PZ Myers. 2005 Jan 26. Music to evolve by. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/music_to_evolve_by/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 01.
Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Music to evolve by
Mithras the Prophet is looking for songs about evolution. It seems a worthy goal—we're going to need party music for our Darwin's Day celebrations, right?
He has a couple of suggestions:
Gentle Arms of Eden, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
I Come From Water, The Toadies
I mentioned these:
Do the Evolution, Pearl JamEvolution, Motorhead
Bad Touch, Bloodhound Gang
Fuck the Creationists, MC Hawking
What We Need More Of Is Science, MC Hawking
The U of E has the lyrics for It's a long way to Amphioxus, but I have no idea where to find a recording of it.
Any other suggestions out there?
Posted by PZ Myers on 01/26 at 09:00 PM
Creationism • Weirdness • 0 Trackbacks • Other weblogs • Permalink
Creationism • Weirdness • 0 Trackbacks • Other weblogs • Permalink
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There's a rendition of "It's a long way from Amphioxus" on Sam Hinton's 1961 album, The Song of Men -- All Sorts and Kinds. The album features mostly conventional folksong professions such as farmers, lawbreakers and railroaders, but also "clam-diggers", "systematic zoologists" (the song in question) and "aquarium keepers". Hinton himself was a biologist and aquarium curator as well as a folksinger. Anyway, you can request a custom CD of this out-of-print album from Smithsonian Folkways.
#: Posted by on 01/26 at 09:59 PM
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Subhumans - "Us Fish Must Swim Together". Lyrics can be found here: http://www.lyricsdir.com/s/subhumans/us-fish-must-swim-together.php
#: Posted by on 01/26 at 10:04 PM
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For all your 1950's educational song needs.
Especially Eohippus and Song of the Fossils. -
It's not about evolution but you could probably fit Zappa's "Dumb All Over" into the setlist.
Speaking of which, I chuckled mordantly to myself when I noticed that one of the songs on his Civilization Phase III is entitled "Secular Humanism."
Damn I miss Frank.#: Posted by on 01/26 at 10:14 PM -
ummmm.. i am TOTALLY a scientist rapper and i would be happy to contribute if there's interest. sometimes i sacrifice a little accuracy for style.
sample lyric:
creation's just a sacred cow, i evolved through natural selection / and just to let yall know this is my section / impotent rappers listen to my shit and get erections / got you replicatin my thoughts like viral genomes in infections
other sample lyric:
listen to the new science sound that i be fathering / a hox gene positioning your body what we modelling / knowledging cats flawlessly is my policy / i radiate strong better check the oncology
sorry.. i know its self promotion, but is it shameless?#: Posted by on 01/26 at 10:40 PM -
How about the very catchy "Mammal", from the album "Apollo 18" by They Might Be Giants? Lyrics are here:
http://www.tmbg.org/band-info/songs/lyrics/Mammal.html
and it wouldn't surprise me if those guys have something in the back catalogue which evades my memory right now. -
"Monkey to Man" by Elvis Costello. Not 100% accurate, but a pretty good tune.
#: Posted by on 01/26 at 11:00 PM
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Frank's "Heavenly Bank Account," is appropriate, but more in an anti-religion than a pro-science way (not that there's anything wrong with that, nor with acquiring the entire FZ catalogue, for that matter).
How about Monty Python's Galaxy Song, from The Meaning of Life?
Whenever life get you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough.
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite enu-hu-hu-huuuuff!
Just - re-member that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
and revolving at 900 miles an hour,
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
the sun that is the source of all our power.
The Sun and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
of the Galaxy we call the Milky Way. -
Vasha said: Hinton himself was a biologist and aquarium curator as well as a folksinger.
You can download a copy of Hinton singing It's a Long Way from Amphioxus from The San Diego Historical Society.
http://sandiegohistory.org/audio/hinton/hinton.htm
http://sandiegohistory.org/audio/hinton/amphioxus.ram#: Posted by on 01/26 at 11:20 PM -
What? I can't believe that no one has mentioned Gloria Gaynor's "I will survive."
Not very scientific, but it could be a solid theme song and/or title of our little Evolve-umentary.
