Terminal angst

[altariel]

For various reasons, I am collecting songs about the end of the world, particularly about the bomb. So far I've thought of:

Nena, 99 Red Balloons
Sting, Russians
REM, It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Tom Lehrer, We Will All Go Together When We Go
The Specials, Ghost Town

Any other suggestions? A 1980s feel is not essential. Any particular Dies Irae that stirs?

Edited to add: Duh, Frankie, Two Tribes
Edited again to add: Double duh, Ultravox, Dancing With Tears in My Eyes
Triple duh, OMD, Enola Gay

Comments

[michaelschuster.livejournal.com]

I offer Land of Confusion by Genesis, together with the Spitting Image video.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Good one, I played that an awful lot at the time.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Ghost Town is about the end of the world?

How about Pink Floyd (really Roger Waters), Two Suns in the Sunset? Or Roger Waters, Amused to Death? Cheery bugger, is our Rog.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

You know, I have barely ever listened to anything by Roger Waters. Which albums are they on (or album)?

Yeah, I think Ghost Town is about the end of the world. Amongst other things.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Kate Bush, Breathing

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ooh yes, good one! Thanks!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

"Christmas at Ground Zero" by Weird Al. "Manhattan Project" by Rush, if you want historical perspective on the bomb as well as actual world-ending. Definitely "Two Suns in the Sunset" (which can be found on the album The Final Cut. Um, possibly Peter Schilling's "Sole Survivor." I put together a mix tape, ages and ages ago, that I called something like "Happy Fun Songs About Nuclear Apocalyse," which had all of those on it, as well as the Tom Lehrer and lots of other stuff. It amused me greatly that, even then, I had enough appropriate songs in my collection to fill one side of a 90-minute tape. Hmm, I've probably still got that around somewhere...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all these; if that compilation tape turns up, I'd be fascinated to know what else is on it. Doesn't surprise me you had 45 minutes off stuff: I've collected a good 40 minutes already this morning, and I've still got loads to track down yet.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

The Ultravox-Song was the only one I would have thought of. The video scared me to death.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, it scared the hell out of me as well.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

It's not directly about the apocalypse, but for me, it will always be associated with the nuclear threat: that dreadful crooning oldie at the end of Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. I think it is called Some day we'll meet again, but I'm by no means sure.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ah, Vera Lynn, the true Blitz spirit. I was trying to remember that, thank you.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Interesting question. I nominate Elvis Costello, 'Waiting for the end of the world'

http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/elvis_costello/waiting_for_the_end_of_the_world.html

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I don't know that Costello song and... dammit, it's not on my 'very best of'... *goes to poke around internet*

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Big Country, 1000 Stars and All Fall Together.

La Resistance, from the soundtrack to South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

Black Sabbath, War Pigs.

Hawkwind, Damnation Alley and Sonic Attack. And arguably Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear in Smoke).

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

don henley - boys of summer.

Fear Factory - notably High Tech Hate

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I completely missed that 'Boys of Summer' was about the end of the world.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Oh, London Calling by the Clash is my favourite end of the world disaster-song.

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about that one, but didn't know the lyrics.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

It's potential end of the world rather than actual, but The Desert Music by Steve Reich may also interest. It's a setting of various poems by William Carlos Williams, and Reich's concept of desert explicitly includes nuclear testing ground. From the sleeve notes, Reich says:

Finally, there is another desert that is central to 'The Desert Music': White Sands and Alamagordo in New Mexico, where weapons of the most intense and sophisticated sort are constantly being developed and tested. Hidden away from the eyes of the rest of the world are these infernal machines that could lead to the destruction of the planet--and it is to this possibility that the words of William Carlos Williams, which I set in the third movement, refer:

Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant
To know how to realize his wishes. Now that he can realize
Them, he must either change them or perish

Also, the opera Hydrogen Jukebox by Philip Glass & Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg writes in the notes:

After all the noise and wild wisdom and political statement comes the post-nuclear moment--a series of codas which ends the opera. First, 'Everybody's Fantasy': skeletons holding hands trying to get across the stage after the nuke blast. Then a return to primordial civilization in the Central Australian Desert, using the single verse form of the Aboriginal songmen, singing during a nuclear winter, snow coming down. The last song, Buddhist-American threnody or Hymn, 'Father Death Blues', written on the death of my father, philosophic reconciliation and peace, emotionally very calm, in six-part harmony a capella, quite sublime actually, as the finale.

There must be tons more but I'm blanking...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

This is great stuff, EA, thank you. Testing weapons in New Mexico makes me think of those early chapters of (don't run away screaming!) The Stand...

[(Anonymous)]

(Katlinel at work)

I know cdybedahl has already suggested Kate Bush's
Breathing, but how about Cloudbusting as well?

When I was at sixth-form college, I remember a musical about the bomb being dropped, based on Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows. I am not sure if one of the teachers there wrote it. At one time, I had a tape of it, but I don't think I still do. (I was at sixth-form from Sept 1984 to June 1986, if that's of interest.)

There's some info about a play version here:

http://www.humdrum.org.uk/windblows/

There's a screen version reviewed here:

http://www.badmovieplanet.com/unknownmovies/reviews/rev342.html

(I disagree with the reviewer's stance on finding the characters' optimism and cluelessness incredible.)

