There are, oh, approximately a million-and-a-half songs that reference different cosmic decorations in the sky ("Fly Me to the Moon," "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," "Stars Fell on Alabama").
You don't have to sift through them all to find a suitable soundtrack for Monday's total solar eclipse. Our sister stations KXT 97.1 FM (rock) and WRR 101.1 FM (classical) will broadcast and stream special themed music throughout the day.
Here at KERA Arts, we set ourselves a challenge, limiting our playlist to only those songs or musical compositions with a title or lyrics that are eclipse-specific.
They mustn't simply reference the sun, moon or stars. That leaves out things like Gustav Holst's The Planets. Instead, they must specifically mention an eclipse or a descriptive equivalent ("blackstar" or "black sun"— not merely "darkness" or "shadow").
So here is our solar eclipse music list — song selections from the past three centuries, some of which you can even dance to:
- "Eclipse" by Pink Floyd (1973) — pretty much the climax of their landmark album, The Dark Side of the Moon ("And everything under the sun is in tune / But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.") Originally, Roger Waters titled it just "End" — the band had struggled with finishing the album, and it was the final track.
- David Bowie's haunting "Blackstar" from 2016's album of the same name. It was his final studio release - when he knew he was dying, and the video expressly features a solar eclipse. ("I see right, so wide, so open-hearted it's pain / I want eagles in my daydreams, diamonds in my eyes / I'm a blackstar, I'm a blackstar'):
- "Eclipse" by Twin Shadow from 2015 ("Does it feel the same /
When the moon comes back again . . . Relax and shift / You eclipse me").
- "Total Eclipse" by Sir John Tavener (2000). This four-part, contemporary classical choral work uses a total eclipse to describe Saul's blinding religious conversion on the road to Damascus.
- LOONA/ Kim Lip's "Eclipse" from 2017. The 16-member K-pop girl group, LOONA, was introduced with each member getting her own single. ("It has started — eclipse / In the hidden shadows / Where you and I faced each other.")
- Bonnie Tyler's top-selling power ballad, "Total Eclipse of the Heart," from her 1983 album, Faster Than the Speed of Night ("Once upon a time there was a light in my life / But now there's only love in the dark / Nothing I can say / A total eclipse of the heart")
- Henry Purcell's "So When the Glitt'ring Queen of Night" from 1689, performed by the English Concert with Trevor Pinnock ("So when the Glittering Queen of Night / with black eclipse is shadowed / The Globe that swells with sullen pride her dazzling charms to hide.")
- "Total Eclipse" (live in New York, 1981) by Klaus Nomi ("Last dance, let the entire cast dance / Do the dismembered blast dance / As we get atomized / Total eclipse, it's a total eclipse of the sun"):
Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" mentions her egotistical subject flying off just to watch a "total eclipse of the sun." But one possible candidate for that character, Mick Jagger, just wanted his own cosmic-emotional eclipse: "Paint It Black" ("I wanna see it painted black / Black as night, black as coal / I wanna see the sun / Blotted out from the sky / I wanna see it painted, painted, painted black").
"Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden (1994) from the album, Superunknown ("Hang my head / Drown my fear / Till you all just disappear / Black hole sun / Won't you come / And wash away the rain?)
"Invisible Sun"by the Police (1981). The song was never released as a single. But when you see the official video, you realize that when Sting sings about 'looking down the barrel of an Armalite" (an AR-15), he's talking about the violent Irish Troubles that extended from the '60s into the '90s. Hence, his wish that there has to be "an invisible sun" somewhere to give hope.
- "Total Eclipse" from Georg Frideric Handel's oratorio, Samson, 1743. Once again, the 'eclipse' is a metaphoric description of blindness — in this case, the Biblical Samson's blindness. Handel's oratorio was inspired by the 1671 poetic drama, Samson Agonistes, by John Milton, who was himself blind. Sung by Michael Gibson, accompanied by Jo Ramadan ("Total eclipse! No sun, no moon / All dark amidst the blaze of noon / Oh, glorious light! No cheering ray / To glad my eyes with welcome day!"):
