THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WALK ON THE MOON and APOLLO: Atmospheres And Soundtracks By Brian Eno



I sat in front of our color TV back in 1969 with the rest of my family behind me as the low resolution TV feed from the Moon and Walter Cronkite’s commentary covered the first lunar landing. I was thrilled because landing on the Moon seemed an impossibility for so long. I grew up reading Science Fiction stories about traveling to the Moon so those stories instilled a love of space exploration in me (I did NOT want to be an astronaut, however). The Apollo 11 mission made history and boosted American morale during the Vietnam War. Did you watch the Moon Landing? Did you listen to Brian Eno’s famous Apollo music?

31 thoughts on “THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WALK ON THE MOON and APOLLO: Atmospheres And Soundtracks By Brian Eno

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    I remember watching the moon landing. Like you I read a lot of SF as a teenager and found the landing a remarkable achievement. I have been a fan of Brian Eno ever since his Roxy Music days but was unaware of this recording from 1983.

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  2. Todd Mason

    I am almost certain I watched the first moon landing, probably from the family apartment in Oklahoma City since we were there in the Summer of ’69…but have no clear memory of it. Which is odd, even though I hadn’t yet turned 5yo. I certainly watched the first Viking landing for hours on end in ’76, since school was out, and the APollo/Soyuz hookup before that…hadn’t ever heard the Eno composition, either, though I’ve heard some of his other ambient music, starting with either MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS or MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS.

    Have you been catching the plethora of documentaries? Unsurprisingly PBS and CBS (ABC had devoted an episode of their 1969 summer doc series earlier) and the World Channel network added a few more bits to what they took from PBS, and a not-bad syndicated item that popped up in primetime on the local Tribune/MyNetworkTV station, as well as playing on cable on Newsy.

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    1. george Post author

      Todd, I have been watching APOLLO 11 documentaries on PBS and CBS. I learned a lot about the mission I didn’t know, especially the roles of women who remained in the background of History until now. I’ve also read the special coverage sections in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and THE NEW YORK TIMES. Even our BUFFALO NEWS included a bonus section on APOLLO 11 with pictures and commentary.

      Reply
  3. wolf

    I was working really hard for my Master’s degree in Math at the time, anyway didn’t have a tv set in my little room but I remember hearing about in on the news and looking at the report with pictures in our local newspaper the next morning – there was a display on the way to university which I always looked at because I couldn’t afford to buy the paper.
    Of course I was a big fan, had spent much of my pocket money on Astounding/Analog. And as often as possible I went to the “America House” which had a nice library with SF books and technology magazines too. I remember Popular Mechanics and Popular Electronics where they still described valve circuits and the first uses of transistors. 🙂
    Didn’t know that Brian Eno had done this type of music.
    But of course I remember Space Oddity – which was launched just five days before Apollo11 (pun intended).
    Those were the days!

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  4. Dan

    Ah, but do you remember all the hoopla and time-filling that went on at the major networks while Apollo 11 was on its way? The endless interviews, documentaries, “bulletins” and everything else that filled up the week-long mission?

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  5. Jerry House

    I watched it with a bunch of friends on an old black-and-white television set in an apartment I rented with two other friends in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Even though much beer was involved, we sat, awestruck, during those final moments before landing. Like every other American (and every other person in the world), I had a feeling of connection with Armstrong, Alden, and Collins and an overwhelming sense of pride in being human.

    We need many more moments of glory and accomplishment as he had that day.

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    1. george Post author

      Jerry, I was awestruck when Armstrong stepped onto the Moon, too! I thought we were going to set up a colony on the Moon…but that didn’t happen.

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  6. Jeff Meyerson

    But surely it was in black and white.

    Yes, we watched. Jackie and I (who were dating) spent the weekend at her parents’ bungalow in the Catskills. But we got home Sunday evening early to make sure we didn’t miss it. Of course, it was around 11 pm when he set down.

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    1. george Post author

      Jeff, the broadcast of the actual Moon landing was in B&W. Walter Cronkite was in color…though in low resolution. My Dad bought our first color TV in 1965. We had the only color TV on our block at the time.

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      1. Jeff Meyerson

        Jackie’s mother was the first person to get a color TV as soon as they came out. My father claimed to be waiting for them to be “perfected” for several years before he finally gave in and got one.

        I remember how emotional Uncle Walter was when they stepped onto the Moon.

      2. george Post author

        Jeff, I had an uncle who claimed he was waiting for color TV to be “perfected,” too. He never bought one.

