Half-Life Crisis

I was inspired by Sam’s nuclear post to put together my own list of radioactive music. I grew up at a time of transition for the world. I was born the day before the Watergate break-in (so I have an alibi), when I was six months old the last men walked on the Moon, my entire school life existed under the shadow of the Cold War, a Faustian trade-off for being the first American generation in a long time to not have to march off to war. Right after I graduated high school in 1990, things heated up around the world again, and now of course we’re living in the post-USSR but also post-9/11 world. I know it left an indelible impression on me; growing up knowing that there was a “button” somewhere in the Oval Office that, if pressed, would blow up the world sixteen times over. I see this most clearly when I look through any creative writing I did in high school - there is a subliminal yet detectable apocalyptic undercurrent to everything. My last-inning at bat in the Cold War paranoia game links me in an odd way to an older generation that had birthed “Fail-Safe” and “Dr. Strangelove”, “no nukes” and “ban the bomb”. It also separates me philosophically from a younger generation that grew up during the blissfully unaware years between glasnost and jihad.

Anyway, here’s my Cold-War-inspired list of glowing recommendations:

1. Bonzo Goes To Washington, “Five Minutes”
Former Modern Lover and Talking Head Jerry Harrison leapt upon the opportunity given to him when Ronald Reagan made an off-the-cuff joke into what he thought was a dead mike. Harrison found a copy of the audio, recruited Bootsy Collins (BOOTSY!) on bass, and built a simple electro-funk track to run behind his primitive and repetitive sampling of the joke. It’s along much the same lines as Paul Hardcastle’s “19″, or Keith LeBlanc’s “No Sellout”, only with an 80s Cold War slant.

2. U2, “Seconds”
This song is wedged neatly between the hits “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day” on U2’s fantastic album “War” - and in fact fits there perfectly, combining the rhythm and biting commentary of the first with the blood-red sky apocalyptic imagery of the second. With lyrics like “lightning flashes across the sky, east to west, do or die” and labeling all the world players as “puppets on a string”, the song labels the nuclear threat as the actual enemy, holding the human race under its thumb.

3. Frankie Goes To Hollywood, “Two Tribes”
Here’s one that most will remember for its sublimely satirical Godley & Creme music video, featuring the leaders of the world engaged in a bloody battle in a wrestling ring. The much longer album version also features calmly and coldly read Cold War Era instructions on how to survive a nuclear attack, adding to the overall “we all lose” theme of the song.

4. Roger Waters, “Four Minutes”
Waters has written some of the most pointed anti-war songs in the history of pop music, and in this he finishes off his “Radio K.A.O.S.” opus with the button actually being pushed, and all the world forced to face their final few minutes. Thank goodness he added on his Live-Aid-inspired “The Tide Is Turning” to leave us with at least some hope.

5. Hiroshima, “Atomic Cafe”
And now to prove that not everything apocalyptically-themed has to be a downer, here we have a jazz ensemble named after the first bloody chapter in the Atomic Age, performing a song named after a famous Cold War documentary, and it’s bouncy acid jazz fun! I don’t know what that really means, but I hope you hurry up and enjoy the song. We begin bombing in five minutes.

Download: Bonzo Goes To Washington, “Five Minutes” (AAC)
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Download: U2, “Seconds” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Frankie Goes To Hollywood, “Two Tribes” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Roger Waters, “Four Minutes” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Hiroshima, “Atomic Cafe” (AAC)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download the whole list as a ZIP file:

Download: Half-Life Crisis (ZIP)
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