The song in the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer is a lost '90s gem featuring a bass that once belonged to John Lennon

The trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is here, and it sounds like Director James Gunn has once again dug out some under-appreciated musical nuggets for the space-faring epic’s final chapter.

The trailer for Vol. 3 is soundtracked by an orchestrated take of In the Meantime by the 90s English-American rock band Spacehog. Aside from the extraterrestrial nod in the band's name, the song's heart-wrenching lyrics capture the apparent mood of the story perfectly. In an interview with Songfacts, frontman and bassist Royston Langdon explained, "It was me trying to reach people. It's using some kind of metaphor of a worldly or inner-worldly search for the end of isolation.” 

Released as the first single from their 1995 debut album Resident Alien, In the Meantime soon became the band's signature song, and was picked up by rock radio stations everywhere. With an undeniably catchy hook, and a sample of Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s Telephone and Rubber Band, bassist and lead singer Royston Langdon deserves extra kudos for tackling both the falsetto vocal line in the chorus and the McCartney-esque bass riff in the verse.

The song was initially recorded at a small studio called Crushing on West 57th Street in Manhattan in 1994, and according to drummer Jonny Cragg, Langdon played a Rickenbacker 4001 that he had borrowed from Sean Lennon. 

“Sean came down to the studio with his guitarist Timo Ellis,” says Cragg. “He invited us back to the Dakota Building to jam. I'd been in New York about a year and there I was, wearing Yoko's slippers, with one of John's guitars slung over my shoulder. It was pretty surreal. I think Sean gave Roy one of his dad's Rickenbacker 4001 basses that night and he ended up using it to cut the single.”

A Rickenbacker 4001 features heavily in the official video, above.

Over the course of 10 years, which included a couple of breakups and reunions, Spacehog toured with Oasis, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. They released four studio albums before they broke up for good in 2014.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will arrive in cinemas on May 5, 2023.