"Dark Was the Night,Cold was the Ground" written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson on The Voyager Golden Record.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html The Voyager Golden Record is a phonograph record included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. It contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or far future humans, that may find it. The Voyager spacecraft will take about 40,000 years to come near another star, 'near' meaning in this case within around 1.7 light-years' distance; hence, if other beings do not come in the direction of the spacecraft to meet them, it will take at least that long for the Golden Record to be found.
As the probes are extremely small compared to the vastness of interstellar space, it is extraordinarily unlikely that they will ever be intercepted. If they are ever found by an alien species, it will be far in the future, and thus the record is best seen as a symbolic statement rather than a serious attempt to communicate with aliens.
9 Comments
plastiquemonkeysays...nice change from bach.
ry cooder did an amazing cover of this for the paris, texas soundtrack.
Prosperosays...Blind Willie Johnson, so terribly unappreciated in his own lifetime; yet there are only precious few, even now, who recognize his musical genius...
twiddlessays...*dead
siftbotsays...This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by twiddles.
siftbotsays...Awarding rasch187 with one Power Point for fixing this video's dead embed code.
EndAllsays...*blues
siftbotsays...Adding video to channels (Blues) - requested by EndAll.
critical_dsays...*length=00:03:22
siftbotsays...The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 3:22 - length declared by critical_d.
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