Posted by : Ray Plumlee in (Dimension X)
Posted on March 5th, 2010
and last modified on April 20th, 2010
Listen to Dimension X Episode 10 The Green Hills of Earth
Tagged Under : 1950, 1950s, Book, Dimension X, Martian, Old Time Radio, OTR, Outer Space, Robert Heinlein, science fiction
Dimension X
This is the legend of old time spaceman “Noisy” Rhysling a blind singer of the spaceways who lost his sight saving a ship and then spends the rest of his life bumming rides on spaceships singing his songs. He is the poet laureate of space, part Homer, part Robert Burns, and part Rudyard Kipling. The space-going songwriter and radiation-blinded spaceship engineer crisscrosses the solar system writing and singing songs.
The story begins when the aged Rhysling is signed aboard the Tramp Spaceship Gartalk as a Jet Man. There is an engine malfunction and and Rhysling looses his sight.
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He then begins bumming around the solar system singing his songs. 30 plus years later when the aged Rhysling realizes that his death of old age is near, he dead heads on a spaceship headed for Earth so he can die and be buried where he was born near the cool green hills of Earth.
During the trip an atomic engine malfunction threatens the ship with destruction, and Rhysling enters an irradiated area to make repairs. Upon completing the repairs, he knows that he will soon die of radiation poisoning, and asks that they record his finally completed song The Green Hills of Earth and goes on to sing the greatest song in the galaxy. He then dies just moments after speaking the final verse to The Green Hills of Earth.
The Green Hills of Earth” was first published in “The Saturday Evening Post” by science fiction legend Robert Heinlein on February 8, 1947.
Order Robert A. Heinlein's Book The Green Hills of Earth
Robert Heinlein did not write a complete poem/song in his short story. Many completed fan versions have been made. Below is one such version.
Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me
As they rove around the girth
Of our lovely mother planet
Of the cool, green hills of Earth.
We rot in the moulds of Venus,
We retch at her tainted breath.
Foul are her flooded jungles,
Crawling with unclean death.
— the harsh bright soil of Luna —
— Saturn’s rainbow rings —
— the frozen night of Titan —
We’ve tried each spinning space mote
And reckoned its true worth:
Take us back again to the homes of men
On the cool, green hills of Earth.
The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
ALL HANDS! STAND BY! FREE FALLING!
And the lights below us fade.
Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet —
We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.
Listen below to one fans version of the song “The Green Hills of Earth” performed by Frank Gasperik:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Review:
This is one of the classic stories of Science Fiction and one of my favorite radio stories.
Versions of this story appeared on Dimension X, X-Minus One, and the CBS Radio Workshop. Also there was a TV version produced for a 1950′s show called “Out There.”
In 1971, it was tied for 2nd on the Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll for Short Fiction, and in 1999 it rated 10th on the 1999 Locus All-Time Poll for Short Stories.
The legend of Rhysling is real in the hearts of those who believe it. Just take a look at how obsessed Apollo XV astronauts were when looking for the Rhysling crater on the moon.
Many of the astronauts and others working in the U. S. space program grew up on a diet of the Heinlein storis, best evidenced by the naming of a crater Rhysling on Mars after him, and a tribute by the Apollo 15 astronauts on the moon discuss Heinlein and his story “The Green Hills of Earth”
The classic BBC Radio Show “Journey Into Space” series three “World in Peril” featured a “rebel song,” sung by the “conditioned” men aboard the Martian asteroids. This song was actually a musical arrangement of The Green Hills of Earth, performed by the George Mitchell Choir.
To further illustrate the importance this story is to Science Fiction, The Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) publishes the yearly Rhysling Anthology, which is comprised of works nominated by their members for the Rhysling Awards for Best Science Fiction Poems of the Year.
Since 1978 (the year the SFPA was founded), the members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association have recognized achievement in the field of speculative poetry by presenting the Rhysling Awards, named after the blind bard protagonist of Robert A. Heinlein’s “The Green Hills of Earth.”
Broadcast Date: 50-06-10
Cast:
Ken Williams, Nelson Olmsted, Mat Crowley, Wendell Holmes and Bill Griffis
Other Credits:
Written By: Robert Heinlein
Publication Source: Not known.
Adapted for Radio: Ernest Kinoy
Produced By: William Welch or Van Woodward
Directed By: Edward King
Music By: Albert Berman
Engineer: Bill Chambers or Don Abbott
Announcer: Norman Rose
Commercial:
Promotion:
Space Age Gizmos:
Space Ships/Ports/Stations This Episode:
Tramp Spaceship Gartalk (Spelling?)
Listen below to
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
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