Dancing in the moonlight
From ‘King of Pop’ to Pink Floyd, space played central role in music
Michael Jackson turned the moonwalk into a worldwide phenomenon. The name of the iconic dance described the move. Jackson looked as if he were defying the laws of gravity and physics, being pulled backward by trying to walk forward.
The “King of Pop” had everyone from grandmothers to toddlers trying to replicate his footwork. But variations on the moonwalk were around much earlier. Cab Calloway did “The Buzz” in the 1930s. Judy Garland showcased something similar in
“Meet Me in St. Louis.” James Brown had been doing it for years before Jackson.
Each incarnation reflected a fascination with things beyond this Earth — movement as flight, as wonder, as exploration.
David Bowie introduced Major Tom, his fictitious astronaut, on 1969’s “Space Oddity.” The Apollo 11 mission launched five days after the song’s release. The song itself was inspired by “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Major Tom would reappear throughout Bowie’s career.
DJ Sun, a Houston musician whose own works evoke a cosmic sort of experience, found that connection in a 1974 piece by Jorge Ben Jor called “Errare Humanum Est” (“To Err is Human”).
“He addresses our curiosity with space travel and how it reconciled with him being a devout Catholic from Brazil,” Sun said. “It was such a beautiful listen that I enlisted Tim Ruiz of La Mafia to help me assemble a band to perform a 15-minute tribute to the song at a SXSW 2012 showcase.”
Those otherworldly influences were bolstered when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon 50 years ago. The astronauts themselves understood the intertwined connection between music and their mission.
Armstrong played “Music Out of the Moon: Music Unusual Featuring the Theremin” by composer Harry Revel and bandleader Les Baxter during the flight. It was a decidedly quirky choice. Armstrong is heard calling the 1947 recording “an old favorite of mine” on the Apollo Flight Journal. The music is also featured in the 2018 film “First Man.”
Aldrin’s tastes were much more mainstream. His flight soundtrack included “Galveston” by Glen Campbell, “People” by Barbra Streisand, “Three O’Clock in the Morning” by Lou Rawls and “Angel of the Morning” by Bettye Swann.
Frank Sinatra’s version of “Fly Me to the Moon” was the first music heard on the moon as Aldrin stepped onto the surface. It was previously played during the Apollo 10 mission.
The impact of that momentous event rippled through music and pop culture. The moon became a muse for performers in every genre. Pink Floyd’s
“The Dark Side of the Moon” became a rock benchmark. REM paid tribute to Andy Kaufman with “Man on the Moon.” Latin artists La Mafia (“Pideme la luna”) and Ana Gabriel (“Luna”) worked references into their own songs. There was a musical called “Moon Landing” about the Apollo 11 mission that played in 2007 in England.
Those waves are being felt today. Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj teamed up for 2018’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” a song about literal star-crossed lovers surviving an apocalypse. (“She’s not at all impressed with the flames or the flickers/But take her for a walk on the moon as she wears slippers.”)
But the biggest boon to space travel yet might be “NASA,” a 2019 track from Ariana Grande that equates love with, well — “It’s like I’m the universe and you
be N-A-S-A.” The song features a spoken intro by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Shangela, who puts a feminine spin on Armstrong’s legendary words: “That’s one small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind.”
Grande has always had an affinity for space. Her 2016 song “Moonlight” is a fan favorite. She exchanged tweets with the official NASA Twitter this year, who quoted her song. And she visited NASA in May ahead of a Houston concert, calling it “the coolest day of my life.” The singer FaceTimed with astronauts in space and experienced some NASA vehicles.
Fly her to the moon, indeed.