song about a girl named Inola Gay/Enola Gay

Subject: song about a girl named Inola Gay
From: GUEST,Molly Peyman
Date: 15 Apr 25 - 07:06 PM

In the 1990's I heard a song by a singer/songwriter about a girl called Inola Gay. I cannot find it anywhere. I only remember the chorus lines, " Inola Gay,Inola Gay, You drop your load, then you fly away..."

Subject: RE: song about a girl named Inola Gay
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 15 Apr 25 - 07:23 PM

I don't know the song, but that clearly should be "Enola Gay," the modified B-29 that dropped the nukes on Japan in 1945.

Subject: RE: song about a girl named Inola Gay
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Apr 25 - 07:24 PM

It wasn't a girl. Enola Gay was the name of the airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

The plane was named after the pilot's mother, but it was the plane, not his mother, that dropped the bomb "Little Boy."

From Wikipedia

Subject: RE: song about a girl named Inola Gay
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 15 Apr 25 - 08:06 PM

Stilly River Sage wrote, "The plane was named after the pilot's mother"

And the pilot's name was Paul Tibetts. Probably not important to the song, but it can't hurt to mention it.

Also, since I'm being ultra-pedantic, "Little Boy" was a uranium bomb, while the bomb on Nagasaki, "Fat Man," was a plutonium bomb. It would probably take a pretty strange songwriter to make note of that, but hey, a little ridiculous detail never hurt anyway.

Subject: RE: song about a girl named Inola Gay/Enola Gay
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Apr 25 - 08:15 PM

Utah Phillips wrote a song called "Enola Gay," but I'm not sure it's the right one.

https://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=1832

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSUJ7zUv6VI

---

OMD also had a song titled "Enola Gay"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaFnvuYKlZ8

Subject: RE: song about a girl named Inola Gay/Enola Gay
From: Fred
Date: 16 Apr 25 - 04:29 AM

Yep, the OMD "Enola Gay" was played at least twenty times daily by one of our daughters when she holidayed back home for a month!

Fred

Subject: Lyr Add: Enola Gay (Kate McDonnell)
From: cnd
Date: 16 Apr 25 - 09:03 AM

The song Molly is searching for is Enola Gay by Kate McDonnell, from her 1998 album Next (Waterbug WBG 0038) -- listen. Below is my transcription of the song. If you enjoy it, you can buy it for just $1 at the "listen" link.

ENOLA GAY
(Kate McDonnell)

She used to hit me after school some days
She weighed 110, me 68
She hit my cousin and called her names
Her name was Gay -- Enola Gay

My brother gave me for my 12th birthday
A crystal dove on a golden chain
And she smashed it good, now it's got no legs
I burned with tears, but now I'm ok

CHORUS
Enola Gay, Enola Gay
You drop your load and look away
And take no prisoners on that cloudless day
Enola Gay, Enola Gay

What kind of daddy would name his kid that way
Who turned a city into a human grave?
And drank champagne and eats the victory cake?
Imagine a baby buried in all that weight

I went back home just the other day
Saw my foe, Enola Gay
She was a check out clerk at a Safeway
A B-29 faded away

CHORUS

But there is forgiveness and another day
For Lord have mercy on Enola Gay