Stranger in A Strange Land - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Popular song
  • "Stranger in a Strange Land" is the name of a song on U2's 1981 album October.
  • "Stranger in a Strange Land" is the name of a song on Iron Maiden's 1986 album Somewhere in Time.
  • "Stranger in a Strange Land" is the name of a song on Spock's Beard's 2002 album Snow.
  • "Stranger in a Strange Land" is the name of a song on 30 Seconds to Mars's 2009 album This Is War.
  • David Crosby, then of The Byrds, wrote a song called "Stranger In A Strange Land", with lyrics based on Heinlein's novel, for the 1965 album Turn! Turn! Turn!. The Byrds' version was never completed, but the song was later released as a single by folk-rock duo Blackburn & Snow. The 1968 Jefferson Airplane song "Triad", also written by Crosby, contains the lyric, "Sister lovers...water brothers".
  • The 1971 Leon Russell song "Stranger In A Strange Land" is about this book. He makes several references to space travel. The song is also sung from the perspective of an outsider attempting to change humanity. (Covered by Commander Cody).
  • The 1989 Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire" references the book in the sung list of items that played an important role in controversy through history.
  • The song "Friends" by The Police's guitarist Andy Summers was directly inspired by the book. In it, Andy references the ritual of eating one's deceased loved ones.
TV & film
  • In episode 2 season 1 of the Star Trek TOS, the Enterprise team has problems with a young boy, Charlie. He was raised by extraterrestrials, who gave him supernatural powers. Several scenes of this episode are inspired by Heinlein's 'Stranger in a strange land' : for example the first time he sees Janice Rand, he is very surprised and asks candidly "Are you a girl ?"
  • On the TV series Cheers, the character Cliff Clavin would occasionally use the term "grok", as in "I can grok that".
  • A season 3 episode of the TV series Lost is titled "Stranger in a Strange Land" and seems to mirror some of the novel's themes.
  • The 2009 direct-to-DVD movie Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder contains a character using the word grok, until Fry stops him.
Other books
  • Author Arthur C. Clarke in the book 3001: The Final Odyssey, Frank Poole mentioned being a "stranger in a strange time" which was a direct reference to Stranger in a Strange Land.

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