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Last Friday, NASA’s Endeavour shuttle was scheduled to launch, but the plan was nixed when they found a glitch in the power system. While NASA is now saying Endeavour is scheduled to launch no earlier than May 8th, we were captivated by the always romantic idea of space travel, planetary movement and life beyond ours. It’s been decades since we first went into space, but it’s still a wild notion to think of traveling outside the atmosphere.
Who more apropos to agree with our collective enchantment of intergalactic space travel than the stars themselves–music stars, that is. We’ve collected Ten Songs About Space Travel, The Universe, and Alien Life Forms by artists like[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”] Katy Perry[/lastfm], [lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Bruno Mars[/lastfm], and [lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Elton John [/lastfm]to help send you on your own cosmic adventure.
10. “E.T.”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Katy Perry[/lastfm]
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Complete with alien-esque make-up, crazy CGI effects, and lots of quirky Katy Perry antics, as always Perry embraces the weird and the wonderful with her hit song, “E.T.”
Although we’ve only crushed on humanoids (or that’s the story we are sticking to), the best part of the tune is the love song aspect of it:
Boy, you’re an alien, your touch so far away/its supernatural, extraterrestrial
9. “On Mercury”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Red Hot Chili Peppers[/lastfm]
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While Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers might have some alien-like facial expressions, it’s hard to think of a band that embraces earthly pleasures more than Red Hot Chili Peppers.
However, they are pretty infamous for their hippie notions and we suspect that when Anthony Kiedis sings about “lemon trees on Mercury,” it’s more of a personality metaphor than a story about space travel:
Memories of everything/Of lemon trees on Mercury and/Come to me with remedies/From five or six of seven seas and/You always took me with a smile/When I was down/Memories of everything/That blew through
8. “Mars Vs. Venus”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Usher[/lastfm]
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True. Usher is talking about the relationship between man and woman when he sings about Venus and Mars. But it’s very interesting how humans chose humongous planets in our galaxy as symbols of the different sexes.
Although, it makes sense. Humans have always been inclined to obsesses over the “big bang:”
This is the big bang so unpredictable/Sex, love/And find out whose in control/Mars verses venus/But when the worlds collide/This is the big bang/Step into the ring of fire
7. “Rocketeer”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Far East Movement[/lastfm]
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Songs (and poetry) through the ages has alluded to women having the glamorous, beautiful traits of the night sky.
Far East Movement modernizes this idea and includes a rocketeer flying through the sky looking for his love:
Nah I never been in space before/But I never seen a face like yours/You make me feel like I could touch the planets/You want the moon, girl watch me grab it/See I never seen the stars this close/You got me stuck off the way you glow
6. “Talking To The Moon”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Bruno Mars[/lastfm]
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Even his name is perfect for sonic adventures into the cosmos; Bruno Mars always sings the most adorable love songs that we wish our significant other would pen for us and Mars missive to the moon makes us what to take him for a ride on our “satellite of love”:
At night when the stars/light up my room/I sit by myself/Talking to the Moon/Trying to get to You/In hopes you’re on/the other side/Talking to me too
5. “Spaceman”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]The Killers[/lastfm]
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Rife with philosophical metaphor and New Wave dance beats, The Killers’ song “Spaceman” makes us sound like we are dancing in a spectacular celestial meteor shower:
The star maker says, “It ain’t so bad”/The dream maker’s gonna make you mad/The spaceman says, “Everybody look down/It’s all in your mind”
4. “Space Oddity”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]David Bowie[/lastfm]
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One of the most quintessential songs about space travel, no list about interstellar antics would be complete without David Bowie’s song “Space Oddity.”
To this day, we aren’t sure Bowie is actually human–consistently amazing songs, barely aged, and a cool, knowing attitude like he is a man about the universe:
This is Major Tom to Ground Control/I’m stepping through the door/And I’m floating /in a most peculiar way/And the stars look very different today
3. “Starlight”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Muse[/lastfm]
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We always thought that Muse’s music would be perfect for an intergalactic adventure. It helps that they named an album Black Holes and Revelations and have gorgeous love songs that make you wish Matt Bellamy was a nutty astronaut searching through the galaxy for the black hole you are trapped in:
Far away/This ship is taking me far away/Far away from the memories/Of the people who care if I live or die/Starlight/I will be chasing the starlight/Until the end of my life/I don’t know if it’s worth it anymore
2. “Rocket Man”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Elton John[/lastfm]
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“Rocket Man” includes some of our favorite lyrics of all time.
Basically, Elton John can do no wrong when he writes a narrative song. His melancholy lyrics for “Rocket Man” make the listener feel equally in touch with both the loneliness of space and the thrill:
She packed my bags last night pre-flight/Zero hour nine a.m./And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then/I miss the earth so much I miss my wife/It’s lonely out in space/On such a timeless flight
1. “Subterranean Homesick Alien”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Radiohead[/lastfm]
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When listening to Radiohead’s “Subterranean Homesick Alien,” we feel the mediocrity of mere Earth existence and the excitement of being abducted by mischievous aliens making “home movies” of us for their amusement:
I wish that they’d swoop down in a country lane/Late at night when I’m driving /Take me on board their beautiful ship /Show me the world as I’d love to see it
[Source: PC MAG]
