Tuesday 13 November 2007

"The Ice Age Is Coming"

The Clash - London Calling

Chorus:

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in

Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin

A nuclear error, but I have no fear

London is drowning-and I live by the river



I was born in 1976. This The Clash song was first recorded in 1979. I was obviously too young to appreciate it but this band kept on playing on the radio until I started appreciating it and started to listen for the earliest songs. This one was recorded again in 1988, the year I turned twelve and was already chasing after punk songs. But I never payed much attention to its lyrics until recently. What really got my attention was that first phrase in the chorus; "The ice age is coming". This brought back my childhood memories, all through the eighties, when I'd have to listen to the news on the only television in the house, when scientists and governments were in a scare because the world was getting colder. The Ice Age was coming. Scientists were certain of it and were dishing out solutions.

Well, the Ice Age didn't come. And now they assure us global warming is coming and they have all the solutions.

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