Comet Kohoutek - Impact On Popular Culture

Impact On Popular Culture

Because Comet Kohoutek fell far short of expectations, its name became synonymous with spectacular duds. However, it was fairly bright as comets go and put on a respectable show in the evenings shortly after perihelion.

In 1973, David Berg, founder of the Children of God, predicted that Comet Kohoutek foretold a colossal doomsday event in the United States in January 1974. Children of God members distributed Berg's messages, which warned of impending doom, across the country. The majority of U.S.-based members then fled in anticipation to existing group communes (or formed new ones) around the world.

Comet Kohoutek inspired numerous musicians and other artists:

• In the comic strip Peanuts, Snoopy and Woodstock hide under a blanket from a "strange light" in the sky in a story arc spanning 29 December 1973 through 3 January 1974. Linus eventually identifies the light as Kohoutek.
• The jazz composer Sun Ra performed the Concert for the Comet Kohoutek in December 1973.
• The first single of German avant-garde music group Kraftwerk, released in December 1973, was called "Kohoutek-Kometenmelodie". On the album Autobahn, which appeared a few months later, the track title was shortened to "Kometenmelodie" (comet melody).
• The first album of Yahowha 13 from 1973 is called Kohoutek.
• Argent's 1974 album Nexus begins with three linked tracks inspired by Kohoutek: "The Coming of Kohoutek"; "Once Around the Sun"; and "Infinite Wanderer".
• The rock band Journey wrote and recorded the instrumental "Kohoutek", which appeared on their self-titled debut album Journey in 1975.
• Bill Carroll released an album in 1994 titled Kohoutek.
• The English techno group 808 State wrote and recorded the instrumental "Kohoutek", which appeared on their 1996 album Don Solaris.
• The annual Kohoutek Music and Arts festival at Pitzer College is a free event named after and in honor of the comet held since 1973 in mid April.
• In The Simpsons episode 2F11, "Bart's Comet", Principal Skinner says he missed the chance to name a comet after himself once, but that he "got back" at Principal Kohoutek... "him and that little boy of his!"
• "In Celebration of the Comet - The Coming of Kahoutek" is the title of a popular and widely circulated bootleg album from the band Pink Floyd. Recorded on February 17, 1972, the concert featured a musical piece referred to by the band as "Eclipse Suite," (later re-dubbed "The Dark Side of the Moon" when the band eventually recorded it as an album in the studio later that year). The bootleg originally was pressed as an LP, but now can be found in digital formats.
• Llee Heflin, a San Francisco writer and follower of Aleister Crowley, published what he claimed was a message from the comet in 1974 under the title Words from Kohoutek: The Message of the Serpent and the Dove.
• The Mexican poet Jaime Sabines used the Comet Kohoutek in his poem "Veremos" as a way of making a reference to the immensity of time and space.
• Weather Report's 1974 Mysterious Traveller LP with cover painting of a comet over Madagascar was named after Kohoutek.
• Burl Ives recorded a single called "The Tail of the Comet Kohoutek / A Very Fine Lady" (1974, 7 in., 45 rpm, MCA 40175).
• Athens, Georgia rock band R.E.M. released the track "Kohoutek", in which the comet was a metaphor for a romantic relationship, on their album "Fables of the Reconstruction" in 1985. R.E.M. had previously announced their intentions to never play the song live again in 1997, but a live recording of the track (along with a large portion of their early years catalog) was recorded in summer 2007 and released later on the album "Live at the Olympia" in 2009.
• A building at Epic Systems in Verona, Wisconsin is named after the comet and its discoverer.
• The comet is frequently mentioned in the sci-fi novel Lucifer's Hammer.