#: Posted by on 01/26 at 11:43 PM -
Well, there's always the "Evolution Revolution" by Lancelot Link and the Evolution Revolution. Devo's "Jocko Homo" might work too if you don't mind that they allowed for a divine creator ("God made man / But he used the monkey to do it")
#: Posted by on 01/26 at 11:47 PM
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Oh, and I have to mention Phish's "Lifeboy" - which has a few profound words to say. Again, it is more anti-religion than anything. I think that it (possibly) assumes that God may exist, but points out that He (and religion) sucks a big one.
For our short attention-spanned readers, please refer to the emboldened lyrics for a taste.
Swinging on the lifeline, frayed bits of twine
Entangled in the remnants of the
Knot I left behind.
And asking You to help me make it
Finally unwind.
And when the line is breaking,
When I'm near the end.
When all the time [not] spent leading,
I've been following instead.
When all my thoughts and memories are
Left hanging by a thread.
But God never listens to what I say.
God never listens to what I say.
And you don't get a refund,
If you overpray.#: Posted by on 01/27 at 12:01 AM -
Uh, in an unrelated note.
I am a little board (and a little insomniac), so I decided to read some slightly bitchin' HedWeb stuff.
Anyway, I found an incredible quote, and maybe the "Evolution Rapper" can put it to music for PZ's merry festival.
The essay was discussing Homo sapiens' ability to comprehend (fathom) the answers for what should be - IMO - one of the principal ponderings in scientific philosophy - Why does anything "exist" (as opposed to nothing)?
...It's like trying to understand life without any understanding at all of the principles of Darwinian [sic] evolution. Such a feat simply isn't possible.
Well said, if that sort of thing floats one's boat.
#: Posted by on 01/27 at 12:58 AM -
not as strictly related, but check David Bowie's "oh you pretty things"-
"Homo sapiens have outgrown their use
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay...
...You gotta make way for the homo superior"
also Stereolab's "Margerine Melodie"
"Our brain makes us act
behave and react
A pulsion that drives us to stay alive
Need to satisfy our fundamental needs
The nervous system enables that drive
Through consumerism, escape and struggle
As well as inhibition
All these mechanisms that preserve balance
Biological well being"
oooooh and i almost forgot Air "Biological"
"XX XY
That's why it's you and me
Your blood is red
It's beautiful genetic love
Biological
I don't know why I feel that way with you
Biological
I need your DNA"#: Posted by on 01/27 at 01:11 AM -
mccm -
Ha!
Those last two are brilliant!
But, yeah - maybe not enough evolutionosity.
;)#: Posted by on 01/27 at 01:22 AM -
I'll pipe in with a note for any lovers of Progressive Metal. I doubt you want to party to it, but a concept album dedicated to the works of Richard Dawkins featuring James LaBrie, you have to love it.
Frameshift; "Unweaving the Rainbow"
Brilliant stuff.#: Posted by Lars J. Nilsson on 01/27 at 03:41 AM -
As an aside, for those who like a bit of embryonic embellishment, Peter Gabriel's "UP" album has a song called "Growing Up".
and though it's not exactly evolutionary, the more atheistically inclined may like Regurgitator's "Just Another Beautiful Story". 'All that I am and all I'll ever be/Is a brain in a body/And all that I know and all I'll ever see/Are the real things around me."
And to round out with a perhaps most appropriate They Might Be Giants tune, "Museum of Idiots", from their "The Spine" album.#: Posted by on 01/27 at 05:08 AM -
Greg Graffin of Bad Religion is a biology PhD, but all I can think of is Modern Man. Any other BR songs that fit?
#: Posted by on 01/27 at 07:35 AM
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Though the song is not really about evolution, or science much really, Shriekback have the only known use, as far as I know, of the word parthenogenesis in a song called Nemesis.
Devo also has a song called Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA, with the Mr. DNA section the relevant part.
Lard (the "supergroup" formed from Jello Baifra and Ministry) have a song called Mate, Spawn and Die!.
I'm sure there's loads more.#: Posted by platosearwax on 01/27 at 07:46 AM -
Wow, I can't think of anything from Bad Religion offhand, but thanks for mentioning them.
