Comments on: Ah, the good ol' days - nothing to worry about but a lingering death from radiation poisoning

Question: Ah, the good ol' days - nothing to worry about but a lingering death from radiation poisoning

pompomtom — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 23:58:37 -0800

Nuke related songs of the 80s and 90s.

Which (pop, punk, ska and new wave particularly, but all suggestions appreciated) songs of the 80s or 90s which touch on the angst caused by living under the spectre of nuclear weapons.

Things like:

Nena - 99 Luftballons
Underworld - Underneath the Radar
Tears for Fears - Shout
Sting - Russians
The Clash - London Calling

Sorry for the 'mixtape' question, but google sets has failed me.

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:11:31 -0800

UB40 - The Earth Dies Screaming
The Specials - Man at C&A
David Bowie - When the Wind Blows

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:12:52 -0800

And here's a wikipedia list of songs about nuclear war.

By: jamaro

jamaro — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:14:29 -0800

Soviet Snow, by Shona Laing

Party at Ground Zero, by Fishbone

By: bystander

bystander — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:16:29 -0800

Midnight Oil's album Red Sails in the Sunset (and 10-1 before that).

By: cmonkey

cmonkey — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:19:36 -0800

Crass - They've Got A Bomb

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:22:47 -0800

The first thing I thought of was the punk song "I Hate You" from Star Trek IV.

The only choice we're given is "How many megatons?"

By: Vervain

Vervain — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:22:59 -0800

"Fireside Favourite" by Fad Gadget
"Missiles" and "New Dark Age" by The Sound
"More ICBMs" by Nomeansno

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:27:42 -0800

"Forever Young" - Alphaville

By: Rumple

Rumple — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:33:34 -0800

Enola Gay -- Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:35:06 -0800

Black Planet - Sisters of Mercy

By: bobo123

bobo123 — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:07:38 -0800

D.O.A. - World War 3

By: dong_resin

dong_resin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:25:26 -0800

We Believe by ministry is about the cold war, with both sound fx and implications of the start of a nuclear war going on throughout. Nice cold proto-industrial sound which is so 80s .

By: Jakey

Jakey — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:26:52 -0800

"Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood (YouTube)

By: oh pollo!

oh pollo! — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:37:34 -0800

The Jam - 'A' Bomb on Wardour Street

By: mykescipark

mykescipark — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 02:21:11 -0800

Laurie Anderson, "O Superman."

By: Martin E.

Martin E. — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 02:33:12 -0800

"Since Yesterday" by Strawberry Switchblade (youtube), although not too explicitly.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:12:59 -0800

Real Situation Bob Marley from Uprising - 1980. Total distruction the only solution.

By: Aznable

Aznable — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:21:35 -0800

The Smiths, "Ask":

If it's not love than it's the bomb, the bomb,the bomb, the bomb, the bomb, the bomb that will keep us together.

Also, slightly outside your timeframe, released in 2000, Barcelona's "Have You Forgotten the Bomb?":

The atom bomb will never change
Still the same same same
As it was yesterday
One thing remains
Everyone around me
Looks so happy now
Who am i to bring this party down down down

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:27:47 -0800

The Police were big on that theme -- Bombs Away, Murder by Numbers, Demolition Man, One World, Invisible Sun, and probably more that I'm not thinking of...

By: gaiamark

gaiamark — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:28:11 -0800

I don't know about punk stuff, but Megadeth had a bunch of songs about nuclear war-ish stuff on the "So Far, So Good, So What" (1988) and "Rust in Peace" (1990) albums.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:38:05 -0800

Exodus, Fabulous Disaster.

By: Substrata

Substrata — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:26:45 -0800

Ultravox - All stood still
Ultravox - Dancing with tears in my eyes

By: extrabox

extrabox — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:27:06 -0800

"Five Minutes" by Bonzo Goes To Washington

By: COD

COD — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:29:11 -0800

Two Minutes to Midnight by Iron Maiden

By: hwestiii

hwestiii — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:57:43 -0800

Seconds - U2

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:22:27 -0800

Timbuk 3 - The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades
Sun Ra - Nuclear War

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:22:39 -0800

Carnivore - Ground Zero Brooklyn

By: jdfan

jdfan — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:51:27 -0800

This World Over by XTC - the 7" single came with postcards from 7 or so bombed cities ("Greetings from ...."). All the postcards were the same save the city name.

