Ongoing History Daily: The only song NASA has banned from space

Space exploration is serious business with every second meticulously planned. But there are moments of downtime when a little music can be played. Pretty much all music is fair game with the exception of one song that has been banned by NASA.

It came from Norman Carl Odam, a weirdo musician from Texas who operated under the name The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Perhaps his most notorious song is “Paralyzed,” which involved him yelling “I’m paralyzed!” over and over again. It’s weird.

In 1973, some NASA ground operators decided to use it as a wake-up song for the crew aboard the Skylab space station. This is not a song you want to wake up to, especially if you’re up there floating in a tin can. The crew were so distressed by this rude wake-up call that “Paralyzed” was immediately banned from ever being used by NASA for a space mission ever again.