Almanac Music: ‘If the chemistry is right’ – Songs Involving Science

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Almanac Music: ‘If the chemistry is right’ – Songs Involving Science
Hello, Almanackers! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs involving science, whether they be, for example, songs mentioning the word ‘science’ or a variation of it, or associated with branches of science, like chemistry, mathematics and physics. Interpret the theme broadly, as usual in these thematic pieces, but if you think your particular song choice needs more explanation, note why you think it is thematically fitting.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant ‘science’ songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘The Elements’, written by Tom Lehrer and Arthur Sullivan, performed by Tom Lehrer (1959)
‘There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium’
‘Space Oddity’, written and performed by David Bowie (1969)
‘Ground control to Major Tom’
‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by the Beatles (1969)
‘Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical science’
‘Rocket Man’, written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, performed by Elton John (1972)
‘She packed my bags last night, pre-flight’
‘Chemistry’, written by Eric McCusker and Paul Christie, performed by Mondo Rock (1981)
‘If the chemistry is right’
‘She Blinded Me with Science’, written by Thomas Dolby and Jo Kerr, performed by Thomas Dolby (1982)
‘It’s poetry in motion’
‘Science Fiction’, written by Christina Amphlett and Mark McEntee, performed by Divinyls (1982)
‘I thought that love was science fiction’
‘Weird Science’, written by Danny Elfman, performed by Oingo Boingo (1985)
‘Plastic tubes and pots and pans’
‘The Scientist’, written by Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion, performed by Coldplay ( 2002)
‘Oh, take me back to the start’
‘Pi’, written and performed by Kate Bush (2005)
‘a complete infatuation with the calculation of Pi’
……………………………….
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) involving science, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a good 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.

Great topic, KD.
Immediately thought of a song from Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) and his debut solo album (beloved by Gigs) The Nightfly. In the track I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World) I.G.Y. stands for International Geophysical Year, which ran from July ’57 to December ’58 (a very decent year). The year occurred during Fagen’s youth and his memories of adolescence is a key theme across the record.
The Russians launched Sputnik for this IGY.
Thanks, Mickey. What a fine, interesting, highly apt song with which to open the batting here! Great stuff!
The Beach Boys – Good Titrations
True or false: The Swingers
5D (Fifth Dimension): The Byrds
Earth and sun and moon: Midnight Oil
Sci-Fi Woman: Jeff Lynne’s ELO
Under the blue/Asteroid: Tandy and Morgan
Spaceship Earth: Tandy and Morgan
Chemistry Class – Elvis Costello and the Attractions (particularly dark, this one)
On a lighter note, Monster Mash -Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett
Ha ha, Peter C – thanks!
Thanks, Liam, for your opening foray. Great to see you on the board early!
Thank you, Swish – ‘Monster Mash’ was a bit unexpected – but of course it fits the science theme perfectly.
Morning KD
I think this fits, in a Dylan sort of way:
My Own Version Of You (2020)
One strike of lightning is all that I need
And a blast of electricity that runs at top speed
Shimmy your ribs, I’ll stick in the knife
Gonna jumpstart my creation to life
I wanna bring someone to life, turn back the years
Do it with laughter, and do it with tears
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft – The Carpenters
Lilli The Pink (she invented medicinal compound) – The Scaffolds
A Russian Love Song (Look up in the skies, I can’t believe my eyes, It’s a dear old fashioned Russian satellite moon) – The Goons
Here’s an old favourite of mine, worth checking out –
IN My Little Snapshot Album – George Formby
Oh I’m a young inventor – I built myself a camera
It’s a wonderful invention with special x ray plates
It can take a picture in the dark and can even see through bricks
I bought myself an album and filled it up with snaps
It’s got some wonderful pictures of the local girls and chaps.
Think those are the correct words
It’s Good News Week (Someone dropped a bomb somewhere contaminating atmosphere) – Hedgehoppers Anonymous
Hi Kevin in my Formby piece I invertantly left out in the first line, a chap with good ideas, I built myself a camera, it took me years and years. From then on it should be OK
Thanks Karl – these My Own Version Of You lyrics are very Victor Frankenstein, in a good way!
Thanks, Fisho, for your initial selections with regard to our science theme – some fine songs there, like one of my old favourites, Lilli the Pink, which involved Paul McCartney’s brother, Mike, as you probably know. Loved the version of Calling Occupants… by Klaatu, also.
I’ll check out the George Formby song, too.
