Posted April 26th, 2010, in: Humanity, Culture, Philosophy, Politics, Ethics Etc| Ideas, Observations, Opinions, Rants Etc

Crunchy is Granola

I lady I know was given a mix tape by an old boyfriend and I asked her to make a copy of the mix for me because it contained a lot of interesting tracks.

For one, it contained this really obscure, super left-wing, hippy folk song from the Eighties about Nuclear Power.  To me, it sounds like a very familiar if not cliche kind of ‘folk’ music:  Celtic influences, singer-with-guitar, political message, Etc.  The kind of thing you’d expect to hear at a protest rally.

“Power to kill!” it exclaims, in a ferocious, dare I say militant-sounding female register.  It’s interesting to me how popular opinion about nuclear power has changed so much.  I don’t mean that I think everyone loves it now, but it seems like we are a little more rational.

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I can still remember how afraid we were of ‘nuclear’ anything in the Eighties.  I was a little kid.  But the movies at the time had really scary scenarios in them.  War Games (1983) and Dreamscape (1984) come to mind.

Cover of a Metal Album I Owned When I was 13

The Russians were going to blow us up at any moment.  Then we were going to blow them up automatically and the sky would turn red and there would be air raid sirens as the burning flesh is torn off our bodies by an impact blast just before everything is completely vaporized.  All life on Earth would be destroyed except cockroaches.  And if there was anyone anywhere that survived, they would be deformed because of the radiation.  Or maybe some part of the species would retreat underground for hundreds or thousands of years. Anyway, I think we were scared, and possibly a little too scared.

This song seems to be a pretty good manifestation of that hysteria.  And now that I just looked it up, I see that this song came out before the Chernobyl disaster!  Wow.

I wonder what issues we are overly afraid of today.  Privacy online?  Genetic Engineering? I’m not saying I believe we should be less worried about anything per se, but it’s interesting to ponder.  I guess we’ll know in thirty years.

Anyway, back to the song.  The origin of the song was a mystery to me for a long time.  I’ve googled, trying to figure it out a number of times.  Finally, I have success!

The cover of the album. The Smiling Sun was designed in 1975 in Denmark. The logo soon was adopted by the anti-nuclear power movement. In 1977 the Smiling Sun was trademarked by Denmark's OOA (Organisation for Information on Nuclear Power), an anti-nuclear energy group.

I googled some of the lyrics I found a page crediting a Nigel Gray as writing the lyrics (as a poem only) (Lyrics Below).  So I googled the name of the poem and the name of the poet and voila!  I found awebpage for the album.  Super crunchy!

It’s called “Nuclear Power No Thanks!!?”

So according to the track listing and credits, this must be the vocalist (see video):

Alison McMorland (what a voice! …the less flowery one)

Finally, here are the lyrics to the once mysterious song, a musical adaptation of a poem by Nigel Gray:

Sleep well my little son and dream
Time flows faster than a mountain stream
I wish you happiness in Spring
Come Autumn it may be too late to sing

While you sleep necessity drives
workers down uranium mines
repair men into the jaws of Hell
radiation through the human cell!

Sleep well my little girl and dream…

Madmen tear the earth apart
like werewolves at the human heart
The powerful crave more power still
Nuclear power; power to kill!

Sleep well my lover and dream…

Acid pond. Poisonous leak
Ships collide. Plutonium slick
Yellowcake waste. Lead-lined tomb
You’re not even safe in Mother’s womb!

Sleep well my unborn babe and dream
Time flows faster than a mountain stream
I wish you happiness in Spring
Come Autumn it may be too late…