Article-I.D.: ucbvax.320
Posted: Fri Dec 10 11:33:59 1982
Received: Tue Dec 14 01:28:44 1982

>From SFL@SRI-CSL  Fri Dec 10 10:46:11 1982
Reply-To: SF-LOVERS at SRI-CSL
To: SF-LOVERS@SRI-CSL


SF-LOVERS Digest         Tuesday, 7 Dec 1982       Volume 6 : Issue 99

Today's Topics:
    Misc    - SF media, starting in SF
    Books   - Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, Vinge/Martin's TRUE NAMES
	      Miller's A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ
    Queries - decompression, Sharra
    T.V.    - Dr. Who, Star Trek
    Movies  - SW/TESB
    Music   - space rock
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From:	"WAJENBERG AT MERLIN c/o" 
Posted-date: 30-Nov-1982
Subject: SF in different media

Daniel Spear recently asked for discussion of SF in different media,
and the strengths and weaknesses of each medium.  So here is my two
cents' worth.

I think each medium has a characteristic range of lengths it can
accomodate, for any kind of literature, not just SF.  Broadcast media,
like TV, movies, and radio, must either limit themselves to one or two
hours or serialize.  A printed story, on the other hand, can range
over a much wider variety of lengths (though even they are suffering
from gigantism at the moment, I think).

A one- or two-hour movie reduces to a short story or novella, if you
convert the one to the other.  This is one reason conversions are so
often unsatisfactory.  If you convert a novel to a movie, you are
going to have to leave out some bits.  If you are clumsy about it, you
will leave out important bits; but even if you are clever about it,
you will leave out some bits that any admirer of the novel liked.
Hence he will find fault with the movie, or, at best, have to excuse
the movie.  The various attempts to make a movie out of Lord of the
Rings are good examples of this problem.

If you convert a movie into a novel, you will probably have to pad it
out.  This sometimes works fairly well, but then again sometimes it
doesn't.  The novelizations of Star Wars were middling at best, I
think, and padded. The novelization of The Wrath of Kahn was pretty
good, but only because the author was very good at inventing her
padding and integrating it with the movie script.

I think James Blish had the right idea when he converted several
hour-long Star Trek episodes into anthologies of short stories -- one
short story per episode.  I also think the BBC or Douglas Adams or
whoever had the right idea in turning Hitchhiker's Guide into a
serial.  However, not all novels take well to being serialized, or to
being radically trimmed.  These novels simply cannot be converted
sucessfully to broadcast media.

(Lord of the Rings might do well as a serial movie -- it was
moderately good as a radio serial -- but it would take forever to
produce.  Also, at present there would be a strong temptation to
introduce more flashy visual effects than the story really warrants.)

Some stories cannot be turned into visual media because they deal too
much with non-visual subjects.  To use Lord of the Rings again, it is
very, very hard to come up with human actors that will live up to most
reader's expectations of Elves, who are more or less DEFINED as being
super-humanly beautiful.  Many stories, in many genras, are very
mental and spend lots of time examining the consciousness of the main
characters.  This doesn't turn into film easily. (Echo-chamber voices
to represent thoughts might help, but they are not the fashion at
present.)

Contrariwise, printed media cannot convey the visual impacts of movies
and TV.  That's why the novelizations of SF and fantasy movies
frquently have a sheaf of pictures in the middle.  If a book is to
give you a visual or spatial impression, it must weave its spell
slowly, with descriptive passages and allusions in the dialogue.  This
slow effect is not inferior to the fast one of a movie, but it is
different and the one may not be consistently turned into the other.
(The same limitations apply to radio as well as to books.  Wind-noises
and bird-song and ocean waves are all well and good, but they aren't
the same as seeing the place.)

