Galaxie 500's "Snowstorm" and Nuclear Holocaust

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Listening to some Galaxie 500 for the first time in a while this weekend. "Snowstorm" and actually On Fire as a whole always struck me as having a heavy sense of Cold War doom hanging over the whole thing. Something about the production, the year (we were still thinking about nuclear war a lot in 1989), the references to sky and warm breezes (always thought of that fallout wind), I dunno, maybe it's just where my head was at when I first heard the record in '89. But "Snowstorm" in particular, the weatherman changing his tone of voice because of what he sees on the radar, flakes that all look the same, clouds -- that's definitely about nuclear war, isn't it? Does anyone else think of these things when listening to this song or album?

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

"Listen the Snow is Falling" seems along these lines

― Schwip Schwap (schwip schwap), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Blue Thunder is about an assault helicopter...
The videos feature lots of slow mo violent imagery...

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

i'd never thought about this before but i can definitely see it. and i think it also drives home the difference between G500 and the members' respective solo careers - that sense of tension and paranoia is almost entirely missing from the post-galaxie records.

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 23:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like this idea.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)

not saying that the idea isn't plausible, but i've never really thought of this song as being anything other than literally about a snowstorm. interesting idea, though. i'll have to give it a listen with this in mind.

― tylerw, Wednesday, 20 April 2005 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Didn't you know that On Fire and Dr. Strangelove played simultaneously synch up perfectly? The opening fueling sequence paired with "Blue Thunder" is divine. Start it as soon as the Columbia lady's torch twinkles during the opening credits.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Incidentally "Snowstorm" is a song I play a lot more in the summer than in the winter, so I can relate to the warm/breaziness aspects. The instrumentation and the speed of the song is typical on my night-time-driving-across-the-state trips. Until the second verse, I usually hear it as a tornado is coming. It being "seven hours away" definately suggests some warning has been given which easily plays into the nuclear holocaust idea.

― earinfections (Nick Twisp), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

What a wonderful album.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Those lyrics:

Well I listen to the weather
And he's changed his tone of voice
He can see it on the radar
Only seven hours away
Well there's gonna be a snowstorm
When the t.v has gone wild
And they got nothin else to think of
And they're letting me go home

Well I'm lookin at the snowflakes
And they all look the same
And the clouds that go by me
They're playin some kind of game
Well you know we had a snowstorm
And the t.v. has gone wild
And they got nothin else to think of
And they're letting me go home

Always figured the weatherman's change in tone of voice was a shift to panic.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Can we place this nuclear incident geographically (hypothetically)? I think Russia would be an easy choice, for it's snow and history with nuclear energy. But what of Pennsylvania?

― earinfections (Nick Twisp), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

poortheatre
are you serious? I really hope so. I need to synch em up as soon as possible if its true.

― jmeister (jmeister), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

And "Leave the Planet" is about the presidential evacuation pod, and the funny-looking people in "Strange" are the next, post-irradiation generation. Some of the severely mutated people have talking toes as in "Decomposing Trees" (that song generally offering an impression of the difficulties faced by all types of biological systems against sky-high background radiation levels). "Another Day" is an immediate post-apocalypse song of hope, about keeping one's chin up and holding back the tears in the nuclear dawn, despite the endlessly grey skies. "Isn't It a Pity" is the perfect lament for the failure of the whole human experiment, the song itself having been salvaged from those precious manuscripts that escaped destruction, resurrected now as a peace anthem.

A veritable rock opera. But what the hell is going on in "Plastic Bird"?

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.zvis.com/images/nuks/dmtruckee1.jpg

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.zvis.com/images/nuks/dmtruckee1.jpg

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

i have to say that this is my favourite thread for absolutely ages. nice one mark.

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 21 April 2005 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

anyone know if synching On Fire w/ Dr. Strangelove actually works well?

― jmeister (jmeister), Thursday, 21 April 2005 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I always though Snowstorm was a staring out the window type song. I suppose in a nuclear holocoust youd probably be in an underground bunker or something of the sort, I'd also imagine that any windows would be boarded up too. hmmmmm.

― Tokyo Ghost Stories (Tokyo Ghost Stories), Thursday, 21 April 2005 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I admit I never listened to Dean's slurred lyrics too closely and instead fixated on a snowstorm-as-metaphor-for-TV-static angle (static resulting from the TV broadcasts going down due to natural disaster/nuclear holocaust)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 21 April 2005 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Blue Thunder is about an assault helicopter...

Is this taken to be true?

That was the first thing that came to mind when I heard it as wee lad, but I convinced myself he was singing about regular thunder coinciding with blue-tinted lightening. But he does seem to be speaking about a specific and enduring entity in "My Blue Thunder" and "feeling how it turns"!! And he certainly doesn't shy away from citing other consumer/pop-culture brands elsewhere: Kojak, Coke, Twinkies, etc...

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Thursday, 21 April 2005 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

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