So this song was most likely inspired by a Mad Max movie night that a friend and I had the day before I started writing it. It took two days of writing to complete.

Like I said, I have been in a rather morose mood lately with my music. After doing "Wooden Ships" I started looking up other anti-nuclear war protest songs and have been thinking about the topic a Lot. It's certainly not as big a threat these days as it was in the cold war but the fact that enough of these devices are still around to destroy life on this planet is still pretty mind boggling.

Imagine that this song is about a rural family that has just survived the final volley of a war that ended in nuclear exchange. I kind of imagine that these are the "silver people on the shoreline" from the song "Wooden ships."



This song was recorded in one shot on one mic over my head as I played and sang at the same time in true folk tradition. The instrument is my trusty carbon fiber Rainsong.


Chords:
Em, G, D
Lyrics:

During the wars of our fathers a deadly flame was lit
It burned away the afterglow in one big fiery hit
We sat and watched for days and days as our great blue skies turned black
And when the rain finally came it burned the skin right off our backs.

The question's hey! hey! Who let the dogs out of the pen?
The question's hey! Hey! Will we ever see those great blue skies again?

You know the day it happened we watched it on TV
Wondering if it was real or just some awful dream
There were little red pins stuck in 50 some odd towns
The news man was explaining that they stood for mushroom clouds.

The question's hey! hey! Who let the dogs out of the pen?
The question's hey! Hey! Will we ever see those great blue skies again?

Then all it once it all went dark and a faint thunder could be heard
We walked out to the kitchen door without a spoken word.
We looked to the horizon where three hills stood in a row
And observed a second sunrise followed by a ghostly glow.

The question's hey! hey! Who let the dogs out of the pen?
The question's hey! Hey! Will we ever see those great blue skies again?

Questions hung on every lip as all our pride was cowed
Who let all this happen? and What do we do now?
Our very world was taken in a white flash it was gone
This game of chess was over and we were never even pawns.

The question's hey! hey! Who let the dogs out of the pen?
The question's hey! Hey! Will we ever see those great blue skies again?

The next few days were blurry lots of fighting lots of guns
But the people shooting back at us were men from nearby farms
I lost my baby sister and my pop was wounded bad
But we somehow managed out of there and took what we could and ran.

The question's hey! hey! Who let the dogs out of the pen?
The question's hey! Hey! Will we ever see those great blue skies again?

For many miles onward we dragged our sorry hides
We dragged our broken bodies, we dragged our broken minds.
We followed down a river by prangs of hunger spurred
And avoided shattered cities where many screams were heard.

The question's hey! hey! Who let the dogs out of the pen?
The question's hey! Hey! Will we ever see those great blue skies again?

It was weeks before we reached the cost and clean water could be found
There weren't too many others that we could see around
We built ourselves a shelter with ropes we made from hair
But the question haunted everyone where would we go from there?

The question's hey! hey! Who let the dogs out of the pen?
The question's hey! Hey! Will we ever see those great blue skies again?

The reason that I'm singing now is so all of you will know
Just the things that put us here and why we're set to roam
Hear what I say and listen well, remember hat poison rain?
And try to teach your children well so it never comes again.

The question's hey! hey! Who let the dogs out of the pen?
The question's hey! Hey! Will we ever see those great blue skies again?