Icarus imagery in contemporary music

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The theme of the myth of Icarus and Daedalus from Greek mythology frequently appears in contemporary popular music, which can be interpreted philosophically. The following is a list of songs that refer to Icarus, alphabetized by artist.

Artist | Title | Date | Album/Note

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Alesana | "Icarus" | 2006 | On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax (album)
Angra | "Metal Icarus" |  | Fireworks (album)
Annelie van Rooyen | "Treffers op Versoek" | 2008 | http://www.annelivanrooyen.co.za/pers4.htm"
Aria | "Икар" ("Icarus") | 1986 | S kem ty? (album)
Pete Atkin | "Femme Fatale" | 2002 | The Lakeside Sessions "...though Icarus flew near the sun and fell"
The Back Horn | "イーカロスの空v ("Icarus' Sky") | 2006 |
BTS | "Blood Sweat and Tears" | 2016 | Wings (album) - "many references to Icarus in the Music video"
Bastille | "Icarus" | 2011 | "Icarus is flying too close to the sun"
The Big Push | "Icarus" | 2020 | "Watch me fly into the sun, I want to be like Icarus"
Bjørn Riis  | "Icarus"  | 2019  | A Storm Is Coming
Michael McCann | "Icarus" |  | Main Theme - Deus Ex: Human Revolution Soundtrack
Black Tape for a Blue Girl | "For You Will Burn Your Wings upon the Sun" | 1996 | Remnants of a Deeper Purity
Blasted Mechanism | "Vôo de Ícaro (Feat. Marcelo D2)" | 2009 | Mind At Large
Boards of Canada | "Satellite Anthem Icarus" | 2005 |
Bombay Bicycle Club | "The Hill" |  | "We flew too high let the sun burn our wings"
Bon Iver | "Flume" | 2008 | "Gluey feathers on a flume"
Bury Tomorrow | "Waxed Wings" | 2009 | Portraits
Jen Cass | "Daedalus" | 1996 | Brave Enough to Say (album)
Caedmon's Call | "Not Enough" | 1994 | My Calm, Your Storm (album) "I mount up with waxen wings, high to reach the sun"
Celldweller | "The Wings of Icarus" | 2010  | (Featuring James Dooley) Soundtrack for the Voices in my Head Vol. 2 (album)
Clutch | "Droid" & "Mercury" | 1995 and 2004 | "Flight of Icarus, down into flames." & "Daedalus, your child is falling and the Labyrinth is calling." respectively
Coldplay | "Fun" | 2015 | A Head Full of Dreams (album) - "'I know it's over,' Icarus says to the sun"
Miranda Cosgrove | "Hey You" | 2010 | "If you fly like Icarus to the edge"
Counting Crows | "Insignificant" and "Sundays" | 2008 | "I am Icarus falling out of the sun"
Brian Current | Airline Icarus | 2004 | contemporary opera based on the Icarus myth
Diablo |  | 2008 | Icaros (album)
Ani DiFranco | "Icarus" |  | Evolve (album)
Dreamtale | "Wings of Icaros" |  | Difference (album)
Danny Elfman | "The Little Things" | 2008 | "With a mountain of maybes And some Icarus wings"
DAY6 | "Like that Sun" | 2015 | "Too lifted, I’ll end up like Icarus. I wanna be by your side, even if I burn black" The Day (album)
Doomtree | "The Bends" | 2015 | "So fly took a bullet in the wax wing / So high but didn't get the chance to melt / So tight how when he came down didn’t even look scared "
EDEN | "icarus" | 2018 | vertigo (album)
Emperor | "An Elegy of Icaros" | 1999 | IX Equilibrium (album)
Enter the Haggis | "Icarus" | 2001 | Aerials (album) "You think I am weak 'til your strength starts to go / and you reach for my hand as I take to the sky / my father, I've waited and awful long time for this - / rot in your labyrinth, I have learned to fly."
Epik High | "Icarus Walks" |  | Pieces, Part One (album)
Eddi Reader | "East of Us" |  | "...just like Icarus who kissed the sunlight..."
Emma Blackery | "Icarus" | 2018 | Villains (album) "You believe you hold the answers but your feathers are all frayed"
Eyes Catch Fire | "At the Seams" | 2006 | "... You've given yourself wings but you're too far You're too close to the sun..."
Faith No More | "Just a Man" | 1995 | "...like Icarus, to fly too high..."
Foals | "10,000 Feet" | 2019 | "...Flew to close to the sun, With my wings all bound and twisted into one..."