*cues up some BR*#: Posted by platosearwax on 01/27 at 07:54 AM - Monkey Gone to Heaven by the Pixies
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Geez! Didn't you guys leave ANY recommendations for me? TMBG's "Mammal" and "Museum of Idiots," Bowie's "O! You Pretty Things..."
Sheesh. Of course, on the Hours album Bowie informs us that "The Pretty Things are Going to Hell" ("They wore it out, but they wore it well.")
How about "Deteriorata" from the National Lampoon Radio Hour (a parody of the Desiderata song popular at the time)? "You are a fluke...of the universe...you have no right to be here..." Can also be found on Dr. Demento's 30th Anniversary collection.
If we're loosening the theme up a bit, TMBG have a few more science-relevant songs. "Why does the Sun Shine?" is one...I have the single, though it's on a few compilations and available directly from TMBG as an MP3. "My Man" is another, off Mink Car.
Bowie has an interesting though overall less relevant one in "Seven," off Hours:
The gods forgot they made me
So I forget them too
I listen to the shadows
I play among their graves
Loosening things up even more, Bowie has a couple more on the aptly named Heathen: "I Would be your Slave" is religiously relevant but subtle. "A Better Future" is more frank ("I demand a better future, or I might just stop loving you.")#: Posted by on 01/27 at 09:02 AM -
You really must include "Evolution Mama," an inpired (anti-)evolution song from the 1920s (with comparatively modern recordings readily available, for example from the Even Dozen Jug Band or Turk Murphy). Here's one version of the lyrics:
Old Lucian Burn had a gal way down in Tennessee
She told Lucian all about evolution
She was sittin' down on his knee.
Then one fine day, she got gay,
And started steppin' out.
But old brother Lucian started a revolution
The neighbors all could hear him shout.
what did he say?
He said
Evolution mama, evolution mama,
Don't you make a monkey outa me.
He said, Evolution mama,
Don't you think you got me up a tree.
Now I remember the time I had you nice and tame,
You was eatin' right outa my hand,
Some fine day, I'm gonna take good aim
And knock that peanut whistle offa your stand.
Now evolution mama, listen while I get you told
I'm gonna tell you somethin's gonna make your blood run cold
Now I ain't half man and I aint half beast
But I can do ya more good than this store bought piece
Evolution mama, don't you make a monkey outa me.
Evolution mama, sweet smellin' mama,
Don't you make a monkey outa me.
Now, evolution mama
Don't you think ya got me up a tree.
I remember the time ya had me nice and tame
I was eatin right outa your hand
Some fine day, I'm gonna take good aim
And knock that peanut whistle offa your stand.
Now evolution mama, listen while I get you told
I'm gonna tell you somethin's gonna make your blood run cold
Gonna make ya feel mighty old
Well, I got myself a razor, I got myself a gun
Gonna carve on you if you stand still
Gonna shoot you if you run
Well evolution mama, don't you make a monkey outa me.#: Posted by on 01/27 at 09:51 AM -
Echo's Children (filk) did a nice song entitled "The Word of God": (sample lyric)
By stem and root and branch we trace, by feather, fang and fur,
How the living things that are descend from things that were.
The moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies,
These tiny, humble, wordless things---how shall they tell us lies?
We are kin to beasts; no other answer can we bring.
The truth has left its fingerprints on every living thing.
Remember, should you have to choose between them in the strife,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote life.
http://www.echoschildren.org/CDlyrics/WORDGOD.HTML
-Earl#: Posted by on 01/27 at 11:38 AM -
"Evolution RAg" by the Incredible String Band:
"...
Out on the land, out on the land, singing hooray,
While a million years pass us by
And we get well on our way...."#: Posted by on 01/27 at 11:56 AM -
It's not music, but I liked it anyway, way back when: the poem "Evolution" by Langdon Smith.
"When you were a tadpole and I was a fish
In the Paleozoic time,
And side by side on the ebbing tide
We sprawled through the ooze and slime,
Or skittered with many a caudal flip
Through the depths of the Cambrian fen,
My heart was rife with the joy of life,
For I loved you even then.
Mindless we lived and mindless we loved
And mindless at last we died;
And deep in the rift of the Caradoc drift
We slumbered side by side.
The world turned on in the lathe of time,
The hot lands heaved amain,
Till we caught our breath from the womb of death
And crept into life again.
