EIGHT miles high, and falling too fast” sang the heavenly combination of Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn and David Crosby back in January 1966 as The Byrds launched yet another sub-genre of music. In fact there are some who argue that Eight Miles High is the first example of both a psychedelic-rock and a raga-rock single. What isn’t up for debate, though, is that this innovative track was the first attempt by rock musicians to capture the excitement and mystery of space travel. In launching space-rock, The Byrds sparked a trend that would flourish over much of the subsequent decade ? 

Of course, the stark truth about rock bands trying to capture “the sound of space” is that space is a vacuum and since sound travels by waves, it cannot exist in that vacuum and space is silent (which does not excuse that abominable drag at the beginning of Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey 2001).