Robert McParland - Science Fiction in Classic Rock: Musical Explorations of Space, Technology and the Imagination, 1967-1982

CRITICAL EXPLORATIONS IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
(a series edited by Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III)

Worlds Apart? Dualism and Transgression in Contemporary Female Dystopias (Dunja M. Mohr, 2005)

Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays (ed. Janet Brennan Croft, 2007)

Culture, Identities and Technology in the Star Wars Films: Essays (ed. Carl Silvio, Tony M. Vinci, 2007)

The Influence of Star Trek on Television, Film and Culture (ed. Lincoln Geraghty, 2008)

Hugo Gernsback and the Century of Science Fiction (Gary Westfahl, 2007)

One Earth, One People: Ursula K. Le Guin, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine LEngle and Orson Scott Card (Marek Oziewicz, 2008)

The Evolution of Tolkiens Mythology (Elizabeth A. Whittingham, 2008)

H. Beam Piper: A Biography (John F. Carr, 2008)

Dreams and Nightmares: Science and Technology in Myth and Fiction (Mordecai Roshwald, 2008)

Lilith in a New Light: Essays (ed. Lucas H. Harriman, 2008)

Feminist Narrative and the Supernatural: The Function of Fantastic Devices in Seven Recent Novels (Katherine J. Weese, 2008)

The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science: Essays (Frank McConnell, ed. Gary Westfahl, 2009)

Kim Stanley Robinson Maps the Unimaginable: Essays (ed. William J. Burling, 2009)

The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Childrens and Teens Science Fiction (Farah Mendlesohn, 2009)

Science Fiction from Qubec: A Postcolonial Study (Amy J. Ransom, 2009)

Science Fiction and the Two Cultures: Essays (ed. Gary Westfahl, George Slusser, 2009)

Stephen R. Donaldson and the Modern Epic Vision: A Critical Study of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Novels (Christine Barkley, 2009)

Ursula K. Le Guins Journey to Post-Feminism (Amy M. Clarke, 2010)

Portals of Power: Magical Agency and Transformation in Literary Fantasy (Lori M. Campbell, 2010)

The Animal Fable in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Bruce Shaw, 2010)

Illuminating Torchwood: Essays (ed. Andrew Ireland, 2010)

Comics as a Nexus of Cultures: Essays (ed. Mark Berninger, Jochen Ecke, Gideon Haberkorn, 2010)

The Anatomy of Utopia: Narration, Estrangement and Ambiguity in More, Wells, Huxley and Clarke (Kroly Pintr, 2010)

The Anticipation Novelists of 1950s French Science Fiction (Bradford Lyau, 2010)

The Twilight Mystique: Essays (ed. Amy M. Clarke, Marijane Osborn, 2010)

The Mythic Fantasy of Robert Holdstock: Essays (ed. Donald E. Morse, Klmn Matolcsy, 2011)

Science Fiction and the Prediction of the Future: Essays (ed. Gary Westfahl, Wong Kin Yuen, Amy Kit-sze Chan, 2011)

Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film (Roslyn Weaver, 2011)

British Science Fiction Film and Television: Critical Essays (ed. Tobias Hochscherf, James Leggott, 2011)

Cult Telefantasy Series: A Critical Analysis of [8 series] (Sue Short, 2011)

The Postnational Fantasy: Essays (ed. Masood Ashraf Raja, Jason W. Ellis, Swaralipi Nandi, 2011)

Heinleins Juvenile Novels: A Cultural Dictionary (C.W. Sullivan III, 2011)

Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture: Essays (ed. Audrey L. Becker, Kristin Noone, 2011)

I See You: The Shifting Paradigms of James Camerons Avatar (Ellen Grabiner, 2012)

Of Bread, Blood and The Hunger Games: Essays (ed. Mary F. Pharr, Leisa A. Clark, 2012)

The Sex Is Out of This World: Essays (ed. Sherry Ginn, Michael G. Cornelius, 2012)

Lois McMaster Bujold: Essays (ed. Janet Brennan Croft, 2013)

Girls Transforming: Invisibility and Age-Shifting in Childrens Fantasy Fiction Since the 1970s (Sanna Lehtonen, 2013)

Doctor Who in Time and Space: Essays (ed. Gillian I. Leitch, 2013)

The Worlds of Farscape: Essays (ed. Sherry Ginn, 2013)

Orbiting Ray Bradburys Mars (ed. Gloria McMillan, 2013)

The Heritage of Heinlein (Thomas D. Clareson and Joe Sanders, 2014)

The Past That Might Have Been, the Future That May Come(Lauren J. Lacey, 2014)

Environments in Science Fiction: Essays (ed. Susan M. Bernardo, 2014)

Discworld and the Disciplines: Critical Approaches to the Terry Pratchett Works (ed. Anne Hiebert Alton, William C. Spruiell, 2014)

Nature and the Numinous in Mythopoeic Fantasy Literature (Christopher Straw Brawley, 2014)

J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard and the Birth of Modern Fantasy (Deke Parsons, 2014)

The Monomyth in American Science Fiction Films (Donald E. Palumbo, 2014)

The Fantastic in Holocaust Literature and Film (ed. Judith B. Kerman, John Edgar Browning, 2014)

Star Wars in the Public Square (Derek R. Sweet, 2016)

An Asimov Companion (Donald E. Palumbo, 2016)

Michael Moorcock (Mark Scroggins, 2016)

The Last Midnight: Essays (ed. Leisa A. Clark, Amanda Firestone, Mary F. Pharr, 2016)

The Science Fiction Mythmakers: Religion, Science and Philosophy in Wells, Clarke, Dick and Herbert (Jennifer Simkins, 2016)

Gender and the Quest in British Science Fiction Television (Tom Powers, 2016)

Saving the World Through Science Fiction: James Gunn (Michael R. Page, 2017)

Wells Meets Deleuze (Michael Starr, 2017)

Science Fiction and Futurism: Their Terms and Ideas (Ace G. Pilkington, 2017)

Science Fiction in Classic Rock: Musical Explorations of Space, Technology and the Imagination, 19671982 (Robert McParland, 2017)

Patricia A. McKillip and the Art of Fantasy World-Building (Audrey Isabel Taylor, 2017)

Robert McParland

CRITICAL EXPLORATIONS
IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, 59
Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-3030-4

2017 Robert McParland. All rights reserved

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McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
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Science fiction and rock music have been involved in a dynamic relationship since the late 1960s. Rocks relationship with myth goes back even further, for myth has been a source of wonder and story in the human imagination since ancient times. The presence of science fiction imagery in psychedelic rock, progressive rock, and heavy metal has been part of the rock music experience of many listeners. Yet, few studies have explored the relationship between these popular arts, or have probed the mythical imagination of rock music. This book is a descriptive survey: a sketch of classic rocks engagement with myth and with science fiction. It begins with the premise that as we undergo significant technological change in our time we carry with us the ancient, the primeval, and indeed the mythical strands of human experience in a new social, technological, and cultural context.