"Science Fiction/Double Feature" is the opening song to the original 1973 musical

stage Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

production, ''

The Rocky Horror Show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' is a Musical theatre, musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to various B movies associated with the Science fiction film, science fiction and Horror film, horror genres from the 193 ...

'' as well as its 1975

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

counterpart ''

The Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 independent musical comedy horror film produced by Lou Adler and Michael White, directed by Jim Sharman, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay was written by Sharman and Richard O ...

'', book, music and lyrics by

Richard O'Brien Richard O'Brien (born Richard Timothy Smith; 25 March 1942) is a British-New Zealand actor, writer, musician, and television presenter. He wrote the musical stage show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' in 1973, which has since remained in continuous p ...

, musical arrangements by Richard Hartley. The song is reprised at the end of the show, with lyrics that reflect on the final events of the story. The song is a

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of lands which the state con ...

to and sendup of various

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

B movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

s and serials. These are also parodied in the show itself.

Overview

The 1975 film ''

'' opens with a

title sequence A title screen (also called an opening screen or intro) is the method by which films or television show, television programmes present their title and key filmmaking, production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often an op ...

of a disembodied mouth against a black background singing in homage to classic

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

s. (The image holds inspired impact of both the immobile lips fixed in a

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, ...

smile in

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...

's surreal painting ''A l'heure de l'observatoire, les Amoureux'', and

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's active isolated

mouth A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and animal communication#Auditory, vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also t ...

in his theatre work Not I). The song is performed by composer/writer

(who portrayed Riff-Raff) and lip synced, as the now-iconic pair of red lips, by co-star

Patricia Quinn Patricia Quinn, Lady Stephens (born 28 May 1944) is a Northern Irish actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Magenta in the 1975 musical comedy horror film '' The Rocky Horror Picture Show,'' and the original stage play from wh ...

(who played Magenta). Quinn's head had to be strapped to a board to keep it stationary while filming. In its original 1973 stage incarnation ''

'', the song is performed by the character Magenta doubling as the credited role of "Usherette". This character took on the unofficial names of "Miss Strawberry Time", "Trixie" and the "Belasco Popcorn Girl" from props carried onstage during the number. The song's lyrics are composed of fragments from 1950s subgenre horror and science fiction films, and likened to that of

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

artist

Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, c ...

by author Vera Dika in her book, ''Recycled Culture in Contemporary Art and Film''. Tzara would construct poems by taking snippets of words from newspapers and placing them into a bag to randomly draw from and arrange. Instead, the words in "Science Fiction/Double Feature" are purposely made to rhyme with a set structure and set with phrases that create cohesion. The original concept for the feature film as indicated in the original script was to have clips of each film shown with a scratched aged effect overlay during the song and opening credits. This was scrapped when it became apparent that the cost of acquiring the rights to these clips in 1974 was far too prohibitive. The song is in the key of

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

, and the end reprise is in the key of B♭ major.

Musical number

In the original stage version, the prologue of the show features the usherette singing "Science Fiction/Double Feature" as she enters after the theater lighting has been dimmed. A spotlight follows her as she carries her refreshment tray down the aisle and onto the stage. In the film version, production designer Brian Thomson decided to use Patricia Quinn's lipsticked mouth against a black background, lip syncing to Richard O'Brien's vocal. Inspired by the Man Ray painting entitled ''A l'heure de l'observatoire, les Amoureux'' (1966), the opening number (prologue) is sung by these disembodied lips that freeze in place for the credits. The prologue was originally going to feature shots from the films referenced in the song under the opening credits. The 2016 television version '' The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again'' includes a framing sequence of a movie audience watching the film. The song is sung by the usherette (definitively named Trixie, and played by Ivy Levan), who sings the song as she seats audience members.

References in song

Below is a list of the actors, films and novels referenced in the song, listed in order of their appearance in the lyrics. Additionally, the chorus makes a meta-reference to ''Rocky Horror'' characters "Brad and Janet" in the context of the audience seeing "'' androids fighting''"."''See androids fighting (ooh ooh ooh) Brad and Janet''"
"''Science Fiction / Double Feature''" lyrics
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References

External links

The Annotated "Science Fiction/Double Feature"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Science Fiction - Double Feature 1973 songs Songs from Rocky Horror Songs with lyrics by Richard O'Brien Songs with music by Richard Hartley (composer) Me First and the Gimme Gimmes songs Glam rock songs