Sun Ra & Yo La Tengo - Nuclear War 12" Singles (1982) & (2002)

On March 28, 1979, a nuclear accident occurred in the reactor at Three Mile Island, less than 100 miles upwind from Philadelphia, and for a week there were evacuations and talk of nuclear disaster.  Sun Ra became very concerned that nuclear energy had gotten out of hand and in a rare antitechnological moment, he told everyone who would listen that solar power was the only sane and cheap form of energy, one that he had been proposing ever since he was a child.  His interviews over the next few years show his growing fear of the possibilities of nuclear apocalypse, and in the late 1980s he added pollution to his apprehensions, though it often served more as a metaphor for Earth's evils than as part of a political movement ("the planet's landlord will extract revenge for the misuse of the planet").  In 1982 he recorded "Nuclear War," becoming one of the first instances of protest rap...

Convinced he had a hit single, he took it to Columbia Records who showed no interest in it, and he finally sold it to Y Records in London who produced a twelve-inch single aimed at disco jocks.

from Space Is The Place - Szwed


 Y RA 1 Nuclear War was a 12-inch single issued in Britain in 1982.  A Fireside Chat with Lucifer and Celestial Love were released in 1983 and 1984 respectively.  Y RA 2 was slated for release in Britain under the title Rays from the Outer Tomorrow; it never appeared, but an Italian LP Y RA 2 was released in 1984 under the title Nuclear War. 
From The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra 2nd ed.

Many THANKS to Vinylust for offering the FLAC copy of his original vinyl rip.

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Atavistic released Sun Ra's Nuclear War as part of their Unheard Music series in 2001.  In 2002, shortly after the Atavistic's reissue,  Indie Rock band Yo La Tengo released  a CD 'Single' that included four mixes of their own performance of the infectious title song. 

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Stylophone 350s at the amazing blog MUSIC*HERTZ was kind enough to offer us two more Nuclear War covers with this post (just click the pic).  Thanks Stylo!