42 Q: Sci-Fi References in Music List
Description
This article is from the SF references in music List FAQ, by Rich Kulawiec rsk@gsp.org with numerous contributions by others.
42 Q: Sci-Fi References in Music List
Quadrophonia:
Album called "Cozmic Jam" contains songs "Djoum 1000", "The Wave of the
Future", "Cozm'" and "Ovo", along with the title track.
Quantum Jump:
(group lead by Rupert Hine) "No American Starship".
Queen:
"Thirty-Nine", from "A Night at the Opera", discusses the problems of
relativistic travel. Also "Machines (back to humans)" from "The Works";
other albums include the Flash Gordon soundtrack and "Fun in Space", a solo
album by drummer Roger Taylor. "Ogre Battle" (seems to be about the fantasy
game Ogre) "March of the Black Queen" and "Seven Seas of Rhye" from "Queen II".
The album "A Kind of Magic" contains fantasy tunes from the film "Highlander".
And the video from "Radio Ga-Ga" includes clips from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis".
The song "Don't stop me now" from the album "Jazz" also contains some
SF imagery. "The Invisible Man" shows up on "The Miracle".
--- A note on Queen from Elisabeth Anne Riba
Both Brian May & Roger Taylor were big SF fans. Brian's first group
was called 1984. Before Queen, Brian, Roger &Tim Staffell were a group
called "Smile." They had only one single released, called "Earth,"
about a lonely spaceman. The chorus goes "I have seen many worlds, for
what it's worth. But I'll never see again, the planet Earth, my Earth."
The song closes with "the green hills of Earth," a Heinlein reference.
In addition, the cover for Queen's News of the World album comes from
the October 1953 issue of Astounding SF. Likewise, Roger Taylor's Fun
In Space features Roger reading Creepy #119 on its cover. The title
track begins "Strangers In A Strange Land" and talks about "Little
Green Stories." (I love that term)
Also see "Dave Clark's Time", a musical about a rock star and fans who get
transported to Andromeda to face trial for the human race. Freddy Mercury
did "Time" plus several other big-name stars (e.g. Julian Lennon).
Queensryche:
Their first and second albums, "The Warning" and "Rage for Order" both
contain songs about sentient machinery, e.g. "Screaming in Digital",
"NM 156" and "I Only Dream in Infra-Red". Most of their self-titled
EP is also fantasy. The album "Operation: Mindcrime" is a rock opera
about mind control; it tell the story of a man who is programmed by
revolutionaries to kill political and religious leaders (and his
girlfriend). The track "Silent Lucidity" on "Empire" is about lucid
dreaming - not quite SF, but maybe close enough.
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