This essay is reproduced here as it appeared in the print edition of the original Science for the People magazine. These web-formatted archives are preserved complete with typographical errors and available for reference and educational and activist use. Scanned PDFs of the back issues can be browsed by headline at the website for the 2014 SftP conference held at UMass-Amherst. For more information or to support the project, email sftp.publishing@gmail.com
Songs from Seabrook
‘Science for the People’ Vol. 10, No. 5, September/October 1978, p. 30–31
These songs are excerpted from the songbook published by the Clamshell Alliance, Songs to Stop Seabrook By, compiled by Beth DellaValle, David DiGiuseppe, and Jenny Van Pelt. The book is unfortunately out of print at present.
MY FAVORITE THINGS
(Music: same name. Words: Arnie Alpert and Alden Meyer)
Orbiting solar with microwave towers,
Dangerous coal mines and nuclear power,
Excessive construction and the profits it brings –
These are a few of my favorite things.
Increasing the rate base with nuclear stations,
High unemployment and higher inflation,
Centralized power, like monarchs, like kings.
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the sun shines,
When the wind blows.
When demand won’t grow,
I simply remember my favorite things –
And then I don’t feel so low.
Putting a nuclear plant on the docket,
Rigging the hearings so no one can block it,
Rubber stamp agencies tied up with strings –
These are a few of my favorite things.
Repeatedly lying that solar’s no answer,
Burying studies that link nukes to cancer,
Selling plutonium to terrorist rings –
These are a few of my favorite things.
When a fuse blows,
When a pipe breaks,
When the core melts down,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And evacuate the town.
Stopping the terrorist Clams at the borders,
Replacing police chiefs who won’t follow orders.
Taiwan excrusions, South African flings –
These are a few of my favorite things.
Police state tactics and mass infiltration.
Discrediting movements with staged provocation.
Getting hot tips from the ultra-right wing.
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the day comes,
That the nuke’s stopped,
When the truth is aired,
I’ll try to remember my favorite things,
So that I won’t feel so scared.
POWER POWER
(Music: “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” Words: Joanna Cazden)
They’re taking away all our power
By bringing in nuclear plants.
They talk of technology’s flower
We’d rather give safety a chance.
The fish have washed up on the Hudson,
The pipelines have cracked in Vermont,
A poison mist hangs over Millstone.
What more proof could anyone want?
(Chorus)
The companies can’t get insurance
The dangers are so plain to see.
How long can they lie to the public
About Public Utility?
They promise to safeguard the poisons.
Plutonium tons they have stored.
But we know there’s lots unaccounted for.
And “atoms for peace” go to war.
(Chorus)
They’re taking away all our power
By bringing in nuclear plants like
Doomsday machines they will tower
We’ll stop them however we can …
I’m running my farm on a windmill
I’m heating my house chopping wood
My factory runs on a water wheel,
The sun heats my bathtub real good.
(Chorus)
But folks now are coming together.
Control of our lives we demand.
We think we can handle it better.
Than experts from NRC land …
Our friend Sam, he toppled the tower
And Ron sat and froze in the sky.
Two thousand arrested at Seabrook
And our turn will come by and by.
(Chorus)
Chorus:
Power, power, community power is ours for free!
Power, power, oh bring back my power to me.
NUCLEAR POWER BLUES
(Music and words: Dave Williams)
They found some funny rocks out on the Utah flats
They thought they’d make some money so they hired some bureaucrats
They say it’s what we need to keep us free from care
Now we’ve got nuclear power radiation everywhere.
Chorus:
You can’t see it, you can’t feel it, you can’t stash it in the hall
You can’t serve it up for dinner, it won’t answer when you call
You can’t throw it in the outhouse, it won’t ever tell a lie
You can give it life and money but you cannot make it die.
They thought that they could tame it, so they built themselves a bomb
And when they had decided that nothing had gone wrong
They build themselves a power plant with their guards and guns and lights
So their safe stuff would be safer, and we could all sleep well at night. (Chorus)
Well it’s the rage in Russia, in China and in France.
Now every country wants their own atomic power chance.
They bleed it right along ’til there’s tons of it on store
Then they stock it up in missiles ’til they have a little war. (Chorus)
It’s in the Mississippi, it’s in the kitchen sink
It’s in the snow on Christmas, it’s in the milk we drink
And underneath the continent there’s tons of it on store
And we only have to keep it safe a million years or more. (Chorus)
Now here’s to all the great men who brought us right along
With strong defense and honor- and Business right or wrong
Someday we’re bound to meet them in that mansion in the sky
‘Cause for all their deeds we can be sure, we can kiss our ass good-bye. (Chorus)
