Tim Mohr: Music for the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Kids today! All worked up about terrorism. Ooooh, scary , a gaggle of bearded men in caves are after us. Pfffff. Back before the fall of the Berlin Wall -- 20 years ago on November 9, 1989 -- the world lived in the constant shadow of a genuine existential threat: total nuclear annihilation. The possibility that we could all be vaporized in a matter of minutes occupied a dark but prominent place not only in our individual consciences but in pop culture as well. There were cheeky admonishments like Billy Bragg's "Help Save the Youth of American" or Men At Work's "It's a Mistake." And the bomb loomed large for thrash bands, too. For some it may have been just another means to engage in their lyrical orgies of blood and gore, but for others -- check out Exodus's "Fabulous Disaster" -- it was a source of visceral anguish and something bordering on political anger. And no wonder. With Bonzo dreaming of taking the arms race into space, trigger-fingered loonies pulling his strings, and the opaque ... (link)