Deep Purple, ‘Space Truckin” vs. Styx, ‘Come Sail Away': Rock Star Wars

The two contestants in this second round battle of our Rock Star Wars contest, "Space Truckin' by Deep Purple and "Come Sail Away" by Styx, each faced tough competition in order to advance.

To try and fill our days between now and the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie, we’ve tracked down 32 space-themed classic rock songs and paired them off against each other in a series of intergalactic battles. The field will be halved every week based on your votes, until only the spaciest song in rock history is left.

"Space Truckin'," which originally appeared on Deep Purple's 1972 breakthrough Machine Head, took on Black Sabbath's "Into the Void" and captured nearly 56 percent of the vote. The five-minute stomp finds the band equating their life as touring rock 'n' roll musicians with space travel, "We got music in our solar system / We're space truckin' round the stars."

Meanwhile, Styx's "Come Sail Away," a Top 10 hit from 1977, had a much tougher foe in the Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Third Stone From the Sun." But they sealed their passage forward with a very narrow margin of victory, taking almost 51 percent. "Come Sail Away" is the story of a man who thinks he's about to head out to sea, only to discover that the "gathering of angels" were luring him onto their spaceship.

So who's going to advance to the quarterfinals? That's where you come in. You can vote in each of our contests once an hour until this round of Rock Star Wars ends on Nov. 30 at 11:59PM Eastern. You can listen to both songs to help you make your decision. The winner of our Rock Star Wars battle will be revealed on Dec. 22, 2015.

Listen to Deep Purple's 'Space Truckin''

Listen to Styx's 'Come Sail Away'

See Deep Purple and Other Rockers in the Top 100 Albums of the '70s