Enola gay omd lyrics meaning
As if I was doing a research paper or dissertation, I would read books, make notes, make lists of interesting facts, words and comments and just collect background information. Before the days of the internet, you had to go and get books out of the library. “I never start with the lyrics but I will do some research, which goes back to being geeky. So I had decided in 1979 that I wanted to write a song about that. “If you’re interested in Second World War aeroplanes then ultimately you have to come to the one that effectively ended the war, the B-29 Superfortress the Enola Gay that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. I also had a fascination for warfare, not in a celebratory way but in a sense that I was drawn by the horror of it and the moral dilemma that people were allowed to do things in war that were illegal at times of peace. I was particularly fascinated with Second World War aeroplanes, rather than the modern ones. I was an Airfix aeroplane collector and he was a train track collector, so my fascination with aeroplanes started young.
US chart position: –“The origin of the song goes back to myself and Paul Humphreys being geeky kids. Here, Andy McCluskey talks us through the creation of the international hit which continues to pose a moral dilemma…Īrtist: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark In fact, it was banned from being played on the BBC children’s programme Swap Shop – not because of the events referenced in the track, but a bizarre misinterpretation that it was promoting homosexuality. That’s not to say the track was welcomed by everyone. Such is Enola Gay’s instant appeal, it has gone on to sell more than five million copies. With its title, and inspiration, taken from the name of the aeroplane which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945, the song is most memorable for its catchy synth hook – somewhat at odds with the sombre subject matter. also had the knack for writing chart-bothering and catchy singles, none more so than Enola Gay. Though a successful albums band, McClusky, Humphreys and co. Formed in 1978 by school friends Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, who had already played together in other Merseyside bands, OMD became the perfect home for their Kraftwerk-inspired synth-pop. With 25 million singles and 15 million albums sold worldwide, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) have guaranteed their place in the annals of music history. How the electro-pop classic, with one of the catchiest synth melodies, was inspired by the dropping of the atomic bomb The rhythmic intro is actually one of the diesel pumps at Stanlow recorded by Andy himself.Publisher on 27 February 2020 at 11:04 pm As well as Andy’s father and sister both working there, the breathtaking view of the refinery lit up at night was a welcome sight to the band when coming home from tours. Stanlow is actually the name of an oil refinery located on the Wirral peninsula at Ellesmere Port.
Promise marked Paul Humphreys’ debut as lead vocalist on a song he had also written himself. OMD’s version actually started out as a separate song but then Andy began singing the lyrics to The More I See You over the top and decided that they complemented each other. The More I See You is a cover version of a song originally sung by Dick Hayes in the 1945 film Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe but was also a 60’s hit for Chris Montez. The Misunderstanding was an early song that dated back to OMD’s former incarnation as The Id. OMD had played with Joy Division at early concerts and the band’s melancholic tunes had a profound effect during the recording of Organisation. The lyrics in Statues are partially about Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division who died in May 1980. This version featured on the B-Side of Souvenir. Motion And Heart was briefly considered as a possible second single and the band subsequently recorded a new version at Amazon Studios, Liverpool. The title actually comes from a number on a valve that features on the reverse of the sleeve for Kraftwerk’s album Radioactivity. VCLXI was the name of Andy and Paul’s early experimental partnership. Enola Gay was the only single released from the album.