The Unmade Podcast - Special: The Golden Record Review

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://redd.it/ze6i2m Catch the podcast on YouTube where we often include accompanying videos and pictures - https://youtu.be/A_TpBcToF6c USEFUL LINKS Fantales - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2IkXHjnJDo The Golden Record - NASA - https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/ The Voyager Missions - https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov Gliese 445 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_445 Solar System Family Portrait - https://www.planetary.org/space-images/solar-system-family-portrait Pale Blue Dot - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot The Rosetta Stone - https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-rosetta-stone Golden Record Track Listing for 40th Anniversary Edition - https://www.discogs.com/release/9228135-Various-Voyager-Golden-Record-40th-Anniversary-Edition Use Your Illusion - https://amzn.to/3Be22oz

Just let me grab a chocolate, actually. Yep. Just a little energy boost. You literally are still chewing, so. I am. I'm chewing. All right, welcome to my podcast. But it's so cool. I've just, for a bit of energy, a bit of a sugar hit,

I've just had a fantail. You can't talk for two days after a fan tale they're so no it's it's going on yeah i'll try and talk though to read out the uh the person and see if you can guess who it is all right so for people who don't know fan tales are these chocolates but the rappers have little biographies of either a movie or a movie star on them so they're little that's like a little novelty like a fortune cookie but for famous people so it's a bit like you read that through and you're going to see how early you can pick who the person is. All right.

Born on February 3rd, 1976 in Oman, her family moved to Australia in 1982. At nine years old, she was appearing in Australian television commercials and eventually landed a role in the long-running Australian soap opera. Is it Kylie Minogue? No. Home and Away. You should have waited for it. Home and Away. Wrong soap opera.

I don't know my Home and Away stars quite so well. Home and Away star the same age as me. In 2006, she was voted number 26 on FHM magazine's 100 Sexiest Women in the World. Poor thing. She also appeared in the film Wedding Crashers. Oh, Isla Fisher. Yes.

Well done. Yes. She's good in Wedding Crashers. That's pretty cool. I got an Australian. Yeah. Nice. Okay.

All right. All right. Let's do another one. I've got four more here on my desk. You just want to eat those fantails. Tonight's episode is brought to you by fantails, but I can't tell you about it because I'm eating a fantail. Bit of a different episode today because I've had an idea for a podcast

and I mentioned it to Tim, and what we're going to do for today's episode is dedicate all of this episode to that idea because my idea is based on the Voyager space probe golden record or I should say golden records there are there are two identical ones on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 now wait wait wait wait just like don't turn it off yet. Just hold with Brady for this idea. It gets better. It's not, strictly speaking, a space-themed idea. Keep talking, man.

Just stay with him, people. You know you're in trouble when the highlight of the episode is Tim reading the wrapper of his chocolate. So, by way of background, these two space probes that went out to the outer planets voyager 1 and voyager 2 they were launched in 1977 three two one mds we have ignition we have a lift off roll program is in on time vehicle response is normal is normal. Voyager 1 went to Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 went to Jupiter, Saturn, then audaciously went out to Uranus and Neptune,

the only space probe to visit those distant planets. The way you say it, you make it sound like a train stopping at different stations. Like, how could it go to multiple planets? I can understand if you direct it in a direction it goes and then you calculate it to crash into that planet, but how does it then leap off to the next planet? Funny you should ask. Basically these probes don't stop.

They just go past at speed, at high speed, and take pictures as they go past, and then they zoom off to the next one. And what they do is they make sure they aim at the bird at such an angle that when they hit the planet, well, they don't hit the planet, when they hit the planet's gravitational field, their direction is bent or slingshot. It's like a slingshot and turned in a corner and bent off in the right direction to go to the next planet.

And that was what was so amazing about Voyager 2, that someone figured out, hang on, we don't just have to go to Jupiter and Saturn. They figured out the planets were aligned in such a unique way that I reckon we could get from Saturn to Uranus. And from Uranus, I think we could even get to Neptune. So, Voyager 2, that's why I called it audacious, did this series of slingshot bendy moves as it went past all these planets to get itself off to the next one. It was a great piece of mathematics, great piece of gravitational mathematics. Well, how wonderful to be at that moment where you could, instead of figuratively, literally say the planets are aligned, we can do it.

Exactly. It was this incredible alignment. You know, they weren't in a line, but they were lined up in such a zigzaggy way that they figured they could get all four for the price of one. It was a great moment. But what happens is these space probes are going at tremendous speed. You could never stop them or turn them around. They're going faster and faster.

Every time they go past a planet, they go even faster as they get slingshot off to the next one. And what happens is they then leave the solar system. And that's what's happened to Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They've left, leaving the sun and they're off out into the depths of the galaxy to go past other stars in the future off on this journey. Now, why? What are they doing? Are they taking photographs or are they bringing information or what's their purpose? They're slowly dying now. So they reckon in about three or four years there won't be enough

battery power left for them to do anything and they'll just become cold pieces of man-made metal floating in space. At the moment that we can still speak to them and they can do certain readings of, you know, electrical signals and magnetism and we can learn a little bit about the space they're in. Right. They're so far away, there's nothing to take pictures of. Although famously, once they decided they couldn't take any more pictures because there was nothing left to photograph, they took the risk of turning Voyager 1 around and pointing it back towards the sun, which is risky because you could damage the camera. But they said, oh, well, there's nothing to lose now.

And they took this famous portrait of the solar system with loads of planets in it. The planets are all just little dots. But it was the first time there'd ever been a family portrait taken of the solar system, including a tiny, tiny pixel of blue light that was Earth. And that's a famous photo called the pale blue dot. Ah, yes. It's a picture of Earth taken from an incredible distance away. A guy called Carl Sagan, whose name will come up again shortly, wrote a famous piece of

prose about the pale blue dot picture. But they're not taking photos anymore. That really is incredible. You know, when you'd get, we'd be young and you'd get a remote control car and you'd be like cruising the remote control car on Christmas Day up and down the street and then it would stop responding because the remote control car had gone down five houses down and was out of distance from the remote control.

You'd be like, you know, that's annoying, but still it's got pretty good range. Yeah. Not compared to the Voyager. The Voyager has amazing range. Like they're still, they're turning this thing and it's out past Pluto. I mean, that really is ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, past Pluto and then some.

They should make remote control cars, the people in charge. They should. They should. They do make remote control cars. It's just they're on Mars. Oh, right. Yeah. They're very expensive. They're not going to be under the christmas tree so anyway with these two space probes hurtling

through space who knows who may find them so they figured let's put something on them with a little bit of information so they've put some information bolted to the outside of these space probes and one of the things they've bolted to both of them is this golden record. But instead of made of vinyl, it's made of gold-plated copper, 12 inches across. Very, very scientific and technical. But it's still a record with audio recordings on it and a stylus attached in the hope that some alien civilization may pop it on the record player and have a listen sometime in the future and the hope that alien life forms are going through a hipster phase at

that time collecting vinyl yeah they've stumbled across it because it's got a warmer sound will it have a warmer sound if it's a metal record and not vinyl i don't know anyway i've never played a gold record is it on voyager one or voyager two it warmer sound if it's a metal record and not vinyl? I don't know. Anyway, I've never played a gold record. Is it on Voyager 1 or Voyager 2? Which one? It's on both. It's on both of them. Ah, right.

