Almanac Music: ‘Calling Occupants’ – Songs Involving Planets
[Wikimedia Commons.]
Almanac Music: ‘Calling Occupants’ – Songs Involving Planets
Hi, Almanackers! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs involving planets. By this, I mean songs referring to planets in our solar system, or, indeed, those mentioning the word planet or any synonyms or variations of it like ‘planetary’. (Let’s exclude songs involving the moon from this new songlist – that theme has already been covered – unless these numbers also involve planets.) Add a few words of explanation to your chosen song if you feel it’s necessary.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant ‘planet’ songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘Fly Me To the Moon’, written by Bart Howard, performed by Frank Sinatra (1964)
‘Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars’
‘Space Oddity’, written and performed by David Bowie (1969)
‘Planet Earth is blue / And there’s nothing I can do’
‘Morning of the Earth’, written and performed by G. Wayne Thomas (1969)
‘Ziggy Stardust’, written and performed by David Bowie (1972)
‘Now Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weird and Gilly / And the Spiders From Mars’
‘Venus and Mars’, written by Paul and Linda McCartney, performed by Wings (1975)
‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft’, written by John Woloschuk and Terry Draper, performed by Klaatu (1976)
‘Planet Earth’, written by Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Andy Taylor and Nick Rhodes, performed by Duran Duran (1981)
‘21st Century Boy’, written by Anthony James, Martin Degville and Neal Whitmore, performed by Sigue Sigue Sputnik (1986)
‘Saturn dreams, laser beams’
…………………………………………………………………
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) connected to planets, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a solid general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Mission (a world record): Electric Light Orchestra
The third planet: Tandy and Morgan
Earth and sun and moon: Midnight Oil
Sssh!: Fleming and John
Don’t change your plans: Ben Folds Five
Trash: Mondo Rock
My song: Moody Blues
Just a girl who can’t say no
And her sweetheart on parole
Parents named her Jupiter
To bless her with a lucky soul
Jupiter and Teardrop by 90’s American outfit Grant Lee Buffalo. They went very well and supporting REM on their Monster tour, were the loudest band I’d heard (still the titleholders).
Thanks for ‘Jupiter and Teardrop’, Mickey – and a special nod to you for opening the innings in relation to our new theme.
(Just about the loudest band I’ve heard live were Talking Heads – and they were the best live act, too.)
Hey KD – nice to have you back and on theme!
The first song/lyric (other than the taken ‘Venus & Mars are alright tonight’) that came to me is one that I have a soft spot for:
Train – Drops Of Jupiter (2001)
Now, that she’s back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there’s time to change, hey-hey
Since the return of her stay on the Moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey-hey
Hey-hey, yeah
Thanks for being one of the co-openers, Liam – and for your usual well-chosen selection of on-theme songs.
Pleased to be back after a slightly longer ‘theme gap’ than usual, Karl. Thank you for ‘Drops of Jupiter’. Interestingly, if you include the Sinatra song in my intro, Jupiter has already received a few mentions.
Out of this world KD
Life on Mars? – Bowie
I Feel The Earth Move – Carole King
Revolution Earth – B52s
The Internationale – Billy Bragg
“Let no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred nor walls of stone
Come greet the dawn and stand beside us
We’ll live together or we’ll die alone
In our world poisoned by exploitation
Those who have taken, now they must give!
And end the vanity of nations
We’ve but one Earth on which to live”
Planet Earth – Ramones
Galaxy Song – Monty Python
“So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere out in space
‘Cause it’s bugger all down here on Earth”
Venus – Shocking Blue
53 Miles West of Venus – B52s
Green Shirt – Elvis Costello and the Attractions
“‘Cause somewhere in the Quisling Clinic
There’s a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes
She’s listening in to the Venus line
She’s picking out names, I hope none of them are mine”
Girl From Mars – Ash
Mars Needs Guitars – Hoodoo Gurus
Planet Claire – B52s
“Some say she’s from Mars
Or one of the seven stars that shine after three-thirty in the morning
Well, she isn’t!”
Here Come The Martian Martians – Jonathan Richman
There’s A Moon In The Sky – B52s
“There’s a moon in the sky
It’s called the moon
And everybody is there, including,
Saturn, Mercury
Saturn, Venus
Saturn, Mars
Saturn, Jupiter
The Van Allen Belt
Roll-roll-roll-roll-rollin’ in Andromeda
Won-ton-ton-ton rama-in-Andromeda
There’s too many rings—This is the Space Age
There’s too many things—This is the Space Age
Just ain’t no atmosphere tonight
If you’re lucky you get to ride in a gold meteorite
If you’re not, you get a mouth, a mouthful of red Kryptonite
You better move over
Here comes a Super-nova
Kryptonite- – –
Destination moon
If you’re in outer space
Don’t feel out of place
’cause there are thousands of others like you
Others like you
Others like you
Well there’s a moon, it’s in the sky
It’s called the moon
And everybody is there ‘cluding
‘ranus
Neptune
‘ranus
Pluto
Destination moon
Many gamma rays around it
Van Allen Belt surrounds it
This is the Space Age
Please don’t worry
This is the Space Age
Just don’t worry
This is the Space Age
Others like you
Ahhh ahhh……….”
