Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ASTEROID LIGHT
From: robomatic
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 07:53 PM

I don't know if this subject has been addressed before, I didn't get a rise out of the search utility, but I can't imagine it hasn't come up before:

Have you heard, learned, or composed folk songs with science fiction themes? I have been digitizing my library of cassettes and as a consequence listening to some mighty strange stuff. One of them is me singing a song I learned from somewhere. In the interest of preserving every useless thing for someone else's posterity I humbly offer:

By the way this is in the DigiTrad as a parody, but it's wrong on a word and missing a verse. How does one go about correcting stuff in the DigiTrad library?

THE ASTEROID LIGHT
Author unknown (To the tune of "The Eddystone Light")

My father was the keeper of the Asteroid Light
He slept with a Martian one fine night
From this match came children three
Two were mutants and the other was me

CHO: Yo ho ho, the jets run free
Ho for the life at the speed of C

When I was just a space cadet
They put me in charge of the proton jet
I cleaned the tubes and filled them with fuel
Picked my teeth with an old slide rule. CHO.

As I was heading out for the moon
And singing a well known spaceman's tune
I heard a voice cry out of the void
There sat my mother on her as-teroid. CHO.

"Oh, what has become of my children three?"
My mother then she asked of me
"One is on exhibit in a zoo on Venus,
The other keeps a telepathic link between us." CHO.

The deuterons flashed in her hydrogen hair
I looked once more and my mother wasn't there
But she telepathed angrily out of the night
"Then to hell with the keeper of the asteroid light!" CHO.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 28-Jul-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Amos
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 09:09 PM

The grand classic of all SciFi song is of course "The Green Hills of Earth" by Papa Heinlein.

I wrote a tune for it once back in the erta of the Mudcat Enterprise, but I am sorry to say I have forgotten it. But you can find the lyrics in one of the Enterprise threads series.

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: artbrooks
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 10:17 PM

Robomatic, one form of composed folk songs on science fiction themes is called "filk music". One of many sites about filk is here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 10:53 PM

Peggy Seeger has a "Spacegirl's Song," recently recorded by the Short Sisters (on Live from Four States). Jonathan Eberhart's "Solar Privateer" is more of a poetic interpretation of science fact than science fiction, but could qualify. It will be on the new Boarding Party album, forthcoming sometime next year. His "Lament For a Red Planet," on the Life's Trolley Ride album, is a similar case.

Bob Zentz has a song called "Wrinkle in Time," after Madeline L'Engle's book. I once had the opportunity to ask Madeline L'Engle if she'd ever heard the song, and was thrilled to hear her reply, "Yes, I love it. I love all the music that comes out of Sharon, CT."

Dan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Kaleea
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 03:05 AM

I suppose, (said Kaleea with tongue in cheek) that you folks will tell me that Wierd Al's "And the Saga Begins" does not count as folk! Bye, bye this here Anakin guy, could be Vader sometime later . . . . . . "would you believe" . . . the Star Trek theme from the original series? I didn't think so. Ok, well what the one by "Paul" Noel Stookey . . ."Jules Verne Green Cheese, Jules Verne Green Cheese!" Uh, -- Ok, & now, back to our subject . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Gareth
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 06:05 AM

Klingons on the Starboard Bow, ?

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: GUEST,Steve Zodiac
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 06:54 AM

Fireball I wish I was a Fireball and you would be my Venus of the ski i i.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From:
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 06:58 AM

Here are two of the Green Hills of Earth songs:

Green Hills of Earth
Green Hills of Earth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Susan of DT
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 08:09 AM

try a search for @filk and @SCA in the blue search box. There are probably more that are no annotated with these labels, but it is a start. You might also look at @myth which gets you a mix of devil, witch, fairy, unicorn, dragon, etc. @ghost is a separate category. None of these are necessarily sci fi, but related.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 12:02 AM

"Green Hills of Earth" (the story) was dramatized on a radio program, oh, about 1948. If you heard it, you'll remember it. The song was sung on it, to a tune resembling "Rosin the Beau".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Allan S
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 03:55 PM

I remember hearing it back in the late 40's on the radio program. It was to the tune of Acres Of Clams. Not sure who sang it but I think it was Oscar Brand. I remember writing to the NY station and getting an answer. w/ the words of the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 03:59 PM

Let's not confuse folk singing with filk singing o.k...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 06:18 PM

And Acres of Clams is to the tune of Rosin the Beau.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 08:31 PM

Kaleea -- I thought the Wierd Al parody was better than the movie! The only thing that stopped me learning it was that not enough people went to see the film to understand the references. As for sci-fi folk songs, I've always thought that After The Gold Rush had that kind of feel to it. Of course whether Neil Young counts as folk is a whole other can of threads!

BJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 01:10 AM

The school is still out as to whether Neil Young is even counted as human!!

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Big John
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 10:25 PM

Donovan (he of Catch the Wind) sang "The Intergalactic laxative".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Haruo
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 10:56 PM

Jacob Sommer says he wrote music for Green Hills but I didn't see any. ¿?

Liland

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 03:31 AM

Somewhere in my vast collection of sf (as we afficionados call it) novels is a anumber of books by Poul Andersen. One is about mining the asteroid belt and has verses of a sort of interplanetary Great historical bum; another (an early work of fantasy rather than sf) is sprinkled with Anglo-Saxon verses in modern English (if you see what I mean) ... Maybe when the new house is straight and we've crammed all our quarts into pint pots I'll dig 'em out; fir now, you'll just have to wait for a fellow sf-fan catter to identify them.
Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: GUEST,Simon Poole
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 06:11 AM

There's an old Queen song (from the first or second album) "The Year of 39" (or something like that, my aging memory fails me) It's the only song I know which deals with the effects of time dilation at relativistic speeds and it's quite acoustic and 'folky' (or should that be 'filky'?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 08:55 AM

It's on "A Night At The Opera". It's a nice song that I keep never quite getting round to learning.
BJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: nickp
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 09:55 AM

GUEST,Steve Zodiac - a very vague (and embarassing memory) thinks it should be 'Venus of the stars'

(This is Fireball XL5 by Gerry Anderson for the uninitiated, a puppet series from UK TV in the late 60s - I think. Steve Zodiac was the daring space pilot, Venus was his suitably blonde partner and Fireball was the rocket ship. Anderson went on to make Stingray, Joe 90, Thunderbirds and many others)

And I seem to recall the lyrics went something like

I wish I was a spaceman/The fastest guy alive/I'd fly around the universe/In Fireball XL5/Way out in space together/Conquerors(???) of the stars/ My heart would be a fireball/A fireball/And you would be my Venus of the stars Oh I'm SO embarrassed......

And then there was another verse about Milky Way and Mars....... urgh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 10:44 AM

And here are some pics, and here's the closing song (haven't tried it myself--hope it works).

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: nickp
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 11:13 AM

Thank goodness for soundless p.c.'s in the office!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 10:45 AM

...And you need teeny tiny eyes for reading teeny tiny print like you need teeny tiny hands for milking mice! is a line from a song in a Larry Niven book...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: johnross
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 09:31 PM

"Green Hills" was dramatized several times for radio. The version in the old NBC "X Minus One" series used the melody from "Willow Garden".

Another good source of Science Fiction folk songs is "The Space Child's Mother Goose", which you can probably find at the library.

In about 1994, a bunch of us did a "computer folk songs" workshop at the Folklife Festival in Seattle. Among the songs we found were a lot of parodies including Zeke Hoskins' "Ghost Program in the Drive" and Mudcatter mg's "Boeing Chantey". I think we taped that workshop. The tape will probably surface sometime in the next couple of years as we copy all those tapes to digital.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: Ned Ludd
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 04:42 AM

Wow other people who remember Fireball XL5 and the songs! It must be Folk by now- 'scuse me I'm overcome...

Nostalgia- what a wonderful thing, I was too young to notice how naff the lyrics were.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: nickp
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 05:32 AM

Yes Ned

and before then 'Space Patrol' with Captain Larry Dart... and 'Torchy The Battery Boy' .... and 'Twizzle'.

There are web pages for them too but I prefer to rely on a fading memory. Hmmm, perhaps there should be an 'old children's TV show' thread. Oh no - better keep my mouth shut!!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Science Fiction Folksongs
From: SharonA
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 12:13 PM

But nickp, there already is a two-thread discussion about old TV shows (and very probably other threads as well) that includes kids' programs! Here are the threads I know of:

BS: forgotten TV series.

BS: part II Forgotten TV series