[... lotsa verses skipped over]
Then as we linger at luncheon here
O'er many a dainty dish,
Let us drink anew to the time when you
Were a tadpole and I was a fish."
It gets a little goddy towards the end, but Smith lived in the late 1800s, so you gotta forgive him.
I was introduced to it by an 80+ year old unbeliever, who loved it.
Find it here: http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/int/evolution.html
I say we invite James Earl Jones, get him to read it in that deep, timeless voice of his, and it will SEEM like music. -
I'm an idiot. I totally forgot Moxy Fruvous' "Mitosis Waltz".
[In thick German accents]
If it's ze secrets of life that you seek,
Zen srough (through) a mi-croscope you must peek!
Mendel did vonders just using his eye,
But to really see, you must magnify.
You can't help but notice ve're nossing (nothing) but cells,
But vhere in ze cell does heredity dvell?
The Nu-cleus! That's vhere it hides.
You don't see much until it divides,
Then Chro-masomes enter new phases,
Split into two, und zat is ze basis
Of Sexual Transmission vhich olvays engrosses
Our feverish minds, but it's only Meiosis.
Reducing zee chromasomes fifty percent,
So vhen egg and sperm meet at zat blessed event,
Ze Chro-masomes form one full set.
Just two of each kind, zat's ze best best!
And that new cell begins to grow,
Multiplies into an Em-bryo.
Ze ex-plana-tion of zis growth
Is it's due to a process ve know as Mitosis!
And zat's vhat our Microscopes helped us determine,
In Germany, vhere un ze germ cells are German!#: Posted by on 01/27 at 06:51 PM -
Russell Wodehouse composed a CD to travel with Ray Troll's 'Dancing to the Fossil Record' exhibit, that includes titles like 'Gondwana Dreamland' and 'Swingin' in the Family Tree'. Ray made a track available to download from his Ich-Theology Gallery on my site.
The track is called 'Chain of Being', and its a bit of music wrapped around an interview with Jacques Gauthier. Not a ditty that you'd find yourself absent-mindedly humming, but it is a nice head trip into increasingly inclusive kinship.#: Posted by HairyMuseum on 01/27 at 09:26 PM -
I once wrote a couple of verses of the Gondwanaland National Anthem, but it sucked, and I won't repeat it here.
Still, I wouldn't mind at all if someone else tried their hand at it. -
XTC's "The Smartest Monkeys" is a good evolution song.
I thought and thought but could not come up with a Robyn Hitchcock song featuring evolution - surprising, given how much he sings about squids and cells and things emerging from primordeal slime. In searching for a tune of his featuring evolution, I was reminded of the old classic "Victorian Squid" which, though not featuring evolution, might still be appeciated by PZ.#: Posted by on 01/28 at 10:05 AM -
Conor Oberst has a new song called:
"When the President Talks to God"
It can probably fit in somewhere since it deals broadly with the Bush administration's assaults on secularism. It's also a good old-fashioned Dylanesque rant!#: Posted by on 01/28 at 01:17 PM -
Seconded: Shriekback, Nemesis:
"Greeks and cannibals, prehistoric animals
Everybody happy as the dead come home.
Big black Nemesis, parthenogenesis
No one move a muscle as the dead come home."
Offered: C-Tec (aka Cyber-Tec Project), Foetal (from 1997's "Darker")
"I was already there when the Earth was unborn,
We were already there together, floating free,
I've been a drop, I ve been a source, I've been a river, a lake
I was the fire below the feet of Joan of Arc
We're on the way to being Gods
I've been a rock, I've been an oak, I've been a lion, an ape
I was the look turning humans into statues of salt
We're on the way to being Gods!"
And finally, Front Line Assembly, basically, anything by them at any time, but if you can pick only one album, go for Hard Wired, and if you can pick only one track, pick "Transparent Species":
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/frontlineassembly/hardwired.html
">B>Seconded: Shriekback, Nemesis:
"Greeks and cannibals, prehistoric animals
Everybody happy as the dead come home.
Big black Nemesis, parthenogenesis
No one move a muscle as the dead come home."