Age of Aquarius – Fifth Dimension
“When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars”
Another Girl, Another Planet, The Only Ones
If we can just use the word “planet” I’ll take
Lonely Planet Boy – New York Dolls
In relation to your opening line, Swish, may I quote the immortal words of that musical philosopher Steve Miller, of Steve Miller Band fame, who declared ‘I’m a space cowboy ‘.
Thanks for your highly interesting array of thematically apt songs – perhaps King’s ‘I Feel The Earth Move’ is the best pickup of the lot because it is by no means the first song one would think of.
Thank you for ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’, Rick. Cheers.
A sneaky Dylan entry:
Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
‘With your mercury mouth in the missionary times
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes
And your silver cross and your voice like chimes
Oh, who do they think could bury you?’
Thanks, Karl. This sneaky entry is fine with me – as you’d doubtless expect!
The Sirens of Titan – Al Stewart (only Al Stewart could write a song riffing on a Kurt Vonnegut novel. Titan is a moon of Saturn. The Sirens of Titan is one of Vonnegut’s best books.)
“I was drawn by the sirens of Titan
Carried along by their call
Seeking for a way to enlighten
Searching for the sense of it all
Like a kiss on the wind I was thrown to the stars
Captured and ordered in the army of Mars
Marching to the sound of the drum in my head
I followed the call
Only to be Malachi Constant
I thought I came to this earth
Living in the heart of the moment
With the riches I gained at my birth
But here in the yellow and blue of my days
I wander the endless Mercurian caves
Watching for the signs the Harmonians make
The words on the walls
I was drawn by the sirens of Titan
And so I came in the end
Under the shadow of Saturn
With statues and birds for my friends
Finding a home at the end of my days
Looking around I’ve only to say
I was the victim of a series of accidents
As are we all
I was drawn by the sirens of Titan (as are we all)
As are we all
I was drawn by the sirens of Titan (as are we all)
As are we all…”
Rapture – Blondie
“And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run but he’s got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head
And then you’re in the man from Mars
You go out at night, eatin’ cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
Mercuries and Subaru
And you don’t stop, you keep on eatin’ cars
Then, when there’s no more cars
You go out at night and eat up bars where the people meet
Face to face, dance cheek to cheek
One to one, man to man
Dance toe to toe
Don’t move too slow, ’cause the man from Mars
Is through with cars, he’s eatin’ bars
Yeah, wall to wall, door to door, hall to hall
He’s gonna eat ’em all
Rapture, be pure
Take a tour, through the sewer
Don’t strain your brain, paint a train
You’ll be singin’ in the rain
I said don’t stop, do punk rock
Well now you see what you wanna be
Just have your party on TV
‘Cause the man from Mars won’t eat up bars where the TV’s on
And now he’s gone back up to space
Where he won’t have a hassle with the human race
And you hip-hop, and you don’t stop
Just blast off, sure shot
‘Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin’ cars and eatin’ bars
And now he only eats guitars, get up!””
More later.
Thanks, Dave, for these two songs – both lyrically interesting (especially the Al Stewart one).
By the way, I’m a bit of a Vonnegut fan myself – so it goes, as he would say.
Silver Moon – Mike Nesmith and the First National Band (a fave)
Blue Moon – the 1934 Rogers & Hart classic has been done by Billie Holliday; Ella Fitzgerald; Frank Sinatra; Elvis Presley; The Marcels; Cowboy Junkies; Rod Stewart (obviously) etc etc
Blue Moon – the Sha Na Na doo woo song performed at Woodstock (high energy fave when most performers were too stoned or cool to get excited)
Once in a Very Blue Moon – Nanci Griffith (a fave)
(I was tempted to add Knights in White Saturn/Saturn and Lace – but I know this is a serious thread)
Cheers
Jupiter by Earth, Wind and Fire (The name is Jupiter, from the galaxy/I came to meet you, to make you free/Deliver to you a flower from/A distant planet, from where I come)
Earth, Wind & Fire, by, er, Earth, Wind & Fire (Built on Mother Earth (built on Mother Earth)/They were meant to stay (oh, yeah)/Nations bloom today/On gifts of yesterday)
Science Fiction/Double Feature, The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Thanks for your selections, Peter B – I should point out, though, that this theme is specifically about songs associated with planets, not our moon, which was/is central to a past music theme we’ve explored. ((See my intro to this current theme.)
Thanks for your latest trio, Rick.
We’re certainly off like a rocket in terms of our new theme!
KD!
You last comment took me straight to Rocketman – Elton John!!!!
She packed my bags last night, pre-flight
Zero hour, 9 a.m.
