3 Star-Themed Rock Songs to Celebrate the Life of Patrick Stewart

To celebrate the life of the late, great British actor Patrick Stewart, I’ve compiled a list of star-themed songs. Stewart, who mastered Shakespeare and found acclaim both on stage and on screen, first entered pop culture as Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In keeping with the theme of his breakthrough role, here are a few starry and space-minded tracks from Stewart’s fellow Brits. Picard may have traveled on a starship, but he also explored the depths of the human condition.

“Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space” by Spiritualized

Falling in love is one of the most consequential events of the human experience. Big feelings, big decisions, on a big planet. But in the utter vastness of outer space, it’s tiny. All of it, including us, minuscule. We seek meaningful and lasting connections on a Pale Blue Dot, hurling toward some unknown. With help from Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, Spiritualized leader Jason Pierce takes us on a voyage of unconditional love, pain abatement, and cautious vulnerability.

I will love you till I die,
And I will love you all the time.
So please put your sweet hand in mine,
And float in space and drift in time.

“Star Sail” by The Verve

Four years before Richard Ashcroft penned one of Britain’s great rock anthems, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, he prowled around the stage in such an unhinged manner that critics dubbed him “Mad Richard.” Leading The Verve, Mad Richard’s voice was often buried in a haze of improvised jams and gorgeous shoegaze. “Star Sail” is the first Verve song I heard, and it left me staring at my speakers as guitarist Nick McCabe conjured the sounds of a churning and unpredictable universe with his pedalboard. It foreshadowed the tumult of his own band. The Verve imploded just as they were taking off. Then they reformed, dropped an urban hymn, and then burned out from the heat that propelled them.

Hello, it’s me, it’s me calling out,
I can’t see you.
Hello, it’s me crying out, crying out,
Are you there?

“Black Star” by Radiohead

We fear what we don’t know. As children, it was the monster under the bed. As adults, it’s a looming worst-case scenario that most likely won’t materialize. But we fret about it anyway. In “Black Star”, Thom Yorke sketches a portrait of heavy depression. A relationship splinters, and the couple can’t understand why, so they invent scapegoats for their problems. Don’t understand “what is eating you,” Yorke says. Blame it on the falling sky, I guess. It’s the irrational part of the brain competing against the rational. And it’s the unknown that makes us feel too scared to move forward.

I get home from work,
And you’re still standing in your dressing gown,
Well, what am I to do?
I know all the things around your head,
And what they do to you.

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