User:Cgingold/Planets@PopCulture

The Planets in popular culture

(Section of text removed from The Planets November 13, 2009)

Films

Bill Conti's score for the 1983 motion picture The Right Stuff quotes "Mars", "Jupiter" and "Neptune" in Track 4, "Glenn's Flight".

Cliff Eidelman's 1991 score to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was inspired by the sound of The Planets, a copy of which was given to him by director Nicholas Meyer. In the CD booklet, however, Meyer mentions that a direct adaptation of The Planets, as he had intended, had proven to be economically unfeasible, only after which Eidelman was hired to compose an original soundtrack, however inspired by Stravinsky's The Firebird.

Part of "Venus" is used in the film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit on a fictional record of the "Plants Suite" whilst Gromit is tending his vegetables.

Elements of "Mars" were frequently incorporated by Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page into the middle of his composition "Dazed and Confused" from 1969 until 1975, as can be heard in Led Zeppelin's 1976 film, The Song Remains the Same.

Multimedia

A Multimedia Symphonic Spectacular was created in 2000 and premièred in the Ratanga Junction Theme Park, South Africa with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Bernhard Gueller. This production explores the astrological rather than astronomical aspect of the music interpreting this in a synchronized light show comprising animation, specifically filmed sequences, stock footage, live camera feeds and a laser show. The concerts received critical acclaim and toured to Canada in 2004. This production was created by Rene Hermans, Bernhard Gueller and John Walton.

Television/Videos

Actual full recordings of the music:

• A BBC audiovisual version mixes video of the orchestra with related visual themes.

• Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Recorded in 1986 by Decca and reissued in 1998 by Penguin Classics. Later used for a multi-disciplinary (Skating, Ballet/Dance, music) vision. A figure skating and modern dance fantasia.

• Isao Tomita's version of The Planets was featured in a laserdisc educational film, also called "The Planets", narrated by Patrick Stewart.
• During the second season of The Venture Bros., during the episode "Hate Floats", Monarch Henchmen 21 and 24 sing a passage from "Mars" to celebrate their being called back to duty. In the first episode of the third season a portion of "Jupiter" is used to end the episode.
• "Mars" was used as the title theme to the first two of Nigel Kneale's iconic Quatermass television series of the 1950s.
• "Jupiter" was remixed by Pleiades Production for use in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2. *"Jupiter" was also used as the theme for "Starstuff", a 1980 children's television program.
• "Saturn" is playing in The Simpsons episode "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky" when Lisa is in the museum and first develops her inspiration for astronomy. "Jupiter" was also played in the same episode shortly after "Saturn" was played.
• Parts of "Jupiter" were used in the interval performance during the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham, UK. Among the performers was violinist Vanessa-Mae.
• "Mars" is used in the Space: 1999 episode "Space Brain".
• Part of "Jupiter" is played upon presentation of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.
• Is used in different episodes of the 1999 BBC TV miniseries The Planets.
• Masamichi Amano's Kunren composition, which is the orchestral piece played during the takeoff scenes in the anime Stratos 4, was inspired by "Jupiter".

Video games

During the 1980s, material from The Planets made its way into several video games for the Commodore 64. G-Force (1984) and The First Starfighter (1986) featured sections of Holst's Jupiter. The Caverns of Eriban (1985) used part of Holst's Mercury. Similarly, Plasmatron (1987) and Wicked (1989) borrowed sections of Holst's Mars. The games didn't use a recorded symphony version of Holst's music, as home computers weren't developed in that way yet. Rather, the game designers of the 1980s played the part of musicians and adapted the music to their instrument, the home computer.

Mars was featured in later video games, including Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine (1991), Epic (1992), Outpost (1994), Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001) (in which the song "Siege" contains numerous allusions and rhythmic resemblances to Mars), Escape Velocity Nova (2002), and Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII (2001) for Playstation 2. Super Mario Galaxy also used the rhythm of Mars in conjunction with a melody from a previous game in the series. Mars was used in the 2006 game Destroy All Humans 2 on the menu screen. It is also played while the user is in control of a tank in the multi-platform game Return Fire.

The musical game Dance Dance Revolution includes in one of its mixes (the Japanese version of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2), a set of spatial songs. Each planet from our solar system has his music. They all were composed for Konami, except the one called Jupiter which comes from The Planets.

Advertising

The theme from "Jupiter" was used in an Australian advertisement in early 2008 for Bundaberg Rum, in a Peptol Bismol commercial, in specially marked packages of Yum-Yum toaster rolls, as well as an American TV advertisement for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in 2007.

The Theme from "Mars" was used in an American advertisement in early 2009 for the GE Profile Washer

Popular music

Portions of The Planets, particularly "Mars" (with its pounding 5/4 ostinato), have been covered and quoted extensively in heavy metal music, progressive rock, and electronica.