And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the Earth so much, I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
…………………………
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact, it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did’
Great pickup! Thanks, Karl.
“Rapture” – Blondie
And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run but he’s got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head
And then you’re in the man from Mars…
I wondered if Pink Floyd might add to this theme.
The debut track on their debit 1967 ‘The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’ album is a good start:
Astronomy Domine
‘Lime and limpid green, a second scene
Now fights between the blue you once knew
Floating down, the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground
Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania
Neptune, Titan, stars can frighten’
Some Bruce:
Growin’ Up (I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere/And you know, it’s really hard to hold your breath/I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared/I was the cosmic kid in full-costume dress/Well, my feet they finally took root in the earth/But I got me a nice little place in the stars/And I swear I found the key to the universe/In the engine of an old parked car)
This Life (We reach for starlight all night long/But gravity’s too strong/Chained to this earth we go on and on and on and on and on/Then a million suns cresting where you stood/A beauty in the neighborhood/This lonely planet never looked so good/This life, this life and then the next/With you I have been blessed/What more can you expect)
Wild Billy’s Circus Story (Whoa, and a press roll, drummer go, ballerina to-and-fro/Cartwheelin’ up on that tightrope with a cannon blast, lightin’ flash/Movin’ fast, through the tent, Mars bent, he’s gonna miss his fall/Oh, God save the human cannonball)
Cadillac Ranch (James Dean in that Mercury ’49/Junior Johnson running through the woods of Caroline/Even Burt Reynolds in that black Trans-Am/All gonna meet down at the Cadillac Ranch + Eldorado fins, whitewalls and skirts/Rides just like a little bit of heaven here on earth/Well buddy when I die throw my body in the back/Drive me to the junkyard in my Cadillac)
Sorry, just remembered this one: The Lonesome Friends of Science, by John Prine from, sadly, his last album.
The lonesome friends of science say
“The world will end most any day”
Well, if it does, then that’s OK
‘Cause I don’t live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Where long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog and my family
Uh huh
Now, poor old planet Pluto now
He never stood a chance no how
When he got uninvited to
The interplanetary dance
Once a mighty planet there
Now just an ordinary star
Hanging out in Hollywood
In some old funky sushi bar
The lonesome friends of science say
“The world will end most any day”
Well, if it does, then that’s OK
‘Cause I don’t live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Where long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog and my kids and me
Uh huh
The Vulcan lives in Birmingham
Sometimes he just don’t give a damn
His head is full of Bumble Bees
His pride hangs down below his knees
Venus left him long ago
For a guy named Mars from Idaho
The Vulcan sent a wedding gift
A 3-legged stool and wheelchair lift
Uh huh
The lonesome friends of science say
“This world will end most any day”
Well, if it does, then that’s OK
‘Cause I don’t live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Where long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog and my kids and me
Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh
Those bastards in their white lab coats
Who experiment with mountain goats
Should leave the universe alone
It’s not their business… not their home
I go to sleep and it never rains
My dog predicts hurricanes
She can smell a storm a mile away
That’s all the news we have today
Uh huh
The lonesome friends of science say
“The world will end most any day”
Well, if it does, then that’s OK
‘Cause I don’t live here anyway
I live down deep inside my head
Where long ago I made my bed
I get my mail in Tennessee
My wife, my dog, my kids and me
Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh
Thanks for your input, Smokie, but Dave Nadel has already mentioned ‘Rapture’.
Pink Floyd was/is a good idea in terms of on-theme songs, Karl – and ‘Astronomy Domine’ covers the theme beautifully.
Some mighty fine Bruce choices in terms of our ‘planets’ theme, Rick. And Priney can almost always be relied upon for something special, can’t he?
Lou Reed – Satellite Of Love (1972)
‘Satellite’s gone way up to Mars
Soon it’ll be filled with parking cars
I watched it for a little while
I love to watch things on TV
(Bom, bom, bom) Satellite of love
(Bom, bom, bom) Satellite of love
(Bom, bom, bom) Satellite of love
Satellite of—’
And my earlier quoting of lyrics from ‘Rocketman’ should have acknowledged Bernie Taupin (rather than Elton John).
Thanks for ‘Satellite of Love’, Karl – I recall that this song has come up in connection with at least one earlier theme.
Re ‘Rocket Man’, fair enough! (Though, of course, Elton was the performer associated with the original version of the song – and the one who wrote the music.)
In ‘Poor Boy’, released by Split Enz in 1980, an ‘interplanetary Romeo’ is referred to, which makes the song on-theme.
It seems like most themes can connect to a recently departed musician. This time around, Garry ‘Mani’ Mounfield ~ bass player for The Stone Roses ~ died on 20 November.
Here’s the third single off the debut 1989 ‘The Stone Roses’ album:
She Bangs The Drum
‘I can feel the earth begin to move
I hear my needle hit the groove
And spiral through another day
I hear my song begin to say
Kiss me where the sun don’t shine
The past was yours but the future’s mine
You’re all out of time’
Thanks, Karl, for ‘She Bangs The Drum’.
