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> Eliza Carthy > Songs > Space Girl

Space Girl

[Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger]

Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger wrote Space Girl in 1952 for a short ballad-opera with the title You’re Only Young Once to be performed by the Theatre Workshop. It is a parody on The Ghost Soldier Song which was popular with American soldiers during the First World War and mocks most of the major themes of 1940s science fiction. A version of the song was recorded on The World of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, Volume 2: Songs From the Radio Ballads, released in 1971 on Argo Records.

Shirley Collins sang a much shorter version of Space Girl on the 1960 LP Rocket Along: New Ballads on Old Lines. She was accompanied by Robin Hall, guitar, Jimmie Macgregor, mandolin, and Vic Pitt, double bass.

Eliza Carthy sang Space Girl on the Imagined Village’s second CD, Empire & Love (2010).

Lyrics

Space Girl

My mama told me I should never venture into space
    But I did, I did, I did.
She said no Terran girl could trust the Martian race
    But I did, I did, I did.
A rocket pilot asked me on a voyage to go
And I was so romantic I couldn’t say no—
That he was just a servo robot how was I to know?—
    So I did, I did, I did.

She told me never venture out among the asteroids
    But I did, I did, I did.
She said the Milky Way was something to avoid
    So I did, I did, I did.
She said that Venus was too hot and Saturn not much fun
And bug-eyed monsters tended to be just a trifle dumb.
She said I’d need a blaster and I’d need a freezer gun
    And I did, I did, I did.

My mama told me never trust a space engineer
    But I did, I did, I did.
She said freefall and superdrive would surely cost me dear
    And they did, they did, they did.
I’ve been as far in hyperspace as anybody can,
I’ve travelled through the time warp in the Psycho Plan.
They say a gal must travel for to find her superman
    And I did, I did, I did.