Welcome to installment #1 of “An Album A Day,” a new feature in which I scour my record collection on a daily basis to bring you some oddities and favorites I’ve accumulated during my first decade-plus as a collector. Hard to believe I’ve been at this since my freshman year of college. According to my records (and I should tell you know I keep very detailed records, which I’m sure you’ll notice as I delve deeper into this project) the first record(s) I purchased at a store (that wasn’t gifted) were Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Slow Riot For A New Zero Kanada and F#A#OO at L’Oblique in Montreal, Canada in May of 2002. Crazy.
So the idea behind this new feature is that every week from Monday through Friday I’ll be sharing music. It might be a full album download (like today’s entry) or it could just be a snippet or two if I don’t already have the record digitized. Along with some basic details about said album I’ll post any relevant photos, purchase date, location, and price if applicable. And, of course, if there’s any unusual story to go along with it you’ll get to hear that as well. Each week will be linked thematically. This week’s theme is non-music. That is, records that don’t contain music. There might a musical cue or maybe a music bed but the first five albums I’m sharing are non-music recordings. How ironic, right? And yet so fitting. Of course I would introduce a new music feature on the website and devote the first week of posts to records that contain little-to-no music in their grooves.
Feast your eyes on If The Bomb Falls: A Recorded Guide For Survival. Released in 1961 by Tops Records (Cat. No. L1728) it’s pretty much a public service announcement intended to inform listeners how to respond to a nuclear attack on the United States and suggest supplies necessary to ensure survival of said attack. It’s a grim listen. Original copies included not one but two 32-page tomes, called “The Family Fallout Shelter” and “Home Protection Exercises”. There was also a shorter (6-page) booklet entitled “Facts About Fallout Protection”. The Pièce de résistance, perhaps, was the wallet card labeled with warning signals and preparation advice.
My personal copy was obtained on November 22nd, 2012. It came into my place of work as part of a collection we purchased from a local record collector. The same collection yielded several records I’ve posted before (like this, and this, and this). His copy of If The Bomb Falls came sealed with a large generic 69¢ price sticker on the shrink wrap. We priced the LP at $49.99 at the time but when I got the thing home and opened it up I realized it had been re-sealed. The vinyl was in VG condition (it wasn’t even stored in a paper inner sleeve) and none of the inserts were present. I would have loved to read the book about how to build my family a fallout shelter as I listened to the calm (but firm!) narration by David Wiley, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Also, this might be one of the most morbid albums in my collection. Since I was born in 1983 I obviously have no recollection of the early ’60s and the threat of nuclear war that existed then. I’ve heard stories from family members regarding the sense of fear that permeated those days. Hell, I grew up in a town that once boasted its own Nike Missile Base. To someone my age, an entire generation living in fear of nuclear war seems like an absurdity, but listening to this record gives the listener the impression that the threat is very, very real.
Narr. David Wiley
If The Bomb Falls: A Recorded Guide For Survival
(Tops – L1728, 1961)
A. If The Bomb Falls (What To Do In Case Of Nuclear Attack) [MP3]
B. If The Bomb Falls (Supplies Needed For Survival) [MP3]