      3. wolf

        Colour tvs were incredibly expensive – because of the complicated circuitry with a lot of valves they cost at least three times as much as a b&w – in Germany around 2000 DM.
        That was more than what an average Joe made in a month!
        I studied the circuitry at home, had been a fan of electronics for many years, did even some simple circuits with valves and transistors, but realised soon that hardware development wasn’t for me …
        I was more a theory guy – software was where I succeeded.
        PS:
        Did I report that already:
        Soon after I got my exam my maths prof and his team left for a US university for maybe two years – I was left alone …
        That was one main reason why I went into IT.

      4. george Post author

        Wolf, my Dad bought a huge console unit with the color TV, a stereo system, and an AM/FM radio. Kids on our street used to ask to come into our house to see the color TV since no one else in our neighborhood had one.

  7. Deb

    1969 was my first summer in the United States (we immigrated in November of 1968), I was 11 and busy Americanizing myself. Two things I remember from that summer: listening to the Atlanta Braves baseball games on the radio at night and Apollo 11. The Braves were in the NL West at the time and they went all the way to the League Championship Series, where they were beaten by the Mets (who went on to win the World Series, iirc). I had a huge scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings of both the Braves and the moon landing (and everything leading up to it and after it). I tend to be a bit of a pack rat and I have a lot of mementos from my youth, but sadly that scrapbook has been lost to the mists of time.

    /I was also listening to music avidly back then. Almost every week now, Jeff sends me a link to the music charts for the current week 50 years ago. I love looking back at those songs (running the gamut from the Isley Brothers to Percy Faith—we never see such variety in a pop chart today) and remembering my first summer in the U.S.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Deb, the music in the 1960s energized a generation of young people. Like you, I listened to TOP 40 radio stations and my parent’s vinyl records of Broadway shows and movie soundtracks. My Dad used to listen to the NY Yankee radio broadcasts. Later, he’d watch the Yankees on our color TV (and take a short nap around the 7th Inning Stretch). Music and baseball seemed so important back then!

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      1. Jeff Meyerson

        We went to summer camp near Binghamton from 1957-1962. We used to get the Yankees games on radio up there. I remember the Utica Club beer ads, as well as Budweiser. I remember Mel Allen and Red Barber doing the games. I remember going to visit relatives and listening in the car, then arriving and sitting in the car listening to the end of the game.

        Deb, what a shame that you don’t still have that scrapbook. I believe Bill Crider’s mother got rid of his baseball card collection.

  8. Deb

    I don’t think I can blame anyone but myself for the loss of the Summer of 1969 scrapbook. My teenage bedroom remained preserved in amber until about 1994 (by which time I was married and had a two-year old), at which time my parents decided to convert my bedroom to a sewing room for my mom. They shipped me close to 20 boxes of stuff from my room (God knows how much that cost!)—much of which I trashed or donated. I suspect the scrapbook was amongst the trashed contingent.

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  9. Rick Robinson

    I remember seeing it, on an 8 or 9 inch portable TV. I was at Summer Camp, the U.S. Army type, as I was in the Reserves at the time after having served active duty a few years before. I was at Camp Roberts in California, driving a Jeep for a Captain. He had me drive him out to a hilltop and stop, then he pulled out this little TV and found reception (I have no memory what channel) and we sat there for a couple of hours and watched until they touched down and Armstrong defended. Then it back to base.

    By the way, George, I just looked it up, it was 3:17 p.m. EST.

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    1. george Post author

      Rick, yes it was the middle of the night on the East Coast when the landing happened. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!

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  10. Art Scott

    I was a grad student at Stanford living in a rented room, with no kitchen and no tv. My kitchen/dining room/living room were at the nearby Oasis, a beer bar and famous Stanford handout. I watched the landing on the Oasis tv over the bar. Once Armstrong was firmly on terra luna, the management dispensed free beers to toast the astronauts. I don’t remember all that much from those years, but I certainly remember that evening.

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  11. wolf

    Just found:
    @IFLScience
    In 1959 a librarian called the police on 9-r-old Ronald McNair after he refused to leave a segregated library without letting him check out his books.
    He went on to become an astronaut and died aboard Challenger. The library that refused to lend him books is now named after him.

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  12. Cap'n Bob

    I was in California living with Bob and Barbara Juanillo! His parents had a big TV so we went there to watch the landing! About ah hour before touchdown the TV signal was lost, so Bob and I charged outside to to fix it! How, we did not know! After a few minutes of walking around the hot streets to Hayward we decided we were wasting out time and went back to the house! The TV was working again!!! They asked us how we did it and we just smiled and said it was a secret!

    Today is also my daughter Kristine’s sixth wedding anniversary! Her new baby is due in about three weeks!

    I made over $170 at the Queen over the past two days!

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    1. george Post author

      Bob, congratulations on your TV repairing skills, Kristine’s 6th wedding anniversary and her new baby, and your big win at the casino! Quick, buy a lottery ticket! You’re on a roll!

      Reply

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