friday mixed tape: the final frontier

by Hugh

This week, in celebration of the launch of earideas.com, (and the earideas audio challenge) songs about lifting off.

Peter Schilling: Major Tom (1983)
So of course the real song to put here is Bowie’s Space Oddity, where Major Tom first made his appearance. But the Schilling reinterpretation was a big favourite of mine as a kid, and it does have qualities of its own, including a good proto-techo drum/synth track. And the “4-3-2-1 earth below us …” still gives me shivers.

Europe: Final Countdown (1986)
This would get my vote for the worst song in the history of the galaxy.

William Shatner: Rocket Man (Elton John) (live in 1978)
At the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, Captain Kirk “sings” Elton John’s Rocket Man. A piece of surreal, otherworldly … genius. Art of the highest caliber.