There's this list on Wikipedia.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:55:18 -0800

related

Also, "It's a Mistake" by Men at Work. I think "Stand or Fall" by the Fixx might be too.

By: jet_silver

jet_silver — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:58:40 -0800

Misfits - Nike a-Go-Go
Ultravox - Hiroshima Mon Amour

By: Coaticass

Coaticass — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:02:05 -0800

XTC: Generals and Majors

By: Melsky

Melsky — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:09:03 -0800

Stranglers - Nuclear Device

By: Substrata

Substrata — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:22:42 -0800

Ultravox - Hiroshima Mon Amour

that song is not about nuclear threat, but about ending a releationship

great song though.

By: TedW

TedW — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:23:35 -0800

Efficiency and progress is ours once more / Now that we have the Neutron bomb / It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done

Dead Kennedys: Kill the Poor

By: Robert Angelo

Robert Angelo — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:18:21 -0800

Prince: 1999

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:30:26 -0800

Busted Statues - Red Clouds

By: Zonker

Zonker — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:30:26 -0800

Frank Zappa's "Dumb All Over" might squeeze in with a neutron bomb reference:

"So verily we must choppeth them up
And stompeth them down
Or rent a nice French bomb
To poof them out of existence."

By: Dec One

Dec One — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:45:48 -0800

"Christmas at Ground Zero" by Weird Al Yankovic. Hilarious song.

By: ontic

ontic — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:54:00 -0800

Escape Club's "Wild Wild West" touches on it: "Sitting in the backroom waiting for the big boom / I'm in the bedroom waiting for my baby".

By: SansPoint

SansPoint — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:12:11 -0800

XTC - Living Through Another Cuba
DEVO - Beautiful World (see the video)
The Vapors - Letter From Hiro
Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S. (album)

By: kindall

kindall — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:22:10 -0800

Some of these don't have much angst in 'em, but...

Icehouse, "Sunrise"
Rush, "Manhattan Project"
Pink Floyd, "Two Suns in the Sunset"

By: box

box — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:24:19 -0800

Time Zone - World Destruction

By: 4ster

4ster — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:28:43 -0800

Rush, "Distant Early Warning"
U2, "The Unforgettable Fire" (I always heard Bono wrote this after seeing a Hiroshima exhibit somewhere).

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:42:16 -0800

Weird Al— Christmas at Ground Zero
Art— Give Me Nuclear Power
The Oranges Band— Ride the Nuclear Wave
Jem Targal— The Bomb Song
The Weirdos— We Got the Neutron Bomb
Jon Rans— Nuclear Adventure
Christina— Is That All There Is?
Von Lmo— Ultraviolet Light

By: leapfrog

leapfrog — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:47:23 -0800

In '92, Uncle Tupelo covered a song by the Louvin Brothers called "Atomic Power." The original was recorded in 1952. The style would best be called bluegrass or alt-country.
Do you fear this man's invention / That they call atomic power?
Are we all in great confusion / Do we know the time or hour?
When a terrible explosion / May rain down upon our land,
Leaving horrible destruction / Blotting out the works of man.
Cheery!

By: Hugh Jorgan

Hugh Jorgan — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:51:14 -0800

"It Can't Happen Here" by Rainbow
The video featured a nuclear explosion

By: milquetoast

milquetoast — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:06:29 -0800

Subhumans - All Gone Dead
Circle Jerks - Live Fast, Die Young
Flux of Pink Indians - Tapioca Sunrise
The Weirdos - We Got the Neutron Bomb
Discharge - Pretty much every track on WHY?
The Jam - Wasteland

Bad Religion has a few, such as Atomic Garden and The Biggest Killer in American History, and American Jesus contains a fleeting reference.

And the Crust movement was heavily influenced by the specter of nuclear war -- Amebix, Antisect, Oi Polloi, Neurosis, etc. all have relevant songs. Crass has already been mentioned, lots of stuff there. I'm sure there's tons more.

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:09:06 -0800

10,000 Maniacs - Grey Victory. (1985) The Enola Gay mention popped it right back into my head. (likely popup ridden lyrics site)

By: InfidelZombie

InfidelZombie — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:20:22 -0800

The Gears - Rockin' at Ground Zero
Social Distortion - 1945

By: Max Power

Max Power — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:23:19 -0800

More Discharge:The Possibilities of Life's Destruction,The End, The Final Bloodbath ( all from Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing)

Corrosion of Conformity: Tell Me, Poison Planet (from Eye for an EYE)

Minutemen: Paranoid Chant

By: anthom

anthom — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:53:09 -0800

Tears for Fears had a few of them. "Shout" could be interpreted as one, but "Mothers Talk" (partially inspired by Raymond Briggs' book When the Wind Blows) and "Famous Last Words" are a bit more explicit with the nuclear age paranoia.

