Tag Archives | Can’t Stop the Muzak

Two songs about apocalypse and mass death. Bowie’s was inspired by the Chernobyl incident.

70. David Bowie, “Time Will Crawl” (1987):

Some inventive choreography here:

71. Honeydogs, “10,000 Years” (2004):

Two songs inspired by Ray Bradbury stories:

68. David Bowie, “Karma Man” (1970):

69. Hawkwind, “Fahrenheit 451” (1982):

We broke the ruptured structure built of age
our weapons were the tongues of crying rage ….

Past the shiny mylar towers
past the ravaged tenements
to a place we can’t remember
for a time we won’t forget ….

66. David Bowie, “Cygnet Committee” (1969):

67. Warren Zevon, “Transverse City” (1989):

Keep your electric eye on me, babe ….

You’ve got X-ray eyes ….

64. David Bowie, “Moonage Daydream” (1972):

65. Laurie Anderson, “Gravity’s Angel” (1984):

Anderson explains:

“Thomas Pynchon I admire very much. … Gravity’s Rainbow is just so beautiful because it’s very multidimensional. … I wanted to make an opera of that book, actually, and I wrote to him and asked him if that would be OK (I actually found him; he’s quite reclusive). And he wrote me this funny letter. He said, ‘You can do it, but you can only use banjo.’ And so I thought, ‘Well, thanks. I don’t know if I could do it like that.’”

62. David Bowie, “Bombers” (1971):

The lyrics of this one seem to prefigure the ending of The Last Jedi …

… so it only makes sense to follow it up with a song about Jedi knights:

63. Technical Difficulties (T. J. Burnside, Linda Melnick, and Sheila Willis), “Come All You Knights” (1986):

Two songs about trying to survive nuclear fallout. (Bowie’s “When the Wind Blows” is from the soundtrack of the film of the same name.)

60. David Bowie, “When the Wind Blows” (1986):

61. The Postal Service, “We Will Become Silhouettes” (2005):

The ending of this video looks to me like it might have been filmed in Joshua Tree National Park. And the final scene reminds me of the final scene of Revenge of the Sith (partly because of the clothing):

In other news, the Bowie/sci-fi connection continues with this latest development.