There's two copies. Voyager 1 isn't heading towards any particular star, but in 40,000 years, it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445. Right. It's still quite a distance. So, you'd be doing well to spot it going past. But anyway, the thought is if an alien civilization gets hold of this, we want to tell them a bit about who we are

and a little bit about our musical taste by the sounds of it. So, anyway, a committee was put together. It was chaired by the very famous Carl Sagan, who's a scientist, but also a great science populariser, who was a great TV presenter of his time. He was like Mr. Space and Mr. Science of the time. Right. He led the committee and they decided what music to put on this record, what sounds to put on the record.

My idea for a podcast, my bigger idea for a podcast would be to have a series of episodes where each episode you review a different piece of music from the record. But what we're going to do today, a bit more quick fire, is do all the music in one episode. So today, Tim and I are going to go through the golden record, have a listen to what was put on it, and tell you what we think about it. So we've got Brady, who loves space and the idea of the Voyager probes and Tim who fancies himself as a bit of a music aficionado getting to flex his music review muscles at the same time.

See, people, I told you it was worth the wait. This is actually a good idea. It's not a space idea. It's not a mood of the week that goes for an hour. It's a CD. Well, sorry, it's a record review episode. It is a record review. Now, we're not the first people to investigate and go deep on the golden record. It's obviously something that captures people's imagination. There's been re-releases of the golden record made as special box sets and things like that. So,

it's a popular subject, but it's something I've never really looked into before or listened into before. I didn't know what the music was or I hadn't heard it. So we're going to go through it and tell you what we think of what was put on the golden record. I'd never heard of it, but I then discovered that I had heard of it. It had come up in a few places and I can mention that when we come to that particular place heard of it. It had come up in a few places, and I can mention that when we come to that particular place.

All right. So the first few tracks on the record aren't music. They're actually sort of audio recordings. And the first thing is actually a recorded message from a chap named Kurt Waldheim. He's Austrian. He was the head of the United Nations at the time. So he makes like a sort of a formal greeting at the start.

As the Secretary General of the United Nations, an organization of 147 member states who represent almost all of the human inhabitants of the planet Earth, I send greetings on behalf of the people of our planet. He later became the president of Austria. A little piece of trivia for you there. Even more obscure piece of trivia. I'm going to Austria on Wednesday. So there we go. Well, that is a phenomenal coincidence. It is.

The planets have aligned once more. Kurt Waldheim, just a pretty normal message. What you'd expect. We step out of our solar system into the universe, seeking only peace and friendship. Well, track one, side one, you'd like something strong, and this is a different, it's almost like a prelude, isn't it? It's not really a track.

It's spoken word. It's a hello, this is my album, and we hope you enjoy it. We know full well that our planet and all its inhabitants are but a small part of this immense universe that surrounds us, and it is with humility and hope that we take this step. And because of his accent, it's kind of a little bit like being told off by Tim's dad. Yes, it's pretty much that.

So it's like being told the music's too loud before the music's even started. told off by Tim's dad. It's like being told the music's too loud before the music's even started. He died in 2007, this chap. So, you know, I like to think about who's still alive on the golden record. That's a topic that has sort of taken my fancy a bit. He's not. He's dead. It is a really interesting role to say, okay, I'm going to say something at the start of a record that aliens may hear i mean that's the i mean it sounds

ridiculous but that's the only reason this has been put on there if for other life forms to hear it and unmade podcast listeners and unmade podcast listeners and um what what civilians and civilians of of other planetary systems as well. Yeah. But it's fascinating to think what he says, and I guess it's probably written for him, but it's fascinating that this track one is in English, but, of course, he has an Austrian or German accent. So that in itself is a little bit strange,

but I guess they chose English because it's the dominant language. I guess. It's the language of the United Nations conversations. Yeah. And NASA. It is NASA's spaceship. And that's true too. Yes.

And hopefully alien life forms. Yeah. When Star Wars at least. But the interesting thing is if you were an alien listening to this record, which is always the prism I'm listening through, is you'd probably think, United Nations, this guy must be the boss of the whole planet. Yeah. He must decide everything that happens on the planet. This is the most powerful person there could possibly be. Whereas the head of the United Nations, really, come on.

Yeah. Can you name the current head of the United Nations? Is the ultimate diplomat yeah has no power really i think he should have gone with the um jack's line from titanic i'm the king of the world just put that out there and then send it up before anyone noticed or sneakily like declare war or say we're attacking we're on our way or do an independence day Like where you put this record on

And that downloads like a virus into the mothership Of the alien ship Downloading a virus via a record Well you may as well They did it via a friggin laptop We don't know maybe that's what NASA's done Maybe Anyway track two.

Track two. Track two. Greetings in 55 different languages. We barrel through a bunch of languages, people saying, you know, hello, g'day, bonjour, namaste, shalom, konnichiwa. It's all there. Herzliche Grüße an alle. Assalamu alaikum. Chân thành gỡi tới các bạnỡ chào thân hữu.

Sayın Türkçe bilen arkadaşlarımız, sabah şeriflerinizi hayrol olsun. Konnichiwa, o genki desu ka? Derti ke basyon ki orse namaskar. Hello from the children of planet Earth. Now when I was listening to this, do you know what I thought? This would be like the Rosetta Stone. Because you know how the Rosetta Stone is written in three different languages and they were able to crack hieroglyphs because they found this stone

where things were written in different languages and finally they could use the different languages to translate back to hieroglyphs. So that was the beauty of the Rosetta Stone. I have no idea what the Rosetta Stone is. It basically had a decree, like some boring bureaucratic decree engraved into it. But it was engraved in ancient Greek demotic script and hieroglyphs. And hieroglyphs were a complete mystery at this time.

And they thought they were never going to be able to figure out how to read them. But because they knew these other languages and they knew that the thing written in hieroglyphs was the same as what was written in these other languages, it became this way to decipher hieroglyphs. It became this crucial, crucial document, although it's written on stone, it became this crucial, crucial document to crack hieroglyphs and previously unknown language because now they knew what this piece of hieroglyph said. I was thinking that this, having all these people saying hello, although it's not a particularly long piece of text, so it probably wouldn't be very useful. It kind of would be useful in some way because suddenly you've got all these different

languages saying roughly the same thing. Yeah, yeah. Chuk kot wait. Ping on. Kin hong. Fai lo. A danish lu shul mu. Zdravstvuyte. Privyetstvuy vas. I actually think they should have gone with what you say after you sneeze in every different language.

That would have been a more unique one. Because that's the one you want to know. Bless you. Yeah. Bless you. Or what you call out in your native language when the waiter drops a bunch of glasses in the other room. Taxi. Taxi.

