We Didn't Light It, But We Tried to Fight It

Welcome to season 2 Episode 2 and it is our pleasure to join forces with Michael and Jack, the voices behind the wonderful, long-running Billy Joel podcast “Glass Houses”. They tell us everything they know (and they know a lot) about the classic post-WWII history lesson “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. While Billy Joel may have not rated the song as one of his own favourites, we certainly love it. If you’re not already familiar with “Glass Houses”, it’s a podcast well worth subscribing to.

As ever, we have plenty of other songs to discuss. Canadian rock-band The Box released the upbeat and catchy “Ordinary People” with a fun accompanying video. Whatever the differences between the leaders of America and Russia, the people are just the same. A similar theme emerges in our next song, “American-Soviets” by German synth minimalists CCCP – which has a chess-game between Reagan and Gorbachev as the metaphoric backdrop. One of our heroes of funk and soul, Curtis Mayfield, is next, with his plaintive call for peace in “What You Gawn Do?” We end the episode with 10,000 Maniacs – Natalie Merchant’s beautiful folk-tinged vocal tells the nuclear story in the excellent “Grey Victory” (it’s one of our listener recommendations, and we’re very glad to include it).

Keep an eye on our playlists – they are regularly updated to accompany our episodes.

Have you got an 80s nuclear war song that we haven’t thought of yet? If so, contact us via:

Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast

Reddit: r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email: bangnuclearpodcast@gmail.com

Opening and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork: Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer: Shivam Pathak

Opening words: Richie Wheeler

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