Currently doing a space race with my friends in Kerbal Space Program. I’m going to blast this in the group chat when I get to the moon. I expect a landing by 1965.
The wheel in the third verse is the Earth or, figuratively, the cycle of human progress and decay. The “vaster wheel” in the fourth verse is the solar system, the galaxy, or the wide range of possibility that opens up for humanity when we enter space.
I've been making my way through this whole album and THIS made me start crying as soon as it started
"But we who feel the weight of the wheel, as winter falls over our world..."
this is acknowledged as THE filk song of the science fiction and space communities. Many folk stand whenever it is sung.
gives me shivers
First filksong I heard.
What song is it based on?
@@carmensparkles It is an original song written by Leslie Fish.
This always makes me cry.
Currently doing a space race with my friends in Kerbal Space Program. I’m going to blast this in the group chat when I get to the moon. I expect a landing by 1965.
Damn, don’t know if I don’t prefer this one over Leslie’s first interpretation
This has Watersons vibes. I love it.
space/sci fi folk songs are a underutilized/underrated genre
What is a vaster wheel?
vaster is the comparative adjective form of vast (great in size/very large in extent or range)
The wheel in the third verse is the Earth or, figuratively, the cycle of human progress and decay. The “vaster wheel” in the fourth verse is the solar system, the galaxy, or the wide range of possibility that opens up for humanity when we enter space.
What year was this song written?
I’m not sure, but I think this album was released in the mid-1980s
Leslie Fish wrote it between 1969 and 1975.