Interpretations:The Ballad Of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space)

Why is it that I'm hearing a political message in this about the cold war? --Dunklekuh81

Well, the original song comes from the 1950's, arguably the height of the Cold War. Crockett is the ultimate American and here he is participating in the Space Race (the competition being the Reds). There may be something metaphorical about the dog there too. Basically, it's the combination of a 50's icon and outer space naturally brings to mind the Cold War. --dogonfire

What strengthens the case about this pertaining to the Cold War is that in the animated movie released onto the Family Podcast, the ending scene of this song is with Crockett fighting and eventually befriending a bear who claimed the planet at the same time Davy did with a Chinese Flag (Red, Hammer and Sickle on top left corner -> Communism -> Russia).

That's the flag of the Soviet Union. The Chinese flag has the same colors, but has stars; no hammers or sickles. Russia was not an independent state during the Cold War Space Race. (I only point that out because I had an elementary school teacher who would rant about how we shouldn't call the Soviets "Russians" because Russia was just one part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This was burned into my mind and even today, when I hear someone refer to the Soviets of old as "Russian" my brow wrinkles.) --makebase

To me this being after the "theme song" for Here Comes Science foreshadows the next kids' album.... Here Comes History? --MetalDetector 18:45, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Davy Crockett? Or David Bowman?

I am shocked that no one noticed this yet - It seems like this song is at the very least inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as Davy Crockett. (Spoilers for 2001 abound in case anyone here has never seen/read it.)

"Reborn in the stratosphere..." - Much like at the end of 2001, how David Bowman is "reborn" as the Star Child.

"...and saturn bound" - The novelization of 2001 has the crew of the Discovery One headed for Saturn, where in the movie, Saturn comes after Jupiter, which makes it a logical place to go to after being "reborn."

"Jumped from the spaceship just to look around" - in 2001, Dave is forced to jump through the vacuum of space in order to re-board the discovery.

"Messing around with the fabric of time" - once Dave investigates the monolith, he is seen aging and consequently being reborn in a matter of moments.

"He knows who's guilty 'fore there's even a crime" - Kind of a stretch, but this could be a possible reference to the perceived omniscience which Dave gains upon being reborn.

"Hiding in the cargo was a robot drone Programmed to destroy Davy's spaceship home" - This one's fairly obvious: HAL 9000. Especially considering how Davy deals with the robot - He switches out his brain. To add to this, in the video for the song, the robot drone has a single eye much like HAL.

This interpretation may be a bit of a stretch, but it made plenty of sense to my fiancee and I. Even if it's not intentional, it's an amusing coincidence. --Boomerthemoose 17:19, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Definitely some 2001 overtones, even if it doesn't all fit (Bowman wasn't reborn in the Earth's stratosphere -- he's very far from home when he becomes the Star Child). But there's other sci-fi elements in there as well. "He knows who's guilty 'fore there's even a crime" sure sounds like the "precogs" of Minority Report, though both the film and the Philip K. Dick story on which it is based are set on Earth. And the whole transposition of the Davy Crockett story recalls the Space Western tradition. --Octoflange 05:32, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

I love the 2001 connection. I never noticed the parallels before. I wonder if it was intentional. --makebase