Minus Ten and Counting 08 - The Ballad of Apollo XIII [HQ]

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  • Опубликовано: 7 окт 2020
  • Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
    Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_minu...
    Find more of Julia Ecklar's excellent music at: www.prometheus-music.com/
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    Lyrics:
    There's legends galore in the pulp SF lore
    About shipwrecks of spacecraft a-spacing
    When meteor holes come 'tween men and their goals
    By demolishing ships that they're racing
    Painting pictures with words like none you've ever heard,
    SF writers made frightening predictions.
    But the terrors they tell cannot equal the hell
    Faced by three men in fact, and not fiction.
    To April 11, 1970, now
    We must let our narrative carry us.
    Three men in a CSM named Odyssey;
    Beneath them, the LM named Aquarius.
    With a furious roar, Saturn leapt for the sky
    With Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, and Jim Lovell
    Toward a planned rendervous that would never come true
    With the grey lunar gravel and rubble.
    Still, they set up housekeeping in orbit 'round Earth
    And translunar insertion was kindled
    But the public just yawned, for this landing was third,
    And behind them old Terra slow dwindled.
    Apollo XIII traveled on down the track
    Laid down by the three laws of Newton.
    At fifty-six hours into lunar-bound coast
    Lovell said, "Houston, we have a problem."
    Now, they might have been struck by a meteorite;
    Maybe something had just overloaded.
    But their panels went red with their malfunction lights
    And in Odyssey something exploded.
    That blast blocked or ruptured their fuel cell lines;
    Their electrical energy faltered.
    With no hope at all of a rescue in time,
    Thirteen's mission profile had just altered.
    To physics and God they commended their lives
    For no power on Earth now could save them
    Although NASA let the men talk with their wives,
    Of goodbyes there was never a mention.
    Three men in a CSM bound for the Moon
    Reached two hundred and six thousand miles.
    Did they have enough air to get all the way there?
    Could they trust what they read on their dials?
    And when they reached Luna, could they change course for home?
    Would she trap them, or loose them at random?
    Untested advice and contingency plans
    Were the only things NASA could hand them.
    When Apollo XIII crossed the limb of the Moon
    And death came from the receivers
    We knew the next signal would speak of their doom
    Or answer the faith of believers.
    "Apollo Thirteen, this is Houston. Do you read?"
    Dear God, let them answer us quickly.
    The world held its breath, and in Mission Control
    Every screen lit a face pale and sickly.
    "Apollo Thirteen, this is Houston. Do you read?"
    That empty sound stretched on for years.
    "Houston...This is Thirteen...We're coming home!" said a voice,
    And the world found relief in its tears.
    At T plus one hundread and thirty-eight hours
    They jettisoned Odyssey's wreckage.
    That module was shattered and blasted apart-
    A symbol of death in the space age.
    Aquarius served as their lifeboat to shore,
    Till they knew they would no longer need her.
    At T plus one hundred and forty-one hours,
    With a deep prayer of "Thank you!" they freed her.
    Ed, Roger, and Gus must have smiled on those days,
    Knowing theirs was the path not to follow.
    But their souls were with Swigert and Lovell and Haise
    Riding home on the thirteenth Apollo.
    At T plus one hundred forty-three, fifty-four
    Apollo XIII hit the waters.
    Three men returned home, shaken up, but alive,
    To their wives and their sons and their daughters!
    There's legends galore in the pulp SF lore
    About shipwrecks of spacecraft a-spacing
    But all of them now do cause men to reflect
    On three days when the world's heart went racing
    Painting pictures with words all too few people heard,
    SF writers could make their predictions,
    But always recall that, in spite of them all,
    The truth was much greater than fiction.
    Yes, always recall that, in spite of them all,
    The truth must be greater than fiction.

Комментарии • 55

  • @nyarlathotep4889
    @nyarlathotep4889 3 года назад +154

    “Yes, always recall that, in spite of them all, The truth must be greater than fiction.” What a amazing two lines.

