their "Penthouse and Pavement" LP is about The
Bomb and nuclear war, but is apparently not too SF-ish. See also
"Five Minutes to Midnight", on the same theme.
Hedges, Michael:
Semi-new age guitarist/composer/singer. His album "Taproot" is
described as "an autobiographical myth told in music," and appears to
have a semi-fantasy theme.
Heldon:
French band that took it's name from Norman Spinrad's "The Iron
Dream" and takes some song titles from the novel as well. A later LP called
"Interface" has a beautiful female alien face on the cover and the titles
seem suggestive of leading up to sex with green women.
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