I'll hold you close and kiss those radiation burns away
I've got myself bit by uranium fever guys. I've downloaded the CONELRAD mod for New Vegas and I listen to it all the time while playing. And combined with my longstanding love of all things apocalyptic it works well. But it got me to thinking. With our hindsight we can take a really deep look at what influence nuclear bombs and the broader Cold War had on people, and how profoundly it impacted on people's psyches and the variety of ways they tried to deal with it.
Now, to some extent it was the natural use of contemporary events and imagery to say things that weren't in themselves new or were just the topic of novelty songs that are fun to listen to but not actually saying anything much about the situation; Satellite - Teresa Brewer.wmv - YouTube Radioactive Mama (Novelty song): Sheldon Allman (1960) - YouTube Crawl Out Through the Fallout (Novelty Song): Sheldon Allman (1960) - YouTube
But a lot of these songs were more significant than that. They reflected a society that hadn't yet come to terms with these new devices, wasn't sure of their implications, and which turned to apocalyptic imagery or world-changing ideas to provide answers.
Some people reacted with warning that peace must prevail and nukes not built or humanity would be destroyed. Sir Lancelot - Atomic Energy - YouTube
Some people thought this was pretty much the power of God itself and/or heralded the return of Jesus. Lowell Blanchard and the Valley Trio - Jesus Hits like the Atom Bomb - YouTube
But conversely some warned that for all the power of nuclear weapons, they still weren't close to the power of God. Buchanan Brothers - There's a Power Greater Than Atomic - YouTube and Fred Kirby - When That Hell Bomb Falls (1950) - YouTube
And perhaps my personal favorite, there were pretty cutting condemnations of war in general and atomic war in particular. Watch World War Three (on Pay TV) - Crown City Four - YouTube This one I find particularly interesting because it seems like it's such a dramatic step away from the stereotypical view we have of the time. This song was released in 1960, when one would still expect the hold of the 50s to be strong rather than a song including lyrics like Watching the boys from your home town/ Fighting whoever they are/ Watching the cities falling down
Unsurprisingly there was also a lot of commentary in various forms on the big issues of the day. There were for example songs addressed to the Russian people. Russia, Russia (Lay that Missile Down) - YouTube In this case the hope of encouraging friendship.
There were songs directed at Joe Stalin directly, too; Arthur 'Guitar Boogie' Smith and his Crackerjacks - Mr. Stalin, You're Eating Too High on the Hog - YouTube and No No Joe - YouTube and Roy Acuff - Advice to Joe - YouTube containing varying degrees of threats and bravado that assumed American survival of a nuclear war. There are similar songs aimed at Kruschev too. There are also examples like this The Kavaliers-Get That Communist, Joe - YouTube which belie a deep-rooted and machismo-based fear all centered around Joe Stalin being an obvious bad egg to the men, but a "Comrade Romeo" with the women, sabotaging relationships and stealing women.
And then there was the Vietnam War and the Red Scare back home. Now the interesting thing to me isn't the anti-war songs, those are popular and stuff already. I'm more fascinated with the pro-war, anti-communist songs, two in particular.
Carson Robison-I'm No Communist - YouTube is a song that is pretty hostile to communism and is fairly conservative, but takes a fairly pacific approach to the situation and makes such demands as sound currency and honest public servants. There's a fundamental failure to understand that if he was, in fact, called up to testify in Washington saying "I'm no communist!" wouldn't really matter when they've dug up and twisted all kinds of dirt on you, but nothing tremendous in that. No, now we're going to turn to the real pro-war gem. And it's so much more than that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBHgqplgpk
This song is Ain't I Right by Marty Robbins. It starts in a typical anti-communist fashion, but it very quickly veers off into an amazing direction. A reactionary direction? No. This goes into an outright fascist direction. Let me show you some of the lyrics.
Aw, the country's full of two-faced politicians
Who encourage you with words that go like this
Burn your draft card if you like, it's good to disagree
That's a get aquainted Communistic kiss
Let's rid the country of the politicians,
Who coddle tramps that march out in our streets
Protesting those who wanna fight for freedom, my friend
This kind of leader makes our country weak
And the final verse,
Let's look and find the strong and able leaders
It's time we found just how our neighbors stand
If we're to win this war with Communism
Let's fight it here as well as Vietnam
Let's rise as one and meet our obligations
So Communistic boots will never trod
Across the fields of freedom that were given to us
With the blessing of our great almighty God
Across the fields of freedom that were given to us
With the blessing of our great almighty God
That is literal Dolchstoßlegende and Führerprinzip right there. It is belligerent to those hotbeds of communist threat to America, Canada and Mexico. It demands the unity of the people to combat the enemy. I love it, it's so avowedly and openly fascist it's like staring into a bizarro-world.
Folks, let's talk about this culture in here! What do you think of the songs I've posted, and any others that are in the same field? We can also talk about that era's other cultural artifacts like movies, TV shows, and books!
