Sunday, February 21, 2010

To The Stars: Coversongs of Space





It starts with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Goodnight Moon, and before you know it, you’re out in the yard long after bedtime, the winter cold against your upturned nose, holding hands with Daddy and tracking yellow-red Mars through the trees on a clear and moonless night.

From there, looking up into the dark for more than a moment is never done without soulsearching. Summers, we lie on our backs in the folk festival fields to watch the meteor showers, and wonder at how brief the light, and how hot the distant fire. Even tonight, on the long ride home after dark, the moon followed us again, as if to remind us that though we ourselves might wax and wane in our skins, the night skies are our constant companion, our truest metaphor for everything that is holy and mystical.

Our tendency to point and ponder into space is essential to the human condition: an embodiment of and focal point for our love of mystery, and of the endless, boundless potential of the universe around us. Historically, the everpresent heavens have featured heavily in our explanations for how the world works. In an age of science, the pursuit of the unknown and the fears and excitement which accompany our upward gaze after the sun has set and the heavens turned infinite have not faded, just transformed, from stories told by the constellations to stories of the space station, now finally complete, its glorious picture window framed in moonrocks, its view of the world and its cradle of sky there for the taking.

In a way, that is, we depend on outer space to help us understand our inner space. For the skies are the limit, they say - of imagination, and of our understanding - and so we imbue them with everything we are, and wish to be. Fear and fancy, side by side: the moon, the stars, the sun, the space between, and everything else we see but cannot touch, except inside our secret selves.


There’s a rich vein to be mined in the myriad of ways we see the firmament. Over at Sci Fi Songs, John Anealio has inaugurated his new Interstellar Jukebox series with a set of “Space” songs, each contributed by a writer, blogger, or musician which he admires. Though I’m proud to announce that my own round two contribution, a Roches cover of an old Harry Nilsson tune, is due to appear in a day or two, there’s no reason to wait; head over for some great writing and song choices from the sci fi set, and stick around to serve your inner geek via your talented host’s weekly-posted originals, coversongs, and other “odes to androids, princesses, and vampires” while you’re there.

And here’s a set of coverfolk that casts the nets a bit wider, covering the full spectrum of our mixed emotions about space and all it contains. As always, if you’ve got an on-theme coverfolk song to share, we’d love to hear it; feel free to leave mention in the comets below.




Cover Lay Down posts new features and coverfolk sets each Wednesday, Sunday, and the occasional otherday.

Category: Theme Posts

10 Responses to “To The Stars: Coversongs of Space”

  1. Curt Shannon
    February 22nd, 2010 at 3:18 am

    Of course Chris Hillman was a member of the Byrds, so is “Eight Miles High” officially a cover? Great stuff - thanks for posting.
  2. boyhowdy
    February 22nd, 2010 at 5:49 am

    Good call, Curt. Ordinarily, I’d say no…but the track is SO different, and the original is so much a product of and a staple of the solo acts of Clark, McGuinn, and Crosby - Hillman’s name isn’t listed as cowriter on the track, and his name appears only once in the very long Wikipedia page about its origin - that I decided to allow it. A similar call was made by Wikipedia itself, which lists Hillman’s version under “cover versions”.
  3. Trawlin’ The Blogroll « It All Started With Carbon Monoxide
    February 22nd, 2010 at 5:55 am

    [...] Cover Lay Down: To The Stars – Coversongs of Space [...]
  4. Curt Shannon
    February 22nd, 2010 at 10:17 pm

    I would call it a cover too, or at least a “repurposing.” :-)
  5. John
    February 23rd, 2010 at 3:31 am

    For me the definitive cover of Major Tom has always been one I found on a blog some time back called something like 365 days project. I found a link to the file as follows:

    http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/365/01/365-Days-Project-01-02-space-lady-major-tom-1990.mp3
  6. felice
    February 23rd, 2010 at 10:58 am

    where is william shatners version of rockets man?!?
    *lol*
  7. Reb Elias
    February 28th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    How about Paul Kantner’s “Have You Seen the Stars Tonight? from “Blows Against the Empire”? He and various incarnations of Jefferson Starship/Airplane have “covered” it.
  8. 3 it! « Tonifinn’s Blog
    March 2nd, 2010 at 2:17 pm

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  10. Nathaniel Wood
    July 15th, 2010 at 9:59 am

    when i hear about David Bowie, it reminds me of Vanilla Ice.

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