Holocaust on the home front

I wrote this song in March 1981, under the title 'Civil Defense'. This was because I had based the song on a government pamphlet setting out helpful suggestions as to how to prepare for a nuclear attack and what to do in the event of one. This pamphlet was nicely contrasted by one from CND, I think, which set out the likely damage to result from dropping a 10 megaton nuclear bomb on Kings Cross Station, London (this was, of course, before the Kings Cross Station fire). I think it was my friend, Michael Pickering, who suggested the title that I actually used.

The song starts by inviting the listener to imagine they are sitting at home watching TV when an announcement is made declaring a state of emergency. The first half of the song is then devoted to describing the civil defense preparations, as set out in the leaflet. For example, here is the third verse:

Choose a room on the ground floor
Block up the windows, barricade the door
Strengthen the walls, fill in the cracks
Build an inner refuge that'll stand the attack

The second half of the song is devoted to the spreading devastation:

Twelve miles away at Stanmoore and Romford
The fire zone starts, the houses are burning
The people out of doors are burned and charred to death
Five miles away there are no houses
Just a mass of dust and flattened rubble
And lets not think about the firestorm, Oh No!

The chorus drives home the common sense notion like a wooden mallet banging on your head:

Civil defense, what a pretense
Staying alive makes so very little sense
When you're in a nuclear war
When you're in a nuclear war

Not one of my happiest songs, but then the topic doesn't lend itself to smiley faces.

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