A few more KD
Atom Bomb Baby – Scientists (double points?)
Frankenstein – New York Dolls
Truth About Truth About Scientists – Models
Science Friction – XTC
Science Is Golden – Reels
Love Potion No 9 – Searchers
The Space Race Is Over – Billy Bragg
Satellite of Love – Lou Reed
Hello Spaceboy – David Bowie
Mr Spaceman – Byrds
Thanks for your latest songs, Swish – particularly interesting combination of performers, for one thing.
Happy to award double points for Atom Bomb Baby!
Oh, and your Billy Bragg selection made me think of Space Race by Mi-Sex
Fly me to the Moon – Frank Sinatra (Does this one qualify?)
Why not, Fisho – there’s certainly a kind of astronomy going on in this fine song! Stars, planets and the moon are mentioned.
It’s not real science, but either is pataphysics: Alchemy, Dire Straits’s live album
The Kinks had a go at rocketry too with Supersonic Rocket Ship.
Bob Marley and the Wailers had no truck with science though. ‘Have no fear for atomic energy, ’cause none of them can stop the time’, Redemption Song.
Not so Blondie.
Oh, your hair is beautiful
Oh, tonight
Atomic
Deeper Understanding (As the people here grow colder, I turn on my computer) – Kate Bush.
All of Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity album.
If Swish requested double points for his great call (and by the way Swish, can we WAers get a chance to get in our WAers before you SAers start pillaging left right and centre, now where was I, oh, that’s right, trying to ride on Swish’s coattails to score double points) I’d like to call a triple pointer:
The Great Debate, by Randy Newman, from his album, ahem, Dark Matter, and the song title leans ever so lightly into a famed great debate in 1920 between two astronomers arguing the size of the universe. Randy’s song fast-forwards us to 2017, in the time of Trump mk1, and this time the debate is between true believers and atheist scientists. very funny and cutting and insightful, the full Randy. Album is a corker with a number of lovely songs like Lost Without You and She Chose Me.
Second contribution to this theme: Do You Realise, by The Flaming Lips
Arvo KD!
I’m not convinced about mathematics = science, but seeing how much you love TUIB…..and how often it features in a theme, I thought I’d keep its reputation intact:
‘All the people we used to know/They’re an illusion to me now
Some are mathematicians/Some are carpenters’ wives
Don’t know how it all got started/I don’t know what they’re doin’ with their lives’
Thanks, Matt G – interesting assemblage of comments, songs and artists. I thought Blondie’s ‘Atomic’ was a particularly good pickup, but maybe i’m a bit biased here, as they’re one of my favourite bands.
Lonesome Friends of Science, John Prine from his last album and one of his best.
Slow Train, Dylan (I don’t care about economy/I don’t care about astronomy/But it sure do bother me to see my loved ones turning into puppets)
Wonderful World, Sam Cooke, ( Don’t know much about history/Don’t know much biology/Don’t know much about a science book/Don’t know much about the French I took/But I do know that I love you/And I know that if you love me, too/What a wonderful world this would be)
Thanks, Fisho, for ‘Deeper Understanding’ – interesting and apt choice, I feel, given its focus upon the human / computer relationship.
Thanks, Greg A, for your Kraftwerk inclusion – what an interesting choice of an album that seems to be so ahead of its time.
Thanks so much, Rick, for your two batches of fine songs.
Re ‘The Great Debate’ – what a mind-blower, a kind of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for intellectuals, a mini multi-genre opera. Triple points for that one, certainly! A special nod to Sam Cooke’s ‘Wonderful World’, too.
Randy Newman! Nice call, Rick. He’s also got Political Science from 1972 ‘s Sail Away about dropping the big one.
But not on Australia. Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo.
Thanks, Karl, for your latest choice – you’re certainly right about how much I love ‘Tangled up in Blue’. This might have something to do with the fact that I played the heck out of it on the ol’ acoustic guitar when I was a teenager.
Re the ‘Is mathematics a science?’ discussion – there are so many possible positions in response to this issue (just look online for a sample of them), I won’t – of course – go down that rabbit hole in this forum. That said, I simply hark back to where mathematics fitted in relation to the science / humanities dichotomy back in my secondary school days – under the science umbrella.
And now, a bit of a deep dive:
Higgs Boson Blues, Nick Cave
Black Hole Sun, Soundgarden
Chain Reaction, Diana Ross
Chain Reaction, Beck
London Calling, The Clash
Thanks, Matt G, for your inclusion of Newman’s fine ‘Political Science’ in our rapidly developing list.