  • @johnburt1172
    @johnburt1172 3 года назад +99

    Every single time I play this, the long silence tugs at some tender strand inside me.
    Every single time....

    • @TheKhopesh
      @TheKhopesh 2 года назад +9

      For me, the most powerful verse is always:
      "We knew the next signal would speak of their doom
      Or answer the faith of believers."

    • @dromankass8655
      @dromankass8655 2 года назад +7

      It is a very good moment of the song, a well used silence (though I also like the line 'and in Odyssey something exploded'. The author of the Tintin stories, Herge, does the same thing in his 1952 comic 'Explorers on the Moon'.
      The Moon Rocket is approaching the moon for landing, and in those days it was believed that the gravitational stress at both take-off and landing would cause the crew to black out, while the rocket will land on automatic systems, the crew are in acceleration couches.
      As Mission Control guides them into the final steps of landing, the crew lose consciousness one by one with Tintin manning the radio and giving updates, until he too blacks out.
      As the Mission Control Director laments the silence, as that it's unbearable, there comes a loud howling noise on the radio, as Tintin's loyal dog Snowy howls loudly, as if mourning the dead, before he too falls silent.
      On automatic guidance the Moon Rocket descends down onto the cratered surface of the moon, before it's tripod legs come to rest on Hipparchus crater. It's engine dies away, and the great rocket stands silent on the cold grey surface of the moon.
      High in the star filled sky is the blue globe of the Earth, and from it come the radio hails from Mission Control.
      'Earth to Moon Rocket, are you receiving?'
      . . .
      'Earth to Moon Rocket, are you receiving?'
      . . .
      In Mission Control the Director and his staff look at each in alarm. It has been over twenty minutes since the Moon Rocket set down, and the crew should have recovered consciousness. But there is still no rely.
      Even the enemy Nazi spy-master, secretly listening into the communications in his own base in a rival nation, glowers crossly at his radio and mutters 'By Lucifer, it's a bad blow for us if they are all dead'.
      'Earth to Moon Rocket, are you receiving?'
      . . .
      'Moon Rocket, are you receiving?'
      . . .

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 Год назад

      @@dromankass8655 Dang....

  • @plantlord3266
    @plantlord3266 Год назад +23

    brilliant and powerful song done only as Julia can do it. She did this live at a worldcon I was at and not a dry eye in the room. Stunning use of the music if Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald...

  • @lenorevanalstine1219
    @lenorevanalstine1219 3 года назад +25

    one thing thats scary is if they had had the malfunction earlier they would have died if it had happened one the moon or after they would have died the amount of effect luck had on them surviving is crazy they were in such a bad situation they had to stop dumping their urine as it was making them drift too much and they wouldnt have enough fuel to correct and not burn up they also nearly froze

  • @greatjonumber4958
    @greatjonumber4958 3 года назад +51

    I love the line about Gus Grissom, a nice throwback to Apollo I

    • @Marcus001
      @Marcus001 9 месяцев назад

      😢

    • @connormclernon26
      @connormclernon26 5 месяцев назад +1

      I’ve listened to the audio of that disaster. Chilling

  • @delton39
    @delton39 3 года назад +32

    I just realized this is to the tune of the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald

  • @Slytheringrrl2
    @Slytheringrrl2 3 года назад +130

    45 years ago today, 29 souls were lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald, the inspiration for this song.

    • @radeemer1
      @radeemer1 3 года назад +29

      So this song was inspired by Gordon Lightfoot's song? When did they make this?

    • @SongsfromtheStars
      @SongsfromtheStars  3 года назад +35

      The album was released in 1983.

    • @greatjonumber4958
      @greatjonumber4958 3 года назад +22

      @@radeemer1 Lightfoot's song came out in '76, and this song was in '83.

    • @afriendofafriend5766
      @afriendofafriend5766 2 года назад +5

      Pretty sure this song is about the Apollo 13 mission?