Finally, books are addressed to an audience of one, while radio,
movies, and TV are addressed to a mass.  A movie, especially, is
addressed to a large number of people sitting together in the dark, at
the same time and place.  TV and radio is addressed to a large number
of people in different places at the same time.  Usually, an author
wants his book to be read by a great number of people, of course, but
not always; many books are written for a limited audience.  And books
are not nearly as limited by constraints of space and time.

The result is that books can practice an elitism which the other media
cannot.  A book can deal with rarefied ideas or feelings at a length
which would leave a mass audience bored and restless, simply because
most of them are not interested in that topic.  This may be why
science fiction so seldom gets into the movies except as space opera.
Space opera has ready visual appeal and precious little intellectual
appeal, while a great deal of science fiction is (or tries to be) a
literature of ideas.  Consider one of James White's Sector General
stories.  It would make a moderately good movie in that you would have
a pair of human lovers (Conway and Murchison, though they are seldom
shown acting tenderly) and an interesting variety of non-humans.  But
the point of these stories is usually a piece of biological deduction
carried out by Conway.  In a movie, this would almost certainly by
shoved into a few odd minutes and be lost on most of the audience,
simply because they were distracted by the sight of Dr. Prilicla (an
insectile empath) or Dr. Thornastor (an elephantine pathologist).

------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 12:52:31-EST
From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX
Subject: Re re "True Names"

   1. "True Names" was not exactly obscure, as it \was/ nominated for
a Hugo in its category. The problem was that its category was
unusually strong this year (although I happen to think that "True
Names" was better than the winner, Anderson's "The Saturn Game", that
may reflect my dislike of tSG's subject).
   2. The rule you describe was indeed passed at Chicon; however,
since it depends on the vote of the WSFS business meeting (which
usually has more important things to deal with, unless it gets packed
as it did this year by fanzine twits) it's not likely to be invoked
very often.
   The rule was passed in response to a stupid squabble between
Denvention and Chicon over SUPERMAN II, which had been released on
other continents (away from most eligible nominators) in the
eligibility year before it appeared in this country. This is what
frequently happens with the WSFS bylaws; somebody sees (or thinks they
see) a problem and tries to do something about it, but by the time a
fix can be ratified and take effect (the rules have been interpreted 
that a concom cannot be constrained by amendments passed after the
concom was awarded the worldcon, which award is generally announced
before the final raitification of anything before the current meeting)
either people have come to their senses or the external problem has
disappeared.

------------------------------

From:	"PAUL WINALSKI AT METOO c/o" 
Posted-date: 01-Dec-1982
Subject: Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN

RE:  question about third book in the "Torturer" series

Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is a tetralogy, not a trilogy.  The
four books are:

	The Shadow of the Torturer
	The Claw of the Conciliator
	The Sword of the Lictor
	The Citadel of the Autarch

THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR is currently available in hard cover only.
The first two books are available both in hard cover and in paperback.
Book four is supposed to be out in January.

I won't risk a spoiler by discussing plot details of tSotL.  Suffice
it to say that the literary quality is up to the high standards set by
the first two volumes, and there are plenty of loose ends to be tied
up in book four.

--PSW

[THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR is available in a Timescape paperback. THE
 CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH is only in hardback at the moment, with a
 paperback to come in early 1983. --Stuart]

------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 0439-EST
From: TYG at MIT-OZ at MIT-MC
Subject: Miscellaneous

Several comments:

1) Trade pbs are definately for the birds, except for Starblazes.  Not
so much that they're padded and the like, but that they are actually 
of poorer quality than regular pbs.  Starblaze puts out a
well-designed, aesthetic package.  But even hbs are going downhill
fast.  I'm refusing to buy hbs of Foundation's Edge and 2010 due to
the poor physical quality of the books.  Edge is particularly bad,
with glued binding and non-trimmed pages, it looks like an SF Book
Club selection at 2-3X the price!

2) Anybody else have the probably futile wish that the other hope is
R2-D2?  The way things are going, someone (before this reaches the
net) will suggest that the conciousness of Luke's father was implanted
in R2-D2.  Also, i think Lucas has been quoted that 3P0 and R2 will be
the only characters present in all 9 of the movies (makes sense;
they're about the only two who can be played reasonably over 21 years
of real-time.

