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Science Rock

By drorzel on July 13, 2007.
  • "Darkmatter," Andrew Bird
  • "21st Century (Digital Boy)," Bad Religion
  • "Some Fantastic," Barenaked Ladies
  • "Desolation Row," Bob Dylan
  • "Total Eclipse of the Heart," Bonnie Tyler
  • "Gravity Fails," the Bottle Rockets
  • "Protons, Neutrons, Electrons," The Cat Empire
  • "Alien," Chris Whitley
  • "Under the Milky Way," the Church
  • "White Russian Galaxy," the Crimea
  • "Ziggy Stardust," David Bowie
  • "Monkey to Man," Elvis Costello
  • "Laser Show," Fountains of Wayne
  • "I Am a Scientist," Guided by Voices
  • "Satellite," Guster
  • "Galileo," Indigo Girls
  • "The Future Soon," Jonathan Coulton
  • "Satellite of Love," Lou Reed
  • "Elvis is Everywhere," Mojo Nixon
  • "Supermassive Black Hole," Muse
  • "Thrasher," Neil Young
  • "Dance Like a Monkey," New York Dolls
  • "The Boy in the Bubble," Paul Simon
  • "Ask DNA," Raju Ramayya
  • "Four Eyed Girl," Rhett Miller
  • "Now's Not the Right Time for Love," the Rugburns
  • "Nuclear," Ryan Adams
  • "Wonderful World," Sam Cooke
  • "Magnet's Coil," Sebadoh
  • "Chemistry," Semisonic
  • "Black Hole Sun," Soundgarden
  • "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," Tears for Fears
  • "Particle Man," They Might Be Giants
  • "She Blinded Me With Science," Thomas Dolby
  • "I'm Pretty Sure I Can See Molecules," Troubled Hubble
  • "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)," U2
  • "The Whole of the Moon," Waterboys
  • "Lousy Reputation," We Are Scientists
  • "Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault In Paris, 1961)," the Weakerthans

(I'm leaving early Friday morning for a weekend get-together with friends from college, so this will serve as a weekend post. Obviously, only a handful of these are actually about science, though most of them at least reference science or something science-y. Feel free to suggest songs that I may have omitted, quibble with my choice of songs, or lament my apppalling taste in music, but I won't respond before Monday.

(Have a good weekend, everybody.)

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'39 by Queen, of course.

By Aaron Bergman (not verified) on 13 Jul 2007 #permalink

"I Am a Scientist," The Dandy Warhols (not the same as the Guided by Voices song).

Not in the title, but from the Minutemen's "History Lesson Part II:
"Our band is scientist rock"

Jawbreaker also had a song called "Chemistry" with about as much relevance to chemistry as the Semisonic song, but I like it a lot better.

And at risk of going too far out, The Lord Weird Slough Feg's "Traveller" space opera has both "Professor's Theme" and "Gene-ocide."

I was actually making a similar list yesterday. There's the album Unweaving the Rainbow by Frameshift, biology-themed prog rock.

"The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas," They Might Be Giants.

That song is actually called "Why Does the Sun Shine"

Phish, "Golgi Apparatus"
Dr. Octagon "Earth People" (Kool Keith has lots and lots of science/sci-fi related songs)

The Beatles, "Across the Universe"

David Bowie, "Space Oddity"

Kate Bush, "Experiment IV" and "Cloudbusting"
(possibly also "Breathing", "Rocket's Tail", and "Constellation of the Heart")

Coldplay, "The Scientist"

Counting Crows, "Einstein on the Beach"

Crosby, Still, and Nash, "Dark Star"

Peter Gabriel, "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)"

Don Henley, "Building the Perfect Beast"

Golden Earring, "Radar Love"

Kansas, "Nobody's Home"

Pink Floyd, "Eclipse" (from "Dark Side of the Moon"...)

The Police, "Invisible Sun", "Walking on the Moon"

R.E.M., "Feeling Gravity's Pull"

Assorted songs by Rush:
"Cygnus X-1"
"Chemistry"
"Countdown"
"Digital Man"
"Earthshine"
"Manhattan Project"
"Natural Science"

Eh, I've got a talk to finish writing. Back to work...

Wow, I've been beaten to the punch on most of these!

Still, I can hardly believe that nobody has yet mentioned Tom Lehrer's The Elements :)

Thomas Dolby had a bunch besides "Science," like Big Bang Backwards, Airwaves, and One of Our Submarines (is Missing).