There we go. It's quite nice. It's quite nice. Yeah, it's lovely. Nice little touch. Very kind of worthy and well-meaning and good-hearted, which is pretty much how you would sum up this record, really. Almost to a fault. Well, they're not going to put the worst of us on there,

like just two people arguing and bickering in traffic. Swear words. Oh, the best swear words in different languages would be good. The next track, track three, we get four minutes of greetings in various languages from various officials there's a whale song included as well which gets more and more prominent as the track goes along. At some point you hear a guy clearing his throat, which I can't believe they didn't edit out,

but anyway, it made up throat. which I can't believe they didn't edit out. But anyway, it made it through. And I like it. One person says, my dear friends in outer space, which must feel like a weird thing to be recording in the studio. My dear friends in outer space, as you probably know, my country is situated on the west coast of the continent of Africa.

Anyway, this is the third and final track of formalities and greetings and stuff. I should like to extend the greetings of the government and the people of Canada to the extraterrestrial inhabitants of outer space. I did think the whale song was kind of like the Linda McCartney contribution to the Paul McCartney album, you know what I mean? Like not really necessary to have that tambourine in there, but, you know, hung around the studio so long it was like got to have a go.

The whale obviously has connections with the record company or something. It's like, get me on that album. I want to be on that album. And of course, we don't know what the whales are saying. They could be swearing. Well, no, that's true. More likely than not, they're asking for sex. Now, track four, we have 12 minutes of the sounds of earth.

Hmm. We have 12 minutes of the sounds of Earth. Now, this is interesting, isn't it? It's actually kind of obnoxious and annoying a lot of the time. Very screechy and whiny. We have thunder. We have bubbling. We have rain. All sorts of animals, many of which sound quite angry and unwelcoming, I thought. Well, I think it's a bit like to get an animal to make a noise, you've got to

kind of pinch it or something, and they've done that with a whole bunch of animals to get them to make so they just sound annoyed. get him to do it again we have babies crying my overwhelming reaction to this was that it made earth sound really scary and annoying again maybe that's part of the earth defense plan like don't come here we've got a really annoying place where animals are constantly being pinched i actually thought this track could be renamed pocket dial like it was It's just what you hear Your elderly uncle as he goes through his day It's just crap, you know

Getting into the car and all that sort of stuff Things being sawed and hammered Why do we want aliens to hear that? We get a bit of Morse code, which I like A bit of heartbeat Now you're getting a bit arty I liked the heartbeat. But chains and it gets more and more modern until towards the end

we get things like a countdown and a rocket launch and stuff. So, but again. Which again sounds menacing. Why not go with, what are some cool sounds you'd like to have heard on there, man? Like. Episode nine of the Unmade Podcast, maybe. Just put that on the record. Well, there's cool sounds that sound good.

Like the sound of a lightsaber. Something they can relate to. Chewbacca. You just feel Star Wars sound effects. Makes it sound like we could fit in, you know. The whoosh whoosh at the front of Kit in Knight Rider. Things like that. Oh, yeah.

Whoa, whoa. Yeah. Whoa, whoa. I would have liked to hear things like, you know, the sound of a stamp at the library with the date being put into a book. That's a great sound. I love that. Yeah. Satisfying sort great sound. I love that.

Satisfying sort of sound. The buzzers on sale of the century. And now fast money. Buzzers on sale. There we go. Finally, we get to the music. Now starts the selection of songs and music. Track five is the first song. Four minutes and 40 seconds of the Munich Orchestra

playing Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bachmeister. Yeah. Gets a Guernsey early on. by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bachmeister. Yeah. Gets a Guernsey early on. Bring on the heavies pretty early, I say. Solid start.

Solid start. It's not a showstopper. It's not one of the classics where I'm like, oh, yeah, I straight away knew what it was. But, you know, it's all right. No. It's sort of a piece of music I think should be played in the background while they're doing a dance in a Jane Austen drama. Oh, indeed.

That was the feeling I got. Yeah. I mean, Bach's good. Bach, I don't know a lot of classical music. I know only bits and pieces, but I like Bach. I enjoy Bach. Although this is sort of more, oh, yeah, no, this is nice. Yeah, this is all right.

I feel like this should be played very gently in the background while an English woman and an English aristocrat are having witty banter about romance and stuff like that while they're dancing, like, you know, very Pride and Prejudice. Play it at the bowl. Well, Outer Space is very Pride and Prejudice, isn't it? That's where a lot of the great period pieces and romances are set. Let's move on to the next one.

Now we're going to really start testing my pronunciation. Track six, we have Purupaku Alaman Palace Orchestra playing Ketawang and its kinds of flowers. This is Javanese. This is from Indonesia, and I thought it was a bit droney. Apparently very famous in central Java, but I don't know. We're not a bit for me. I like this, actually.

I have to say, we're going to hear a lot of sounds from around the world. Yeah. And some of them are not as interesting to keep listening to as others are. But I like this one. I thought I liked the wailing. I like the acoustic sounds of it. It is a bit more musical than some of the other ones that are coming. I'll give you that. Yep. There is some schoolyard recorder sounds of it. It is a bit more musical than some of the other ones that are coming. I'll give you that.

Yep. There is some schoolyard recorder sounds coming up. My sister's recorder is going to be referenced many times in this episode. My sister got a recorder at some stage when she was in primary school, and she was not gifted at playing it, but that didn't stop her playing it a lot in the bedroom next to mine. And I'm haunted by the sound of my sister playing the recorder. And I had a lot of memories of that while listening to some of these songs. If you're wondering what they're singing about, they're singing about an old prince comparing nine of his wives and concubines to different flowers.

Oh, golly. That's not terribly romantic when there's nine, is there? I mean, really. Well, each one's a different flower. What flower would you compare your wife to if you were comparing her to a flower? Oh, look, that's very good. I would say like a daisy. Daisy?

Nice, happy sort of daisy. Yeah, I can see her as a daisy. But, however, my concubines. Yeah. Yeah, I can see her as a daisy. But, however, my concubines. Start with my wife and build up from there. Of course, King Solomon had sort of hundreds of concubines and just thank goodness there are hundreds of flowers, that's all I could say, or else he'd be in real trouble. All right, very good.

Anything else to say about that central Javanese music? No, but I liked it. I liked the sound of it. You liked it. All right. Yes, I did. Good to hear. Next we go to number seven.

We have Mahi Musicians of Benin. I can't even pronounce that. Sengunami? I don't know what that says. I don't know. Sengunami, yes. West African country. Very simple.

Kind of around the campfire feel, I wrote down. Yeah, nice bit of a shuffle. Nice beat sort of to it. The sort of thing you could sample and use for a few other things. But, yeah, solid. Not making a big statement on this particular track. I like it. I like it.

Yeah. I like it. That could be, like, the quote they have on the album cover, Brady Haran. Brady Haran. He's a big rap on West African sounds. That's great. Number eight, Mumbuti of the Ituri Rainforest, the Alima song.

Yeah, this is lovely. So this is from the Congo. Yes. And this is beautiful, I thought. Democratic Republic of Congo. Acapella singing. Quite short and sweet, I thought. More of a pop single than a longer piece.