Is it my imagination, or is it a fact that an extraordinary number of
celebrities / people in the public eye / musicians
have passed away in 2025?
Good question KD!!
This might surprise you (or maybe not) but I do have a series of yearly charts beginning in 2021 that list my favourite musicians who have died. Now the bias in the charts is that the muso must have had a +ve impact on me to be included in the chart ~ otherwise the wikipedia site ‘List of deaths in popular music (by year)’ would be the best place to start a deeper analysis
What my charts reveal is that I had 100 entries (ie names of muso’s who had died that year) in 2022 & 2023; 40 entries in 2021 & 2024 and so far this year (2025) the chart includes 60 names.
So, in answer to your question, it may be simply your imagination or ‘recency effect’ or (& I prefer this theory) it could be that I have taken an increased interest in connecting recent deaths with your music lyric themes and thus it just seems to be an extraordinary number who have passed in 2025.
Mind you, there are heaps of talented musos/songwriters/singers that are getting into their late 70’s/early 80’s ~ so I don’t expect the year-on-year data sets to decrease for many years to come.
Interesting material to ponder, Karl – your final paragraph , in particular, jumps out at me in relation to the question I posed, at least in terms of how this question relates to musicians of the rock’n’roll era and their historical position.
How Many Planets? – They Might Be Giants
“Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Asteroid Belt
Ceres
Pallas
Vesta
And a bunch of other stuff
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Don’t forget about Pluto
Eris
And a bunch of other stuff
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
And a bunch of other stuff (And a bunch of other stuff)
And a bunch of other stuff (And a bunch of other stuff)
And a bunch of other stuff”
Pissed On Another Planet – Scientists
Armstrong – Reg Lindsay
“And I wonder if a long tim? ago, somewhere in the universe
They watched a man named Adam walk upon the Earth”
Gustav Holst – “The Planets”
Mozart Symphony #41 – “Jupiter”
Apologies for not reading the fine print KD – a bad habit of mine. “Fly Me to the Moon” sold me the dummy.
Swish – “Armstrong” is a powerful song by the late great under appreciated John Stewart – “Daydream Believer” for the Monkees; “Runaway Train” for Roseanne Cash; “Never Going Back” for the Loving Spoonful – “Gold” was his only personal hit.
Thanks PB, I too should’ve read the fine print, but I was brought up on Country and Western Hour.
Swish – thanks for reminding me. Did Reg have a female co-host? What was the name of Colin Huddleston’s square dancers?
Thanks, Swish, for your latest fine choices – so far, ‘How Many Planets?’ deserves pride of place on the song choice podium.
Thanks, PB, for your new choices – Mozart’s last three symphonies (39,40 and 41) are wonders of the form, aren’t they?
…and jeez, I’m also, er, old enough to have vague memories of Reg Lindsay’s Country and Western Hour (hosted by someone else before he took the reins).
Roger Cardwell was host before Reg, but I only remember the Reg Years. Don’t remember a female co-host PB, nor do I recall if Col’s dancers had a name, but I do remember “Allemande left, go two by two, Promenade, go home with you”.
As David Byrne once remarked “How did I get here?’
This is the song that won Bill Murray over to John Prine and he has been a big fan ever since:
Linda Goes to Mars (I just found out yesterday that Linda goes to Mars/Every time I sit and look at pictures of used cars/She’ll turn on her radio and sit down in her chair/And look at me across the room, as if I wasn’t there/Oh, my stars! My Linda’s gone to Mars/Well, I wish she wouldn’t leave me here alone/Oh, my stars! My Linda’s gone to Mars/Well, I wonder will she bring me something home)
Give Me Love, George Harrison (Give me love, give me love/Give me peace on earth/Give me light, give me life/Keep me, keep me free from birth/Now, give me hope, and help me cope with this/Heavy load/Trying to touch and reach you/With heart, and soul/Om, my Lord)
The Colour of the Earth, PJ Harvey (Louis was my dearest friend/Fighting in the ANZAC trench/Louis ran forward from the line/I never saw him again/Later in the dark/I thought I heard Louis’ voice/Calling for his mother, then me/But I couldn’t get to him/He’s still up on that hill/20 years on that hill/Nothing more than a pile of bones/But I think of him still/If I was asked I’d tell/The colour of the earth that day/It was dull and browny red/The colour of blood, I’d say)
Man on the Moon, The Jesus and Mary Chain (Come visit soon/Sure gets lonely living here on the moon/I’ve got a tale to tell/About my planetary prison cell)
Reg Lindsay’s Country and Western Hour:
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/98264-country-and-western-hour-ep-183
Thanks, Rick, for your most recent song choices – for a Harrison fan like me, it was especially fine to see George’s classic song among your latest additions to our songlist.
