These are the mystical voyages ….
38. David Bowie, “Did You Ever Have a Dream?” (1967):
39. Jon Anderson, “Flight of the Moorglade” (1976):
Tag Archives | Science Fiction
SciFi SongFest, Songs 36-37
36. David Bowie, “Within You” (1986)
This song is from Bowie’s role as the Goblin King in the movie Labyrinth. “But that’s fantasy, not science fiction! And the fantasy aspect isn’t even part of the lyrics, it’s just part of the context!” Yeah, well, I said at the start that I was going to be interpreting “science fiction” generously.
37. Sting, “Moon Over Bourbon Street” (1985):
Makes sense to follow up a song about a seductive, morally ambiguous goblin with a song about a seductive, morally ambiguous vampire. And technically this one does count as science fiction, since it’s based on Anne Rice’s vampire novels, and in those novels she eventually (long after the song’s release, of course) gave vampirism a science-fiction-y origin.
Another version:
SciFi SongFest, Songs 34-35
34. David Bowie, “Life on Mars” (1971):
It could be argued that this song isn’t really about life on Mars in any obvious sense. But who would be so monstrous?
35. Def Leppard, “Rocket” (1987):
The list of references includes Ziggy, Major Tom, and Rocket Man:
SciFi SongFest, Songs 32-33
What these two songs have in common is … well, I’ll give you a hint:
David Bowie, “Fashion” (1980):
Leslie Fish, “Surprise” (1983):
SciFi SongFest, Songs 30-31
Once again, two non-Bowie songs, but the first one counts as Bowie because I’m also including Bowie’s cover of it:
30. Beatles, “Across the Universe” (1970):
Bowie’s 1975 cover version:
31. Bart Howard (author) and Kaye Ballard (vocals), “Fly Me to the Moon” [a.k.a. “In Other Words”] (1954):
While Kaye Ballard’s version of this song was the first one recorded, the best known version is of course Frank Sinatra’s from 1964:
SciFi SongFest, Songs 28-29
“She was not like the other girls ….”
28. David Bowie, “Born in a UFO” (2013):
29. Ash, “Girl from Mars” (1977):