With Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded, music critic and Hugo Award winner Jason Heller has done something remarkable: He has written a book that, near as I can tell, no one thought to write before even though it mines a remarkably rich vein of cultural analysis. Rock ’n’ roll and science fiction might have the two most obsessive fandoms out there, and both ascended to their places in the cultural firmament at roughly the same time in the mid-20th century. While the overlap is in some respects obvious—the titular David Bowie’s first hit was the Kubrick-inspired “Space Oddity” and his later Ziggy Stardust character makes the science fiction influence blindingly obvious—the confluence of s.f. and pop music did more to shape each than even the geekiest among us realize.
Take the 1967 Bowie track “We Are Hungry Men,” recorded two years before he would land on the charts with “Space Oddity.” It’s a weirdly jaunty first-person song about a future dystopia brought on by overpopulation. It contains this shocking verse: “I’ve prepared a document / Legalizing mass abortion / We will turn a blind eye to infanticide.” Although I’m a Bowie obsessive, I had no idea that the song was likely inspired by the Harry Harrison novel Make Room, Make Room, which was serialized in one of the young Bowie’s favorite science fiction magazines. The name of the novel probably doesn’t ring a bell, but the movie it later inspired is no doubt familiar: Soylent Green, starring Charlton Heston.
Or what about the fact the BBC decided its coverage of the moon landing would be greatly enhanced if they brought in an up-and-coming rock band to improvise music behind the live footage of Neil Armstrong walking around? It was an inspired decision for a band known for writing instrumentals such as “Interstellar Overdrive,” and it would not be the last time Pink Floyd’s sound was thought of as “spacey.” Then there’s the lanky guitarist who as a kid loved Flash Gordon serials and got his big breakthrough after he moved to London and a friend loaned him Philip José Farmer’s 1957 novel Night of Light, which describes sunspots visible from a distant planet as having a “purplish haze.”
The cross-influence wasn’t always artistically positive. Heller notes that the breakup of the Byrds was due at least partly to creative differences over the song “Triad.” It seems David Crosby, a science fiction fanatic, drew inspiration from Robert Heinlein’s decidedly untraditional views on monogamy.
All of the above anecdotes happened before 1970 and all are mentioned in the book’s first 30 pages. This brings us to the book’s only real shortcoming: It’s too slight. The acknowledgments begin on page 217, and the book focuses mostly on the ’70s. Sure, there’s fascinating material. Heller’s recounting of an acid-soaked fishing trip George Clinton and bandmate Bootsy Collins took in the Bermuda triangle is particularly great:
Gripped by a mix of dread and psychedelic elation, Clinton suddenly realized what was happening. This wasn’t a storm. It was a visitation. A UFO. It became clear to him that aliens were attempting to abduct them. Collins, who had arrived at the same conclusion, started screaming about “the Space Limousine” that had come to take them to “the Mothership.”
Thus was born the Parliament Funkadelic’s “mothership” mythology.
Also amusing is the tale about drummer Neil Peart on the tour bus pounding out the science fiction stories behind the band Rush’s concept album 2112 on a typewriter he bought at a pawn shop in Arkansas.
But there’s so much more to be written! A passing mention of how s.f. titan Samuel R. Delany wrote a book in the ’60s uncannily predicting the rave culture and industrial music that would arise decades later made me wish Heller paid more attention to how music shaped science fiction authors rather than vice versa. And Heller has precious little to say about science fiction’s kissing cousin, the fantasy genre, which also had a huge influence on rock in the ’70s. Tolkien is a blip. Nothing of substance is said about Led Zeppelin. A brief discussion of 1979’s Futurama Festival, which was billed as “The World’s First Science Fiction Music Festival” and included a lineup of hugely influential post-punk, new wave, and goth bands—Joy Division, Soft Cell, Cabaret Voltaire—made me yearn for more beyond the ’70s.
Still, it must be said that Strange Stars is a great start. It is hard to fault Heller for sins of omission when what is contained here is so engaging. For readers with any significant interest in either rock or science fiction—and especially for readers interested in both—Strange Stars will connect pop culture dots in ways that delight.
