# Incredibly vague 80s song question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2019, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009 "2019-04-03T23:15:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/1 "2019-04-03T23:15:19Z")
Okay, back in the late 1980s (or possibly early 1990s, but probably late 1980s) I listened to Top 40/Pop-type radio stations, and there was briefly a song charting with a line something about space travel or life in space or something like that–enough to catch my nerd ear but obviously not enough for me to strongly remember it well. The existence of it sometimes crosses my mind, though, and no amount of googling helped. (Before anyone suggests the Reba McEntire song, it isn’t the Reba McEntire song.) ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/2 "2019-04-03T23:17:08Z")
The highwaymen? No so much top 40 as pop country. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/3 "2019-04-03T23:29:13Z")
Nope. “Pop”, as in the type [that Casey Kasem played](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey%27s_Top_40). (ETA it may never have actually reached the top 40, but it was that style of pop.) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/4 "2019-04-03T23:35:19Z")
From the 70’s, but how about Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft, by Klaatu. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/5 "2019-04-03T23:35:38Z")
The Final Countdown? (“We’re heading for Venus,” he said. “Maybe we’ll come back to Earth, who can tell?”) ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/6 "2019-04-03T23:37:50Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > From the 70’s, but how about Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft, by Klaatu. That’s what came to my mind as well. The Carpenters also covered it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/7 "2019-04-03T23:39:26Z")
Thanks, but this is something that very, very, very definitely was written in the late 1980s/possibly very early 1990s. And was something that sank without a ripple after briefly showing up–it is nothing that would be famous to anyone today. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/8 "2019-04-04T00:18:22Z")
[_The Final Countdown_ by **Europe**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcJ-wNmazHQ) – 1986 [_Rocket_ by **Def Leppard**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKQXG6HAszg) – 1987 [_Star Trekkin’_ by **The Firm**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1pzN3CgANE) – 1987 [_Sister Moon_ by **Sting**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTgDb_Oj10E) – 1987 [_Under The Milky Way_ by **The Church**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA54NBtPKdI) – 1988 [_Star_ by **Erasure**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl38v4hAtE8) – 1989 [_Man on the Moon_ by **R.E.M.**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3CR_CxhIeE) – 1992 [_Out of Space_ by **The Prodigy**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Erf8XGI07c) – 1992 [_Someone Else’s Star_ by **Bryan White**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJb53n3ilh0) – 1994 [_Wandering Star_ by **Portishead**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ3CA_RThDY) – 1994 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/9 "2019-04-04T00:39:42Z")
Thanks, it it isn’t any of those. Trying to think of something about the style–maybe it could be described as sort of REO Speedwaggony? And it wasn’t a song about space, it just mentioned it, possibly in the refrain. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/10 "2019-04-04T01:36:56Z")
Flock of Seagulls, Space Aged Love Song? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/11 "2019-04-04T05:15:07Z")
Julian Lennon’s “Saltwater” mentions taking “photographs from Mars.” ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/12 "2019-04-04T05:33:16Z")
Was Bowie, Space oddity or Life on Mars? ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/13 "2019-04-04T08:17:01Z")
Major Tom (Coming Home), by Peter Schilling, 1983, which is sort of like an unauthorized sequel to Bowie’s Space Oddity. edit whoops, didn't see it wasn't about space. nm ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/14 "2019-04-04T14:19:49Z")
Probably too late (1992) but here you go : [**Tasmin Archer** - _Sleeping Satellite_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDzmJuXAgD8) ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/15 "2019-04-04T14:31:34Z")
Going after the REO Speedwagon angle… Late 70s not 80s, _Come Sail Away_ by **Styx** has the line “We thought that they were angels, come to my surprise. We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies” ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/16 "2019-04-04T15:52:35Z")
Probably too early (1978) but Another Girl Another Planet by the Only Ones? j ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/17 "2019-04-04T15:57:32Z")
Maybe The Kinks’ “Cliches of the World (B Movie)”? [At about 3:00](https://youtu.be/u7Hx3lUdIlI?t=179) there’s a spoken interlude: \*In his dreams he’s taken away by alien beings to another galaxy, deep in space, to a planet where a man can live out his fantasies, and experience unimaginable pleasures. \* That, or “Rio” by Duran Duran. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/18 "2019-04-04T17:02:37Z")
Is it the one where all the band members had Big Hair? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/19 "2019-04-04T19:04:20Z")
McCartney and Wings: Venus and Mars? ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009/20 "2019-04-04T19:13:57Z")
[I.G.Y.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21M3nv-hk8A)? Not about space, exactly, but it’s very [science fictiony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.G.Y._(What_a_Beautiful_World)#Title_and_lyrics). Released in 82. > [@](#): > > Get your ticket to that wheel in space while there’s time. > The fix is in. > You’ll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky. > You know we’ve got to win. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-vague-80s-song-question/832009.md?page=2)