There's various references online to the film's soundtrack but that's not what I remember. I'm pretty sure that this was something very local.

I'll search in case I still have the tape, if you're interested in stuff that isn't well-known as well.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

There's various references online to the film's soundtrack but that's not what I remember.

Said soundtrack being by none other than Roger "Laughing-Boy" Waters.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

This inquiry wouldn't have been prompted by any particular speeches given last night, would it?

Anyway, two of my favorites apocalyptic songs from the deep mists of time that constitute my past are Jackson Browne's "Say It Isn't True" and Men At Work's "It's a Mistake."

[altariel.livejournal.com]

This inquiry wouldn't have been prompted by any particular speeches given last night, would it?

Prompted by other stuff, in fact, although I have been feeling something beyond my usual levels of gloom.

I didn't know either of those songs; good lyrics, thank you.

[mgkellner.livejournal.com]

There is the Randy Newman song, Political Science.

<A HREF="http://www.ocap.ca/songs/polsci.html>Political Science</A> FWIW: He is joking. FWIW II: The song at the end of Dr. Strangelove came to mind first. mk

[mgkellner.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is driving me nuts. First I posted the link in anchor tag form, and it chopped off the link and rest of the post. Then I made a second post with the link in URL form, and the original appeared correctly, so I deleted the second post. Now, I go back and the link dissappeared.

If it reappears, I apologise for the redundancy.

-----

http://www.ocap.ca/songs/polsci.html

FWIW: He is kidding.

FWIW II: The first thing that came to mind is the song at the end of Dr Strangelove.

mk

[temeres.livejournal.com]

Trawling through the sludge at the bottom of the quagmire that is punk ought to yield a number of examples, all of them wretched. Last Rockers by Vice Squad, for example. There must be loads more but I'd have to dig out my vinyl collection to remind myself of titles, bands etc.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I bet there's a fair amount of punk on the subject.

That's a brilliant icon, btw.

[kerravonsen]

I didn't think I had any to add, but reading the comments jogged my memory.

"The Dogs of War" by Pink Floyd (A Momentary Lapse of Reason) isn't about the end of the world as such, it's about, well, war, but I think it fits.

"Third World Service" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band (Somewhere In Afrika) is about the Third World War, as well as the Third World, but you have to listen to the lyrics carefully.

And in trying to find the album info for these songs, I found an old themed compilation tape I made, where one section was about "War and Revolution, with a bit of Destruction"

"The Sound of a Gun" by Chris DeBurgh (Man on the Line) is about war and terrorism, about living with constant fighting.

"Demolition Man" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band (Somewhere in Afrika) probably doesn't fit, maybe -- it's about someone who's very destructive (shrug).

"Transmission Ends" by Chris De Burgh (Man on the Line) is a gentle love song about the end of the world. Or an end-of-the-world song about love.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you for these - I'm going to track down the lyrics. Much appreciated.

[ex-harrietva568.livejournal.com]

Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sun is Burning"

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that one; "the sun is in the west" - good one, thanks.

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

Has anyone mentioned Eve of Destruction sung by Barry McGuire 1965?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Good lyrics (I don't know the song).

[genarti]

In a similar vein as the Tom Lehrer, there's the Kingston Trio's "The Merry Minuet."

[altariel.livejournal.com]

*finds lyrics* Yes, I like that - thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" might count?

Sisters of Mercy, "Lucretia": I'm not sure if it's the end of the world, but it's definitely about the crashing and burning of empires and destruction and all that.

Black Sabbath, "War Pigs".

[(Anonymous)]

And "Red Rain" and "Here Comes the Flood", Peter Gabriel

da bomb

[(Anonymous)]

Try @Manhatten Project@ by Rush

Re: da bomb

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Good lyrics to that one; thank you.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

And don't forget Bill Bailey's Human Slaves in an Insect Nation.

[fifitrix.livejournal.com]

aaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Jackpot

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.inthe80s.com/nuclearwar/m.shtml

Re: Jackpot

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Thank you!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Aha! Found it! Apparently I called it "Nuclear Armageddon - The Album!," and the contents are a bit different than I remembered. More Tom Lehrer, and a surprising amount of Leslie Fish Filk. But I divided them into convenient segments and everything. Here's what I have written on the tape:

1. Development:
- "Manhattan Project" (Rush)
- "The Wild West is Where I Want to Be" (Tom Lehrer)
2. Proliferation:
- "Who's Next?" (Tom Lehrer)
3. War!:
- "So Long, Mom" (Tom Lehrer)
- "We'll All Go Together When We Go" (Tom Lehrer)
- "Christmas at Ground Zero" (Weird Al)
- "Two Suns in the Sunset" (Pink Floyd)
4. Post-Apocalypse:
- "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome"
- "Hello" (Leslie Fish)
- "The Discards" (Leslie Fish)
- "Route 40" (Leslie Fish)
- "Lone Survivor" (Peter Schilling)

And there you have it, for whatever that's worth. :)

Btw, don't know if anybody else has mentioned it, but Jimmy Buffett's "Apocalypso" suddenly leaps to mind, too, as a great end-of-the-world song.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's brilliant, thank you! Looks like Tom Lehrer was often in this place...

"Apocalypso" is a great title for a song!