William Fitzsimmons | "The Problem of Pain" | 2005 | "Icarus they caught you where you tumbled on"
Flutlicht | "Icarus (Original Daedalus Mix)" | 2001 | Icarus (The Flight) EP released on Drizzly Songs (catalog no. DRIZ2010/62)
Dan Fogelberg | "Icarus Ascending" | 2003 | Full Circle
The Forms |  | 2003 | Icarus (album)
Jon Foreman | "Light & Heavy" |  | I'm feeling Icarus
Bing Futch | "Icarus" |  |
Garfunkel and Oates[1] | "Such a Loser" | 2014 | "Icarus is bullshit, that's why it's called 'mythology'"
Thea Gilmore | "Icarus Wind" |  | "Soon there’ll just be feathers and the quiet of the fall"
Goanna | "Common Ground" | 1984 | "Icarus beware the sun, your youthful feathers come undone, we watch them fall we count them one by one"
Nina Gordon | "Tonight & The Rest Of My Life" | 2000 | "Down to Earth I fell with dripping wings Heavy things won't fly And the sky might catch fire And burn the axis of the world that's why I prefer a sunless sky To the glittering and stinging in my eyes"
Steve Hackett | "Icarus Ascending" | 1978 | Please Don't Touch, with vocals by Richie Havens
Hawklords | "The Only Ones" | 1977 | 25 Years On (album)
Hibria | "Wings of Wax" | 2008 | The Skull Collectors (album)
Hopesfall | "Icarus" | 2004 | A Types
The Hours | "Icarus" |  | "Like Icarus he flew too close to the sun"
Hozier | "Sunlight" | 2019 | Wasteland, Baby! (album)
Immortal Technique | "That's What It Is" | 2008 | " "
Indigo Girls | "Go" |  | "Did they tell you you would come undone / When you tried to touch the sun?"
Iron Maiden | "Flight of Icarus" | 1983 | Piece of Mind (album)[1]
Iron Maiden | "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier" | 2010 | "Too close to the sun, and surely will burn, like Icarus before me or so legend goes"
It Dies Today | "A Romance by the Wings of Icarus" | 2002 | Forever Scorned (album)
Ivan Torrent  | "Icarus"  | 2014  | (Feat. Julie Elven) Reverie - The Compilation Album (album)
Jars of Clay | "Worlds Apart" | 1996 | "I flew too high and like Icarus I collide"
Jordin Kare | "Fire in the Sky" |  | "Gagarin was the first, back in nineteen sixty-one, when like Icarus, undaunted, he climbed to reach the sun."
Kansas | "Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel)" | 1975 | Masque (album)
"I Can Fly" | 1995 | "...this foolish pride where Icarus died"
"Icarus II" | 2000 | Somewhere to Elsewhere (album)
"Carry on Wayward Son" | 1977 | "Once I rose above the noise and confusion. Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion. I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high"
Kanye West | "Wolves (feat. Vic Mensa & Sia)" | 2015 | "Yeah I feel you burning, everything's burning / Don't fly too high / Your wings might melt, you're much too good to be true"
Keldian | "The Ghost of Icarus" | 2008 | Journey of Souls (album)
Paul Kelly | "Dumb Things" | 1987 | "I melted wax to fix my wings"
Killer Be Killed | "Wings of Feather and Wax" | 2014 | "Now I'm falling, like Icarus to land..."
Eugene Kurtz | "Icare" |  | Solo flute work written by the composer for Craig Goodman, published by Les Editions Jobert, Paris.
Lorna Shore | "SUN//EATER" | 2022 | Single Release
Demi Lovato | "Heart Attack" | 2013 | "I'm flying too close to the sun and I burst into flames."
Lullaby for the Working Class | "Jester's Siren" | 1997 | "Take this biplane made of wax - just don't fly too close to the sun"
Machinae Supremacy | "Sid Icarus" | 2008 | Overworld (album)
Madeon | "Icarus" | 2012 | Single Release
Yngwie Malmsteen | "Icarus Dream Fanfare" | 1998 | Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra (album)
Måneskin | "Zitti e buoni" | 2021 | Con ali in cera alla schiena / Ricercherò quell'altezza ("With wax wings on my back I'll seek that high").[2][3]
Marillion | "The Great Escape" | 1994 | Brave (album)
Marilyn Manson | "Deep Six"  | 2015  | The Pale Emperor (album) "As if my feathers were wax"
Mastodon | "Oblivion" | 2009 | Crack the Skye (album) " I flew beyond the sun before it was time, burning all the gold that keep inside my shell "
mclusky | "Icarus Smicarus" | 2004 | The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire
Vic Mensa | "Codeine Crazy (Icarus Story)" | 2015 |
Joni Mitchell | "Amelia" | 1976 | Hejira, describing the flight of Amelia Earhart "like Icarus ascending on beautiful foolish arms"
Mutton Birds | "The Heater" |  | "Come close and listen while I sing / I won't melt your precious wings"
Nine Inch Nails | "Somewhat Damaged" | 1999 | "So impressed with all you do. Tried so hard to be like you. Flew too high and burned the wing. Lost my faith in everything."
