Laka has a large collection of music (on vinyl, LPs & Singles and on CD or even VHS and Music Cassettes) supporting the anti-nuclear struggle. Most of these recordings are documenting a specific struggle in a specific era and location, and are living documents of that decennia long struggle. We’re focusing on officially released music, but if appropriate added some digital content too. Music is part of Laka's 'special collections' - the culture of the international anti-nuclear movement - which also includes a large collection of anti-nuclear songbooks, posters and graphic novels. If you have anything to add, want to make a contribution or an inquiry about a specific record, please do not hesitate to contact us.
An incredible collection of songs related to the 1979 Three Mile Island accident (not necessarly from the anti-nuclear movement) can be found on Radioactive Releases. The Music of Three Mile Island.
This page is still under construction, more information about specific releases will be added soon
Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band
Memories Of The Bodega Battle
LP, 1973
Re-release of the 1964 Blues over Bodega Album.
Pacific Gas & Electric planned to build the first commercially viable nuclear power plant in the US at Bodega Bay, California, a fishing village fifty miles north of San Francisco. The proposal was controversial and conflict with local citizens began in 1958. In 1964 Pacific Gas & Electric withdrew its application and canceled plans for the plant Northern California Association to Preserve Bodega Head and Harbor was the local group oppossing the nuclear reactor plans and well knwon jazz musiscian Lu Watters joined and played some benefit concerts for the group. It was the birth of the US-antinuclear movement. Watters in 1973: "This LP was originally recorded ten years ago during the long struggle over the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's plans to build a nuclear power plant in Sonoma County, California. Contrary to what some old friends from the Dawn Club and Hamhone Kelly days thought, this record did not win the Bodega Battle. But it did boost the morale of the people who were doggedly battling P.G. & E. against depressing odds." [read liner notes]
Pat DeCou And Tex LaMountain
No Nukes and Karen Silkwood
Single 45 rpm, 1977
Released in the wake of the Seabrook May 1977 massive civil disobedience actions, Pat de Cou & Tex la Mountain were two of the 1414 people arrested and prisoned for two weeks. [read liner notes].
Karen Gay Silkwood (February 19, 1946 – November 13, 1974) was an American chemical technician and labor union activist. She worked at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site in Oklahoma, making plutonium pellets, and became the first woman on the union's negotiating team. After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission about her concerns about corporate practices related to health and safety in a nuclear facility, she was found to have plutonium contamination on her person and in her home. While driving to meet with a New York Times journalist and an official of her union's national office, she died in a car crash under unclear circumstances. No documents were recovered from her chrashed car.
DeCou and LaMountain’s other recorded anti-nuclear track, Seabrook Song, turned up on their 1979 'Down Here At Earth' album.
Karen Gay Silkwood (February 19, 1946 – November 13, 1974) was an American chemical technician and labor union activist. She worked at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site in Oklahoma, making plutonium pellets, and became the first woman on the union's negotiating team. After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission about her concerns about corporate practices related to health and safety in a nuclear facility, she was found to have plutonium contamination on her person and in her home. While driving to meet with a New York Times journalist and an official of her union's national office, she died in a car crash under unclear circumstances. No documents were recovered from her chrashed car.
DeCou and LaMountain’s other recorded anti-nuclear track, Seabrook Song, turned up on their 1979 'Down Here At Earth' album.
Various Artists
Black Fox Blues? For our Children
LP, 1978
Music from the Movement to Stop Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant. In 1973, Public Service Company of Oklahoma announced that it would be constructing two nuclear power reactors a few miles from the town of Inola, a Cherokee word meaning “black fox”. PSO adopted the name Black Fox for the proposed nuclear plant, and promised thousands of jobs and an influx of tax dollars. A Claremore teacher and resident of Inola named Carrie Dickerson felt the risks far outweighed the promise of nicer schools and cheaper utility bills and became determined to stop Black Fox. Her goal was to educate the public and organize fundraisers to finance the war against Black Fox, which would be fought largely in court. A big part of that fundraising effort came from area musicians who performed at rallies, staged benefit concerts, and recorded this album. The movement gained international press, and soon local musicians were joined by the likes of Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt who both performed at a May 24, 1978 concert at Mohawk Park benefiting the Stop Black Fox effort. On Feb. 16, 1982, PSO claimed the plant was no longer financially viable and pulled the plug, marking a victory for anti-nuclear activists.
