My friend Andrew was one of the few people I knew in college that liked jazz and would often come over to my dorm to listen to jazz records. Almost every time, we would eventually end up on Sun Ra’s “Nuclear War,” a bizarre and completely ridiculous 8-minute swamp-thing of a song.
From allmusic.com
Originally Ra was so sure the funky dance track was a hit, he immediately took it to Columbia Records, where they immediately rejected it. Why he thought a song with the repeating chant “Nuclear War…It’s a motherf***er, don’t you know/if they push that button, your ass gotta go…” would be a hit is another puzzle in the Sun Ra myth.
- June Tyson
I forgot about this song for a few years but it came up on shuffle on my mp3 player this morning and I listened to it twice. It is awesome.
Favorite moments:
4:27 - Sun Ra brings up a valid question asking, “What you gonna do—WITHOUT YOUR ASS?”
4:43 -Sun Ra lets trombonist Tyrone Hill take over vocals for a few seconds. You can totally hear how completely excited the dude is.
6:35 - Does he say crabgrass?