3) Totally off-the-wall suggestion; How 'bout SF-L for best fanzine 
Hugo?  Yeah, i know the existence is pseudo-confidential, but if 
someone put together a couple of issues of "The Best of SF-L" and 
stripped off the computer headers, then all N000 of us could join 
Constellation and vote it in.

4) Finally, juvenalia sf (although this topic may have been mined out
back in summer of '81).  Did anyone else read Wyndham's Rebirth at an
early age?  The protagonist goes from about 7 to i'd guess 16-18 and
is a telepathic mutant in a hunted society.  I don't think it was
deliberately a juvenile, although i may be mistaken, but it certainly
struck me when i was 9.

tom galloway

[Do you volunteer to find the "best of SF-L"? It should be a few months
before you've finished wading through the archives! --Stuart]

------------------------------

Date: 5 Dec 82 19:12:39-PST (Sun)
From: harpo!zeppo!whuxk!3722trn at Ucb-C70
Subject: Starting in SF and other ramblings

In addition to what you first read in the sf genre, think about when
and why you started.  In my case, in either 5th or 6th grade I asked
the librarian if there was anything else I could read besides kiddee
books.  She showed me the 'young adult' section which consisted of 100
version of "Debbie's First Love", and sf.  Luckily I reached the age
for full use of the adult section of the library before I ran out the
sf books.

A crucial early influence was probably all the comics I read before
that. 'Mystery in Space' and 'Metal Men' were around, and the usual
Superman stuff.  Back then, each issue had at least two half-page
fillers on science.

re: Fantastic Voyage, I believe that Asimov did the novelization of
the movie, which is an Irwin Allen bonanza.

re: book stores and such.  Willimantic, Ct, about 20 miles east of
Hartford, and 8 miles south of Storrs, CT. (home of Univ of Conn) has
a lot of sf, and a comix division upstairs.  They used to have a
branch in Storrs called the Little Brother, but I don't know if it's
still there.

Sorry, the name of the place is Zeissing Brothers Book Emporium.

In addition to the SF Book Shop in NY, there's also the Forbidden
Planet, across the street from the Strand Bookstore around 22nd
street.  Check that address before you go.

The Strand has some used sf, but find it for yourself (it takes some 
wandering).

When in London, there's a store in the West End off the main theatre
drag that sells comix and sf books, with a branch around the corner
that sells all kinds of related goodies.  I picked up a Tardis savings
bank there.

more food for thought: George Lucas == George Luke S.  ???

------------------------------

From:	"JOHN FRANCIS AT EIFFEL c/o" 
Posted-date: 01-Dec-1982
Subject: Dr. Who

Many thanks to the person who contributed the guide to the Dr. Who
series. I printed off a copy for my wife (an avid Dr. Who fan), and
she was very pleased with it.  But - can anyone explain why she tried
to beat me to death with it ?  All I did was to tell her it was a
"Who's Who"!

------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 0905-MST
From: Evelyn Mathey 
Subject: SHARRA

Sharra is a violent, melevolent flame-goddess-force created by MZB in
an early book which has been rewritten in two books published by SFBC
under the title "Heritage of Hastur(sp?)".  Sharra is keyed to a ninth
level matrix and is called from a different space-time dimension by a
matrix circle.  Since 'her' nature is violent 'she' awakens that side
of the humans in contact with 'her'.  If you don't understand this
talk of matrix's etc, I can only recomend that you read some of Marion
Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books.  "The Bloody Sun" was the first
written.  "Darkover Landfall" is indeed the first in the sense of
being set in the earliest time.  I don't have the book here where I
can check, but I believe that it was not written my MZB but by fans,
and that she picked the stories out of many submitted.  She has openly
invited people to "play in my world" i.e. write about Darkover.  The
"Heritage of Hastur" is an excellent book to start with as MZB has
stated the Lew has always been one of her favorite characters and is
most reprsentative of Darkover.  If you are really interested in the
seven domains, the gifts of each family, the order of the books etc,
the Condordance is a good buy.  It was put together by MZB's husband
and some fans who are close friends.  There are also several very
active fan groups.

