ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs

Subject: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 08:55 AM

Years back I had all the words, but time has erased them. Anyone know them? I've tried DT and the forum but didn't find them.

Daughter, dear daughter come listen to me
And don't you go marching with the young CND
For they'll rock you and roll you and put you to bed
????????????

Mother dear Mother I am not afraid
For I'll go on that march and I'll return a maid
With a brick in my handbag and a smile on my face
And barbed wire in my underwear to head off disgrace.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 09:07 AM

Daughter, dear daughter come listen to me
And don't you go marching with the YCND
For they'll rock you and roll you on a hard dusty floor
And when you com home, you'll be a virgin no more.

I don't think there were any virgins left by the time I joined in 1960.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: Allan C.
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 09:14 AM

Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (YCND)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 10:55 AM

Wasn't that a Sydney Carter song?

Then there's Can't you hear the H-bomb's thunder? and ON THE ROAD FROM ALDERMASTON to be going on wioth.

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 12:34 PM

We Dinna want Polaris

The Sun is Burning in the sky

Dead Girl of Hiroshima

Down by the riverside

There were also some parodies of well-known songs/hymns such as:

Rock of ages cleft for me
Let me hide myself in thee
While nuclear bombers thunder past
Shelter me from burn and blast
And though I know all men are brothers
- Let the fallout fall on others.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: BTMP
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 12:47 PM

The Louvin Brothers rendition of 'Great Atomic Power' is significant because it came out in the 50's when nuclear energy was being touted as the answer to our energy problems. The song also predicted that God would 'save his children from that awful, awful fate'. That remains to seen, IMHO.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 04 Nov 03 - 05:00 AM

During the marches we probably sang "We shall overcome" the most - we'd make up verses as we went along. "H-Bomb's Thunder" was always a good marching song though with a good chorus as was the afore-mentioned "We Dinna wan't Polaris". For a more reflective song there was always Last Night I had the Strangest Dream

There's a wonderful piece of news film footage, showing the end of one of the Easter Marches as we were all coming up Whitehall. There's a whole band of musicians at the front - just behind the big names most of whom had only joined in at Parliament Square. I'm in a group with Tony McCarthy, John Hasted, and Alex Comfort - all sadly dead now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 04 Nov 03 - 09:49 AM

And how could I forget The Racing Pigeon?

Subject: Lyr Add: Nuclear Power Blues (Dave Williams)
From: GUEST,cnd
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 02:54 PM

Having recently borrowed Sing Out Vol. 26 for PHJim's Fret Buzz Blues request I stumbled upon this song and felt obliged to share it with others. It's a simple song but fun.

It was written by Dave Williams of DeKalb, Illinois for an anti-nuclear rally held at Seabrook the previous spring (spring of 1976) as what became part of the Clamshell Alliance movement. It was apparently sung with increasing frequency "as the tempo of anti-nuclear protests increase[d]."

There are dots to the song in the book as well, but it's a simple melody in 2/4 time with 2 sharps. It starts with a 1 beat pickup measure of two eighth notes and remains eighth notes for most of the melody, where the singer holds a quartet note more or less exactly where you'd expect to, sometimes followed by an eighth rest. I'll underline held words here, and include the key changes as provided in the book.

NUCLEAR POWER BLUES
(Dave Williams)

Well they (D) found some funny rocks [rest] out (G) on the Utah (D) flats
And they (D) thought they'd make some money so they (A) hired some bureaucrats
And they (D) said it's what we need [rest] to (G) keep us free from (D) care
Now we all got Nuclear Power radi-(A)-ation every-(D)-where

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: GUEST,#
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 02:56 PM

NO NUKES IS GOOD NUKES.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: voyager
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 06:15 PM

Home on the Front Range (Tim and NC Weil) -

written in 1982. posted on the mudcat in 2010

After 30 years, Tim and NC Weil have moved backed to Colorado and added a 3rd verse to this tune (originally penned in 1982). This songs was a lullaby to our two sons who are well-grown with families of their own Hope you enjoy it.

HOME ON THE FRONT RANGE (c)
--------------------------
Oh give me a home
In the disarmament zone
Where the Breeder Reactors don't prey
Where seldom you see
Radio-activity
And the Ozone stays intact all day

CHORUS
------
Home, safe from the Bomb
A hearth that always stays warm
With some person you're lovin'
And no microwave oven
Singing Tunes to move you along

Oh give me some space
Free of nuclear waste
And the fallout that comes from the storm
Where working makes sense
You pay low-budget rents
And the neighbors still party 'til dawn

CHORUS

New Verse (2010)

Crossed the country by car
With a Martin Guitar
To make the Front Range our new home
And now that we're settled
Ma and Pa Kettle
Can watch where the buffalo roam

voyager

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 12:51 AM

Though perhaps not quite classed as CND songs, these all concern the disasters and (im)morality of Nuclear testing Down Under (Australia / New Zealand / The Pacific), and I thought a record should be made of their existence on Mudcat.

