Songs and Sci-Fi: Music inspired by Ray Bradbury
Ah, summer in sunny southern California. The sun is boiling the streets, the leaves are turning black, and all over the state smells like smoke. A perfect time for songs and sci-fi.
Ray Bradbury is one of literature’s most loved kings, not only of authoring such classics at The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451 and a superb and lengthy collection of short stories, but also actively supporting arts advocacy. Bradbury championed the imagination and encouraged all young readers to do the same. Some of those avid readers turned their love of Bradbury’s work into the world of music.
His novel Fahrenheit 451 has inspired Norine Braun’s “Conformity 451” from their album Evolution of the Blood Star, Utopia’s “Fahrenheit 451” from their Swing To The Right album, and the album Dark Hallucinations by the band Steel Prophet. Something Wicked This Way Comes was the inspiration point for James Barlcay Harvest’s “Medicine Man”, The Dandy Warhols “The Autumn Carnival” off The Machine album, and Vernian Process’s song “Something Wicked That Way Went .”
The band British Sea Power named their album and a song after a collection of collection of Bradbury short stories, The Machineries of Joy. DJ and music producer Deadmau5 has a key track titled “The Veldt”, inspired by one of the more famous Bradbury short stories of the same name. Frankie Rose said that many of the old Ray Bradbury stories inspired songs off his album Interstellar. The band Rush drew inspiration from the Bradbury’s short story collection I Sing the Body Electric, itself inspired by a poem from Walt Whitman. Their album Grace Under Pressure features a song full of androids, humanoids and sci-fi terms. Its title is “Body Electric.”
Maybe the most famous song inspired by a work from Ray Bradbury is drawn from his short story “The Rocketman.” You don’t need to have had read it to know that Elton John’s hit song “Rocketman” from his album Honky Château. The song has echoes of the story’s plot, in which an astronaut leaves his wife and son on Earth as he sets out to travel through outer space. “The Rocketman”, “The Veldt” and many other fantastic Bradbury short stories can be found in The Stories of Ray Bradbury collection.
Through his long career, Ray Bradbury wrote stories about alien life, machines gone mad, machines made to feel, strange circumstances and the human spirit. His work continues to have potency and challenges readers to broaden their horizons and sharpen their imaginations.