Nice. Nice. This is beautiful. This gave me the feeling of being there. You know how some sounds do that and others don't sound so much? Yes. Yeah, I was like, I could picture the Congo. Not that I've been to the Congo, but you know. And do you think they have a future, this particular act? One thing, I don't know if this is an example of it, but in reading about how a lot of these pieces of recording came to be very often they were recorded out in the field by what felt

like middle-aged white men uh who were like on their journeys and recording things and i think like there's a little bit if you read deeper and i encourage people to read deeper and i will include some links sometimes there's a bit of controversy about did the people know that they were being recorded and how this was going to end up being used. We're not blind to that fact and you can read about it elsewhere. It's not something we know enough about to comment on very much, but it is an interesting fact. And in some cases in later years, people took the recordings back to these places and explained

to them what happened and how it had gone into space and things like that. So, but I don't know if this was an example of that. But let's move on to number nine. Tom Jawa, Mudpo and Walapuri, Morning Star. And this is Australian. This is- This is Australian. This is the Yolmu people.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So this is sort of the native music of our country, which is pretty old and beautiful. The Congo is also quite old, as is West Africa and Indonesia. So the Yolmu people, the homelands are up sort of just east of Darwin. This is the very, very, very top part of Australia. It's about as far north as you can go.

And I read up a little bit on this, and this is, again, was recorded in context in situ. And there is something, I have to say, I mean, there's Indigenous music from around the world, but Australian Indigenous music does, it feels familiar when you're listening to a lot of it, doesn't it? It feels like our kind of music in a way. When I hear a didgeridoo or a yadaki as they're called, you go oh, that's ours, that's like our instrument because it's from the

Indigenous Australians, even though of course it's not ours in that strict sense. Have you ever played a didgeridoo? I think I've tried, but I didn't. I'm not someone who is very good at that sort of thing naturally, so I didn't get a lot of the sound coming out. But I have blown in it and told, you know, you've got to loosen your lips.

I'm trying to loosen my lips, for God's sake. They talk about you've got to do circular breathing because you're sort of breathing out and in at the same time. And no matter how many times they said that, I couldn't get that to work. Nah. That's just hard stuff. Tom Jawa, who is quite a famous Aboriginal master painter, he died in 1980.

He is not playing the didgeridoo on this recording. He is on the clap sticks apparently right just uh just you know full disclosure you'd be familiar with the clap sticks because i can imagine many a music class when you were handed them rather than a more complex instrument i'm definitely i'm definitely the clap stick triangle uh shaker maraca type guy definitely definitely okay next we have number 10 antonio maceo and many many words i can't pronounce doing mariachi that's in there you should be well yeah it's mariachi music it's it's it's mariachi uh music it's regional mexican music el cascabel so like to an uncouth person like me who doesn't understand music and culture this sounds like

you know that first 30 seconds of music that gets played in a movie to establish we're in mexico now this is like this this is like this is this is like so mexican to me that it hurts This is like, you know It seems very representative of the culture to my untrained ear And it has a really nice finale to this piece of music It's a beautiful piece, isn't it? It's very festive, but again, it's instantly familiar. That's probably the thing that makes it more...

But it's full and alive and trumpety and full of people. Yeah, because a lot of the music on this album is very mournful and serious and worthy of the... But this is like, yeah, having a good time. Have you been to Mexico? I have only been to Tijuana, which is not representative of all of Mexico and did not impress me. But I have friends that have gone to the nice parts of Mexico many times

and rave about it. It is a place I would love to go and spend some time. Have you been? No. I'd also love to go to Chihuahua, but that's just because I have a Ch I would love to go and spend some time. Have you been? No. I'd also love to go to Chihuahua, but that's just because I have a Chihuahua. So here we are. Now we move on to very familiar territory. Number 11, we have Johnny B. Good by Chuck Berry.

With a bullet. With a bullet. Yeah, no, it is. Funny you should say that. It never reached number one. It only got to number two on the Billboard charts. They didn't put a number one song on here i mean of all the bits of like you know popular music because they didn't put many bits

of popular music western american type music that we would know on here they chose this one i don't i'm not entirely sure why but it's a great song though it is a great song i think it's a sort of um very indicative of that kind of rock and roll and what rock and roll is because it's kind of about a rock and roller called johnny be good you know who can play the guitar and it's universally known so it's a bit i mean apart from what else could there be like twist and shout it's it's that sort of, you know, play a rock and roll. Think of a rock and roll song, this one comes to mind. Rock Around the Clock would have been another one, yeah.

Yeah, that's right, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, or Roll Over Beethoven, you know, one of those sort of it's right there. I think it's a pretty good choice. I used to love it and it was one of the first little things that I tried to learn on guitar. And I don't have the guitar here tonight to try and show you,

but that first little lick is just like um lots of fun to play and it's quite simple actually but it sounds fantastic and everyone cites Chuck Berry the Rolling Stones all the way through the Beatles everyone cites Chuck Berry as being such an inspiration so he's a he's a good choice I'd like a few more from that era and beyond but he's a good choice. I'd like a few more from that era and beyond, but he's a good choice. I mean, for me, this will only ever be Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future playing this song. Which is a great scene, by the way, a great movie scene. Anyway.

Yeah. Johnny, be good. Your kids are going to love it. I like that. That's right. I love that line too. You could play a guitar just like a ring and a bell. That's just a fantastic line, you know, just so simple and easy and lovely.

Who never, ever learned to read or write so well, but he could play a guitar just like a ring and a bell. All right. There we go. Twelve. Pranas Pandang and Kumbi of the Nayara clan. Yeah, this is not quite as exciting. My sister's got the recorder out again, I'm afraid.

I'll never forget it. This is from Papua New Guinea, by the way. It's a kind of flute being played, not a recorder. And this is another one of those ones that was recorded without permission. It was recorded by an Australian guy. Aunty Dawn. Many people will know my mum, Aunty Dawn. She spent, Mrs. Hine, spent a bit of time in PNG.

Could have been around the time this was recorded, actually. Yeah. Yeah, she was there doing some mission work and all that and has a great love of her time of PNG and never stops talking about it. She was like a mother craft nurse up there helping little babies and to be born and stuff in villages and, yes, so. Well, I hope she didn't have to listen to too much of that music because that's not really my cup of tea.

We'll see. Okay, let's move on to number 13 goro yamaguchi the titanic theme yeah it is a bit i guess it's a bit Titanic. It's called Depicting the Cranes in Their Nest in English. That's not what it's called in Japanese. This was first a hit for Celine Dion in 1998. I thought it was a bit tortured.

Apparently the performer of this shaku hamchi, it's an ancient bamboo flute. And this person who played it was declared a living national treasure in Japan. You lose your living national treasure status when you die. Yes. But there you go. Apparently this is quite important, quite lovely. Lovely. Imagine if your sister had gone. She would have been worshipped as a god. She would have been.

She would have been. Papa New Guinea especially. They would have liked that. She would have got the whole C-3PO treatment. All right. We haven't got to the track of my sister playing the recorder yet. That's later on the album. Number 14. Johann Sebastian Bach strikes again.

Bach. I think he's the only one who gets two tracks that I can remember. This is a violin solo by Arthur Grumiau. Grumiau. I know these people are famous and therefore my inability to say their names correctly is an embarrassment to myself and my family, but so be it. He's a Belgian violinist and one of the great violinists. And I might not be able to say his name, but I read a lot about him last night. I'm really interested in what violins famous violinists have.