If you are not into parapsychology you may not care for the Darkover 
series.  If, however, mental powers turn you on and you haven't read 
these, I highly recommend them.  Do look at the covers carfully before
buying.  There are several Darkover books which are short stories 
written by fans.  Some are fairly good and some aren't.  Most contain 
at least one story by MZB, but they are a long way from one of her 
books.  As far as I know MZB has been writing SF just about as long as
any other woman in the field.  She started when SF was very strongly 
male dominated.
-- Evelyn.

------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 1004-EST
From: DAVID.LEWIN  
Subject: Pronouncing "Leibowitz"


The reason Leibowitz is pronounced "Leebowits" and not "Lybowits" is
because it is pronounced in >>Yiddish<<, not German. For example, 
actor Ron Leibman ("Leebman"), or (allowing variant spelling) singer 
Bruce Springsteen.

------------------------------

From:	"ISHTAR::FELDMAN c/o" 
Date:	30-NOV-1982 09:51  
Subj:	explosive decompression.

First there was a difference between the events in 2001 and outlands.
In 2001 you will recall, the pod was pushed up close to airlock.  Thus
although, the airlock was open to space there really was a substantial
amount of pressure for the guy.  You will note he was in a real panic
to get the door closed.  I remember even reading something about this,
that clarke had looked into this and decided it was plausible.  As an
occasional scuba diver I know something about the bio physics.  Divers
must be very careful to expel air as they surface.  If not a bubble
will be forced into their blood, blocking flow to the brain.  In Salt
water the ratio is 31 feet of water to 1 atmosphere of pressure.
Surfacing from 31 feet is the same change as decompression in space.
If you were thrown thru an airlock by a burly guy in a dumb book
saying "resistance is useless" you would have milliseconds to live.
Exposed to a vacum as your lung capilarys would be, they would break
due to the boiling blood in them.  Perhaps the correct phrase would be
"Your lungs will be useless".  Further speculation leads me to believe
that the entire body would rupture everywhere as the fluid in your
body boiled What would be found a few minutes after decompression
would be not unlike an egyptian mummy, totally desicated, strips of
dried flesh hanging on a skeleton.  Finding a vacum chamber at your
friendly local highschool or college science lab, and observing a
beaker of water in it would help you understand.  I just realized this
is really gorey, but then I did not bring it up.
						---Geoff

------------------------------

From:	"ISHTAR::FELDMAN c/o" 
Date:	6-DEC-1982 00:58  
Subj:	more garbage on decompression

What is this fascination with explosive decompression?  Anyway lets
pop another bubble.  Your lungs cannot hold more than a few pounds of
pressure greater than ambient pressure.  If our hapless astronaut were
breathing ample pressure to survive in his space ship, the resulting
change in pressure would be more than his lungs could contain for even
a few seconds.  The bends would be the least of his problems.  However
the guys blood would fizz as all the disolved gas's in it came out of
solution.  This would be due to the sudden change in pressure.  Same
phenomenon as popping the lid off a soda bottle too fast.  I maintain
that the profound descicating effects of a near perfect vacum would be
the biggest problem for our person.  Barring that he would be done in
by an air embolisim, before the bends.  Lungs would undoubtedly
rupture from the pressure difference.  You could of course blow out
all the air, equalizing the pressure, that of course would not buy you
much time.

While we are on the subject... 60% of all SCUBA diving fatalities are
due to good ol boring drowning.  35% are air embolisim.  2% are the
bends, Loyd Bridges not withstanding.  Air embolisim is the primary
danger in Explosive decompression where the resulting pressure is
ample for survival.  Anyway, as I have stated, if you were dumped into
space you would be freeze dried.  Water stays in its liquid state as a
function of pressure as well as temprature.  It will, in space, turn
to gas.

