At least some of the hairbands thought about The Children!
White Lion’s When the Children Cry
Sting - Russians
I think you’d be hard pressed to find an 80’s act that DIDNT have a nuclear war song.
Things I learned today, that North Country Girl was a nuclear war song…and i actually listened to the lyrics of Life During Wartime other then “This aint no disco, this aint no fooling around”
And now for something to ease the subject of this thread, here’s Dylan’s “Talking World War III Blues”. It’s really funny:
I always figured that to the guerilla aftermath to a conventional war myself
Transmit a message, to the receiver,
Hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, couple of visas,
Don’t even know my real name
Up on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
Everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in daytime, I work in nighttime,
I might not ever get home
…
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
They won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
The burning keeps me alive
From the animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s “The Butter Battle Book”:
To make the world’s most mighty weapon
you take a mess of mook-a-hoo
And you twaddle it and you waddle it a bit
That’s what you do
Now, this sly, unstable substance
dug from deep beneath the land
contains grand evil powers
that we scarcely understand
And when it starts to burp and bubble
you can press it in the scrubs
That precipitates the bluggins
and activates the glocks
And then you squeeze it till it’s squizzen
Then you squeeze it even tighter
'Cause the tighter that it’s squizzen
makes it’s mighty might more mighter
And it’s just a bloody miracle you’ve got
when you are through
You got a little Itsy-Bitsy Big Boy
Boomeroo!
Sure, that might be what your authoritative source says. But I am quite certain my seventh or eighth grade teacher told me it was about a nuclear explosion!! His in depth study is pretty hard to argue with (despite what the creators themselves have to say about the matter. I mean come on:
smoke on the water = fallout
fire in the sky = mushroom cloud
How much more clear can they be, dudes? (students)?
gambling house = wagering upon survival of mankind
Now kids, don’t all your parents claim these crazy rock-n-rollers like Frank Zappa and the Mother’s of Invention are the end of civilization?!?! The USSR obviously saw our decedent rock-n-roll Western Imperialist lifestyles and put a stop to it using the most obvious tool (nuclear annihilation). You kids got to expand your minds after school like I do if you want to understand pop culture.
Now kids, Swiss time is running out-- what are the Swiss known for?? Being neutral and being anti-war, right? Well that time of peace is almost over! It is “running out”, see?
Plus, he was a teacher saying this, so irrefutable. I wonder why Mr. Gold only taught for one year?
I thought this was a warning song about keeping the government in check while throwing a little shade at the military. But global annihilation makes sense too I suppose.
Without any background at all, I had always assumed it was about espionage and cold war spycraft. Why else would one have multiple identities? So they could pass through Checkpoint Charlie at will – none of the border guards know his real name. The loading trucks I presumed to be orders for the double agents he has recruited. He works at night because it is clandestine affairs of state and if he gets caught he will die in an enemy prison (or never get home).
His chest burning is the stress of completing the operation without getting caught. Being alert (the burning) is what keeps him alive. They dress like students and housewives because they are in disguise (like spies!) They have to slip through roadblocks, they tap phone lines illegally.
This song is not about surviving nuclear war, or even a shooting war. This is pure spy craft shit. The graphic on this video shows the band in various disguises:
Forever Young - Alphaville
The other day I was thinking of the “Ayatollah” song by (I looked it up and it’s hilarious)
“Steve Dahl & Teenage Radiation.”
In it, the singer threatens to nuke the Ayatollah if he gets us too upset.
XTC, “This World Over”
Translator, “Sleeping Snakes”
Technically about the arms race, but I’ll call it close enough. Plus it stomps.
XTC again, “Living Through Another Cuba”
“Get on your knees and pray, and while you’re down there, kiss your arse goodbye!”
perhaps a bit surprising that no one mentioned how
Last night I had the stranoest dream I ever had before
Camper Van Beethoven, Sweethearts
Morning Dew, a real toe tapper.
And speaking of fallout 4, Atom Bomb Baby. A toe tapper in its own right.
“Do You Hear What I Hear.” Yes, the Christmas song. The star “with a tail as big as a kite” were nuclear missiles.
modern day cowboy tesla
Gods of War Def Leppard
/thread closed
That’s the best song about the subject.