Music on a space theme

[yoyodyne]

Harry Nilsson - Spaceman

[fiddlesticks]

I made a “space” mix CD-R a few years ago. Not traveling in space space, but outside laying on the ground looking up into space space.

The tracklist:
The New Year - Death Cab for Cutie
Prom Theme - Fountains of Wayne
Lucky - Radiohead
Big Dipper - Cracker
Stars - Hum (most obvious of the bunch)
Regret - New Order
Starálfur - Sigur Ros
Vow - Garbage
Rocket - The Smashing Pumpkins (another obvious one)
Cahokian - Jay Farrar
White Chocolate Space Egg - Liz Phair
How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead
Untitled - Interpol
A Shot in the Arm - Wilco
Sometimes - My Bloody Valentine
Show Me Mary - The Catherine Wheel
The Weather - Built to Spill

[CalMeacham]

If you can get them, you might want to play Louis and Bebe Barrn’s “Electronic Tonalities” from Forbidden Planet and Bernard Herrmann’s Theremin-assisted score from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
You should have no problem getting John Williams’ music for the various Star Wars movies, E.T. and Superman.
And I’d gram Weird al’s songs “Yoda” and “My, My this here Anakin Guy”
And get Horner’s score for The Rocketeer for good measure.

[Squink]

Blows Against the Empire by Jefferson Starship.
It was nominated for a Hugo back in 71.

the underlying premise of the narrative was derived in part from the works of science fiction author Robert Heinlein, particularly the novel Methuselah’s Children. Kantner went so far as to write to Heinlein to obtain permission to use his ideas. Heinlein wrote back that over the years, many people had used his ideas but Paul was the first one to ask for permission, which he granted.

[Tuckerfan]

Moby did a song called “We All Are Stars” IIRC. You might also check out Jamendo. All music is free and licensed under Creative Commons, so you’re not inviolation of copyright by downloading the stuff.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Roger Taylor ‘Fun in Space’
Rush - ‘Countdown’

@Saltire

There was once a great album called Minus Ten and Counting: Folk Music for the Space Age. If you can find any of those songs, they’re just great for evoking a love of the space program and exploration. Unfortunately, they’re rare since the publisher went out of business.

Off Centaur Publications - Wikipedia

Now, how am I going to get a copy of this? Hrm.

[JohnGalt]

Star Gazer on PBS has an “spacey” theme. From the FAQ on their website:
‘Arabesque #1’ by Claude Debussy performed by Isao Tomita on the still available “Snowflakes Are Dancing” album (RCA 60579-2-RG).

[Martha_Medea]

@Ranchoth

If ya don’t mind my asking, what country is it?

Dominican Republic.

[dwc1970]

I don’t know if the music would be fitting for a party, but if you’re looking for “deep space”-type music, check out some of the artists on Hearts of Space. Michael Stearns and John Serrie are two examples I am familiar with as I have some of their CDs.

[MovieMogul]

Two nobody’s mentioned:

Interplanet Janet (Schoolhouse Rock)

Beep! Beep! (Louis Prima)

[plnnr]

Planet Claire by The B-52s

Planet Claire has pink air

[Zebra]

Add J. Williams Close Encounters of the Third Kind

And

Flying Purple People Eater (sheb wooley?)
Eek Oop Ork AhAH! From an album of Saturday Mornig Cartoons

[yanceylebeef]

jeez, a page and a half and no one has mentioned The Ventures-In Space? That whole album is full of great space music.

Check that, it’s full of great music period.
Perfect for just putting on in the background and repeating over and over.

[vibrotronica]

Man… or Astro Man?

They are the only band I’ve ever seen perform with their heads on fire.

[The_Scrivener]

“Bike Ride to the Moon” by The Dukes of Stratosphear, that great long-lost psychedelic band from the '60’s, as cooked up by XTC in their '80’s prime. “Bike Ride” is catchy as heck, and connects kids to space like no other song I’ve ever heard. (OTOH, I’d skip XTC’s “Another Satellite” as it’s really a pensive song about marriage and adultery with an extended satellite metaphor.)

The more I’ve thought about it, the less convinced I am that space-themed music by itself will or even could make the theme of your kid’s party. The cultural reference point of young children is very limited; you can’t count on their being familiar with, say, the theme song to “The Jetsons,” let alone have the patience to suss out the space connection from a piece of music from the 60’s or 70’s, especially if it’s instrumental, folky, or prog-rock.

I suspect you should focus more on visuals and activities/demonstrations: an indoor planetarium lightshow, a pinata in the form of an extraterrestrial or the planet Saturn or a satellite or something; maybe a bubbling “volcano” feature in the backyard (if not whatever is usually used for lava, at least some dry ice for the vapors, or red-dyed-vinegar-and-baking soda, which the kids themselves could load into it). Or you have both the lava-spewing volcano and also set up a large container for ladling a fruit punch, with some dry ice in the bottom… “Pluto punch”?