OHM | "Icarus Falls" | 2005 | Amino Acid Flashback
Onitsuka Chihiro | "蝋の翼 (Wax Wings)" | 2007 | LAS VEGAS (album)
Alan Parsons | "Too Close To The Sun" | 1996 | from the On Air album; relates the escape of Daedalus and Icarus from the labyrinth of the minotaur.
Periphery | "Icarus Lives!" | 2010 | Periphery (album)
Perpetual Groove | "Too Close To The Sun" | 2009 | Heal (album)
Phish | "The Squirming Coil" |  | "I'd like to lick the coil some day. Like Icarus, who had to pay. With melting wax and feathers brown, he tasted it on his way down."
Pierrot | "Ikarossu" |  | Finale (album)
Pink Floyd | "Learning To Fly" | 1987 | "Ice is forming on the tips of my wings/Unheeded warnings I thought I thought of everything"
The Puhdys | "Ikarus" | 1973 | Single, released along with Sommernacht
Punch Brothers | "Icarus Smicarus" | 2012 | "Get out of those shoes and grow wings"
Queen | "No One But You" |  | "They're only flying too close to the sun"
R3hab | "Icarus" | 2016 | "Fallen like Icarus"
Race the Sun | "To Icarus with all sincerity" | 2004 | The Rest of Our Lives is Tonight (album)
Rammstein | "Dalai Lama" | 2004 | Reise, Reise (album)
Regina Spektor | "Lacrimosa" | 2002 | "Hi, I'm Icarus, I'm falling down from the dust of earth returning..." Songs (album)
Reinhard Mey | "Ikarus" |  | "...um wie Ikarus aus Gefangenschaft zu fliehen"
Rush | "Bravado" |  | "If we burn our wings flying too close to the sun"
Santigold | "Icarus" | 2008 | Top Ranking (mix tape)
Savatage | "Alone You Breathe" |  | The band's guitarist Criss Oliva, who died in a car accident, is compared to Icarus
Starset | "Icarus"  | 2021  | HORIZONS (album)
Jaden Smith | "B" | 2017 | Syre (album) - "Nah, cause I fell for you, see I'm the living Icarus"
Spinal Tap | "The Incredible Flight of Icarus P. Anybody" | 1969 | Tap concept album that was identical to We Are All Flower People but without the title track.
Tupac Shakur | "Hit 'Em Up" | 1996 | "Niggas think they learned to fly. But they burn, motherfucker, you deserve to die"
Sirah | "Icarus" | 2013 | Inhale (EP)
The SmashUp  | "Icarus Flies"  | 2007  | "Pissing it all away this is the unsold story wishing it all could go to hell Icarus flies today the is the unsung glory cradle to the grave" SmashUp (album)
Smashing Pumpkins | "A Song For a Son" | 2009 | "...Who flew into the sun, Never to return"
The Staves | "Icarus" | 2011 | "Like icarus before me, these wings are not my own", Mexico EP
Sufjan Stevens | "John My Beloved" | 2015 | Carrie & Lowell (album) - "Icarus, point to the sun"
Sunset Rubdown | "Idiot Heart" |  | "The way that Icarus thought he might own the sky"
Switchfoot | "Light and Heavy" | 2016 | Light and Heavy EP (album) - "I'm feeling Icarus / I might have flown too high"
Synthetic Epiphany | "Icarus (feat. CoMa)" | 2015 | "like Icarus, we flew into the sun"
Lee Tae-min | "Rise"  | 2017  | From the "Move" album. The Korean title of the song translates to Icarus. Lyrics include many references to flying close to the sun, burning and flight.
Billy Talent | "Cut the Curtains" |  | "Now here seems our wax wings have melted away; And we've only been here for one day; My faith fades away"
Textures | "Laments of an Icarus" | 2008 | Silhouettes (album)
Third Eye Blind | "Blinded" |  | "Icarus is not a tee shirt or a swan song"
Thrice | "Daedalus" | 2008  | Alchemy Index, Vol. III AIR (album)
"The Melting Point Of Wax" | 2003 | The Artist In The Ambulance (album)
Toy Matinee | "Last Plane Out" | 1990 | "I like the part where Icarus hijacks the little red hen."