You know, do they have a Stradivarius? What one do they have? What do they have on loan? And he had quite the collection of impressive violins. Go and have a look at his Wikipedia article if you want to find out more. But I did like the track. I like a well-played piece of music that has just one instrument like just piano or just violin and that and this is a good example

of that i really enjoyed this i like it too i do prefer the cello i like a deeper sound and so i would have put on something if you're going to have a second track from bark i would put the cello suites in but they are but the you know this is this is perfectly fine this is this is a you know a good album track by yeah, he's sort of. I'm not sure it was a single. So it is just an album track, but it's risen over time. While it may not have risen in the charts, it's been blown into space. So that's, you know, not to be sneezed at.

Number 15, we have the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus giving us a bit of Mozart, a bit of magic flute. I recognised this one, which is impressive. Wow. Even I knew this one. So a raging aria. I love a bit of that. Yeah. I love a bit of that.

Don't you find? Oh, look, there's a sense by which I think I could like opera if I really committed myself because there is an intensity to it and I like music that's full on and intense. Yeah. But I do feel like they're getting too angry or excited or sad over too little. You know, there's a sort of, you know,

he has fallen asleep. And then there's like wailing and gnashing of teeth. And it's just, oh, no, he has awoken. He has awoken. You know, and then like, yeah. So I feel like it's, you know, it's crying over spilt milk all the time. Tine it down. Tine it down.

So pick up, you know. Bit of context. Put it in context. I know. The singer here is Eda Mosa, who is still alive at the age of 84. So we've got someone still alive who's on the golden record. I'm glad this is on there. You know, I'm always pleased when there's a song I recognise on this album.

And this is one of them. That's right. And so far, that's the Magic Flute, The aria from the Magic Flute and Johnny Be Good Is that right? I think that's all I would say And the whales And the whales Number 16

The Georgian State Merited Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance An album, a track here called Chakrulo It's a folk song about preparing for battle Yeah, I like this Yeah, well apparently this is a type of music called Georgian polyphonic choral folk And UNESCO declared this to be An intangible heritage masterpiece

This way of singing Georgian polyphonic choral folk A lot of voices here there's a lot going on a lot of very big masculine sort of sound yeah i like it i like this a lot but would the aliens like it it doesn't matter what you and i think well no well that's right but i think they've got something else if they want to move across to flutes and to the recorder, that's there too. So it's there amongst other things.

And there's always an album. You know, when you buy an album, there's always one song you don't quite like. Have you got a favourite album but containing a song you always skip? Yeah, so for a long time my favourite album was Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. And I mean, the songs you don't like later in life become the ones you do like. Yes. Yeah. Like Why Worry on Brothers and Arms. I always thought it was a bit of a boring song. Or The Man's Too Big, The Man's Too Strong was a bit

like that. But now, like, I really appreciate those songs. Maybe because I didn't listen to them to death or I just got more sophisticated in my taste. But it is like discovering a gem. Like, similarly, I know you go back and find it new because it hasn't been thrashed to death by all the other songs and it wasn't a single. It's like that. I remember on Ak Tung Baby, there's a song called So Cruel, which is a bit of a plodder, really. I love that song. Well, no, no, and it just came alive to me.

I was out riding my bike years ago and I was listening to it and I suddenly heard a little pumping guitar part in the back that kicks in halfway through that I'd never heard before. And it just lifted the whole song. And, hey, I really like that song too. Our apologies to the people of Georgia for hijacking your moment on the Golden Record with our reminiscences about Dire Straits and U2.

Now we move on to track 17, Musicians of Ancash. And we have two instruments here called the Ron. It's not that I can't pronounce it it's that i can't read it because my computer screen's so far away the ron cadaros and drums i know what drums are this is a pretty simple piece of music i think my sister hasn't has cracked out the recorder again i'm afraid In fact, these are Peruvian panpipes. Again, we have that kind of vibe. It is amazing how the insistence in the Australian curriculum

on all of us having to learn a little bit of music on the recorder has totally ruined our appreciation of global music and world music for the rest of our lives. This did bring back a happy memory. I was trekking in Peru a few years ago, and on one of the days when we were climbing up the mountain, two musicians, one of whom had panpipes, followed us for an hour or two. I think they were like, it was part of like the experience. They were employed by the trekking company just to accompany us with this kind of mute panpipe music as we climbed up to this beautiful scenic peak.

And it was a really good experience and they were really good people and we had good fun with them. So this does bring back happy memories of Peruvian music. Number 18. Someone else you may be able to recognise. Well, I know Louis Armstrong, of course. This is Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven playing Melancholy Blues. And I have to say, meh. I thought it was very generic.

I find blues boring at the best of time. This could be anyone honking away on a trumpet. I think this was a waste i think there's such a certain number of slots they were willing to give to people who were famous in quote marks and kind of western music and i think they wasted one of them with this myself i like this but i like it as background music i i i like i like jazz and i and this is more sort of swing jazz or um you know sort of new orleans kind of jazz but it's it's um uh it's you know like put in the background and have play for a nice atmosphere if you're having a good conversation kind of jazz rather than i want to listen to this intensely and follow where it goes. So I'm a bit with you there. I feel like this is music people have to say they like

because it shows your credentials as someone who appreciates music. But no one could really like this that much. Are you serious? You do. You can hear the talent in it, surely. Well, yes, I couldn't do it. But there are lots of things I can't do. That doesn't mean I want to watch or listen to other people doing it.

This is a pleasant thing to have on in the background. Oh, no. It's a pleasant thing. I disagree. I don't think it's pleasant. I don't think. I would change the station. You'd actually, you find it aggravating, do you?

Oh. Yeah. I mean, not totally aggravating. I could tolerate it, but, you know. No, no, no. This is music I play all the time just when I've got nothing else to play, then I don't want to think. Yeah, like if I had absolutely nothing else to play, maybe.

All right. Number 19. All right. Camille Jalilov playing Mugham. This is from Azerbaijan. Apparently, this guy is like the Azerbaijani master of wind instruments. And he's playing a balaban, which is a cylindrical double-reeded instrument, which can be made of mulberry or other hardwoods, such as walnut,

if my memory serves correctly. woods such as walnut if my memory serves correctly um and interestingly this person just died in february this february just gone so uh just a recent a recent passing of someone on the golden record i feel like this like this is quite nice but it's quite nice in a way that sting samples and puts on top of his pop songs to make them sound like they're more like world music songs. You know, like Sting's a classic for that. He writes great pop songs, but he wants them to give a bit of a depth and a feel to them, a bit like Peter Gabriel too, authentically, because they're getting good musicians to do it.

But you know what I mean? They sort of lace it with those sorts of drums, and this is the sort of noise he'd have flowing over the back of one of his sort of ballads to give it a bit of a feel. I think this instrument sounds nice, but I feel like it could have been played better with all due respect to the king of Azerbaijani wind instruments. But I feel like it's like, I don't know. I feel like there's something nice, there's something pleasant trying to get out, but it doesn't quite work for me.