						---Geoff
------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 20:52:28 EST (Monday)
From: Ben Littauer 
Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest Vol 6, #66

I listen to Doctor Demento on WCOZ in the Boston area, and I noticed
that certain passages of certain songs are "beeped" -- censorship in
action.  Since I know that some of you out there listen to the good
doctor, I thought I'd find out whether the censorship is at the source
(but would Dr. D do such a thing?)  or whether I have to yell at the
local station.  Probably best to respond directly to me (unless this
is really an sf topic).
                            -ben-
                            littauer@bbn-unix

------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 0008-EST
From: JHENDLER at BBNA
Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest   V6 #96

Folks-
  The quote "We the people..." does nopt come from the pledge of 
allegiance OR from the Constitution.  The quote comes from the 
Declaration of Independence!!
  -Jim

------------------------------

From:	"KERMIT::T_PARMENTER c/o" 
Date:	6-DEC-1982 13:56  
Subj:	The Tribble with Troubles

I'm not a trekkie, trekker, or trekkist, but I've watched a few ST's
and it's just not clear to me why there's all this SFL interest in
Trek continuity.  The way I make it out, there is *very little*
continuity in ST other than the characters.  For instance, Jim never
learns not to mess around with alien maidens.

Or consider the following: Klingons look a lot like humans.  It's hard
to spot a Klingon spy.  Tribbles can tell the difference between
Klingons and humans, but all the Tribbles were fired out the port and
into the heart of some sun.
 
Changing subject: The Purple People Eater was written and recorded by
Sheb Wooley, one of the leading lights of Hee-Haw.

[Correction: the tribbles were dumped onto the Klingon space-ship
"where they'll cause no tribble at all." --Stuart]

------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 0751-PST
From: CARROLL at USC-ISIF
Subject: ST "The Enemy Within" transporter problem


   The planet below had terrible weather, so the shuttlecraft, being a
better spaceship than airplane, could not be used.  The transporter 
was malfunctioning, making multiple and incorrect copies of beamed 
subjects, so the crewmen on the surface couldn't be delivered from the
elements, and no heaters, etc, could be sent down.  BUT, why didn't 
they send down a bunch of blankets, tents, and such?  Even if they re-
assembled tied in knots, they would still have the physical property
of trapping and storing heat, wouldn't they?

Steve

------------------------------

Date: Monday, 6 December 1982  00:09-EST
From: Vince Fuller 
Subject: coming to you again....

 Date: Saturday, 4 December 1982  20:30-EST
 From: KRIEGER 
 To:   SF-LOVERS at MIT-MC
 Re:   coming to you again....

    .
    .
    .

 Death Star: I believe it WAS mentioned in the movie; when the DS is
 preparing to destroy Yavin (and the rebel base), a technician
 announces "The Death Star has cleared the planet-- The Death Star has
 cleared the planet..."  Vader replies, "You may fire when ready."
 (added that for effect) "commence primary ignition..."

Most definitely correct about "The Death Star has..." (I saw SW last
night), but it was Tarkin, not Vader who stated "You may fire when
ready". I believe the term "Death Star" was also used earlier when
stating that "The Death Star will be in range in xx minutes".

--vaf

------------------------------

Date: Monday, 6 December 1982  00:14-EST
From: Vince Fuller 
Subject: TESB scenarios again

    Date: 3 Dec 82 11:31-EDT (Fri)
    From: the Golux 
    To:   SF-LOVERS at MIT-MC
    Re:   TESB scenarios again

    .
    .
    .

    Item:  I wasn't able to see much facial resemblance between
            the Emperor and Obi-wan, but the voices ARE somewhat
            similar. I like the idea, already expressed by someone
            in this list, of these two being clones. The OB-1 name
            is a nice touch.

