Weekend Playlist: Songs About Mars
Welcome back to the Weekend Playlist! We hope that you had a good week off for Thanksgiving, and now that the holiday is over, we’re back to full swing.
On Saturday, NASA launched Curiosity, a new Mars rover that will explore the red planet, and to commemorate it’s 9 month voyage, we’re looking at songs about Mars this week.
There is no more evocative piece of music when talking about the planets than Gustav Holst’s classical piece, “Mars, the Bringer of War”. Dark, brooding, and all around excellent, this is a stunning piece of music in a stunning series of songs.
Symphony Of Science has hit another one out of the park with “The Case for Mars”, featuring Robert Zubrin, Carl Sagan, Brian Cox, and Penelope Boston with samples the “The Mars Underground”, Cosmos, and Wonders of the Solar System documentaries.
This is one of my favorite Bowie songs: energetic, interesting and fun all at the same time, it’s a highly recognizable piece of music, and one that’s inspired numerous covers (and television shows). Truly a rock classic.
This “Life on Mars” isn’t a cover of David Bowie’s more famous song, but it’s off of Wansel’s debut album by the same title. This bit of space-funk is inspired by science fiction themes, and it’s a neat ambient / funk track that I’ve grown to enjoy.
This is a quiet song from Coldplay’s Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall EP, and is a neat track with some vivid science fiction imagery throughout.
And a few more for you from the Angry Robot office jukebox…
The full-on colonisation freakout that is Hawkwind’s “Uncle Sam’s On Mars”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGyeULvpQdY
Retro rocking with the Hoodoo Gurus on “Mars Needs Guitars”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCPbIqVM5do
If you’re a techno head, check out the legendary Underground Resistance spin-off, Red Planet, who released not one but X twelve-inch EPs devoted to Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR6GkLguprc
And the pounding “Mars Needs Women” from Meat Beat Manifesto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6zSU7fzdmY
Freewheeling indie-pop with Ash and “Girl From Mars”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8hJXLW6kKk (OK, not actually about the red planet.)
Oh, and *cough* Jeff Wayne’s “The War of the Worlds”…
Yr Angry pals.
That’s an awesome list, all of which I didn’t have: onto the master list they go!
Howie Day has a great song called “Postcard from Mars” from his Sound the Alarm album.
There’s also “Field of Mars” by The Church, on The Blurred Crusade (1982).
Field of Mars
The second part of the “Clone” album of British prog metal band Threshold is about a trip to Mars: the very last song is indeed called “Sunrise on Mars”.
Houston melodic metal band Galactic Cowboys (cool name if there ever is one) has a song called “Ranch on Mars Reprise” on their self-titled debut album, and one called “Ranch on Mars” on their second album: “Space in Your Face“.
Canadian metal band Voivod had an album called “Phobos” (with the title track being about Mars’s moon).
Maybe more as they occur to me.
PS: even if not songs, there are bands with Mars in their name like 30 Seconds to Mars and The Mars Volta.
If you want it a bit more depressing, there’s also Ayreon’s My House on Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_iBH_HYXyc
Ah, and a few more:
Manilla Road – The Fires of Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg91E7UmeCc
The Gates of Slumber – Beneath the Eye of Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZSYHW8bZiA
Ufomammut – Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYviBfb-yrs
Candlemass – Mars and Volcanos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVZkV-2DQLI
Electric Wizard – Priestess of Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYXDIIWlB7c
Electric Wizard – Mountains Of Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZACRQ06SyE