No comment… #9 by Anakreon Kanavakis.

Lovely Missile’s Garden

Inspired by No Comment… #9 by Anakreon Kanavakis above. Lyrics by Timothy Price. Music by The Beatles.

The above sketch by Anakreon Kanavakis brought back memories of growing up during the Cold War when Mr. Kanavakis drew this sketch. The doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was all the rage for waging a Cold War. MAD is the theory of deterrence based on the idea that if enemies have equal abilities to annihilate each other, the equilibrium will deter said enemies from launching nuclear strikes against one or the other. The proliferation of bombs and missiles was a constant source of fear and concern during the Cold War which Mr. Kanavakis illustrates so well in his sketch.

Keep in mind that Athens, Greece, where Mr. Kanavakis worked for newspapers, is much closer to Russia than the United State. I will dare to guess that the fear of annihilation from the Soviet Union was more poignant in Greece than in the USA at that time, yet doomsday seemed to be always at hand everywhere.

When I saw Marina’s post with No Comment… #9 on her anmar blog, first thing this morning, I commented with the first few lines that came to mind. Soon after that I wrote the rest of the lyrics and turned the initial inspiration into a complete parody called Lovely Missile’s Garden (lyrics at the end of the post) to the music of Octopuses Garden by The Beatles. When inspiration strikes, I take action before the inspiration slips away. After writing the lyrics, I found an instrumental version of Octopuses Garden. Between various chores, I recorded the parody and sent it off to Marina for her approval and permission to use No Comment… #9.

I took this photo yesterday. It seems fitting for today’s theme.

On April 9, 1999, after President Clinton dropped bombs on the Serbs without informing Russia, Russian President Bois Yeltsin threatened to nuke Europe. We lived in Madrid, Spain at that time and saw Yeltsin on the news making his threats. It made me think of Nikita Khrushchev’s “We will bury you!” statement in 1956 (I was not born yet). We were worried about the whole affair, but all our Spanish friends were “Meh!” Some of our friends had done their military duty with Russian troops and said that most everything the Russians had was broken down and didn’t work. They didn’t think the Russian’s bombs were capable of exploding.

Lovely Missile’s Garden
Inspiration: Anakreon Kanavakis
Parody Lyrics: Timothy Price
Music: The Beatles

I like to be, watering bombs you see
In a lovely missile’s garden in the shade
I know I’d win, because I’ve been
Watering missile’s garden in the shade
I have no friends who want to be
Watering my missile’s garden with me

I like to be, watering bombs you see
In a lovely missile’s garden in the shade

It would be warm (Oh so warm), from the storm (From the storm)
A little blast-a-way and big shock wave (Boom! Boom!)
No resting our heads (Our heads), we’d all be dead (Oh no!)
A missile garden will make our grave (So sad!)
We would not sing or dance around
Annihilation would be profound

I like to be, watering bombs you see
In a lovely missile’s garden in the shade

Without a doubt (No doubt!) we’d be blown about (All about!)
Echoes fall beneath the blasting waves (So many waves!)
There’s no more Joy (Killed Joy), no girls or boys (No girls or boys?)
Knowing there’s nothing left but empty space (So much space).
No happiness for you and me
No one left to tell us what to do

I like to be, watering bombs you see
In a lovely missile’s garden in the shade

I like to be, watering bombs you see
In a lovely missile’s garden in the shade