I saw SW for the n+1th time last night and noticed Tarkin's statement
of Kenobi's name - when talking to Vader aboard the DS ("You, my
friend, are all that is left of their religion"), the pronunciation
was most definitely "Obi '1' Kenobi is here? Surely he must be dead by
now".

--vaf

------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 (Monday) 1849-EDT
From: SPEAR at Wharton-10 (Daniel Spear)
Subject: Luke and his struggle against the Dark Side

        If Luke's father was trained by Yoda, then he no doubt
experienced some of the same lessons as Luke did.  What if he went
into the underground cavern, met his hooded dark alter ego?  Who would
emerge if he lost that battle: Darth Vader.

                                        Dan

------------------------------

Date: 6 Dec 1982 1826-CST
Subject: SW:TESB -- cave on Dagobah
From: CS.TEMIN at UTEXAS-20

The message suggesting that the emperor is Vader's creation leads me 
to consider the scene where Luke fights a Vader-image in the cave on
Dagobah.  Suppose that Vader went into that cave during his training, 
and met a similar image, representing his dark side, let's say.  But 
instead of killing it, the image took him over.  So the image is what
we call Vader, and the jedi-trained (weak-willed) Vader is the 
Emperor!

-aaron temin

------------------------------

From:	"HARDY::GLASSER c/o" 
Date:	30-NOV-1982 23:48  
Subj:	Space Music Record List

I have been following the "Space Rock" and associated music
commentaries in SFL for the last few weeks, I've looked through my
records and have produced a list of the ones that I recognised as
such, plus a few that I remember but don't have in my collection.
This list includes only record titles and groups, not individual songs
that I remember.

Stomu Yamashtu's Go Live from Paris (Island Records ISLD10)
Tomita             Holst-The Planets  (RCA Records ARL1-1919)
Tangerine Dream    Stratosfear (Virgin International  VI2068)
Mike Oldfield      Airborn (Virgin Records  VA13143)
Walter Carlos      By Request (Columbia M32088)
Jeff Wayne         The War of the Worlds (Columbia  PC235290)
Moody Blues        To Our Childrens Childrens Children
		   (Threshold/London THS1)
Moody Blues        On the Threshold of a Dream (Deram DES18025)
Soft Machine       Soft Machine (Probe CPLP4500)
King Crimson       In the court of the Crimson King (Atlantic SD19155)
Hawkwind           Hawkwind (United Artists UAS5519)
Hawkwind           Warrior On The Edge Of Time (Atco SD36115)
Hawkwind           In Search Of Space (United Artists UAS5567)
Hawkwind           Levetation (Bronz Records BRON530) (Import-England)
Various            Wowie Zowie (Decca SPA34   (Import-England))
Cluster            Curiosum (Sky SKY063  (Import-Germany))
Pink Floyd         Meddle  (Harvest SMAS832)
Pink Floyd         Relics  (Harvest SW759)
Pink Floyd         Wish You Were Here (Columbia PC33453)
Pink Floyd         A Nice Pair (Harvest SABB11257)
Kenny Young        Last Stage for Silver World (Warner Bros. BS2676)
Laurie Anderson    Big Science  (Warner Bros. BSK3674)
The Doors          The Soft Parade (Elektra EKS75005)
David Bowie        Starting Point (London LC50007)
Magma              Attahk (Tomato TOM7021)
Flash and the Pan  Lights in the Night (Epic JE36432)
Deep Purple        Book of the Taliesyn (Tetragrammaton T107)
Landscape          Manhattan Boogie-woogie (RCA NFL1-8028)
Landscape          From The Tea Rooms of Mars to the Hell Holes of
		   Uranus
Gong               Flying Teapot (Charly CR30202 (Import-England))
Gong               Angels Egg (Virgin V2007 (Import-England))
Planet Gong        Flying Anarchy (Oxford OX/3197 (Import-Italy))
Bo Hansson         Lord of the Rings (PVC PVC7907)
Aphrodite's Child  666 (Vertigo VEL2500)
Rolling Stones     Her Satanic Majesties Request
Flaming Youth      ARK II
Pink Floyd         Dark Side of the Moon
Vangellis          Friends of Mr. Cairo
Vangellis          Albedo 0.39
Ron Geesin         Right Through (Geesin records - RON323)
		   (Import-England)
Ron Geesin and Roger Waters   Music from the Body (EMI/Harvest
		   SHSP4008)
Finch              Glory of the Inner Force (Atco SD36124 [0698])
Pulsar             The Strands of the Future (Kingdom  KA20.226)
		   (France)
Cosmos Factory     A Journey With The Cosmos Factory  (EMI ETP72083)
		   (Japan)
Bonzo Dog Band     I'm The Urban Spaceman  (Sunset SLS50350) (England)
Bonzo Dog Band     The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (Sunset 
		   SLS50210)
Tim Blake          Crystal Machine
Michael Mantler    The Happless Child and Other Inscrutable Tales
Fred Frith         Gravity
Richard Peisley    Passage