Thanks, Rick, for your latest five choices (i.e. Cave, Soundgarden etc.) – this is about the stage at which I’ve said in relation to past Almanac themed songlists ‘our list is developing very nicely’ (or words to that effect) – never has that comment been any more true than it is at present!
Into the galaxy: Midnight Juggernauts
Some more:
Great Atomic Power, The Louvin Brothers (terrific song, that almost 70 years later is still relevant)
Particle Man, They Might Be Giants (one of quite a few by TMBG, relevant to this week’s theme)
Tesla Girls, OMD (the man, not the vehicle brand) (an 80s throwaway but a reminder of a great unheralded scientist)
Intergalactic, The Beastie Boys (fun song to finish)
Billy Bragg – Great Leap Forward (1988)
In the Soviet Union, a scientist is blinded
By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded
That Dr Robert Oppenheimer’s optimism fell
At the first hurdle
In The Year 2525-Zager and Evans
Thanks, Liam, for ‘Into the Galaxy’, an interesting, highly relevant synthpop inclusion – by an Oz band, too..
Thank you for your most recent four, Rick – to select just one for comment. ‘Great Atomic Power’ is certainly an interesting case; according to my understanding, it’s fair dinkum in its approach to its heavy subject matter, and not meant as satire, though these days, listened to without foreknowledge of the performers, it could be listened to that way.
Thank you, Karl, for Bragg’s ‘Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards’ – a fine song indeed.
Thanks, Timsy, for ‘In the Year 2525’, a highly fitting song for our theme – interestingly, I heard it on late-night radio just a couple of days ago, which transported me back to when I first heard it numerous decades ago.
Happy Saturday KD!
Not sure how truly scientific this next offering is but it’s ‘like chemistry’ & gives Dylan another notch.
Subterranean Homesick Blues
‘Johnny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine’
Happy Saturday to you, too, Karl. Thanks for ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ – classic Dylan, of course, and a song that fits under the broad umbrella of our science theme because it involves chemistry..
Well, Did You Evah (It’s in the stars, next July we collide with Mars) – Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, from the movie High Society.
Thanks, Fisho, for another song involving the astronomical realm.
Einstein On the Beach – Counting Crows
Edison – Bee Gees
Science Is Never Wrong – OMD
The Scientist Writes a Letter – Tom Verlaine
Thanks, Fisho, for your latest quartet of choices. Fine, relevant additions to our overall list.
Here’s an absolute beauty in relation to our present theme -NaCl (Sodium Chloride), written by Kate McGarrigle, from the album The McGarrigle Hour (1998). The song is very much centred on chemistry.
Great call KD, love it.
Here’s a few more:
Sinola Cowboys, Bruce
My Science Fiction Twin, Little Elvis
Better Living through Chemistry, QotSA
Sexual chemistry?
Don’t Get Me Wrong by the Pretenders.
Once in a while two people meet
Seemingly for no reason
They just pass on the street
Suddenly, thunder showers everywhere
Who can explain the thunder and rain
But there’s something in the air
1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme
Dylan – Series Of Dreams (Oh Mercy outtake)
If you are every looking for a word that rhymes with ‘specific’……
Personally, I would have completely rewritten line 3 and used ‘horrific’.
Wasn’t thinking of anything specific
Like in a dream when someone wakes up and screams
Nothing truly very scientific
Just thinking of a series of dreams
Glad you loved the Kate M call, Rick. Thanks for your latest three – all very different from each other, from the skilful narrative of Bruce to the new waviness of Declan to the riffy, indie, thought-provoking stuff of QotSA.
Hi Matt G, Sexual chemistry? Why not, I suppose – it’s chemistry of a kind. Two great songs just included by you: ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’, which I’ve always liked a great deal, and the wonderful ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’ – the latter, to my way of thinking, so much – in a very positive sense – like a highwayman folk ballad of the 18th/19th century.
Thanks for ‘Series of Dreams’, Karl. I have a particular personal association with regard to this song – an evocative black-and-white film clip featuring it. I saw this clip on a TV show like Nightmoves or Rage a long time ago. The main image in my head is the interior of a train carriage and the world outside passing by its window as the train speeds along the track. Strange how things like this stay in one’s head.
Beyond my own math/statistics songs at https://larrylesser.com/greatest-lesser-hits/, there’s a whole global network of people who use song to teach STEM: https://causeweb.org/voices/
Thank you, Larry, for your input.
