As synthesisers, vocoders and snazzy music videos became an everyday part of the musical lexicon, the boundaries between pop and science became more blurred than ever in the 1980s. And so its no surprise that with all these innovations in the studio that, more than ever, scientists would find themselves the subject of some musical concoctions. Here are five of the best:
#5 – The Scientist Writes a Letter, Tom Verlaine
Painting the scientist as a “misunderstood genius” made it very easy to fit them in the “tortured rockstar” idiom. A man suffering for his talents provides a fantastic emotional hook and Tom Verlaine, former lead singer of Television, capitalised on this perfectly.
Taking an epistolary form, the song details the singer’s fractured relationship with a girl called Julia. The usual demands of a relationship prove challenging as “electricity means so much more to me. We men of science… you know… ” And despite his lack of interest “it’s funny how attractive indifference can be.”
#4 – Einstein A Go-Go, Landscape
While Big Audio Dynamite’s ‘E=MC2′ (1985) is the standout Einstein-referencing song of the decade, its real subject is, rather obtusely, directory Nicholas Roeg. With so many uotes, allusions and metaphors relating to ‘Performance’, Walkabout’ and ‘Insignificance’, this slot had to go to the one-hit-wonders Landscape.
In what is essentially the left-brained equivalent of Falco’s ‘Rock Me Amadeus’, the name of one of the most famous people in history is dragged through the musical mud by a teutonic pop-group for the sake of cheap name recognition. Einstein famously lamented that if he’d predicted his work would lead to the atom bomb he would have become a watchmaker, it’s possible that the lyrics “better beware” with “e equals m c squared” were more of an offense.
#3 – Tesla Girls, OMD
“No no noTesla girls tesla girlsTesting out theoriesElectric chairs and dynamos”
Nikola Tesla may have had a lot of his fame taken by Thomas Edison, but Edison never got such a catchy song!
#2 – She Blinded Me With Science, Thomas Dolby
For the closely fought title of “most famous science-y song of the 80s”, it was a tough choice between this and Oingo Boingo’s ‘Weird Science’. As the latter referred to “voodoo dolls and chants” (and could appear on an 80s movies list in the future), we sided with the Dolby.
Another point in Dolby’s favour is that the man himself was a bit of a mad scientist. He got his nickname as a result of all his tinkering around with Dolby Laboratories equipment and hired genuine science-expert Magnus Pyke to feature in the song’s video. And that tops Anthony Michael Hall and Kelly LeBroc anyday.
#1 – Cloudbusting, Kate Bush
While her ‘Experiment IV’ (1986) spoke of “working secretly for the military” on an “experiment in sound…that can kill someone”, Kate Bush’s scientific masterpiece is undoubtedly Track 5 from the magnum opus ‘Hounds Of Love’.
The titular ‘cloudbuster’ refers to Wilhelm Reich’s scientifically dubious machine designed to remove negative “orgone energy” from clouds to make it rain. Collaborating with Terry Gilliam (coming fresh from the creative high of his ‘Brazil’ period), the video features Donald Sutherland as Reich and Kate Bush herself as his young son (!).
Lacking much of the electronic twiddly-fiddly sound-effects that date most of the other entries on the list, ‘Cloudbusting’ works by telling the chilling true story of a scientist attempting to avoid persecution. With the genuine emotional core of the young boy who can “hide [his] yo-yo in the garden” can’t hide his Daddy “from the government of the day”. And despite losing his father, his invention lives on: “everytime it rains, he’s here in my head, like the sun coming up.”
