34 M3: 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.
34 M3: Sci-Fi References in Music List
Millions:
"M is for Millions" has "West" where the narrator
accidentally visits a recently-departed lover in the land of the dead
and is distressingly sent away. The album "Raquel" has "Drain the
Pool and Drown" about being in league with witches.
Ministry:
"Thieves" seems to have references to a future facist government.
"Faith Collapsing" from "The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste"
consists largely of samples from one or another of the _1984_ films.
Misery Index:
"The Power of 3" includes the single "Sixth Finger", which about the
Outer Limits of the same name.
Misex:
An Australian-based band (really from New Zealand) released a
minor hit single "Computer Games", from the album " Space Race".
The rest of the album is also SF.
Monitor:
A German band which produced the single "Mensch aus Glas" (Man of Glass)
about an Orwell-State where everything about everyone is registered etc.
(released 1984 - fitting)
Monkees:
See "Door Into Summer" on their album "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn
& Jones Ltd.". The song's writer, Bill Martin says "The title came from
the Robert Heinlein book _The_Door_Into_Summer_, which was about time travel.
The song is about the search for happiness, and is basically an anti-war song."
Monks of Doom:
Side-project-turned-spinoff from Camper Van Beethoven.
"Off On A Comet" (instr.) and "Virtual Lover" (ick! how could they?) both
from "Forgery", 1992; "The Insect God" (from an EP), based on a book by
Edward Gorey, author and illustrator of countless strange, scary little books
(he did the opening sequence to PBS' "Mystery!").
The Tony Monn Concept:
"Who Built The Pyramides", a song about an alien spaceship
who landed on earth, helped the people to build the pyramids
but couldn't take off anymore.
Moody Blues:
"To Our Children's Children's Children", which seems to be a musical
score for Olaf Stapledon's novel, "The Star Maker"; also "On the
Threshold of a Dream" begins with a man questioning his existence and
turns into computer rantings. Spooky psychedelia...
Also, the cover of "Long Distance Voyager" shows an 18th century
scene with something in the sky that looks like a Voyager space probe.
1971's "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" has some relevant material; here
are some comments by Wm. L. Nothstine:
The first track, Procession, does a quick tour of human
evolution and, through music and sounds, strongly hints that
ETs were at the origin of it [no lyrics, except three words:
"desolation, creation, communication"]. It's credited as cowritten by
all members of the Moodies. [Procession mixes straight into The Story
In Your Eyes, the best-known cut, which has no real sci-fi take to it,
but sets some of the fear-of-the-future tone that the rest of the album
floats back to from time to time.]
The sixth track [on CD; track 1 side 2 of tapes and albums],
One More Time To Live, recapitulates some themes from
Procession and puts them into a more apocalyptic framework--humans
evolving, civilization turning to chaos, technology out of control and
turning back on the its makers and the earth--but managing to suggest
hope at the end. It's by John Lodge.
The last track of the album, My Song, briefly picks up the
theme again in the bridge of an otherwise seemingly unrelated
song, suggesting hope might come from ETs [perhaps those who attended
the origins of the species on Earth?]: "where did I find all these
words/something inside of me's burning/there's life in other
worlds/maybe they'll come to earth/helping man to find a way." It's by
Pinder [who also wrote the somewhat like-minded Thinking is the Best
Way to Travel on In Search of the Lost Chord.]
Moorcock, Michael:
(Some commentary on M.M. from Jeff Berry; see also the entries
for Blue Oyster Cult, Candlemass, Deep Fix, Hawkwind, and Leatherwolf.)
Michael Moorcock is a very prolific science fiction fantasy writer,
most widely known for the "Elric of Melnibone" series, a fantasy
staple. That series is, however, part of a more sweeping
"supra-series" concerning the Eternal Champion, a warrior who returns
again and again to live out various lives in a grand and ultimately
doomed cycle of birth and re-birth. (As an aside note, this concept
is satirized in Craig Shaw Garnder's "Ballad of Wuntvor" as
the Eternal Apprentice).
Moorcock has published at least 30 or 40 books, in many different
series, as well as a number of stand alone novels, both in science
fiction and in fantasy. Musically he has collaborated with Hawkwind
and Blue Oyster Cult, writing songs and occasionally performing.
Futhermore, Elric cover art by Michael Whelan has appeared as album
cover art in at least a few places (for example, Cirith Ungol
uses one of his covers for one of their albums).
The Chaosium Game Company has acquired rights to most of Moorcock's
work for gaming purposes, and has released games based on both Elric
and on Hawkmoon (yet another incarnation of the Eternal Champion).
Moorcock books should be available at almost any reputable book dealer.
More info available at request.
--- Jeff Barry, nexus@isis.cgd.ucar.edu
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