To/Die/For | "Fragmented |  | "I ran too close to sun, I flied too high"
2002 | "Icarus" | 1992 | Wings (album)
U2 | "Even Better Than the Real Thing" |  | "We're free to fly the crimson sky; the sun won't melt our wings tonight."
Unheilig | "Ikarus" | 2001 | Phosphor (album)
Andreas Vollenweider | "The Secret Shrine of Icarus" | 1993 | Eolian Minstrel (album)
Andreas Vollenweider | "Oxygenia & Icarus" | 2009 | AIR (album)
Jason Webley | "Icarus" |  | Only Just Beginning (album)
White Hinterland | "Icarus" | 2010 | Kairos (album)
Paul Winter Consort | "Icarus" | 1972 | Icarus (album)
Wolfgang | "Weightless" | 1996 | "Let Icarus plummet as sun melts his wax"
Xandria | "Fire of Universe" |  | "I'm an angel / Born from the breath of life / An Ikarus / Burning and falling down."
Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force | "Icarus' Dream Suite Op. 4" | 1984 |
Zao | "The Icarus Complex" | 2008 | This is Solid State Vol. 3 (album)
Andalusia | "Icarus" | 2001 | Such a Heavenly Eyesore (album)
San Fermin | "Daedalus" | 2013 | San Fermin (album)
Haken | "Falling Back to Earth" | 2013 | \- "Now that my feathers are broken/Crestfallen my head is bowed/Splashing down into the ocean/Something seems different now."
Sieben  | "A Firebug Nature"  | 2014  | Each Divine Spark (album) - "We fashion our wings/as fire-fascination./We fashion our wings/ over the sea,/smack-front of the black, facing void."
Lin-Manuel Miranda | "Burn" | 2015 | Hamilton (album) - "Do you know what Angelica said when she read what you'd done? She said, 'You have married an Icarus. He has flown too close to the sun.'"
BTS | "Wings"(album) | 2016 | "I went on the road I was told not to go. I did things I was told not to do. I wanted things I couldnt want."
JJ Project | "Icarus" | 2017 | "Verse 2" (album)
Guano Apes | "Close to the Sun" | 2014 | Offline (album) - "It was so beautiful / Before the fall / I'm flying too close / I'm flying too close to the sun"
Halsey | "Angel On Fire" | 2017 | Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (deluxe album) \- "I flew too closely to the sun that's setting in the East, and now I'm melting from my wings."
Saltatio Mortis | "Daedalus" | 2004 | Erwachen (album)"
Zayn | "Icarus Interlude"  | 2018  | "Icarus Falls" - Album
Gustavo Cerati | "Tu Cicatriz en Mí | 2002 | "Cocinarme lento como un Icaro en el sol" ("Cook myself slowly Like an Icarus near the Sun")
Dave | "Professor X"  | 2019  | "Little man wanna jump on FIFA / So I'm close to the son like Icarus"
Lil Darkie | "Genocide"  | 2020  | "I just wanna fly, Daedalus, I have to try / No, don't be a fool Icarus, you flew too high"
Mahmood  | Icaro è libero  | 2021  | "Icaro è libero libero/ Nel corpo e lo spirito/ Libero libero si/ Anche se poi non lo dicono"
Panic! At The Disco | "(Fuck A) Silver Lining"  | 2018  | "No wings of wax or endless mountains"[4]
Simon Viklund | "Steal From the Rich, Give to Myself"  | 2019  | "The wind is rising underneath my feathers, the sun is hot on my wings."[5]
Dream & PmBata  | "Roadtrip"  | 2021  | "Ayy, for a minute we was cool/Then we flew just a little too close to the sun."[6]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Home". garfunkelandoates.com.
2. ^ Lorizio, Giuseppe (7 March 2021). "Sanremo: elogio della singolarità". SettimanaNews (in Italian). Retrieved 16 June 2021.
3. ^ Campana, Andrea (18 March 2021). "Maneskin – Zitti e Buoni: Significato del Testo". LaScimmiaPensa (in Italian). Retrieved 16 June 2021.
4. ^ Panic! at the Disco – (Fuck A) Silver Lining, retrieved 2021-08-01
5. ^ "Steal From the Rich, Give to Myself, by Simon Viklund". Bandcamp. Retrieved 2022-05-11.
6. ^ "Ayy, for a minute we was cool / Then we flew just a little too close to the sun". Genius. Retrieved 2021-12-12.