    • @mkb7001
      @mkb7001 2 года назад +10

      @@afriendofafriend5766 yes but the music

  • @Cinnamonscholar
    @Cinnamonscholar 3 года назад +22

    Space and tech forgot the most indomitable things, Humanity's will to help, create and survive...

  • @ViniciusAL20
    @ViniciusAL20 7 месяцев назад +2

    I'm 20 years old and i'm in love with Julia Ecklar's voice, I wish I could've seen her live but I didn't even exist back then lol, her voice is perfect.

  • @joren2840
    @joren2840 3 года назад +19

    Oh my god, thank you so much, so so much, for uploading the clear versions for all of these songs. You're a fucking hero mate.

  • @barragethree5047
    @barragethree5047 Год назад +11

    I love filk
    I love Julia Ecklar
    I am a Michigander
    HOW IN THE SWEET STARRY VOID WAS I SO IGNORANT AS TO PASS THIS BY

    • @valeriandamoclesmarcellus8756
      @valeriandamoclesmarcellus8756 6 месяцев назад +2

      FUCKING SAME! And ive known all the words to "wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" since i was 10 (thank you dad, god rest your soul) I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVENT FOUND THIS SOONER

  • @sanguiniusonvacation1803
    @sanguiniusonvacation1803 2 года назад +10

    Didn't expect a Lightfoot song cover

  • @Tula-cs1ef
    @Tula-cs1ef 8 месяцев назад +4

    Fun fact some of the test audience for Apollo 13 hated it and on the comment card wrote "too unrealistic, they'd never have made it,"

  • @mattm402
    @mattm402 Год назад +7

    Nonfiction or not... I think it makes it even better. Did I just heat a filk song set to the tune of the Edumund fitzgerald?

  • @mycoolhandgiveit
    @mycoolhandgiveit 3 года назад +18

    Thank you for uploading! The previous version I found was copyright striked :(

    • @republicsrpska2527
      @republicsrpska2527 Год назад

      the only other upload I could find immediately has some background noise

  • @cyqry
    @cyqry 3 года назад +49

    You're an absolute saint for uploading all of these songs!
    I would be careful putting this one up though; Weyrd had previously uploaded this and got a copyright strike from the supposed writer. Too many strikes and the whole channel goes, along with the rest of the songs.

    • @SongsfromtheStars
      @SongsfromtheStars  3 года назад +18

      I'll keep that in mind, however, since it's not monetized, there shouldn't be a problem.

    • @cyqry
      @cyqry 3 года назад +22

      @@SongsfromtheStars I've seen folk strike things even when it isn't monetized. Unfortunately, it seems like some people just hate watching others upload their work and would rather it be forgotten :(

    • @flinko99
      @flinko99 2 года назад +9

      I think it might literally be because the guy doesn't like Julia's wording in one line

    • @cyqry
      @cyqry 2 года назад +1

      @@flinko99 Sounds like it from what I've seen. Which is even more ridiculous because it didn't get shut down for *copyright* reasons yet that's what he used. Writer of this song is a grade A asshole.

    • @bengusmcribcager6373
      @bengusmcribcager6373 2 года назад +8

      @@cyqry what line specifically is he angry about? this is some advanced boomer hate, i gotta know

  • @afriendofafriend5766
    @afriendofafriend5766 2 года назад +8

    This song would make me shiver in the Sahara.

  • @bradpotts1747
    @bradpotts1747 8 месяцев назад +1

    chills
    every damn time

  • @PeterBoddy
    @PeterBoddy Год назад +1

    Amazing song!

  • @fionawimber1028
    @fionawimber1028 2 года назад +3

    You know this will be good when you hear this is a parody of Edmund Fitzgerald!

  • @TheGroundedAviator
    @TheGroundedAviator Год назад +3

    I think we can all agree this was going to happen at some point, it just does, I'm not being pessimistic, cynical or anything, I'm just being an engineer.
    And with Apollo 1, Soyuz 1&1, Challenger and Colombia another inevitable fact happened for reasons not worth going on about forever.