Oh, dear. I know, I know, I know. You're a harsh critic and mainly because you're just such a, your standards are so high, man, when it comes to music. Exactly, you know. I've been brought up listening to Tim play the guitar and my sister play the recorder. You'd think I'd take anything.

Dynamic duo. All right, let's go to number 20 here. Number 20 is the Columbia Symphony Orchestra playing Stravinsky. The Rite of Spring. Yeah. Have you heard of this before? I didn't know the name, but I recognised the music. And when I read about it, I was like, oh, yeah, okay, this is pretty famous.

They're a ballet and orchestral concert, the Rite of Spring. And I really liked this a lot. And do you know why I like it? Why? The reason I like it? Because it sounds like movie score. Yeah, yeah, it does. This is the one that sounded like it's from a movie.

And obviously, I love movies. So, I don't think it's very representative of what you may hear on Earth, a day on your life in Earth, you know, if you're walking around and stuff. But I loved how it sounded because it was like the movie. It reminded me of being in the movies. It is representative of a day on earth if on that day you happen to go to a concert hall to hear Stravinsky. Like, then it's the perfect soundtrack.

He kind of throws everything at the music, though. Like, there's a lot going on and stuff like that, so it's very sort of big and bombast. So, action scene sort of films, that's the sort of stuff. Yeah, lots of people jumping out from behind a wall with a knife and stuff like that so it's very sort of big and bomb brass so action scene sort of films that's the yeah lots of lots of people jumping out from behind a wall with a knife and stuff like that next we have hang on johan sebastian bach again is it bach again i don't remember him being where are we up to 20 we have glenn g Gould. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Playing the well-tempered clavier.

Yeah, that's right. I did a bit of reading last night. Well, let's hear what you think about the music first. I quite liked it. I like solo. I love solo piano. So, I liked this. I like it.

I have Glenn Gould, you know, like on my playlists and stuff on my phone. Oh, right. Very Alan Stewart who makes all my piano music for me. So, you know, I'm comparing Alan Stewart to Glenn Gould here, which I realise is an insult to Alan Stewart in many ways because I read a bit about Glenn Gould last night. I hadn't heard of him. I now realise he is like the super, super famous pianist.

I hadn't heard of him. I now realise he is like the super, super famous pianist. I hadn't heard of him. Canadian. He was a child prodigy and, you know, he's much acclaimed. He died in 1982 at just at the age of 50. And it sounds like he was a very, very odd bean. Really? He was a very, very peculiar man. He thought public performance was a bad thing.

He didn't believe music should be performed in public. He much preferred the studio. He had a lot of thoughts about public performance was a bad thing. He didn't believe music should be performed in public. He much preferred the studio. He had a lot of thoughts about public performance. He often hummed and groaned and made weird noises while he was playing the piano, which drove the audio engineers crazy. And a lot of people didn't like hearing it on his recordings. A few pianists do that, but it's often quite endearing. There's a guy called Keith Jarrett, my favourite pianist.

And he would just go, oh, you know, something like that. And it kind of adds to the live, you know, wah. He's like caught up in it, but yeah. He would only play in concerts if he was sitting on a particular chair that his father had made. He was very particular about how high the piano was. He was very particular about the temperature of any room he was in. He had all sorts of weird habits. Didn't like, you know, didn't like being touched or touching people

and would complain about being injured if someone touched him. Right. Read his Wikipedia page. It's a very interesting read. But apparently one of the all-time great pianists and on the golden record up there in space. On the golden record. Golden records, I should say. So there you go. Now, number 22 here. We've got a very, very famous piece of music that you will recognise straight

from the start. It's time for some Beethoven. Symphony number five in C minor. The most famous... I'm going to put it out there and I'm going to see what you say. The most famous four notes in musical history. Yeah, maybe. Let me stop for a second and think about that.

Ba-da-ba-da. Ba-da-ba-da. Da-da-da-da. I think you're probably right. It's been described as the cornerstone of Western music, this piece of music and that motif, the short, short, short, long. I would never think of putting this on because it's kind of so well known. You think even the aliens are going to know it? They're going to go, oh, this is good. They roll their eyes.

They roll those big huge black oval eyes Oh god They had to put that on there didn't they And yet it's the perfect sound for If we did actually hear back from the aliens It would be sort of Like that would be the perfect soundtrack To that particular moment

Close Encounters style I guess that movie hadn't been made yet So they couldn't put the Close Encounters music on there No no I thought you'd have more to say about couldn't put The Close Encounters music on there, but yeah. No, no. No, I thought you'd have more to say about this. I thought you'd be pleased it was on there. I'm pleased, but I would never listen to it.

It's a bit like, it's just so, it's a bit like Twist and Shout or Johnny B. Goode. You kind of never think of putting it on there because it's so ubiquitous. It's very good. Do you listen, do you listen, do you have... It's very good. Do you listen, do you listen, do you have... It's very good. Beethoven would be pleased to have your approval. I think I don't listen to a lot of classical music. I probably listen to slightly more than you by the sounds of it, though. But even I'm, like, yeah, I don't have, it's not a particular passion

or I don't know much about it but like mozart bark beethoven which of those three would you listen to the most or do you have a favorite if you had to pick a favorite composer right now would you go i don't know if i'd even know sometimes who i was listening to i think beethoven maybe billy joel loves beethoven the most and he used to keep a little bust of beethoven on his piano during his concerts to keep him inspired while he was playing his yeah you know cheesy sentimental it's the 70s i have i have a bust of you here on my desk that i look at whenever i'm recording a podcast.

I love that we're looking at each other through Zoom, but you've still got a bust of me even aside from then to look at because the bust is silent. That's why you like the bust more. If I'm doing other podcasts, I like to pretend you're there with me still. Nice. That's great. Number 23, Valja Balkanska. This is a Bulgarian folk singer, still alive at the age of 80.

Whoa. And apparently this music is about a rebel leader from the 17th and 18th century. And, I mean, while this is pretty good, it's a little bit wily and moany for my liking. But I think it's good. It's a little bit wily and moany for my liking, but I think it's good. I love this. I think this is awesome. It's like it's, I thought it was Irish, actually.

There's like Keeney, you know, when they sort of wail when someone's died out on a mountaintop. It's like really cathartic. I really, really love this. This could have been played in Titanic as well, you you know when people are drowning in the water and stuff maybe that's right at a particularly tragic sorry it's not a funny point it's just thinking people dying and oh if only some better music was playing while we're here struggling. But, no, in making the film, you're right. Yeah, it is good.

It is good. It is good. I liked it. I hope it translates well on the Golden Record when it gets listened to. Yeah, this gives me tingles, actually. I really liked it. That's how you measure music in real terms, whether it gives Tim tingles, actually. I really liked it. That's how you measure music in real terms, whether it gives Tim tingles or not.

How many tingles? That's a three-tingle song for me. Tim's tingle score on every chart of music. That's how things are evaluated in the musical world. 24, Ambrose Roan Horse, Chester Roan and Tom Roan. We have Navajo Night Chant. Yeah, so this is Native American. It's a healing ceremony, apparently, this is.