Great idea to put forward a link to a snippet from Reg Lindsay’s Country and Western Hour, too. Lucky Grills’ one-man band routine certainly made me smile.
‘Hello Earth’, a sublime song written and released by Kate Bush, on her Hounds of Love album (1985), an album which I believe is one of the greatest albums of the 1980s, maybe of the entire rock’n’roll era. (And I know that’s a very big call.)
Another of my fall back albums:
Rick Wakeman – Journey To The Centre Of The Earth.
‘Memories of a life on earth go flashing past,
Of home of Grauben, friends of whom he’s seen his last
Contemplating what his life’s been worth,
While trapped beneath the Earth,
An embryo at birth’
So KD – here we are, day 4 of the Planet theme, and only one ‘suspect’ entry from the Nobel Laureate so far.
Stay tuned!!!!! but don’t hold your breath!
Thanks, Karl. Rick Wakeman’s work has certainly been significant in terms of this series of themed songlists.
And, of course, I’ll definitely be on the look out for what you and ‘Planet Bob’ come up with!
This song has stayed with me all my life. Way back to 1962/3 me around 3 , Barry Gray’s “Fireball XL 5” the theme song for Gerry Anderson’s black and white tv puppet series of the same name , filmed in Supermarionation before his Thunderbirds series.
I wish I was a spaceman
The fastest guy alive
I’d fly you ’round the universe
In Fireball XL5
Way out in space together
Conquerors of the sky
My heart would be a fireball, a fireball
Every time I gazed into your starry eyes
We’d take the path to Jupiter
And maybe very soon
We’d cruise along the Milky Way
And land upon the Moon
To a wonderland of star dust
We’d zoom our way to Mars
My heart would be a fireball, a fireball
Cause you’d be my Venus of the stars
Thank you, Mark, for this highly interesting addition to our ‘planets’ songlist. I’ll endeavour to track it down and give it a listen.
Three Great Alabama Icons, Drive-By Truckers (I grew up in north Alabama back in the 1970s, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. I’m speaking, of course, of the three great Alabama icons: George Wallace, Bear Bryant, and Ronnie Van Zant)
Stay Away, Randy Newman, this was his covid song from 2020 (Venus in sweatpants, that’s who you are/And when this mess is over I’ll buy you?a?car/We’ll drive that?car so fast and so far/All?your stupid friends will be left behind)
Under the Sun, Moon and Stars, Jimmy Cliff, a lesser known song but it’s Jimmy Cliff so it’s a ripper (Got to have some fun under the Sun, Moon and stars/Got to get some fun under the Sun, Moon and stars/Don’t wanted on Venus, Saturn nor Uranus/Don’t want it on Pluto, I want it right here on Earth/Don’t want it on Jupiter, Neptune nor on Mercury/Don’t want it on Mars, but under the Sun, Moon and stars)
Thanks for the article. Calling Occupants is a favourite of mine. Always thought it was a Carpenters song. I love how they sing: We Are Your Friends.
In regard to an earlier thread, I note that Rick’s ‘Jimmy Cliff’ entry is very timely as Jimmy died yesterday (24 November) aged 81.
I’d like to add his 1969 hit song:
‘Wonderful World, Beautiful People’
Thank you for your latest three, Rick. And along with Karl, note the timeliness of your Jimmy Cliff inclusion.
Thanks for your comments, Pards. I’m always making discoveries in relation to this series of themed music discussions and songlists.
The main thing I recall about Klaatu’s original version of ‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft’, apart from the quality of the song itself, was bullshit news/publicity around its release, along the lines of ‘Are Klaatu really the Beatles?’
Thanks for ‘Wonderful World, Beautiful People’, Karl – and in terms of Cliff, alas, another one bites the dust.
Wednesday rolls around ~ and I find myself 27 years and probably 350 songs into Dylan’s anthology.
Hark, is this a planet I gaze upon or just some false god?????
Changing Of The Guards – off the 1978 Street Legal album
‘They shaved her head
She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo
A messenger arrived with a black nightingale
I seen her on the stairs and I couldn’t help but follow
Follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veil’
Thank you for ‘Changing Of The Guards’, Karl – excellent pickup, thematically speaking!!
Science Friction, XTC (I read my comics from front to back/I’ll be ready for any attack/I got a feeling someone’s looking/It ain’t the aliens at the foot of my bed/It’s more the ale inside my head/I have a feeling something’s cooking/Science friction that burns my fingers/Electricity that still lingers/Hey, put away that ray/How do you Martians say I love you?)
And can I include the album, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, because pretty much every song from The Eve of the War through to Dead London and the Epilogues include references to Earth and or Mars/Martians, except maybe the song, Forever Autumn.
Thanks, Rick, for your latest two choices. I’ve liked XTC ever since they appeared on the scene, whilenI think Wayne ‘s War of the Worlds is an excellent inclusion.
Oops! The last bit immediately above should read ‘…while I think Wayne’s War of the Worlds is an excellent inclusion.’
