Music From Planet Earth

Music From Planet Earth Volume 1: Martians, Ray Guns, Flying Saucers & Other Space Junk

What’s that in the sky? Back in the late 1950s and into the early ‘60s everyone seemed to become obsessed with the possibility that science fiction might become science fact. Movie houses and drive-ins across America were fascinated by the idea of a Martian invasion, with a suitably theremin-powered eerie soundtrack, not to mention the prospect of the rise of unruly robots. Never one to miss jumping on a trend, the prolific Jimmy Haskell – who would later go on to provide music for Doris Day, Andy Williams and a host of others – produced a whole album of space-based tomfoolery called ‘Countdown’ for the Imperial label. Similarly, in the UK Joe Meek produced the concept album ‘I Hear A New World’ to quench his intrigue in the stars having already peaked the public’s imagination with his ‘Telstar’ hit with The Torandos. Meanwhile, in Belgium, in the process of developing new possibilities for sound recording Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan produced the electronic pulse at the heart of ‘Song To The Second Moon’.

So the story went in many of the alien invasion films, it was always going to be some remote back woods territory where the people from another planet would choose to land, so it was hardly surprising that aspiring rockabilly performers and early rock ‘n’ rollers in the southern states picked up on the phenomena while craning their necks upwards. Billy Lee Riley And The Little Green Men, The Wildetones, Buck Trail and Joe Tate all took the idea to new levels of incredulity, while Lynn Vernon’s instrumental chops for the Tennessee-based Cover label just needed a suitable title to put it in the frame. But if those southern performers were looking to the skies for inspiration, legend has it that Sun Ra And His Arkestra were looking down on them from their own planet. Far fetched? I don’t think so