# 80s/90s Cold War protest songs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 25, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773 "2011-10-25T20:06:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bri2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/48db29/32.png) [@Bri2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bri2k)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/41 "2011-10-27T10:21:06Z")
Cities in Dust - Siouxsie & The Banshees London Calling - The Clash Five Minutes - Bonzo Goes to Washington Bri2k ---
**Author:** ![Flip\_Pancake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f1d935/32.png) [@Flip\_Pancake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flip_Pancake)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/42 "2011-10-27T10:33:13Z")
This Is Not America - David Bowie ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/43 "2011-10-27T12:27:35Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#): > > “Think Again” by Billy Bragg (written by Dick Gaughan, but popularized by Bragg) There’s Bragg’s _The Marching Song of the Covert Battalions_, at least the first verse. And New Model Army songs such as _51st State_, while not _directly_ about the Cold War, certainly are about the reaction to American Imperialism that was part-and-parcel with it - the whole CND-Greenham Common-Thatcherite Britain vibe ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/44 "2011-10-27T12:50:13Z")
I don’t think Every Day isLike Sunday counts as a “protest” song. In that one, Morrissey’s actually pining to be burnt to a crisp a world full of such misery that one’s underwear gets stolen. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/45 "2011-10-27T13:42:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That’s a Cold War protest song? I always thought it was about materialism. > **[The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future%27s_So_Bright,_I_Gotta_Wear_Shades)** > > "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" is a song by Timbuk 3. It is the opening track from their debut album, Greetings from Timbuk3. Released as the album's first single in 1986, it was the band's only significant mainstream hit. > The inspiration for the song, and the title specifically, came when Barbara MacDonald said to her husband singer/songwriter Pat MacDonald, "The future is looking so bright, we'll have to wear sunglasses!" But, while Barbara had made the comment in earnest – it w... ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/46 "2011-10-27T14:23:47Z")
[So Afraid of the Russians](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVf7m_YZ2zY)by Made for TV ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/47 "2011-10-27T14:52:55Z")
> [@Oly](#): > > I don’t think Every Day isLike Sunday counts as a “protest” song. In that one, Morrissey’s actually pining to be burnt to a crisp a world full of such misery that one’s underwear gets stolen. Good point. That morose bastard actually _wants_ to be nuked. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/48 "2011-10-27T19:14:25Z")
[Americans-Soviets](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBSQ3pNS4FM&feature=related) by CCCP ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/49 "2011-10-27T19:47:58Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > [The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future%27s_So_Bright,_I_Gotta_Wear_Shades) There’s really nothing conclusive there. The only thing Pat MacDonald actually said was that many people falsely think the song is positive when it’s supposed to be grim. All that reveals is that a lot of people are incredibly oblivious to irony. The part about the song being about nuclear war is just “hinted at”. I think the song is about individuals not nations. It’s talking about how people ignore the moral and social impact of their actions in pursuit of personal gain (using sunglasses as a metaphor for this willful blindness). MacDonald mentions a nuclear scientist but he could just as easily have been talking about a genetics researcher or a corporate executive. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/50 "2011-10-27T20:02:18Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > XTC - This World Over Speaking of XTC - “Generals and Majors” It goes from generic anti-War song (like Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’) to Cold War with: _“Your World War III is drawing near”_ Also, don’t forget the Dead Kennedy’s “We Got a Bigger Problem Now”\*, with such fine lines as: _Welcome to 1984 Are you ready for the Third World War?!? You too will meet the secret police They’ll draft you and they’ll jail your niece You’ll go quietly to boot camp They’ll shoot you dead, make you a man_ Later lines reference El Salvador and Afghanistan, so Cold War it is. \*A response I think to their earlier song “California Uber Alles”, about Jerry Brown becoming President - the bigger problem being Ronald Reagan, of course. Just thought about “Afraid of the Russians” by Made For TV, and stumbled [across this site](http://www.inthe80s.com/nuclearwar/a.shtml) - have fun! ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/51 "2011-10-27T21:26:09Z")
Fishbone - Party at Ground Zero And if you want to go the other way, there’s the ludicrously jingoist VOA by Sammy Hagar. The video is cheesetastically awesome. Hagar and Reagan kicking commie ass!! ---
**Author:** ![SleepyDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@SleepyDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SleepyDuck)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773/52 "2011-10-30T07:45:11Z")
Not technically a protest song, but cold war/nuclear armageddon themed: Ultravox - “Dancing With Tears in my Eyes” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80s-90s-cold-war-protest-songs/600773.md?page=2)