Ultravox had another anti-nuke song, "All Fall Down."

And, of course, there's Heaven 17's "Let's All Make a Bomb."

By: ilsa

ilsa — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:55:59 -0800

World Destruction by Africaa Bambadaa and Johnny Rotten.
End of the World as We Know It by REM
Red Rain by Peter Gabriel

This one only by association, but We'll Meet Again from the Dr. Strangelove Soundtrack. Johnny Cash admits this imagery influenced his cover of the song on his last album.

And one intended to be funny, Who's Next by Tom Lehrer. ("First we had the bomb and that was good, cause it stood for peace and brotherhood. Then they got the bomb, but that's ok cause the balance of power's maintained that way! Who's Next?")

By: Hugh Jorgan

Hugh Jorgan — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:17:58 -0800

Ozzy Osbourne "Thank God For The Bomb" from 1986 Ultimate Sin (there's a "nuke ya nuke ya" in there somewhere)

By: palmcorder_yajna

palmcorder_yajna — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:23:55 -0800

Sigue Sigue Sputnik, "M.A.D."
Men Without Hats, "Pop Goes the World"

By: Hugh Jorgan

Hugh Jorgan — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:27:04 -0800

"Blackened" by Metallica can be interpreted as sorta' nuclear ... 1988

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:55:12 -0800

Morrissey- Every Day is Like Sunday

By: vorfeed

vorfeed — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:19:30 -0800

Seems like most every metal band of that era had at least one song about this:

Bolt Thrower - "Dark Millennium", "As the World Burns"
Carnivore - "Thermonuclear Warrior", "World Wars III & IV"
Dark Angel - "Falling From the Sky"
Kreator - "Total Death"
Megadeth - "Set the World Afire"
Metallica - "Blackened"
Nuclear Assault - "Radiation Sickness", "Nuclear War", "After the Holocaust", etc etc etc etc
Saxon - "Fire in the Sky"
Sepultura - "War", "Beneath the Remains"
Slaughter (Canada) - "Incinerator"
Sodom - "Burst Command Til War", "Nuclear Winter"
Voivod - "Nuclear War"

That's not even counting a million I've forgotten, nor the ones that are only tangentially about the bomb...

By: Skot

Skot — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:25:44 -0800

Sting, "Russians"
Randy Newman, "Political Science"
Lou Reed, "Fly Into the Sun"

By: princelyfox

princelyfox — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:42:37 -0800

The original is older than you like, but a few years ago Yo La Tengo released an EP with four versions of Sun Ra's Nuclear War. Version two is very memorable.

By: drstein

drstein — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:51:27 -0800

Hard to find, but "This is not a test" by Tommy Shaw

By: geckoinpdx

geckoinpdx — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:12:24 -0800

anthom beat me to the H17 recommendation, but "Five Minutes to Midnight" was more explicitly about nuclear war; to the point that all the profits from that song were donated to anti-nuke charities.

FGTH's "Two Tribes" was a good one, but it was a well-known secret back in the day that it was written specifically about Mad Max/the Road Warrior, not nuclear war itself.

Although more about the cold war than nuclear, Donald Fagen's "New Frontier" might fit.

By: exceptinsects

exceptinsects — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:24:42 -0800

Wow, I am in the middle of making almost this exact same mix. That is freaky weird.

I am planning to call it "Electrapocalypse".

As for songs, how about "Star" by Erasure?

By: Darth Fedor

Darth Fedor — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:05:37 -0800

Megadeth: Rust In Peace...Polaris
Metallica: Fight Fire With Fire

By: mdn

mdn — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:48:07 -0800

yo la tengo has an instrumental called Mushroom Cloud of Hiss (I think it's completely instrumental, possibly I'm forgetting some lyrical moments, but it's def not lyric-focused. Dunno if that counts, but it's a great track.

By: Bearman

Bearman — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:16:40 -0800

Land of Confusion by Genesis.

By: prjo

prjo — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:18:39 -0800

Mojo Nixon: Gonna Put My Face On A Nuclear Bomb