The forthcoming publication of Rock On: the Greatest Hits of Science Fiction and Fantasy has me contemplating some of the great rock ‘n roll genre songs. There certainly is a ton of them.
Science fiction? How about David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” Genesis’s “The Return of the Giant Hogweed,” or Mastadon’s album-length epic Crack the Skye? (Great stuff!)
Fantasy? Let’s see . . . there’s King Crimson’s “In the Court of the Crimson King,” The Moody Blues “House of Four Doors,” and of course Uriah Heep’s Demons & Wizards. You can’t go wrong with any of those.
Horror? Yeah, there’s plenty, everything from Dickey Lee’s sappy ghost story “Strange Things Happen” (OK . . . it’s not really horror, but I recall it giving me a chill when I heard it as a kid) to anything by your favorite death metal band. And we might as well toss in a lot of the songs of Bruce Springsteen, whose work inspired the horror anthology Darkness on the Edge a few years back.
I’m not trying to be definitive here, just free associating – rattling off a few titles that come instantly to mind. The point is, if you’re a fan of genre fiction, you’ve probably got a personal rock ‘n roll playlist of greatest hits. And you almost certainly have a favorite.
At the moment, my favorite is “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,” by Warren Zevon and David Lindell. It’s a complete horror story in a three minute song, delivered with equal doses of irony, political commentary, and literary awareness that leads all the way back to the medieval epic Rolandskvadet (The Lay of Roland).
I’ll be playing that song this coming Saturday (September 8), when I return to Riley’s Pour House for a night of American and Irish music . . . and later this month when I perform my “Songs of the Horror Writer” show at Horror Realm.
Hope to see you there.
In the meantime, consider using the comment box below (or Facebook or email) to tell me your favorite genre song(s). I’m always looking for new material.
Rock on!
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