The Day the Country Died

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The Day The Country Died
The Day The Country Died cover
Studio album by Subhumans
Released 1983
Recorded June 22 to June 26, 1982
Genre Punk
Length 34:56
Label Spiderleg Records
Producer Subhumans
Professional reviews

All Music Guide 4/5 stars link
Subhumans chronology
Evolution EP
(1982)		 The Day The Country Died
(1983)		 Religious Wars EP
(1983)

The Day the Country Died is the first LP by the punk rock band Subhumans. The album was recorded in five days in June 1982 and released in 1983 on Spiderleg Records. It was later released on Bluurg, the band's own record label.

The Day The Country Died is heavily influenced by the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. The most obvious sign of such an influence is the song "Big Brother" — Big Brother is the dictatorial political leader figure in Orwell's novel. The song revolves around how "Big Brother is watching you", and when Dick Lucas sings "there's a TV in my front room and it's screwing up my head", it's a reference to the telescreen which, in the novel, monitored citizens constantly. Like the novel, this album has dystopian overtones.

The album also describes a world ravaged by war, most likely nuclear war, which is suggested by track titles like "Dying World" and "All Gone Dead". The latter contains lyrics like "so long to the world, that's what they said, it's 1984 and it's all gone dead", which must be seen as another reference to Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The Day The Country Died is widely regarded as a classic punk album.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "All Gone Dead" – 1:53
  2. "Ashtray Dirt" – 1:22
  3. "Killing" – 1:49
  4. "Minority" – 1:17
  5. "Mickey Mouse Is Dead" – 2:44
  6. "Nothing I Can Do" – 2:30
  7. "Dying World" – 2:57
  8. "Subvert City" – 4:14
  9. "Big Brother" – 1:55
  10. "New Age" – 1:49
  11. "I Don’t Wanna Die" – 1:29
  12. "No" – 1:49
  13. "Zyklon-B-Movie" – 2:12
  14. "’Til The Pigs Come Round" – 2:01
  15. "No More Gigs" – 2:53
  16. "Black And White" – 3:36

[edit] Further track info

Four of the tracks on this album had previously been performed by the Stupid Humans, the band that Bruce was in before forming Subhumans. "All Gone Dead", "Ashtray Dirt", "Killing" and "New Age" all appeared on the Stupid Humans’ 1980 demo tape. The ‘nihilist’ section, between "I Don’t Wanna Die" and "No", is from the chorus of an earlier Subhumans track, "Song No. 35".