Offered: C-Tec (aka Cyber-Tec Project), Foetal (from 1997's "Darker")
"I was already there when the Earth was unborn,
We were already there together, floating free,
I've been a drop, I ve been a source, I've been a river, a lake
I was the fire below the feet of Joan of Arc
We're on the way to being Gods
I've been a rock, I've been an oak, I've been a lion, an ape
I was the look turning humans into statues of salt
We're on the way to being Gods!"
And finally, Front Line Assembly, basically, anything by them at any time, but if you can pick only one album, go for Hard Wired, and if you can pick only one track, pick "Transparent Species":
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/frontlineassembly/hardwired.html
"It's time to wake up!
It's time to recieve!
It's time for immersion!
Transparent species!"
It doesn't come out through the lyrics -- but it does come through in the vocal inflection and chord progression -- that the transformation from man to machine is a good thing (or at least, is to be embraced).
Besides, who says our successor species has to be made out of meat?
Crap. Forgot Front 242: Headhunter.
"Today he has no means, he's alone and anonymous.
But written in his cells, he's got the mark of a genius,
I'm looking for this man, to sell him to other man,
To sell him to other man, at ten times his price at least.
(I'm looking for this man, who knows the rules of the game,
Who's able to forget them, to realize my aim.)
One - you lock the target,
Two - you bait the line,
Three - you slowly spread the net,
And four - you catch the man."
Others for your consideration (and somewhat on the lighter side):
Jesus Jones: Zeroes and Ones (Perverse, 1993)
KMFDM: Brute (Nihil, 1995)
The Shamen: Destination Eschaton (CD single, 1995)
Front 242: Headhunter (Front By Front, 1988)
Front 242; Headhunter Empirion Mix (Headhunter 2000, 2000)
Clock DVA: (the entire discography
Cyber-Tec Project: Let Your Body Die (EP, 1995)
Icon Of Coil: Comment V2.0 and the rest of the album Machines Are Us, 2004.
Xorcist: Iron Helix (Phantoms, 1995, also appeared in a video game - plot summary involves an rampaging AI and genetic engineering)
Billy Idol - Venus (and other tracks from Cyberpunk, 1991, but Venus is a personal fave due to samples of the 1969 lunar landings.)
"It's time to wake up!
It's time to recieve!
It's time for immersion!
Transparent species!"
It doesn't come out through the lyrics -- but it does come through in the vocal inflection and chord progression -- that the transformation from man to machine is a good thing (or at least, is to be embraced).
Besides, who says our successor species has to be made out of meat?
Crap. Forgot Front 242: Headhunter.
"Today he has no means, he's alone and anonymous.
But written in his cells, he's got the mark of a genius,
I'm looking for this man, to sell him to other man,
To sell him to other man, at ten times his price at least.
(I'm looking for this man, who knows the rules of the game,
Who's able to forget them, to realize my aim.)
One - you lock the target,
Two - you bait the line,
Three - you slowly spread the net,
And four - you catch the man."
Others offered for your consideration (and somewhat on the lighter side, mostly light danceable industrial):
Jesus Jones: Zeroes and Ones (Perverse, 1993)
KMFDM: Brute (Nihil, 1995)
The Shamen: Destination Eschaton (CD single, 1995)
Front 242: Headhunter (Front By Front, 1988)
Front 242; Headhunter Empirion Mix (Headhunter 2000, 2000)
Clock DVA: (the entire discography
Cyber-Tec Project: Let Your Body Die (EP, 1995)
Icon Of Coil: Comment V2.0 and the rest of the album Machines Are Us, 2004.
Xorcist: Iron Helix (Phantoms, 1995, also appeared in a video game - plot summary involves an rampaging AI and genetic engineering)
Billy Idol - Venus (and several other tracks from Cyberpunk, 1991, but Venus is a personal fave due to samples of the 1969 lunar landings.)#: Posted by on 01/31 at 11:25 PM -
The Kinks (alhough they certainly don't sound like the Kinks I'm familiar with) have a song called Ape-Man.
Lyrics are here, but here's a sample:
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an ape man
In man’s evolution he has created the cities and
The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance
And I’d be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle
’cos the only time that I feel at ease
Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree#: Posted by on 01/31 at 11:32 PM -
Wow, Foobar. I should have caught all those as well since most of those CD's are in my collection.
#: Posted by platosearwax on 02/01 at 02:00 AM