Via Wil Wheaton, a little tidbit that ought to be of interest to some of my Loyal Readers, particularly Cranky Robert:
It seems that the prog-rock band Pink Floyd performed live instrumental music during the BBC’s coverage of the Apollo 11 landing, something I’d never heard before. David Gilmour refers to it as a “jam session” in his remembrance today in the Guardian newspaper. The piece was called “Moonhead,” and, if I’m understanding correctly, they played it during cutaways when the NASA action slowed down. The entire 12-minute piece was played uninterrupted later in the broadcast. You can hear it on YouTube, naturally; according to the notes on the video clip, it’s never been officially recorded but has turned up on a couple of bootlegs.
Those must’ve been strange times indeed…
Ah, space and Floyd. I always wondered why Floyd’s music was not used for Star Trek, or any other space adventure.
Too expensive to license, would be my guess.
Interesting that it was too expensive for a space adventure like Star Trek, but was fine for an actual space adventure like landing on the (actual) moon. 😉
I’d never heard the story, and I’d never heard the piece. But it’s definitely very Floydian. During this period (post-Barrett but pre-Dark Side) they fooled around quite a lot with anti-melodic “jams” that mostly don’t amount to anything. One exception is “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1tfUaBezFo), which I regard as a masterpiece.