Nobody Died at Three Mile Island

It should come as no surprise really that Nuclear Power is making a comeback against a backdrop of Global Warming, Wall Street greed and an oil slick disaster of epic proportions. Indeed, many people have recently been pitching Nuclear as a green energy option. Of course, it’s really more like some crazed zombie returned from Dawn of the Dead. In the late 70’s and early 80’s I was pretty well versed in nuclear power plant economics and environmental concerns. It was a hobby of mine, but I was relieved and quite happy to move onto other things as it appeared to die as a viable option (ironically, as much because of cheap Saudi oil as anything else).

These days, I’m more ambivalent about the technology and its problems, sometimes even willing to grant it a sort of grudging “support”, along the lines sketched out by James Lovelock. In essence, the argument in favor of allowing a nuclear renaissance boils down to: we’re all screwed anyway, so why not? I mean, it’s not like the species (particularly Homo Americanus) has shown great judgment or ecological vision or compassion. We’ve pretty much had an uninterrupted celebration of greed, selfishness and stupidity in high places, at least since the late 70’s.

But then, my own innate optimism (such as it is) takes hold again, and I say Hell no. So, I’ve dusted off a song I wrote back in the 80’s about the nuclear industry, added a new verse, and will be taking it out to play in future weeks. As I mentioned, I was a bit of a geek about Nuclear issues back in the day. Before Three Mile Island, there was a 1975 accident at a power plant at Browns Ferry in Alabama. A fire started by a candle that wound up doing something like $100 million of damage. As Wikipedia puts it: “the March 22, 1975 fire started when a worker using a candle to search for air leaks accidentally set a temporary cable seal on fire. The fire spread through the wall from the temporary seal.”

At the time that I was contemplating writing a song about TMI, I was thumbing through a book of old folk songs and came across the “Brown’s Ferry Blues”. It seemed like a perfect frame for the story I wanted to tell, though, aside from the tag line “Lord, lord I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry Blues,” there wasn’t a whole lot of the song that I could actually re-use. I did re-use half of a verse, which fits nicely with the overall flavor of the work. I revised the song again after Chernobyl, but since that time it has been gathering dust. Anyway, the words follow and I should be posting a recording of it soon. Let me know what you think and if you have verses to add, feel free to contribute.

Brown’s Ferry Blues


Fire in the morning, fire at night
When the reactor goes there won’t be no light
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Put on you coat, get on down the road
Don’t want to be around when it shoots it’s load
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues

Early to bed and early to rise
And your woman goes out with the other guys
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
She doesn’t want your contaminated fingers
After it’s over radiation lingers
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues

Nobody died at Three Mile Island
Chernobyl was just a few commies fryin
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Got a two headed mule and a three headed calf
I go out to the barn when I need a good laugh
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues

Deepwater oil bearing down on the coast
As Global Warming slowly turns us all into toast
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
GE Lobbyists wading into the fray
Nuclear Power’s gonna save the day
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues

Fire in the morning, fire at night
When the reactor goes there won’t be no light
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
One of these days it’ll be all over
We’ll sleep together in a field of clover
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues

(c) 2010. Jim Heald. All Rights Reserved.

Thom Bishop, Chicago Songwriter

I recently searched the internet for Thom Bishop, a Chicago songwriter who was fairly active in the 70's and 80's. I heard him play on numerous occasions at clubs like Somebody Else's Troubles, Orphans, at Chicago Fest. Laura and I also heard him play one night at a little gay bar under the EL at Belmont(?) where I also performed on several occasions. That particular night was one of the coldest nights in Chicago History (something like -26) and I killed my transmission trying to drive that night. We all sat in the bar with our parkas on. Not sure how he managed to perform that night. He and I left Chicago at roughly the same time. He headed to LA, to pursue songwriting for movies and writing screenplays. He'd also written some musical theater pieces in Chicago.

He had pretty much vanished from the face of the earth (at least to non-friends and relatives), although he did release an album in the late 80's and another in the late 90's. Previous searches (not sure that I've tried in recent years) yielded very little, except a credit as the Music Director on a small film called American Reel.

On this most recent search, there was a link to a Wikipedia page for someone named Junior Burke. So I went to wikipedia and the mystery unravelled a bit. Thomas Burke Bishop Jr. had decided sometime in the 90's to become known as Junior Burke. Junior had recently released a CD (of old and new music - quite good, very well produced by Chicagoan Jim Tullio) and had published a novel in 2005 (the novel appears to be out of print, but used copies can be purchased through Amazon). He is also now the chair of the Kerouac Institute for Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, CO. and is working on a second novel. Check him out at www.juniorburke.com .