Flashback #11 – Apollo 11

Guitar Man on the Moon

Forty-five years ago today, close to a million people filled U.S. Route 1 on Florida’s east coast to watch a Saturn V rocket blast off from Kennedy Space Center. This was the launch of Apollo 11 that carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon. During their eight days in space Armstrong and Aldrin became the first two men to walk on the moon. The event was broadcast live on TV to an audience in the hundreds of millions.

With a quick nod to Flashback # 5, it’s worth noting that 1969 was a year of many milestones. Musically speaking there was Woodstock, Altamont, CCR, The Grateful Dead, CSNY, Led Zeppelin’s first album, The Beatles deciding to break up and David Bowie’s first single “Space Oddity.”

When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and spoke the famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” our entire civilisation shifted into a future that we are still creating. Like everything else in life there is a soundtrack to it. NASA routinely plays wake up music to astronauts in space. You can also check out the things Commander Chris Hadfield has done with a guitar in space if you think there is no link between music and space adventures.

For the next eight days we’ll be commemorating the eight days the Apollo 11 astronauts spent in space. We’re going to post some fun things about music and space over on our Facebook page.

I hope you enjoy today’s post, which features a specially reworked Guitar Noise logo. Space, you can’t get much higher than that.