I was enthralled by learning about the Voyager Golden record and decided to listen to another podcast about it from “Stuff You Should Know” called “How the Voyager Golden Records Work”. Towards the end of the clip, one of the hosts states: “You cannot represent humanity without the contribution of African-American music which was basically the birth of all popular music with blues, jazz and Rock’n’Roll.” I agree with this statement and decided to include two of the three African-American artists. I excluded Chuck Berry because of his sexual misconduct convictions… yes, very cancel culture/21st century of me (link if you are interested).
Carl Sagan and his contemporaries had an impossible task of finding tracks to fill an LP to represent the human experience. I also found it a challenge to take their list and trim it down to a list of only ten. In addition to the previous African-American artists, I decided to pick diverse songs (there were too many Euro-centric titles), and ones that I, quite subjectively, would have found amazing if I were an extra-terrestrial coming across this artifact. As you can see in my map, I wasn’t very successful in choosing songs from all four corners of the globe…
Top 10 List:
- Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
- Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
- Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
- “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
- Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
- Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
- Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
- Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
- India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
- “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
Bryant, C., & Clark, J. (Hosts). (2020, April 23). How the voyager golden records work. In Stuff you should know. iHeartRadio. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/episode/how-the-voyager-golden-records-work-61585233/
Bonjour Maurice,
I too loved the experience of learning more about Voyager and it’s encapsulated Golden Record, as I’m a big fan of everything space. I agree with you that Sagan and his contemporaries had an impossible task to choose songs and sounds which fully encompass what it is to live on Earth. Many of your songs were ones that I myself chose including “Dark was the Night” by Blind Willie Johnson, “Night Chant” by Navajo Indians, and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
What I wondered in my own task was given all these years later, if a NASA group were to complete a similar task, would they choose any different songs or sounds? If so, which ones, and why?
Sadly, what stood out to me most from your post was your reasoning why you didn’t select the Chuck Berry song! I chose “Johnny B. Goode” as one my song selections, but after now reading the article which you shared, I definitely have a different impression of Chuck Berry. And his song “My Ding A Ling” doesn’t really have that playful context anymore.
Merci,
Mike McD
Sorry to break the bad news about Mr. Berry. An avid music listener, I have struggled with the dilemma of enjoying an artists’ music but disagreeing with who they are, or being disgusted at what they have done. Looking back at the 90’s, I find it difficult to reconcile with how it was status quo for musicians to misbehave or to be criminals.
Examples:
– Foxy Brown (aged 15) being exploited by music executives to fill the void of female rappers in the industry and to keep up with Lil’ Kim (who is 5 years older). Google : Foxy Ill Na Na to see her 1996 album cover. She is 16 years old, possibly 15 for this photo shoot.
– Aaliyah married illegally to the sexual deviant R. Kelly when she was 14 years old. R. Kelly had escaped prosecution for decades until just recently! We all turned a blind eye to his abuses since his music was fun 🙁
– Then there’s Michael Jackson….