Dave's Song of the Day
The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades – Timbuk 3
Thursday song of the day: Today’s song is about a nuclear holocaust.
The husband-and-wife duo known as Timbuk 3 had not yet begun their first album when Barbara MacDonald mentioned to her husband that “The future is looking so bright; we’ll have to wear sunglasses.” Pat MacDonald liked the phrase and wrote it down as the seed for a song. He shortened it to The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades, and instead of the original positive sentiment, he twisted the meaning. The song ended up telling the story of a student of nuclear physics contemplating a career making nuclear weapons. Instead of rosy prospects, the bright future instead referred to nuclear explosions, presumably in a war. Many listeners, however, missed that context and presumed the song told of happiness about future career prospects.
The album Greetings from Timbuk3 was released in October 1986, and the single The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades was the band’s only hit. It placed at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and while Timbuk 3 had a few later songs place on the lower reaches of US Mainstream Rock chart, they never again broke into the Hot 100.
Audio
View: https://youtu.be/nsRKleS-Ihk
Video
View: https://youtu.be/8qrriKcwvlY
Tomorrow: The kind you find in a secondhand store
The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades – Timbuk 3
Thursday song of the day: Today’s song is about a nuclear holocaust.
The husband-and-wife duo known as Timbuk 3 had not yet begun their first album when Barbara MacDonald mentioned to her husband that “The future is looking so bright; we’ll have to wear sunglasses.” Pat MacDonald liked the phrase and wrote it down as the seed for a song. He shortened it to The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades, and instead of the original positive sentiment, he twisted the meaning. The song ended up telling the story of a student of nuclear physics contemplating a career making nuclear weapons. Instead of rosy prospects, the bright future instead referred to nuclear explosions, presumably in a war. Many listeners, however, missed that context and presumed the song told of happiness about future career prospects.
The album Greetings from Timbuk3 was released in October 1986, and the single The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades was the band’s only hit. It placed at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and while Timbuk 3 had a few later songs place on the lower reaches of US Mainstream Rock chart, they never again broke into the Hot 100.
Audio
View: https://youtu.be/nsRKleS-Ihk
Video
View: https://youtu.be/8qrriKcwvlY
Tomorrow: The kind you find in a secondhand store