I could be corrected but I believe that Dylan’s first lyric referencing an actual planet occurs in 1978.
No Time To Think – from the Street Legal album
‘China doll, alcohol, duality, mortality
Mercury rules you and destiny fools you
Like the plague, with a dangerous wink (dangerous wink)
And there’s no time to think’
Thanks for ‘No Time To Think’, Karl – I note that it’s on the same album as ‘Changing Of The Guards’.
It’s almost summer KD – time to play some Billy Thorpe and maybe a spin of The Mixtures ‘In The Summertime’!
The Dylan bandwagon seems to have run off the track and suffered fatal damage to the undercarriage very early in this theme.
Here is my final Dylan entry – although, IMHO, the second half of the verse contains one of Dylan’s least convincing statements:
License To Kill (1983) – from the Infidels album
Man thinks ’cause he rules the earth he can do with it as he please
And if things don’t change soon, he will
Oh, man has invented his doom
First step was touching the moon
Yes, Karl. Summer time is almost upon us – time to revisit my summer songs theme (from wayback) on the Almanac website, maybe.
And yes, it’s rare that Bob ‘dries up’ so early in a theme – but he can’t always be well represented, I suppose.
Okay, I’ve been a bit busy last few days but I have some time now, and just starting to warm to this week’s theme, so let’s go:
seve, Taylor Swift, cowritten with The National’s Arron Dessner, from her covid album, folklore (Sweet tea in the summer/Cross your heart, won’t tell no other/And though I can’t recall your face/I still got love for you/Your braids like a pattern/Love you to the Moon and to Saturn/Passed down like folk songs/The love lasts so long)
Planet Rock, Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force, hello Hip Hop I’d like to introduce you to Electronica, let’s jam, man the early 80s was an incredible time for music, Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna and the new form, Rap/Hip Hop in its birth period, a music that literally blew music up, in a way Punk tried to but fell way short, and even by 1982 three of the ten best singles are Hip Hop, yeah and songs about dancing never fail to deliver! (Rock, rock to the Planet Rock, don’t stop/Rock, rock to the Planet Rock, don’t stop/You’re in a place where the nights are hot/Where nature’s children dance and say the chants/On this Mother Earth, which is our rock/The time has come, and work for soul, show you really got soul/Are you ready hump bump bump, get bump, now let’s go, house/Twist and turn, the you let your body slide/You got the body rock and pop, bounce and pounce/Everybody just rock it, don’t stop it/You gotta rock it, don’t stop)
Speaking of Hip Hop, one from one of the greats, Venus vs. Mars, Jay-Z (Shorty get it in, but daddy go hard/Shorty get it in, Venus versus Mars/Thought shorty was the truth, found out she was a cheater/We were supposed to takeover, I caught her bumping “Ether”/I thought shorty liked Mike, found out she like Prince/Thought she was Adrian, it’s been rocky ever since/My dollars was down, she left me for some Euro’s/Took my whole flavour, I call her Coke Zero/We were co-MVP’s like Kobe and Shaq/Left me for the Heat, we were winning back to back)
It should read, seven by Taylor Swift
Thanks for this fine array of choices and commentary, Rick! As I think I’ve said before, it’s always good for the overall song mix to have some Hip Hop involved.
First off, I meant to send this message a while back, but shout out to Swish and his The Scientists Pissed on Another Planet call, excellento!
Now, are you a fan of The National and or Sufjan Stevens? Or, are you a Prog Rock fan? Then, step right up.
Planetarium, an album by Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, a composer, Nico Muhly and Sufjan’s drummer. Yes, an album of songs of the planets. Here is a bit from The Guardian’s 4 star review: Planetarium is “an immersive, celestial space opera that’s best enjoyed loud, certainly in a live setting. It’s clever as well as cosmic, though: dainty-voiced Stevens isn’t one to coo about interplanetary flights, so Venus becomes a tale of lustful youth at “Methodist summer camp”; Uranus is a choral piece seemingly about the power of the elements, and Mars (as if Daft Punk had made an IDM soundtrack for Tron), is a boshing meditation on war. The result can’t help but sound as if the planets have aligned for Sufjan’s dream musical.”
Oh, and re PBs post earlier, you might be interested to know that US DJ Jeff Mills released the album Planets as a tribute to Gustav Holst – “The Planets” – psst, I read that in The Guardian Planetarium review.
Onyas
Thanks for this most recent input, Rick. Planetarium sounds particularly interesting, as does Mills’s Planets. Cheers.
Another fine Aussie rock star bites the dust:
Bob ‘Bongo Starr’ Starkie – guitarist + backing vocals for Skyhooks, died earlier today aged 73.
This on theme lyric comes from ‘Life In The Modern World’ from the Guilty Until Proven Insane album
‘Where the sky meets the earth, that’s the skyline
Where the hair meets the head that’s the hairline
Where the needle meets the skin that’s the mainline
And where today meets tomorrow that’s the deadline’
Good pickup, Karl! Bongo, it could be said, was ‘the quiet Skyhook’.