The last SFL that I read before submitting this was V6 #83.  At that
point I had noticed that nobody had mentioned several notable
contributions.  Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds" is an adaptation of
the story by the same name by H. G. Wells. "Last Stage for
Silverworld" is a little known love story placed in the future and
told in music.

		Daniel Glasser  


------------------------------

From:	"JOHN FRANCIS AT EIFFEL c/o" 
Posted-date: 01-Dec-1982
Subject: SF music

I realise this is a bit late, but we've been having distribution problems
since our previous distributor left, and I've only just got the last month
or so of SFL. Anyway, here's my contribution to the SF-related music list.

The Pink Floyd foursome are:-

   o  Astronomy Domine
   o  Interstellar Overdrive

   o  Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
   o  Saucerful of Secrets

The first two are from "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (1967).  The second
two are from "Saucerful of Secrets" (1968).  These  2 albums were later
re-released as a double album entitled "A Nice Pair". Live versions (as
opposed to studio versions)  of all except "Interstellar Overdrive" can
be found on the first album of the double album "UmmaGumma" (1969).

Then, of course, there is always "Dark Side of the Moon"....

Other space-oriented rock music in my collection :-

  o  "Space Oddity" (David Bowie)

  o  "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars".
     This is the full title of the David Bowie album normally referred
     to as "Ziggy Stardust".  Notable tracks: "Starman", "Lady Stardust"

  o  "Hunkydory" (also David Bowie) contains a track entitled "Life on Mars"

  o  "War of the Worlds". Put together by Rick Wakeman, but contains lots
     of other people. The most notable, however, is Richard Burton as the
     narrator.  If you've never heard this double album, you are missing
     a treat!

Not in my collection, but brought back to mind by the recent discussions
about Michael Moorcock - "Silver Machine", by Hawkwind.

In my collection, but not rock music - "Space Girl", by Peggy Seeger.
This is an excellent song (originally written for the Opera album "You're
Only Young Once"), and is a 'Traditional Folk Song of the 25th Century'.

And finally - "Urban Spaceman" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. (Honestly,
I'm not making this up!).  This was released as a single in England, and
got into the top ten.  Best chance to hear it, I suppose, would be to ask
Dr. Demento.  He seems the most likely DJ to know about the Bonzos.

(If anyone can top this for obscurity, I don't want to know.  And anyway,
I actually HAVE a copy of this, rather than just having heard of it!).


P.S.
FLAME
I'd rather wade through a discussion of a topic in SFL that didn't
interest me very much (even at 300 baud), and see original contributions,
than get yet another re-print of an opinionated movie review that I could
get for myself from another source if I was really interested.
EMALF

[I try to put such things at the end of the digest, although book
reviews from the press will go earlier than movie reviews. --Stuart]

End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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