VARIOUS ARTISTS
Like An Atom Bomb: Apocalyptic Songs from the
Cold War Era (Buzzola)
Reviewed by Sherman Wick

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English label Buzzola, hot on the heels of Reefer Madness and Sugar in My Bowl (vintage sex songs) compilations, has released Like an Atom Bomb: Apocalyptic from the Cold War Era. Folk, country and blues acts address the onset of the atomic age on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 and the dawn of the potential nuclear doomsday.

Almost all of the tracks presented on this compilation are historically, if not always musically, interesting. The material has aged in various ways from poignantly sad to cheesy, dated and misguided. Popular vocal group the Golden Gate Quartet sings about "Atom and Evil," reworking the nuclear dawn as a biblical battle between Adam and Eve and good and evil. Hank Williams contributes a strange jingoistic pro-war song called "No Joe No," where he threatens the U.S.S.R. and Stalin with defeat by the American military. Blues great Sonny Boy Williamson advocates the bombing of Japan to end World War II on "Win the War Blues." Slim Galliard brings a little levity to the mix on his novelty song "Atomic Cocktail." Not surprisingly, the frightening subject matter resulted in numerous gospel songs dealing with the development of the atomic bomb, e.g. "Jesus Is the First Line of Defense" by the Pilgrim Travellers and "Atomic Sermon" by Billy Hughes & His Buckaroos. Unfortunately, don't think their preaching will be much help in the event of nuclear war.

The compilation sheds light on the paranoia regarding the dropping of the atomic bomb and the genesis of the Cold War. Hopefully, there will not be a return to the previous era of hysteria in the near future - unfortunately, it seems likely with George W. Bush's bellicose foreign policy that forces the nations of the world to seek weapons to protect their territorial sovereignty.

© 2005 - Sherman Wick