Of massive significance, I'm sure, beauty. Not much to listen to if you're not into it. I mean, it's a unique sound yeah and it's it's you can hear this is another culture and this is you respect it but you're not going to put it on after dinner well i don't know i mean if a spaceship crashed through my ceiling with a golden record attached to it and i may put it on. Apparently the healing ceremony is about restoring order between man and the universe, which also seems appropriate for the golden record.

I thought it was, like, quite haunting, quite a haunted sound to it, but in a good way. Like a healing kind of haunted? Yeah, not bad, not bad. 25, we have the Anthony Holborn The Fairy Round. Anthony Holborn was a composer at court for Elizabeth I. And this sounds like it should be listened to by people wearing

short puffy pantaloons and frilly collared tops and things like that. Yeah, this is rubbish. Yeah. Really? Oh, yeah. This is like wussy music, you know, flutes and people wearing powdered makeup. Yeah. Nah.

Yeah, I tell you what, Jimmy Barnes wouldn't play that. That's for sure. He would not. He would not. No, he wouldn't have it. Nah, it does nothing for me. Nah. Yeah, I tell you what, Jimmy Barnes wouldn't play that, that's for sure. He would not. He would not. No, he wouldn't have it. Nah, it does nothing for me. Nah. But, you know, you've got to have it.

It takes all types. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, it's track 25, so they haven't put it up the front. So, if they're still listening at that point, you know, but I feel like they're hiding it. It is a double album.

It's a big, long album, like Guns N' Roses, Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. They could have just put that on the Voyager probes, you know. There's not as many recorders on that. Let's say they put this, they spent ages pulling together this highly diverse, carefully produced global record, and in the end they go, no, let's just put on Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. Put Use Your Illusion 1 on Voyager 1 and Use Your Illusion 2 on Voyager 2.

And everyone knows Use Your Illusion 2 is like a better album. Voyager 2 was a better mission. There you go. We're just putting the latest Guns N' Roses album out there. This committee led by Carl Sagan and all these university professors meets and they spend weeks and weeks behind closed doors. And at the end they come out and they said, what you gone for and they go gunners how much would the record bumpity have to have paid as a promotion for the new album so it's actually going to be included on voyager one and two oh that's fantastic do you have a favourite song on either Use Your Illusion 1 and 2?

No, I don't. I'm sure I know the songs on it, but I wouldn't know that's the album they're on. Obviously, I'm familiar with the albums. Name a Guns N' Roses song that you like. Sweet Child of Mine. Yeah, no, that's not on either of these. That's on Appetite for Destruction, which came out in the 80s. So that's not on any spaceship these. That's on Appetite for Destruction, which came out in the 80s. So that's not on any spaceship.

So we'll leave that alone. All right. What's the best song on the Use Your Illusion albums? Put us out of our misery. Oh, well, November Rain, I guess. That's a lovely. You know November Rain, don't you? Of course I know November Rain.

Yeah. Nothing lasts forever. No. 26. My sister's back. She's got the recorder out again, accompanied this time by some Solomon Islands panpipes. Yes. We have the cry of the megapode bird.

Yeah, there's not a lot going on here for me. Yeah. Now, they could have done other good work in other places. I'm sure they have, but... Okay. But, look, if you had to ask me, I'd say this was the spaghetti incident out of the Guns N' Roses canon, you know, best sort of left where it is. Now we have 27, a young girl of Juan Cavelica singing wedding song. Just a girl, just a lone girl's voice singing.

Oh, matalata, na taikola, what a thing this can be. An unknown singer. I read a good article about a guy who tried to figure out who the singer was unsuccessfully, but if I remember, I'll link to the article it's quite interesting there's a lot of interesting articles about these songs and the stories behind them that you can find on the internet there was a suggestion that it's not a wedding song it just has a reference to marriage in it and someone got their wires crossed and now think this is a wedding song maybe it's not okay um i don't know the one thing i did think about this

though is like, it's quite like this obscure song from Peru I believe. And imagine if aliens got the record, listened to this, thought, well, this must be incredibly important because they've put it on this record. And they came and they landed a

spaceship, you know, in the middle of London and they got out. And then they to make peace with us and stuff, they started singing this song. We just have no idea what was going on or why they were singing this to us or what it was. I thought this was our tune. Yeah. Which is an interesting thing about this record. You know, a lot of this music, well, most of this music means nothing to most people. But what music means something to everyone?

You know, what are they going to put on there? Well, that's right. It is good that they didn't just go with Western music or, you know, with that kind of European-oriented stuff. They've tried to be genuinely representative of the cultures, and that's pretty good. But is that representative? When I go to a lot of these countries, I mean, i've been to peru i've sat in a taxi and what you hear on the radio is all the songs from back home you don't hear the girl singing wedding song you're more likely to hear michael jackson but perhaps if you were there not as a tourist but for a year

you might be immersed a little bit closer to the the culture and that's true and actually in Peru, I did hear a lot of local music out in the streets and festivals. I actually just realised I told a complete lie. Right. Peru, of all places, actually, I heard a lot of local music more than almost any other country I've been to. Bad example. 28, Juan Pingu with some tedious plucking of a stringed instrument. This is a song called Flowing Streams.

Again, apparently this is quite a famous musician playing the guquan, which is a Chinese seven-string instrument. This is the second longest song on the album. It's the only Chinese one. And, I don't know, know didn't really do much for me i don't think this is one of his better tracks this is this is not not representative of some of the stuff that i know he's capable of yeah he. He'd be like, oh, you put that one on the golden record. That's right.

Again, it does evoke a place and a context very quickly, though, doesn't it? Just one sound and you're like, right, you're right there. Yeah. So it serves its purpose in that. It's saying here is, you know, a sound of earth. Oh, what? Because the aliens are going to listen to it and go, oh, yes, that's China, definitely. Oh, yes, yes.

No, nowhere else. Immediately evoked the rice paddies. Kirsten by Kirkar. Yes. Playing a piece of music here at number 29. Playing a piece of music here at number 29. Apparently a much-louded Kayao singer, Hindustani classical vocalist.

I would describe it more as pained wailing, but apparently this is like an icon singing here. Well, let me tell you, I think you know my policy on the sitar. I can't do a sitar. That's just... Yeah. I'm unable to do it. I think I miss a lot of George Harrison's best work because of the sitar situation additions in there.

Right. All right, we know Tim's position on sitar, so we're just going to move on to number 30 blind willie johnson dark was the night cold was the ground yeah no look look in terms of the blues i've got no time for this sort of stuff i really can't i know it's important i know it evolves into rock and roll and it becomes hugely influential and it's the cry of, you know, a press press. I get the narrative. I lecture on that, but I don't like to listen to the blues.

Having said that, this is the track that made me realise that I had actually heard of the Voyager before, and that's through the TV show The West Wing. Did you remember that reference? I do, yes. Blind Willie Johnson himself is used as this, like, story or anecdote, you know, a blind singer singing American gospel blues made it all the way onto the golden record in space.