Earth Angel The Penguins (Oh, earth angel, earth angel/Please be mine/My darling dear, love you all the time/I’m just a fool, a fool in love with you)
Salt of the Earth, The Stones (Say a prayer for the common foot soldier/Spare a thought for his back-breaking work/Say a prayer for his wife and his children/Who burn the fires and who still till the earth)
Cast Your Spell Uranus, Argent, remember this band! Their song, Hold Your Head Up. Or Argent’s previous band, The Zombies! (She was forty-one, I could’ve been her son/They call her the princess of the Moon/She?had?the cars, the?clothes, and the scenes/I had my?long hair and my jeans/Take me to the tower/Make love to the Moon/Uranus, Uranus/Put your spell on me)
Music from the Spheres, Argent (does this sneak in, as sphere is a synonym for planet? Or is it an example of a planet adjacent song, lol)
Venus in Furs, The Velvet Underground
Cheers
As is invariably the case with you, Rick, this is an interesting bunch of thematically apt songs – and I’ll pay ‘sphere’, as I’d pay ‘globe’ or ‘orb’ in a comparable context – even the rock revolving around the sun in Julian Lennon’s ‘Saltwater’ is fair enough, I reckon (this one just popped into my head).
Onya KD, and I couldn’t believe that The Stones, Velvets and Penguins songs hadn’t already been submitted.
More coming!
Thanks, Rick – no worries!
Welcome to summer KD!
In a galaxy far away I was doing some research when I came across a previously unknown (to me) songwriter named Woody Lissauer. A quick glance over his discography revealed a 2024 album titled ‘Spiraling Earth’. Lo & behold, the album contains four ‘Earth-themed’ songs.
‘Earth Of Fire’
‘Spiraling Earth’
‘Mother Earth’
and my favourite – the 38sec ‘Flat Earth’
‘What is the shape of the Earth
Flat
What happens when you get to the edge
You fall off
Does the Earth move
Never’
Ah! It is summer according to the date, Karl, but where I am in SW Victoria it’s been about 16 degrees and raining for most of the day.
Thanks for Lissauer’s Spiraling Earth – it does sound worthy of exploration, as well as being spot-on theme-wise.
Are you familiar with Sturgill Simpson? Didn’t release his first album until he was 35, and since then he has released 8 albums, several of them critically acclaimed. This is how the esteemed music critic, Robert Christgau reviewed SS second album, which features the song, Turtles All the Way Down, one of his best songs: “Exactly how deep you find his songs depends on whether you find Waylon Jennings more moving than George Jones or Willie Nelson and the extent of your attraction to psychedelic drugs and Tibetan or any other kind of Buddhism”. For me, while Waylon is great, he don’t come close to George, or Willie for that matter. But I do like Waylon, and I do like Sturgill. Not a lot but enough to include his songs on a playlist or three. Anyways, as you would guess from an artist who leans into psychedelia, Sturgill lyrics get lost in space. Here are a few examples:
Mercury in Retrograde (Mercury must be in retrograde again/But at least it’s not just hanging around/Pretending to be my friend/Oh the road to Hell is paved with cruel intention/If it’s not nuclear war/It’s gonna be a divine intervention/Livin’ the dream makes a man wanna scream/Light a match and burn it all down/Head back home to the mountain/Far away from all the pull)
Best Clockmaker on Mars (Some days, I hate everything I am/But your love holds a mirror to me/Show me a love I can understand/Make sense of the world I see/Gonna wake up every day and be the best clockmaker on Mars)
Welcome to Earth (Pollywog) – Hello, my son/Welcome to Earth/You may not be my last/But you’ll always be my first/Wish I’d done this ten years ago/But how could I know/How could I know/That the answer was so easy?/I’ve been told you measure a man by how much he loves/When I hold you I treasure each moment I spend/On this Earth, under Heaven above/Grandfather always said God’s a fisherman/And now I know the reason why (this song is from Sturgill’s album, ‘A Sailor’s Guide to Earth)
Jupiter’s Faerie, Johnny Blue Skies, this is a pseudonym that Sturgill uses (But in my heart, I guess I always knew/Somehow one of us would end this way/What’s done now is done/Now there’s nothing left to say/I hear there’s faeries out on Jupiter/And there was a time when I knew one/But today I’m feeling way down here on Earth/Crying tears of love in the light of mourning dawn)
Cheers
Thanks for your latest material, Rick. I can’t say I’m familiar with Simpson’s work, but on the evidence of the song lyrics put forward and accompanying material, he appears very worthy of our attention.
Cheers.
