One of the things that has always impressed me about Klaatu - The Band (beyond the music) is the science that went into the writing of some of the songs. Whether it be the concept of ships that “float on gravity,” societies that can “teleport away from their mundane existence for an extended holiday” or “a race of, rodent-like, beings fleeing from their world, which was destroyed by the sun expanding to a Red Giant,” the underlining science themes apparent in Klaatu’s albums, in my opinion, set them far above any other rock band. Some of these things, like the ones I just mentioned are very obvious but, others are more hidden and require an esoteric approach to understand. Take “The Little Neutrino”, for example. Its “spacey” intro, coupled with its electronic “talk box” vocals, clearly give this song an outer space feel but look more closely at the lyrics and you’ll find the subjective description of a phenomenon that intrigues scientist, even still today. Prior to this song, I, myself, had never heard of neutrinos so, I just went along singing and loving a really cool song. Then, about a year later, in 1978, I happened to catch the headline of a Time Magazine article that read “The Case of the Missing Neutrinos.” (content.time/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920883,00.html Note: this is not the same article I read but a similar one, since Time Magazines archives do not go back further than 1980) After reading the article, I discovered that neutrinos are sub atomic particles which form during a nuclear explosion. An atom is composed of protons, neutrons and electrons but when these particles collide at great speed, such as they do at the center of the sun, they split and create two new particles: A positron (which is a positively charge electron) and neutrino (which has no charge at all). A neutrino (which literally means “the little neutral one”), thus, does not react with any other particles and passes straight through all matter. The article sited the anomaly of how, according to the theory, there should be billions of neutrinos passing through the Earth every second but, as yet, they have only found very few. It would seem we have yet to discover the proper way to capture these elusive “little ones” as they make their journey “to the surface of the sun” and the Earth where they pass “through the one who’s known as you and yet you’ll never know” they do, on their way to a singularity (more, commonly, known as “solus”). Amazing! There is also a running theme (or at least there SEEMS to be) which is more along the lines of science fiction. “Picture, if you will,” a race of beings that call themselves the “Politzanians” who, physically, resemble what we would call a mouse. “These ancient Politzanians” worshiped The Sun and even had its, smiling face, image etched into the (now cracked and crumbled) marble ground of their main courtyard. These people would never believe the thing they worshiped would someday destroy them and so they were taken by surprise when the sun depleted its fuel which maintained its fiery, life giving, glow, and the remaining matter expanded to form a Red Giant, thus destroying the inner planet and all but destroying their own planet which was “the second from the sun.” You can see the ruins of this planet on the cover of “Hope” along with “the lighthouse keepers beam,” set alight to warn off any approaching ships of impending doom. Taking this theme further, the cover of “Sir Army Suit” depicts a large group of “people” on a long journey (on the front cover) towards a main sequence star (like the sun) and then (on the back cover) away from a Red Giant sun which is beginning to cool and turn into a White Dwarf. Given the way these people are all lined up in a single file and are stepping in and out of a circle, would appear to indicate this long journey all happens in a single ‘slice” of time, with the mouse leading the way followed, closely by Klaatu. However, unbeknownst to our ultra emissary travelers until the time of their arrival, while en route, their sun has destroyed their home planet, most certainly, making them an “Endangered Species.” Thus, somewhat akin to the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” our travelers concede they have only made this trip to inform the people of the Earth to “be warned or be mourned tomorrow.” This would help to explain the juxtaposition of the cheerful lyrics, “It feels so good to be back at home” against the, somber, down tone the music takes at that point. For, the altruistic nature of our travelers leave them no other choice but to return to the ruins of their doomed planet, which saddens them but, they are all too proud to admit it. In fact, if you take a look at the cover of “Magentalane” and apply this theme, you will notice that the single file “queue” seen on “Sir Army Suit” would fit, very nicely, into to paths and ramps which lead up to the “aerodrome incline” where parked is the, last remaining,“sub-space (Perpetual Motion?) machine” with its wings, propellers, sails, keel, and atomic engines still revved and ready to go but, sadly, there is no life, whatsoever left. Even MORE amazing! Now I know there are those of you that will read this and probably think, “Donnie, you need a long vacation” and you may be right. But, I know there are some others (perhaps even Terry Draper, Dee Long and Ted Jones themselves) who will read this and maybe something will click in their mindsthat will prompt them to offer further thoughts or contributions, to confirm or debunk what I have said. I do it for you. :)
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 19:24:50 +0000
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