There's Still Time Brother

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1960

Label: Josan Records

"There's Still Time Brother" should not be confused with the Jack Segal/Paul Vance song of the same (or somewhat differently punctuated) title that was released by Jimmy Dean, Bill Courtney, Don Cornell, The Salvation Army, and others.

Both songs were inspired by Stanley Kramer's 1959 film "On The Beach," which depicts a post-nuclear apocalypse. In the final scene, with all of humanity dead, the camera pans through the empty streets of a city and comes to rest at a Salvation Army banner proclaiming "There's Still Time...Brother".

This song is very different from the Segal/Vance song. After all, it does come from the guys who'd recently unleashed the Elvis Presley-in-the-army send-up "Alright Sargent" and co-wrote "Green Stamps," Jimmy Norman's rockin' tribute to never-ending love and thrifty shopping. And who would soon go even further over the edge with "Fat Man".

It's an upbeat solo rockabilly number with a kinda Elvis delivery that somehow manages to be both light-hearted and sincerely concerned about Doomsday.

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I woke one night from a dream of peace
A shattering thought my brow did crease
I had a vision of my demise
A orange colored fireball in the sky
I looked to the sky and what did I see
An atomic bomb heading straight for me
I started to run but it wasn't much use
I was [unintelligible] and it cooked my goose

Oh yeah brother there's no looking back
We're heading down a one way track
There's still time brother so cry out loud
Let's put an end to that mushroom cloud

The world was blasted to smithereens
Ol' mother earth she just popped her seams
She ripped and she tore she blew her crust
Til nothing was left but atomic dust

Now this can happen and all too soon
Just one big blast from here to the moon
So let's unite and love each other
It's not too late there's still time brother


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O.K., but who the heck is "Mickey Curtis"?

My theory is that producer Mo Klein is goofing on then-current Japanese Elvis-like rockabilly star Miki Curtis.

Consider that Mo Klein was responsible for the notorious "The Japanese Kid / Hot Saki" Japanese beatnik novelty single just a year before, and it all starts to make sense.