LoVE: Mushroom Clouds

[silentseason]

"Mushroom Clouds"
From: LoVE, side two, song six
-Running time: 2:45
-Recorded: January 26, 1966 Sunset Sound
-Written by: Lee/Echols/Forssi/MacLean
-Lead vocal: Arthur Lee
-Lead guitar: Johnny Echols
-Rhythm guitar: Bryan MacLean
-Bass: Kenny Forssi
-Drums: Alban 'Snoopy' Pfisterer
-An older composition, written during the time the band was still known as the Grass Roots.
-A song about nuclear war, with Hiroshima the inspiration for it.
-One of only two songs credited to the original four band members, the other song being 'Revelation'.
-Quotable: Michael describes some of his experience in LoVE in regards to the mixed racial makeup of the band and how they were received in public:

"Never once, during my years with the group, did I ever witness or experience any vestige of racism directed against any of the members of Love. I suppose there could have been a kind of "second hand" racism... in that, there were parts of the country where no agent in his right mind would have booked us, (like maybe a small town in the deep South), but we wouldn't have been booked into a small market anyway. All our gigs were in large cities, where, for the most part, (even back in the post-JFK mid-sixties), people had sophisticated concepts of racial equality (and where Elektra had good distribution.) I never met anyone who felt our racial diversity was anything other than just another component of our uniqueness."

-IMHO: How many bands use nuclear war as a subject, and on their debut as well? Perhaps this song illustrates more than any other the band's depth and diversity as well as the inherent darkness of their vision.
-Fun fact: An original line in the song "Father help us find the way, to walk beside you everyday" was taken out at Jac Holzman's insistence, supposedly because it was too religous. Arthur's new replacement line was a jab at this intrusion: "I don't want you bothering me".

Lyrics:

Mushroom clouds are forming
And the sky is dark and grey

Little children dying
In an age of hate and war

We can love again
Only God knows when
Help us with our problems

I don't need you bothering me
Can't you tell me that I'm free

Mushroom clouds are forming
And the sky is dark and grey

[TJSAbass]

That's great info about the lyric change! I like the original. Also explains the sudden change of tone.