Animaniacs had a bunch, too, like The Planets, A Quake! A Quake!, Bones in the Body, and There is Only One of You

Jonathan Coulton has a bunch, too, like That Spells DNA and De-evolving, The Big Boom, Code Monkey, The Future Soon and Mandelbrot Set (I'm sure there are more)

And of course, all of Schoolhouse Rocks, Science (I think the Lemonheads even covered My Hero, Zero at one point).

Oh, and two math songs, just because:
Jethro Tull, One White Duck / 0^{10} = Nothing At All
Eagles, Take it to the Limit

You might also like MASSIVE Radio, an Internet radio station devoted entirely to science/math songs (I'm not sure how the new ruling on internet ruling will affect it):

http://www.live365.com/stations/trappedinlab/

2000 Light Years From Home; Stones
Race for the Prize; Flaming Lips
Life in the Air Age; BeBop Deluxe
Planes and Satellites; Sonya Dada
Sci Fi Wasabi; Cibo Mato
Tomorrow's Girls; Donald fagan
Space Station #5; Montrose
Outa Space; Billy Preston
Standing on the Moon; Grateful Dead
Third Stone From the Sun; Jimi Hendrix
Puzzlin' Evidence; Talking Heads
Philosopher's Stone; Van Morrison

By Prufrocky (not verified) on 13 Jul 2007 #permalink

Larsen B; British Sea Power
Up on the Sun; Meat Puppets
Books About UFOs; Hüsker Dü
Anything by Turing Machine

Death of a Scientist: Mull Historical Society
The Sounds of Science: Beastie Boys
Tesla's Hotel Room: The Handsome Family
Atomic Power: Uncle Tupelo/Traditional
Space Travel is Boring: Modest Mouse/Mark Kozelek
Third Planet: Modest Mouse
Essential Wear for Future Trips to Space: Ballboy
Gravity's Gone: Drive By Truckers
Gravity Rides Everything: Modest Mouse
A Spaceboy Dream: Belle and Sebastian
Oceanographers Choice: Mountain Goats
Souvlaki Space Station: Slowdive
The Space Race is Over: Billy Bragg
Looking for Astromauts: The National
Astronaut: Luna
Oxygen: Willy Mason
Alumninium: The White Stripes

"Pavlov's Bell," Aimee Mann

By Michael I (not verified) on 13 Jul 2007 #permalink

Let x = x
Big Science
Gravity's Angel

-- All by Laurie Anderson

I forgot to mention -- Laurie Anderson was the first (and perhaps only) artist-in-residence at NASA. She created a show called "Far side of the moon" based on that experience.

Apologies if this turns out to be a double posting. Tried posting last night but it didn't seem to work.

"Pavlov's Bell" by Aimee Mann.

(Incidentally, the song appeared in the S7 Buffy episode "Sleeper".)

By Michael I (not verified) on 14 Jul 2007 #permalink

Do The Evolution - Pearl Jam

More science FICTION themed, but here's a couple good hip-hop sciencey songs:

"Program to Hunt 2007" by Themselves -- This song's pretty much on long chase scene with some hunter-destroyer droid stalking a scientist through a complex.

"Habaeus Corpses (Draconian Love)" by El-P -- A twisted love story set in a dystopian future. I found love on a prison ship...

Both are similar to Deltron 3030 in that they're set in the future, but other than that, don't really have much to do with "science", per se.

Future's So Bright I Wanna Wear Shades - "I Study Nuclear Science", can't remember who did it.

And a whole album by Paul Kanter and the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra in '71, it was the Airplane (-minus Balin), the Dead (-Weir I think), and CSNY (minus Stills) in the studio, the theme is a bunch of hippies who hijack a starship. It got a Hugo for best Sci Fi album I think, tons of sci fi references.

My research adviser has this little side-project...

http://www.physicssongs.org

Here are two videos of him leading a sing-along at the March Meeting.

http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/APS2007/2007singalong.htm

And three of my personal favorites in mp3 format (they actually did help on exams!)
http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/kronecker_master.htm
http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/amperesong.mp3
http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/snell.mp3

Perry 28: Timbuckthree.

Smashing Pumpkins: Spaceboy

Chemlab: Chemical Halo

Coldplay: The Scientist

Elton John: Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a Long, Long Time)

Machines of Loving Grace: Acceleration

Godsmack: Moon Baby

Frontline Assembly: Bio-mechanic