I love a song about science, it’s such a great source of exotic sounding words, epic concepts and mind blowing ideas. 

Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving

And revolving at 900 miles an hour.

It’s orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it’s reckoned,

The sun that is the source of all our power….

The Galaxy Song by Eric Idol, from Monty Python film ‘The Meaning of Life’, appears in the gruesome Live Organ Transplant sketch about some workmen trying to persuade a lady to donate her liver. It takes us on a journey from the mundane to the magical, with music hall melodies and swirling fairground chords, a blend of wonder and edification. 

Tom Lehrer and his The Elements Song, described in his dry and inimicable introduction in a Copenhagen concert hall:

‘It’s simply the names of the chemical elements set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune’

The ‘simple’ ideas are always the best!

The natural world, and our exploration of it, have provided a rich source for song lyrics. Songs about science are found in all genres… David Bowie’s Space Oddity about space travel. 

Or the hippie-hop YouTube hit about particle physics: The Large Hadron Rap by Kate McAlpine aka alpinekat…

Blackalicious – Chemical Calisthenics – a tidal wave of chemical terminology although the lyrical wizardry is more metaphorical than educational…

…As is the wonderful Mose Allison’s Your Molecular Structure 

While ‘A Biologist’s Mothers Day Song’ by Cadamole, is a lovely, literal, look at what our mothers gave to us biologically speaking, from mitochondria to transplacental inheritance 

One morning, listening to an episode of In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg and his guests, a group of physicists who study the Sun, I was transfixed by the descriptions of the structure and processes within our nearest star. From solar wind, the great heat from the nuclear fusion in its heart, magnetic forces and gravitational pull, gaseous plasma in swirling motion providing the energy for everything here on Earth.

I started noting down some of the more evocative terms and descriptions. Supersonic, solar corona, plasma aura… Such rhythmic syllables and exotic sounding words. The first lines for ‘Sun Samba’ almost wrote themselves…

Supersonic solar corona flowing from the sun

Plasma aura solar corona surface of the sun

The rest of the lyrics remained unelucidated as short phrases and ideas in my note book. When, a few weeks later, months maybe, Jochen said he wanted to write a samba song, and had some ideas, I remembered these sun jottings. 

So one dreary evening in February 2018 we got together in Jochen’s living room.  He played me his Brazilian jazz composition infused with South American warmth, on piano, singing the tunes. It had a verse bit, chorus and a riff. The rhythmic riff section fit my original “supersonic solar corona…” lines perfectly. Serendipity! 

The first 2 verses and chorus were cobbled together using my rough notes from In Our Time. 

In the depths of a Welsh mountain winter, with spring round the corner, Jochen came up with the last verse. ‘Still some snow on the mountains, winter fades and the sun’s breaking through…’

Over the next few of months, as winter turned to spring Sun Samba got the Bacana treatment and by June 2018 it was ready for the summer gigging season. 

It really came into its own at our album launch in September at Pontio with impromptu audience participation, as only North Walians can. It was too late to include on the Stop the Planet album but it will definitely be on the next one, watch this space!

Here are the lyrics:

Sun Samba

words by Kate, music by Jochen

Verse 1
Sunshine brings daily magic
Radiates warming light through the days
Seasons change currents swirling
Green leaves grow in the life giving rays

Chorus
Sun — streaming through the atmosphere
Light — beaming down to earth

Verse 2
Spinning sphere in the darkness
Solar gas flowing out, glowing white
Plasma: photons, electrons
Solar flare shooting high, shining bright

Chorus

Vocal Riff
Super sonic solar corona flowing from the sun
plasma aura solar corona surface of the sun

Solos – Riff

Verse 3
Still some snow on the mountain
Winter fades with the sun breaking through
Underground life is stirring
Feeling warmth from the sun, feeling new

Chorus