Marking the final launch of NASA's historic Shuttle Program, Spinner Canada counts down their top ten wake-up songs. Coming in at #1 is "Countdown":
"Canada brought more to the Shuttle Program than the Canadarm, and it came in the form of a Rush song. The iconic Canuck prog-rockers' 1982 single 'Countdown' was wholly inspired by Columbia's first trip in 1981, the first of the Shuttle Program. The song even samples audio from this launch and was played to wake up the crew on Columbia's 27th flight in 2002, on the day the shuttle landed back on Earth for the last time. So it's a pretty perfect pick to complete our wake-up song countdown as NASA's space shuttle program enters T-Minus Zero." - Spinner.ca, June 8, 2011 Thanks to Rushfanforever for the headsup!
A one-minute edit of Rush's "Countdown" was beamed to the Space Shuttle Endeavour at 7:54pm EST on May 25th as the Flight Day 11 wake up song for Mission Specialist Mike Fincke; click here to view the video. Here is Mike's response:
"Good morning to you all down in Houston and across the planet. I just wanted to say thanks for the song. That was by the band Rush and my friends Ken Fisher and Greg Shurtz sent that up for me. And Rush was really inspired by the launch of STS-1 so they included that in their music and it was really inspirational for them and for the whole album. What's really cool about it is that the Space Shuttle program has really inspired everybody across our planet for such a long time. So this song was a tribute to the Space Shuttle program and so we'd like to say good morning."
"Countdown" was written by Rush to document the first shuttle launch which took place just over thirty years ago, on April 12, 1981; footage of the launch was used in the song's video.
Thirty years ago today, RUSH were eyewitnesses to the historic first launch of Space Shuttle Columbia from Red Sector A, and later captured the event in the song 'Countdown', which is 'Dedicated with thanks to astronauts Young & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation'.
"We were there! It wasn't easy, but we made it! We had a long-standing invitation to the first launch, and always swore that we would be there no matter what. Little did we know!
"On April 9th we flew into Orlando on a day off, checked into a hotel, and slept until about four A.M., when we had to leave for our rendezvous at the Air Force Base near the Cape.
"Space: the final frontier. Those who can't venture there often sing about it. If there's a common theme uniting songs about hurtling through the vast expanses of the universe, it's loneliness. Space is cold, isolating and boring. Why do we want to go there, again? CHARTattack presents 13 Great Songs About Space Travel:
4. Rush's "Countdown" Turn it up a little. A little more. Just crank it. You wouldn't think that Geddy Lee narrating a 1980s NASA launch would be this exciting, but there it is." - ChartAttack.com, February 10, 2011"
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