Astronaut Stan Love is out of this world. He’s got it covered from space walks, to robot arm operations, to making sure the heat shield is just right for re-entry. In this segment of Why Music Matters, Dr. Love shares a story about music and space travel. Far out!
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Dr. Love is such a fan of music that he created this own Playlist for Space Travel:
| Song | Artist | Album |
| Bike Ride To The Moon | The Dukes Of Stratosphear | Chips From The Chocolate Fireball |
| The Moon Looks Nice From Here | Popinjays | Flying Down To Mono Valley |
| Subterranean Homesick Alien | Radiohead | OK Computer |
| Space Oddity | David Bowie | Best of Bowie |
| Under The Milky Way | The Church | Starfish |
| Stars | Hum | You’d Prefer an Astronaut |
| Cosmic Thing | The B-52′s | Cosmic Thing |
| Stargazer | Siouxsie & The Banshees | The Rapture |
| Destination Moon | They Might Be Giants | John Henry |
| NASA Clapping | Robyn Hitchcock | Jewels For Sophia |
| Jetson’s Theme | Man Or Astro-man? | Intravenous Television Continuum |
| Apollo 9 | Adam Ant | The Essential Adam Ant |
| Riding on the Rocket | Shonen Knife | Riding on the Rocket (Promo) |
| Rocket From A Bottle | XTC | Black Sea |
| Speed is the Key | Sugarcubes | Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! |
| High Roller | The Crystal Method | Vegas |
| Learning to Fly | Pink Floyd | A Momentary Lapse of Reason |
| Earth, Sun, Moon | Love & Rockets | Earth Sun Moon |
| Zero Gravity | The Transmissionary Six | KEXP Song of the Day |
| Hello Earth | Kate Bush | Hounds Of Love |
| My Eyes | Laurie Anderson | Strange Angels |
| Man On The Moon | R.E.M. | Automatic For The People |
| Walking On the Moon | The Police | Regatta de Blanc |
| Earth And Sun And Moon | Midnight Oil | Earth And Sun And Moon |
| Man On The Moon | Sugar | Copper Blue |
| Humans From Earth | T-Bone Burnett | Until The End Of The World Soundtrack |
| Rocket Man | Elton John | Elton John: Greatest Hits |
For more on some of Stan’s favorites, check out our KEXP documentary on David Bowie and Brian Eno.
You can also read more about Dr. Stan Love on his official NASA biography. Sigh, he’s so dreamy!
Music used in this piece: “Space Oddity” by David Bowie, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” by Steely Dan, “Hello Earth” by Kate Bush, “Riding on a Rocket” by Shonen Knife.
If you like this, check out more stories coming soon in the Why Music Matters story series.
Produced by Anna Boiko-Weyrauch, 2010 AIR Live Interactive Resident. Editorial oversight by Kevin Cole. Engineering help from Matt Ogaz. Live Interactive is a collaboration of KEXP and AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio with financial support from AIR members worldwide, Recovery.gov, and the National Endowment for the Arts which believe a great nation deserves great art.
8 Comments
That was such a fun piece! Great work, Anna, and keep em’ coming.
Video - Ed Lu plays “Moonlight Sonata” on the International Space Station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMWfbhtFFE0
Story - everyone who’s ever played music in outerspace
http://www.prx.org/pieces/21399-music-in-space
I still get googly when I remember Dr. Love’s awesome visit to the station - he made us all feel like we went on the shuttle with him, and it was super cool!
not gonna lie, I’ve heard about this astronaut and how he is a kexp fan before.
you all play him up in your pledge drives (which you should, not many stations can say their CDs go to space!).
But I also wonder if your new production series should cover stuff we haven’t heard in the kexp world. Push us forward in “why music matters”. Go to rehearsals in peoples’ basements, get those verite moments on a walk in a park or something. laying some old dude’s story over david bowie can be done by a lot of people. I’m a little disappointed.
Hi Loyal KEXP,
This is just the first story. There are plenty of verite moments coming up which feature music in an operating room, in sacred scriptures of Yoruba religion, late at night under the covers of a tortured teenager, and even in Iran.
I hope you’ll keep listening this and next month.
Thanks,
Anna
I love space travel, I love mix tapes and I love this story!
What?!? No Phenomenauts?!?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phenomenauts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX65kmSAjk0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eaOOqd29aw
Excellent playlist! So many of my personal favorites are there. Now whenever I hear them, I will imagine myself listening while in space. That’s some good “old guy” music.