Don’t put my faith in nobody, not even a scientist.
(Do Right to Me Baby)
Why should we go on watching each other through a telescope?
Eventually we’ll hang ourselves on all this tangled rope.
(We Better Talk This Over)
We live in a political world / Under the microscope
(Political World)
Well, the world of research has gone berserk / Too much paperwork
(Nettie Moore)
The geometry of innocent flesh on the bone
Causes Galileo’s math book to get thrown
(Tomstone Blues)
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
(Desolation Row)
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
(Desolation Row)
Thrasher – Neil Young on Rust Never Sleeps – Brilliant lyrics
“… the aimless blade of science
Slashed the pearly gates”
Thanks, DB, for your excellent array of highly fitting Bob Dylan material. Very nicely put together!
Thank you, Peter C, for the fine and highly apt ‘Thrasher’ – loved the spot-on quoted lyrics, too.
Hi KD
A bit of personal trivia:
* on this day, 50 years ago, I was in the passenger seat making the 880km car trip back from Sunbury 75 to my humble sharehouse abode in Seven Hills (western suburbs of Sydney). It would be fair to say the journey proved to be more profound than the destination.
* at 4am on Tuesday 16 July 2019, I awoke from a dream state with a melody and opening lyrics to a song that 6 days later I completed and titled ‘Science Of Love’. One month later the song had been recorded and was included as track 10 in my ‘Life & Love’ CD.
Thanks for Science of Love, Karl – interesting in relation to the creativity and dreams connection, as well as being on-theme. My previous tale about Dylan’s Series of Dreams and love of the film clip resulted in my poem called Sequence of Dreams, which will appear in a future poetry book and has been published on the Footy Almanac website.
Of course, I’ll certainly give your song a listen, too.
I missed the science stream but I want to make a late entry.
I reckon that you got the most pure science songs Kevin with Tom Lehrer’s The Elements and Kate McGarrigle’s NaCl. My contributions are mostly about nuclear science.
What Have They Done to the Rain? – written by Malvina Reynolds. Recorded in 1962 by Joan Baez and by The Searchers in 1964.
“Just a little rain falling all around
The grass lifts its head to the heavenly sound
Just a little rain, just a little rain
What have they done to the rain?
Just a little boy standing in the rain
The gentle rain that falls for years
And the grass is gone
The boy disappears
And rain keeps falling like helpless tears
And what have they done to the rain?”
I Ain’t Marching Anymore – Phil Ochs
“For I flew the final mission in the Japanese skies
Set off the mighty mushroom roar
When I saw the cities burning
I knew that I was learning
That I ain’t a-marching anymore”
And now some more Tom Lehrer
We Will All Go Together When We Go
“When you attend a funeral,
It is sad to think that sooner or
Later those you love will do the same for you.
And you may have thought it tragic,
Not to mention other adjec-
Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do.
But don’t you worry.
No more ashes, no more sackcloth.
And an armband made of black cloth
Will some day never more adorn a sleeve.
For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbors too,
There’ll be nobody left behind to grieve.
And we will all go together when we go.
What a comforting fact that is to know.
Universal bereavement,
An inspiring achievement,
Yes, we all will go together when we go.
We will all go together when we go.
All suffused with an incandescent glow.
No one will have the endurance
To collect on his insurance,
Lloyd’s of London will be loaded when they go.”
(Lots more verses all very amusing if you like black humour)
Lobachevski (Tom Lehrer on Academic Mathematics)
“Who made me the genius I am today
The mathematician that others all quote?
Who’s the professor that made me that way?
The greatest that ever got chalk on his coat
One man deserves the credit
One man deserves the blame
And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name
Hi
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach
I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky
In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics
Plagiarize
Plagiarize
Let no one else’s work evade your eyes
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes
So don’t shade your eyes
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize
Only be sure always to call it please “Research””
My favourite Tom Lehrer song on my least favourite scientist.
Wernher Von Braun
“Gather ’round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won’t even frown,
“Ha, Nazi, Schmazi, ” says Wernher von Braun.
Don’t say that he’s hypocritical,
Say rather that he’s apolitical.
“Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department, ” says Wernher von Braun.
Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town,
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.
You too may be a big hero,
Once you’ve learned to count backwards to zero.
“In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I’m learning Chinese!” says Wernher von Braun”
Really interesting, stimulating late entry in relation to the science theme, Dave. Wonderful stuff – I’m so glad you took the time to do it.