The current “Rise Up Mudcat Songbook – Australia” thread (which is, in essence, a collection of (so far) over 600 Australian and New Zealand songs) has the lyrics / audio links / discussion and online info links - on these 14 songs :

12 Dec 2020 -
                The Eagle & the Islanders – Paul Metzers
                Anchor Me – Don McGlashan
28 Dec 2020 -
                French Letters – Herbs
                Talking Radiation Blues – NZ Unity Singers
                Send the Boats Away – Lyn Clark
                The Plains of Maralinga – Alistair Hulett
30 Dec 2020 -
                No Warships – Gumboot Tango
                Maralinga (This is a Rainy Land) – Paul Kelly
                Nuclear Fission (Maralinga On) – Paul Lawler
31 Dec 2020 -
                Maralinga – Wedgetail Eagle Band
                Maralinga – Midnight Oil
02 Jan 2021 -
                Mururoa Mon Amour – David O’Connor
                Mururoa Mon Amour – Robert Danielson
03 Jan 2021 -
                The Plains of Woomera – Phil Underwood

Cheers,
R-J

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-nuclear weapons song
From: GUEST,Roger Whiffin
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 01:59 PM

1 / Before the march - CND 1960s

O daughter, O daughter now listen to me
Just don't you go marching with the young CND
They'll Rock you and Roll you right out of the door
And if you come back you'll be a maiden no more.

2 / After the march

O mother and father now do not distress, 
This boy he has left me his name and address,
And if there's a baby as there surely could be,
It can come on the marches with his daddy and me.

So, slightly different verses to those above, and there were more of them that unfortunately I completely forget.

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 11:37 PM

Tom Lehrer, Who's Next? (first of five stanzas):

First we got the bomb, and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's OK,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way.
Who's next?

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 11:40 PM

Last stanza of Hamilton Camp & Bob Gibson, Well, Well, Well:

World's not waitin' for the Lord's command,
Buildin' a fire that'll sweep the land.
Thunder out of heaven, come at Gabriel's call,
And the sea's gonna boil and the sky's gonna fall.

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 11:44 PM

Second stanza of Fred Hellerman & Fran Minkoff, Come Away Melinda:

"Mommy, mommy, come and see. Oh, mommy, come and look.
There's four or five Melinda girls inside this picture book."
"Come away, Melinda. Come in and close the door.
There were lots of little girls like you before they had the war."

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 11:54 PM

Fourth verse of Bonnie Dobson, Morning Dew (lyrics from Genius website, so not entirely reliable):

Now, where have all the people gone?
Won't you tell me where have all the people gone?
Don't you worry about the people anymore
Don't you worry about the people anymore

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 11:59 PM

Fifth stanza of Leon Rosselson, Across the Hills:

But can’t you see the white ash falling
From the hollow of the skies?
And the blood runs red down the blackened walls
Where a ruined city lies.

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 11 Apr 24 - 12:03 AM

Eighth stanza of Bob Dylan, God on Our Side:

But now we've got weapons of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to, then fire them we must
One push of the button and a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions with God on your side

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 11 Apr 24 - 12:07 AM

Second stanza of Malvina Reynolds, What Have They Done to the Rain:

Just a little boy standing in the rain,
The gentle rain that falls for years.
And the grass is gone,
The boy disappears,
And rain keeps falling like helpless tears,
And what have they done to the rain?

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 11 Apr 24 - 12:10 AM

Last stanza of Tom Lehrer, We Will All Go Together When We Go:

And we will all go together when we go
Ev'ry Hottentot and ev'ry Eskimo
When the air becomes uranious
We will all go simultaneous
Yes we all will go together when we all go together
Yes we all will go together when we go

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 11 Apr 24 - 12:15 AM

First stanza of Michael Flanders, Twenty Tons of T.N.T.:

I have seen it estimated, somewhere between death and birth,
There are now three thousand million people living on this earth.
And the stockpiled mass destruction of the nuclear pow'rs that be
Equals for each man or woman Twenty tons of T.N.T.

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 11 Apr 24 - 12:20 AM

Second stanza of Tom Lehrer, The Wild West is Where I Want to Be:

'Mid the sagebrush and the cactus
I will watch the fellers practice
Droppin' bombs through the clean desert breeze.
I will have on my sombrero
And of course I'll wear a pair o'
Levis over my lead BVD's

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 11 Apr 24 - 12:24 AM

Last stanza of Richie Havens, Handsome Johnny:

Hey, yeah, hey, here comes a hydrogen bomb
And, here comes a guided missile
Here comes a hydrogen bomb
I can almost hear its whistle

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GerryM
Date: 11 Apr 24 - 12:30 AM

Third stanza of Randy Newman, Political Science:

Asia's crowded, And Europe's too old
Africa's far too hot, And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one, There'll be no one left to blame us

Subject: RE: ADD: Anti-nuclear weapons songs
From: GUEST,Jim McLean
Date: 11 Apr 24 - 03:04 AM

The whole of the Ding Dong Dollar LP, Folkways 1961.