  • @okbamtheman
    @okbamtheman Год назад +3

    Since nobody has posted the lyrics yet here they are
    There's legends galore in the pulp SF lore
    'Bout shipwrecks of spacecraft a-spacing
    When meteor holes come 'tween men and their goals
    By demolishing ships that they're racing
    Painting pictures with words like none you'd ever heard
    SF writers made frightening predictions
    But the terrors they tell cannot equal the hell
    Faced by three men in fact, and nonfiction
    To April 11, Nine-teen Seventy now
    We must let our narrative carry us
    Three men in a C.S.M named Odyssey
    Beneath them, the L.M named Aquarius
    With a furious roar, Saturn leapt for the sky
    With Jack Swiggart, Fred Heise, and Jim Lovell
    Toward a planned rendervous that would never come true
    With the grey lunar gravel and rubble
    Still, they set up housekeeping in orbit, 'round Earth
    And translunar insertion was kindled
    But the public just yawned, for this landing was theird
    And behind them old Terra slow dwindled
    Apollo XIII traveled on down the track Laid down by the three laws Of Newton
    At fifty-sex hours into lunar bound coast
    Lovell said, "Houston, we have a problem"
    Now, they might have been struck by a meteorite
    Maybe something had just overloaded
    But their pannels went red with their malfunction lights
    And in Odyessy something exploded
    That blast blocked or ruptured their fuel cell line
    Their electrical energy faltered
    With no hope at all of a rescue in time
    Thirteen's mission profile had just altred
    To physics and God they commended their lives
    For no power on Earth now could save them
    Although NASA let the men talk with their wives
    Of goodbyes there was never a mention
    Three men in a CSM bound for the Moon
    Reached two hundread and six thousand miles
    Did they have enough air to get all the way there?
    Could they trust what they read on their dials?
    And when they reached Luna, could they change course for home
    Would she Trap them, or loose them at random
    Untested advice and contingency plans
    Were the only things NASA could hand them
    WHen appollo 13 crossed the limb of the moon
    And death came from the recivers
    We knew the next signal would speak of their doom
    Or answer the faith of belivers
    "Apollo Thirteen, This is Houston, Do you read?"
    Dear god let them answer us quickly
    The world held its breath and in mission control
    Every screen lit a face pale and sickly
    "Apollo Thirteen, this is houston. Do you read?" . .
    That empty sound streteched on for years
    "Houston. . .This is Thriteen. . . We're coming home!" said a voice
    And the world found relief in its tears
    At T plus one hundread and theirty-eight hours
    They jettosoned Odyssey's wreckage
    That modual was shattered and blasted apart
    A symbol of death in the space age
    Aquarius served as their lifeboat to shore
    Till they knew they would no longer need her
    At T pluss one hundred and fourty-one hours
    With a deep prayer of "Thank You" they freed her
    Ed, Roger, and Gus must have smiled on those days
    Knowing theirs was the path not to follow
    But their souls were with Swiggart and Lovli and Heise
    Riding home on the thrirtheenth apollo
    At T plus one hundread forty-three Fifty-four
    Apollo XIII hit the waters
    Three men returned home, shaken up, but alive
    To their wives and their sons and their daughters!
    There's legends galore in the pulp SF lore
    Bout shipwrecks of spacecraft a-spacing
    But all of them now do cause men to reflect
    On three days when the world's heart went racing
    Painting pictures with words all to few people heard
    SF writers could make their predictions
    But always recall that in spite of them all
    He truth was much greater than fiction
    Yes always recall that, that in spite of them all
    The truth must be greater than fiction

  • @swiftarrow1174
    @swiftarrow1174 2 года назад +4

    Why does this sound like "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot? it's like they have the same chords or something
    Edit: yeah, 6:18 has the exact same lyrics as 3:50 in ruclips.net/video/PH0K6ojmGZA/видео.html

  • @JimmyBlonde
    @JimmyBlonde 2 года назад

    Nobody knew, nobody cared.