And if you’re really daring, you could get a couple of cheap water-pump rockets and, without ever letting a kid play with one alone, take turns launching it with each kid; you’ll definitely need more than one grown-up if you have one preoccupied doing this for a while. You’ll also need the requisite amount of open space, the ability to herd the kids away from where the rocket is going up (and coming down), and a spare or two should one go astray and land on a roof somewhere. Or if the rocket thing is too dangerous or tricky, you could still get a lot of entertainment out demonstrating rapid nucleation and propulsion, using diet colas and Mentos – at the end of the party, and far from the house. Diet, because it supposedly works as well as the sugary ones and makes for a less sticky mess afterwards. (You could even pass out smocks or t-shirts for the guests to pull on over their clothes before giving them12-oz. cans to shake up as much as they can and aim them at each other, but I don’t think the other parents would be thrilled.)

You could also have authentic NASA documentary footage playing silently on a TV on a continuous loop, just for atmosphere (a lot of the classic 60’s-70’s stuff is available in inexpensive DVDs and box sets), convert a room into a pinhole camera (which is freaky and interesting, if not truly extraterrestrial), and set up a large-scale (if not entirely true-to-scale) model of the solar system in the backyard or throughout the apartment, using everything from beach balls to marbles as the planets. If you can borrow someone’s telescope, you could hold the party in the evening and (carefully) invite them to what may well be their first instrument-assisted peek at our universe… unfortunately, since we’ve got a nearly full moon now, the party in two weeks won’t have much of a moon to view.

If you live in a town with a planetarium, maybe you could escort the whole group for a party field trip. (More parents will be needed as chauffeurs, of course.) The planetarium might even be accustomed to such parties…?

[Hunter_Hawk]

@vibrotronica

Man… or Astro Man?

They are the only band I’ve ever seen perform with their heads on fire.

I once saw Chrome perform with a dancer who had a flaming bikini top and strap-on. Does that count?

[Martha_Medea]

@The Scrivener

“Bike Ride to the Moon” by The Dukes of Stratosphear, that great long-lost psychedelic band from the '60’s, as cooked up by XTC in their '80’s prime. “Bike Ride” is catchy as heck, and connects kids to space like no other song I’ve ever heard. (OTOH, I’d skip XTC’s “Another Satellite” as it’s really a pensive song about marriage and adultery with an extended satellite metaphor.)

The more I’ve thought about it, the less convinced I am that space-themed music by itself will or even could make the theme of your kid’s party. The cultural reference point of young children is very limited; you can’t count on their being familiar with, say, the theme song to “The Jetsons,” let alone have the patience to suss out the space connection from a piece of music from the 60’s or 70’s, especially if it’s instrumental, folky, or prog-rock.

I suspect you should focus more on visuals and activities/demonstrations: an indoor planetarium lightshow, a pinata in the form of an extraterrestrial or the planet Saturn or a satellite or something; maybe a bubbling “volcano” feature in the backyard (if not whatever is usually used for lava, at least some dry ice for the vapors, or red-dyed-vinegar-and-baking soda, which the kids themselves could load into it). Or you have both the lava-spewing volcano and also set up a large container for ladling a fruit punch, with some dry ice in the bottom… “Pluto punch”?

And if you’re really daring, you could get a couple of cheap water-pump rockets and, without ever letting a kid play with one alone, take turns launching it with each kid; you’ll definitely need more than one grown-up if you have one preoccupied doing this for a while. You’ll also need the requisite amount of open space, the ability to herd the kids away from where the rocket is going up (and coming down), and a spare or two should one go astray and land on a roof somewhere. Or if the rocket thing is too dangerous or tricky, you could still get a lot of entertainment out demonstrating rapid nucleation and propulsion, using diet colas and Mentos – at the end of the party, and far from the house. Diet, because it supposedly works as well as the sugary ones and makes for a less sticky mess afterwards. (You could even pass out smocks or t-shirts for the guests to pull on over their clothes before giving them12-oz. cans to shake up as much as they can and aim them at each other, but I don’t think the other parents would be thrilled.)

You could also have authentic NASA documentary footage playing silently on a TV on a continuous loop, just for atmosphere (a lot of the classic 60’s-70’s stuff is available in inexpensive DVDs and box sets), convert a room into a pinhole camera (which is freaky and interesting, if not truly extraterrestrial), and set up a large-scale (if not entirely true-to-scale) model of the solar system in the backyard or throughout the apartment, using everything from beach balls to marbles as the planets. If you can borrow someone’s telescope, you could hold the party in the evening and (carefully) invite them to what may well be their first instrument-assisted peek at our universe… unfortunately, since we’ve got a nearly full moon now, the party in two weeks won’t have much of a moon to view.

If you live in a town with a planetarium, maybe you could escort the whole group for a party field trip. (More parents will be needed as chauffeurs, of course.) The planetarium might even be accustomed to such parties…?

Some inspired suggestions there - thanks! It’s a pool party, so the children will be focused on that, and I don’t think would pay much attention to other attractions. The space theme will be visual as well as musical - the cake decoration, metallic balloons and plastic utensils, napkins and tablecloth, as well as some decorations - hanging planets in the gazebo area.

What I will try to get is a planet/spaceship shaped piñata and a whole bunch of those pump rockets as party favours/prizes.