• British blues band Love Sculpture covered "Mars".
• As written in his David Bowie book "Bowie: The Pitt Report" former manager Kenneth Pitt reported that David Bowie's 1965-66 band The Lower Third performed a feedback laced version as part of their onstage repertoire.
• The Sand's, a British group played a section of the movement at the end of "Listen To The Sky", a number about a fighter pilot on the B-side of their 7" U.K. 1967 single Reaction 591017
• The 1967 debut single by the U.K. 1960s group Family, "Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens" featured swatches of the movement in the middle section of the song.
• Heavy metal band Triumph used a portion of the sequence for the opening section, titled War March, and the ending sequence can be heard during the third part, titled Minstrels Lament of their three-part epic, The City from the original Rock and Roll Machine album.
• Frank Zappa playing with The Mothers of Invention plays the refrain of Jupiter in "The Invocation and Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin" on Absolutely Free. This segment is excluded from the live version continued within "Call Any Vegetable" on Just Another Band From LA [1972].
• King Crimson's 1969 incarnation would play an improvised interpretation of "Mars, the Bringer of War" as the encore of their live set, with guitar, bass, and drums playing the 5/4 time ostinato, while Ian McDonald would improvise over the rhythmic pulse on the mellotron. The same piece appears on their 1970 album In the Wake of Poseidon as "The Devil's Triangle", so named for the three sections of the song, gradually becoming more and more improvised and avant-garde.
• Emerson, Lake and Powell recorded a faithful cover of "Mars, Bringer of War" on their eponymous LP in 1985.
• The intro to the song "Eyes of the World" by British hard rock band Rainbow is based on "Mars, the Bringer of War." Band's drummer, Cozy Powell, subsequently based his solo, while touring with Emerson, Lake & Powell and Black Sabbath, on the same piece.
• The intro to the song "Am I Evil" by British heavy metal band Diamond Head is also based on "Mars, the Bringer of War."
• The chorus of the east coast thrash band Overkill's "Who Tends the Fire" (Megaforce 82045-2, 1989) is based on the Mars theme.
• The intro and some interior sections of American death metal band Nile's "Ramses Bringer of War" (Relapse 6983, 1998) are based on Holst's Mars.
• "The Divine Wings of Tragedy" by progressive metal band Symphony X (SPV 72833, 1999) includes a refrain of Mars material that holds the extended composition together.
• Progressive metal band Savatage briefly played the Mars melody on their classically-influenced track "Prelude to Madness", off the Hall of the Mountain King album.
• "War (Mars, The Bringer of War)" by Van Helsing's Curse (Koch 9524, 2003) is simply a reproduction of Mars with a voice-over.
• Italian power metal band Domine does a song called "Mars, The Bringer of War" (Dragonheart, 1999) which uses significant Mars material.
• The bridge of Boom! by hard rock band System of a Down (Sony 87062, 2002) is based on Mars.
• The intro to "White Room" by Cream (Polydor 827578, 1968) is essentially a reworking of Mars theme material.
• British pop artist Sands included some Mars material in the outro to "Listen to the Sky" (Rev-Ola 176, 2007) on a compilation of the same name.
• Rick Wakeman recorded an abridged version of the entire suite called Beyond The Planets (telstar uk, 1985) with a four-piece rock band.
• Mars was rendered in techno stylings on the album TechnoClassix: Never Mind Beethoven (Berwick Street 1, 1993); the track is called "Mars (the bringer of techno)".
• Masque features parts of the Suite—of particular note is the first track "Joybringer (From Jupiter)", which is "Jupiter" with lyrics.
• Part of "Jupiter" is used by Swedish black metal artist Bathory in the song "Hammerheart" of the Twilight of the Gods album.
• Simon Wright uses parts of Jupiter when playing his drum solo on the Holy Diver DVD.
• British heavy metal band Iron Maiden used excerpts from "Mars the Bringer of War" as the intro music on their 2006 A Matter Of Life And Death World Tour.
• Isao Tomita recorded a synthesizer version of the "Planets Suite" released in 1976 (RCA RVC-2111). "The Planets" was taken off of the market for a few years by court order from Gustav Holst's relatives. They claimed that Tomita had manhandled their father's compositions. The record company withdrew some 30,000 records from the stores.
• Electronic artist Rob Astor recorded the full "Planets Suite" for his 2008 Ad Astra album (Rob Astor 6 34479 89609 5). He kept every musical element while transforming the suite into a hybrid of orchestral movements, new age layers, and rock and roll instruments
• Sarah Brightman uses the opening and sections of "Jupiter" for "Running" from her 2008 album Symphony.
• Slovenian avant-garde musicians Laibach covered "Mars, the Bringer of War" on their album NATO [2], released in 1994. The cover version is called "Nato", not to be confused with another song on the album named "Mars on River Drina". Also on reedition of their album Nova Akropola from 1988 sleeve notes describing track "Decree" use quotes from the description (taken from sleevenotes of 1958 edition of The Planets) of planets Saturn and Mercury. The track itself samples the opening of "Mars, the Bringer of War".
• Japanese singer Ayaka Hirahara released a pop version of "Jupiter" in December 2003. It went to #2 on the Oricon charts and sold nearly a million copies, making it the third-best selling single in the Japanese popular music market for 2004. It remained on the charts for over three years.
• Rob Dougan sampled the opening string figure of "Jupiter" throughout the song "Clubbed to Death" on his album Furious Angels.
• Jupiter has been the intro music for the band Mott the Hoople since the seventies. Used again in Hammersmith Apollo 2009-10-01 for their reunion show.