So there's this, I've actually got the script here from the show where the character Josh Lyman is talking to his assistant Donna and they're talking about life and what inspires you and what moves you and how humanity can be better and all that sort of stuff. That's just every part of the West Wing. But yeah, go on, read it to us. Yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah. So Josh Lyman, he says this. So Josh Lyman, he says this, he says, Voyager, in case it's ever encountered by extraterrestrials, is carrying photos of life on Earth, greetings in 55 languages. And a collection of music from Gregorian chants to Chuck Berry, including Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by 20s bluesman Blind Willie Johnson.

night, Cold Was the Ground by 20s bluesman Blind Willie Johnson. Whose stepmother blinded him when he was seven by throwing lyre in his eyes after his father had beat her for being with another man. He died penniless of pneumonia after sleeping bundled in wet newspapers in the ruins of his house that burned down.

But his music just left the solar system. And then Donna goes, okay, that got me. Okay, that got me. And then we finish with the Budapest String Quartet playing some Beethoven. String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major. Look, I have to say, I think the last track on an album is, after the first track on an album,

the second most important, you know, track to choose. And I was a bit underwhelmed by this choice. I would like to have gone out with... Completely agree. Completely agree. Completely agree. Disappointing finale. It's no Champagne Supernova by Oasis, let's be honest. No, I agree.

They should have gone with Dark Side of the Moon. Something from Pink Floyd would have been perfect. It's flying out there on the dark side of the moon. That would have been great. Was that song around in 1977? Well, the album, I think it came out in 1972, the album, but then they should have gone with Eclipse or something at the end, you know, that just sort of rounds it all off.

But maybe it would have been a little bit too spacey. There's a story which may or may not be true. I don't know. I don't know if it's true or not. It's been denied by some but not by others that the team wanted to include Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles on the record, but EMI, the company which held the copyright, would not allow it. Oh, right.

Crazy decision by EMI. I don't know if it's true. I think it's been since denied, but the story was around for a long time. So there we go. Overall feelings on the record, Tim? Now you've listened to it all? Look, I think it's not a long time. So there we go. Overall feelings on the record, Tim? Now you've listened to it all? Look, I think it's not a bad debut in terms of debut albums. I mean, it is more of a compilation, but in terms of a compilation,

it's a playlist really. Hits 1977. That's right. It's not the sort of thing Spotify is going to cough up for you Based on what you've listened to before Very diverse Yeah, diverse, it definitely is You would not say they lack diversity

Maybe a little bit too much bark I think there is, there's a little bit Some of the other composers you'd have to say from the classical sort of field would feel a bit hard done by. Bramsie. Bramsie. Hayden. You know, these sorts of guys.

They don't get a Guernsey. No, no. No. Just the big three, they get on there. Yeah. No, Pavarotti would have been nice to hear sort of a – I mean, there's a bit of opera there, but one of the three tenors, I guess they came of age later on.

Well, I think there should have been either The Beatles or Elvis. Elvis, yeah. Maybe. Certainly The Beatles because they've sort of written. I think the melodies. I mean, what they've gone for is the sounds, not necessarily the melodies. But why wouldn't they include something like Happy Birthday, which is what everyone, well, many, many people, many parts of the globe sing on a daily basis.

So, my idea for a podcast would have been to have done a different episode about each song. Right. But we've kind of blown it all in one episode. Yep. Another great podcast would be remaking the golden record. If they were sending off a probe now into interstellar space and you and i were on the committee deciding you know what's what's going to be on it yep what's going to be on golden record two redux revisiting it is there anything that immediately springs to mind that has to be on it

for you you know that maybe has been created since 1977 so you know we've got to clarify this so we're doing the whole era again like in, in other words, from scratch, including something that may have come up since 1975, or are we just going to do what we'd do only since then? It's up to us, Tim. It's our podcast. Indeed. But I need to know the rules before I deep dive into making these lists

because they're very important lists. We're not going to do it now. We might do it another day. So we can make up the rules later. But I'd love a supermassive black hole by muse to be on there would you not just because it's a spacey song but i think that would just like blow their tiny alien minds if they heard that pumping out it's such a cool sounding song oh yeah these people on earth they're rocking it and if they had a telescope and they could see through to a Muse concert,

they'd assume it was some sort of space station war or something that was unfolding as well. Is there something that just has to be on there? If you could just put one song and send it into space. I think it would be, I think Happy Birthday or something as simple as that would have to be, it's ubiquitous. If I could pick, obviously I'm just going to pick my favourite songs to go into space, which is not quite the point.

And I – let me – what's your – What about Earth Song by Michael Jackson? I was going to say before that this album is a little bit like disc two of history, you know, where he's trying to be all both spacey and universal at the same time and set himself up a bit like Jesus. Yeah. It's a heal the, you know, I healed the world's not on that album, but you know, it's all that kind of super sentimental, you know, I'm going to make everything okay. Now that my album's here kind of music.

Yeah. That's right. What's the one at the start of Space Odyssey? You know, the bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Oh, yeah, yeah. I always forget who did that. Oh, Richard Strauss by the looks of it. People who know this at home.

Yeah. Also, Sprout Zurathruster. People who know this at home. Yeah. Also, Sprach zur Thruster. I think that's the one. But, you know, there's some other great pieces that should be on there as well. Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. You just wonder if that's being played everywhere on earth at once and should be played. I'd put a bit of Sunday.

I'd be Saturday night if I was putting some Bon Jovi on there. That's a better Bon Jovi song, I think, even though that's not a well-known one. I would have thought maybe a song like What a Wonderful World. Well, that's a Louis Armstrong one that they should have gone with. Yeah. Exactly, exactly. He doesn't play, though. He sings on it.

You know, that's the. No, no, no. Do you want to do a golden record, our golden record as a future episode? I definitely want to do that. Like, I will be making that list. Whether we record it or not i don't really care but it's not just about tim's favorite songs it's got you've got every song i'm going to require you to give me some justification as to why the aliens should hear this okay all right

and it can't be because tim likes it okay well that's gonna that will be part of the reason. I will include at least two tracks on my collection that I don't personally like. Okay. So I'm putting them on there for a reason. All right. Okay. I'm going to enjoy it. Now, how many are we doing? I mean, there's 31 on this.

This is a big double album. But we're just going to do maybe half each. Maybe we'll decide that later, how many it will be. And, you know, and obviously the sofa shop will be on there as a pick from both of us. Can I ask you something else, Tim? If you were in charge of the Golden Record. Yes. And you had to engrave two words onto it for alien civilizations to read,

what two words may you engrave on it, do you think? Good question. Bellatrix and Cookie. That would leave the aliens scratching their heads, thinking, what are they trying to tell us here? What are Tim's daughters trying to tell us? That would be a fair commitment if I'd remembered, if I was sending off the record, because I know I'd probably send it off and then, like, it'd be gone. It'd be like, no, get them back, quick, quick. And it's like, so.

Maybe someone who knew Carl Sagan gave him two secret tracks he had to smuggle onto the album, and that's why there's a few duds on there. I wonder, you know how they have secret tracks on albums, you know, like the album finishes and then it plays silent for a while and puts one on there? I'd like to think you did that. There is one. I'll play it to you now.

Here it is. Thank you.