Queen's "39" and relativistic time travel

It turns out that the melodic and catchy skiffle "39" (A Night at the Opera, 1975) by the rock band Queen is all about relativistic time travel.

Over at Cosmic Variance, Prof. Clifford Johnson has an article about it.

Listen to the song's tune and see related commentary. Trivia: If you start from song 1, album 1, this is the 39th song. Member Brian May (who finished astronomy) composed and sang '39'.

The filk is about 20 volunteers who surveyed deep space at lightspeed for a year. When they came back, 100 years of earth time have passed (due to time dilation as predicted by Einstein's theory of special relativity). The lyrics:

In the year of '39 assembled here the volunteers
In the days when the lands were few
Here the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn
Sweetest sign ever seen

And the night followed day
And the story tellers say
That the score brave souls inside
For many a lonely day sailed across the milky seas
Ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried

Don't you hear my call though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I take your hand
In the land that our grandchildren knew

In the year of '39 came a ship in from the blue
The volunteers came home that day
And they bring good news of a world so newly born
Though their hearts so heavily weigh
For the earth is old and grey, little darling we'll away
But my love this cannot be
Oh so many years have gone though I'm older but a year
Your mother's eyes from your eyes cry to me

Don't you hear my call though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
Write your letters in the sand for the day I take your hand
In the land that our grandchildren knew

Don't you hear my call though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
All your letters in the sand cannot heal me like your hand

For my life
Still ahead
Pity me.

Technorati Tags: 39, Night at the Opera, Queen, relativistic time travel, relativity, time dilation

Comments

[Anabel]

I always wondered what did the lyrics ment. Its good to know now!
I think its really awesome...
I love queen1

[gesundheit]

Sehr wertvolle Informationen! Empfehlen!

[William]

This song was based on 1974 Military Science-Fiction classic The Forever War by Joe Haldeman