Planet of Women, ZZ Top, not one of their best songs, it’s from the mid 80s when they were the Top were at their commercial peak, which is something else considering their basic Texan blues beat, I saw them around this time and they were brilliant, for the one hour show they played which is exactly the right length for a ZZ Top show (They start by acting just a little discreet/Then they’re in the skies and they’re in the streets/You can find them in cars or a hotel lobby/They’re easy to find, just look for a body/Planet of women, oh yeah/Just a planet of women, oh yeah/Driving me insane)
Honey Bee (Lets Fly to Mars) Grinderman, a Nick Cave side project but who gives a fuck about another idea NC “borrowed” only to mangle (Scud missiles Asian flu/The easily offended/We are the undefended/We are the undefended/Won’t somebody touch us?/There’s a virus come to town/Won’t somebody give me a kiss?/He’s been giving me shit for years/Honey bee lets fly to Mars/Honey bee lets fly to Mars)
When Fusion Ruled the Earth, Spiderbait, one of them 90s Aussie bands that you know by name but they never offered much worth delving into except Kram, their drummer (this is an instrumental from their biggest selling albums)
Thanks for this trio of choices, Rick – a particularly interesting mix. I enjoyed your bits of commentary, too – right on the money, I reckon.
Let’s go ‘Space Truckin” with Deep Purple, from their Machine Head album (1972) – the song mentions Venus and Mars.
I don’t think this guy has ever previously appeared in one of our themed songlists…notable American country music singer-songwriter, Joe Diffie, who had numerous hits, including ‘Third Rock from the Sun’
Great couple of calls KD and with the Deep Purple song, right there in front of us! Love that Joe Diffie song too.
Now lets hear from Jimmy Buffett songs with Mars references, as well as Venus and Earth. He’s a long time star gazer, dream weaver and beach philosopher. .
Chanson Pour Les Petits Enfants, from Volcano (Now young Mister Moon flew away in the night/With his best friend Magnus right by his side/They soared through the Milky Way, counting the stars/Once around Venus, twice around Mars/Then they spied an island rise out of the sea/They fell back to Earth just as free as you please/The children all gathered, the church bells did ring/Suddenly, everyone started to sing)
Come To The Moon (Full Earth tonight/And Mars is big and bright/All our friends are flying in/It’s such a lovely sight/Gravity never could hold me/That is what you always told me/You know me/So come to the Moon/I hope to see you soon/Half a million miles isn’t far to go/You know I need you so/I hope you still need me)
Fruitcakes (Speakin’ of fruitcakes, how ’bout the government?/Your tax dollars at work/We lost our Martian rocket ship/The high paid spokesman said/Looks like that silly rocket ship/Has lost its cone-shaped head/We spent 90 jillion dollars trying to get a look at Mars/I hear universal laughter ringing out among the stars/Fruitcakes in the galaxy (fruitcakes in the galaxy)/Fruitcakes on the earth (fruitcakes on the earth)
Flesh and Bone (If men came from Venus/And women came from Mars/Then I’d be lunching with my boyfriends/While you girls talked about cigars/But that’s not how it happened/Evolution took a different turn/We may be creatures with some unique features/But we’ve still got a lot to learn)
Glad you enjoyed my last couple of calls, Rick – the Deep Purple song was a pretty well known one yet to be mentioned in the songlist, for sure, while the Joe Diffie song, yes, was not very well known, but nevertheless an absolute ripper.
Thanks for your thematically on the money Jimmy Buffett quartet. I like it that his work appears quite regularly in our themed series of songlists.
‘Might As Well Be On Mars’, a power ballad recorded and co-written by Alice Cooper, from his Hey Stoopid album (1991).
Greetings KD!
Is it more summery now than the last time I joined in on the conversation? Definitely hot on the great divide – 37.7C at the moment and expecting much the same tomorrow.
For reasons unknown, Donovan appeared to me this morning (I like Donovan ~ we share the same birthday only 10 years apart). He did have a sort of crazy intergalactic 70’s period which seems to be right up this theme’s space alley:
Cosmic Wheels (1973)
‘God is playing marbles
With his planets and his stars
Creating havoc through my life
Through his influence on Mars’
Earth Sign Man (1973)
‘I’m an earth sign mama
I want you to understand
I’m an earth sign mama
Take me by the hand’
The Intergalactic Laxative (1973)
‘I was impressed like everyone,
When man began to fly,
Out of earthly regions,
To planets in the sky.’
……
‘If shitting is your problem,
When you’re out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars’
Lady Of The Stars (1977)
‘She walks through the stars
Past Saturn and Mars
Who knows how she feels
With the moon on her heels’
Hi Karl! Yes, a lot more summery now in my neck of the woods – a sunny 25 today, 34 yesterday and 30 the day before.
Didn’t know about Donovan’s 70s outer space period. Thanks for these songs – interesting stuff.
‘Pluto’ by Bjork, from her 1997 album, Homogenic – pretty fab song in its own oddball, eccentric fashion.
NOTE: new song theme either this coming Friday 12 Dec or, otherwise, Friday 19 Dec – stay tuned!