Humans have been transfixed by the night sky, well, since the beginning of human existence. There’s ancient rock art and cave art that depicts celestial events. Many early cultures built structures that align with the solstices or equinoxes. The stars in the sky tell stories from the American Indian and Australian Aborigine oral traditions, to the ancient myths from Greek, Roman and Arab cultures. They at times overlap from cultures separated by thousands of years and thousands of miles.

There are monsters, Cassiopeia, a queen held captive by the sea god Poseidon, her daughter Andromeda was chained to a rock and only saved at the last minute from being killed by Cetus the sea monster when Perseus cuts off the snake filled head of Medusa and used it to stop the monster. Yep, some strange stuff.

No wonder the sky has attracted artists and storytellers. But of all of the musicians who have written or sang songs about the sky, and there have been hundreds, only one is actually from outer space. His name is Sun Ra and he is from the planet Saturn. And even if his coming from another planet is a bit debatable, this stuff really is pretty out there.

Copyright Notice: All of the music samples used in this podcast series are used under Fair Use provisions of the US Copyright Law which states: “it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports.”

The copyright of all music in this podcast series is held by the individual holders. The theme and end songs are licensed from Fresh Music Library. All commentary is copyright by David Husom. All rights are reserved. Contact the author for educational use of this material.