Scientists in Songs

This has been a discussion on my lj but I wanted to throw it open to a wider audience. The five scientists who ushered in the scientific revolution were

1. Nicolas Copernicus
2. Tycho Brahe
3. Johannes Kepler
4. Galileo Galilei
5. Isaac Newton

We were trying to name non-educational songs that mention them. Galileo is mentioned in many songs:

1. Galileo by the Indigo Girls
2. Tombstone Blues by Bob Dylan
3. Galileo by Amy Grant
4. Did Galileo Pray by Ellis Paul
5. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

The only song that anyone came up with about the other four is Newton's Apple by Danny Michel. Can you think of any other songs about these five? Why so many songs about Galileo?

Because Galileo is fun to say...

I know I know songs that mention Copernicus...like, I'm sure it's someone I really love, too...my brain is just not functioning enough at the moment.

ETA: Aha, one I was scratching at with my brain finally came through. They Might Be Giants - The World's Address ("Tell 'em Albert Einstein and Copernicus were wrong..")

What's more fun to say that Tycho Brahe?

oO I don't care what the great god Ra say
Just give me some of that Tycho Brahe. Oo

The song practically writes itself.

there's a wishing chair song called "copernicus," about a girl whose father favors her brother over her, not that i know anything at all about that, and the chorus is "everything revolves around the son/sun." good stuff.

Did we see Wishing Chair at SMAF?

yes indeed. i've also seen them at the old town school.

Don't forget "Entropy".

i think "entropy" counts as an "educational song."

Exactly it was the very song I had in mind when I made that exception.

I wouldn't say Bohemian Rhapsody is exactly 'about' Galileo....

Jim's Big Ego have a track entitled 'Kepler', but it's not a song, just a twelve second bit that says:
"The incredible complexity of this working model which is going around and things going around things going around things and it was just ... beautiful. He said 'Who made this?' Kepler said, 'No one.'"

I didn't say "about" I said "mention" and it mentions Galileo.

Why so many songs about Galileo?

I didn't say "about"

uh, yes you did.

actually, he said both. so everybody wins!

Newton got beaned by the apple good in "Man on the Moon"

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. :)

That's playing on the radio right now.

"Tell them Albert Einstein and Copernicus were wrong"

Oops, sorry, didn't see it was already mentioned!�

Madonna, in Super Pop :

"If I was a genius, I'd be Isaac Newton"

Bob Seger, in Revisionism Street:

"Alfred Hitchcock, Isaac Newton
Elvis Presley, Captain Bligh
They're heroic or pathetic
Depending on which book you buy"

Basia, from Copernicus

"I don't claim I'm Curie or Copernicus"

The Nields have a song called "Einstein's Daughter."

There are many songs that mention Einstein. There is one that I'm sure most of you know very well but don't know the beginning which mentions Einstein.

	
As Time Goes By...

Lyrics and Music by Herman Hupfeld;
� 1931 Warner Bros. Music Corp., ASCAP


[This day and age we're living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like fourth dimension.

Yet we get a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein's theory.
So we must get down to earth at times
Relax relieve the tension

And no matter what the progress
Or what may yet be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed.]

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.

And when two lovers woo
They still say, "I love you."
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by.

Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date.
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate.
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny.

It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die.
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

Oh yes, the world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

Yeah, I've also heard that Albert Einstein was never good at math.

And Einstein was wrong, I'm sorry.

That isn't true of course and I kept meaning to tell Robbie that and never got around to it.

Yes, and I'm also pretty sure that mass increases as velocity approaches the speed of light, and so, actually, the faster you go, the farther you get from weighing nothing at all.

But then again, it's been a long time since high school physics.

That's exactly right. m=m₀/sqrt(1-v�/c�) where m₀ is the rest mass, v is the velocity, c the spped of light, and m is the mass.

But then again, I've heard the jury's still out on....science.

I did, actually, know the beginning of that song. :-) I've got an mp3 of Tony Bennet singing it. (And was totally going to mention it before I actually read the thread. Now my brain is working, because I know I know of at least one other Einstein one...)


Oh, *facedesk* Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire"

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team

Of course... your original question wasn't for songs that mentioned Einstein, though. Is the floor open for other non-educational, scientist mentioning songs?

What the hell we might as well.

In my favorite Dylan song, Desolation Row he sings:
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk

The Old '97s have a song called Oppenheimer.

oh! And Billy Bragg's "Great Leap Forward" mentions Dr. Robert Oppenheimer!

In Planet X Christine Lavin mentions Clyde Tombaugh [the discoverer of Pluto], Percival Lovell, Larry Esposito, and one other contemporary astronomer whose name escapes me.

This song mentions Kepler in the title, though it's specifically about Brahe

http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/themamasthepapas3.shtml

I think that counts as an education song but I still like it.

Quick HTML lesson. When you want to insert a link the code is
[a href ="URL"]Link Text[/a]

Just replace the square brackets "["and "]" with angle brackets "<" and ">"

awww...when he's teaching he actually remembers the part about closing them! :)

I don't get no respect.

both barenaked ladies (brian wilson) & regina spektor (pavlov's daughter) reference ivan pavlov in song.

As does TMBG, though I don't think by name.

Yeah, Dinner Bell is vaguely 'about' Pavlov's dog, but doesn't name him.

However, Aimee Mann's song, Pavlov's Bell actually does mention him by name.

and last i looked, there's an entire band named Pavlov's Dog.

And dinner bell was the first thing that came to my mind when i saw this thread, but i didnt think it applied :P

Does anyone know a song that mentions Darwin?

Man on the Moon mentions him, too.

What about Jim Infantino's The Ballad of Barry Allen?

So you want to count Police Scientist, Barry Allen?