28 J2: 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.
28 J2: Sci-Fi References in Music List
John, Elton:
"Rocket Man"...perhaps from Bradbury's "Illustrated Man"? Anyway,
another road song. Also "I've Seen the Saucers"...from "Caribou".
"I am Your Robot" from "Jump Up".
Jones, Grace:
"Slave to the Rhythm" is about man as a slave to machines; "Demolition Man"
is a remake of Manfred Mann's song. (See also the Police's remake.)
Jones, Howard:
"Automaton" on "Dream Into Action" is about a man
from the future who turns out to be a robot.
Jonzun Crew:
Album "Lost in Space" includes "Space Cowboy"--apparently not the same
as the Steve Miller Band song.
Journey:
"Look in into the Future", from the album of the same name,
"Spaceman" from "Next" and "Wheel in the Sky" from "Infinity".
Joy Division:
One of many bands in the industrial and gothic genres influenced by
J.G. Ballard's work. For instance, their song "Atrocity Exhibition"
referred to in New Order's "the Him" (a minor character in "The Atrocity
Exhibition"); Ian Curtis's unused lyric "Driftwood" is based on Ballard's
first novel "the Drowned World", and many of his lyrics have a generally
Ballardian feel.
Judas Priest:
"The Green Manalishi with the Two-Pronged Crown". See also "Electric
Eye" from "Screaming for Vengeance", an Orwellian song about covert
surveillance drones in the sky. Some commentary on the latest Judas Priest LP:
The band's last album, "Painkiller" (1990) is basically a science
fiction concept album, a story set in a time/place frame similar
to the future of "The Terminator", in which human beings are hunted
down and killed after a third world war, but it seems less by outside
forces (though one song is about a monster that hunts people down,
the "Nightcrawler") than by internal strife. "Between the Hammer and
the Anvil" is a song about priests who hunt down heretics in the
collapse of civilization, and the title song is concerned with the
post-apocalyptic world's hero, only known as The Painkiller.
--- Brian Landwehr
Also of interest: "Jawbreaker" from "Defenders of the Faith", perhaps about
some kind of monster snake. "The Sentinel" is about some kind of killing machine.
"Beyond the Realms of Death" on "Stained Class" is about a post-death experience.
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