Dave's Song of the Day
30 Seconds Over Tokyo – Pere Ubu
Monday song of the day: Today’s song is a pre-punk telling of a historical event.
Rocket From the Tombs was a short-lived band from Cleveland that was important in establishing Punk as a genre. They formed in June 1974, played live gigs for a while, and broke up in August 1975. The band never recorded in a studio, but some live recordings exist that were released years later.
When Rocket From the Tombs dissolved, its members quickly formed new bands. Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz created The Dead Boys, while David Thomas (who used the stage name Crocus Behemoth) and Peter Laughner formed Pere Ubu, and Craig Bell formed The Saucers. The early work of all three bands included songs that had originated with Rocket From The Tombs. Some ended up being important to the development of early Punk rock, such as today’s song and The Dead Boys version of
Sonic Reducer (which was the Song of the Day for October 4th, 2014. Here:
Sonic Reducer – The Dead Boys )
One of the songs Pere Ubu took from the Rocket From the Tombs days was
30 Seconds over Tokyo. It was a fairly straightforward retelling of the early World War II Doolittle Raid, told from the point of view of one of the pilots. The music was not straightforward at all, though. It was discordant and grating, and proved highly influential for later punk bands. The song was written by Thomas and Laughner, along with Eugene O’Connor (Better known by his stage name Cheetah Chrome. His name is spelled incorrectly as O’Conner on the record label above), and Thomas and Laughner brought it to Pere Ubu where they recorded it as the new band’s first single in 1975.
Like most of the early Punk records,
30 Seconds Over Tokyo never came anywhere near making the record charts at the time, but influenced a generation of musicians who went on to bigger things. Both Rocket From the Tombs and Pere Ubu have dissolved and reunited over the years, with numerous personnel changes. Peter Laughner died in 1977 of pancreatic disease following several years of alcohol and drug abuse, but most of the other early members continue to perform today.
Pere Ubu – 1975
Rocket From the Tombs – Live, 1975
Tomorrow: Lover of the Russian queen