Mark Cohen
Plutonium
LP, vinyl, 1979
Plutonium, is the environmentally themed second album after the 1977 debut Fare Well Traveller, of American New York born and based folksinger/songwriter Mark Cohen (not to be confused with Marc Cohn). Although this album was released after the March 28, Three Mile Island nuclear accident, it was recorded before the accident. In fact, the song Plutonium was already written in 1977. They’re putting up reactors without a halt / They even got them sitting on the San Andreas Fault pointing to the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor under construction at the time.
The main headline on the albumcover is about a 1977 leak that spills tens of thousands of gallons of radioactive water into the basement of the reactor building, the picture of the cooling tower however is from the TMI nuclear reactor. The liner notes from this 1979 recording also include the song lyrics and songwriting and publishing credit information.
The main headline on the albumcover is about a 1977 leak that spills tens of thousands of gallons of radioactive water into the basement of the reactor building, the picture of the cooling tower however is from the TMI nuclear reactor. The liner notes from this 1979 recording also include the song lyrics and songwriting and publishing credit information.
The Tyme Aires
Three Mile Island
Single 45 rpm, 1979
Released – without original artwork except a nice drawing on the label– right after the Harrisburg Three Mile Island partial meltdown late March 1979. Although it is hard to know which TMI song was the first, this one may have been the closest by. The Tyme-Aires recorded this song in Goldsboro, in the state of Pennsylvania, (of which Harrisburg is the Capital). As the lyrics say: "Three Mile Island is a stone's throw away from me / I can see those towers as clear as a bird can see".
Pat DeCou and Tex LaMountain
Down Here On The Earth
LP, vinyl, 1979
Gary & The Outriders
Goodbye T.M.I.
single 7" 45rpm, vinyl, 1979
Ernie Hawkins
The Harrisburg Radiation Blues
Single 45 rpm, 1979
In 1978, rather than pursuing an academic teaching career, he studied phenomenological psychology and existential philosophy, Ernest Leroy Hawkins, born 1947) returned to playing the guitar and became a full-time musician.
In April/May 1979 (the single is mentioned by Robert Ghristgau in Village Voice, May 28, 1979) immediate after the March 29, Three Mile Island nuclear accident he began his recording career releasing this first single Harrisburg Radiation Blues. The 7” was released without original artwork.
Since then, Hawkins has been building his reputation as one of the finest purveyors of solo acoustic blues guitar playing in the world. His recording career stretches in to the 2010s.
In April/May 1979 (the single is mentioned by Robert Ghristgau in Village Voice, May 28, 1979) immediate after the March 29, Three Mile Island nuclear accident he began his recording career releasing this first single Harrisburg Radiation Blues. The 7” was released without original artwork.
Since then, Hawkins has been building his reputation as one of the finest purveyors of solo acoustic blues guitar playing in the world. His recording career stretches in to the 2010s.
Meltdown Madness
Meltdown Madness
LP, vinyl, 1979
An album full of anti-nuclear songs written in 1977/8 and performed by musicians brought together especially for this occasion. Songs about alternatives to nuclear power, but mostly about radiation, the Browns Ferry nuclear reactor or about Karen Silkwood: Death was all that met her down the road from Kerr-McGee / Violent is the anger that I feel / Why was her car struck from behind, where are those papers we can’t find / How can police say she slept at the wheel?
The album was produced and released by the Survival Alliance, a non-profit all volunteer group advocating safe, clean energy resources such as solar or wind power as an alternative to dangerous and costly nuclear power.’s Its purpose was to educate the public on these issues through the medium of music. This is the only release by Survival Alliance.
The album was produced and released by the Survival Alliance, a non-profit all volunteer group advocating safe, clean energy resources such as solar or wind power as an alternative to dangerous and costly nuclear power.’s Its purpose was to educate the public on these issues through the medium of music. This is the only release by Survival Alliance.
Dan Fogelberg
Face the Fire
From the Album Phoenix, 1979
Fogelberg wrote the song 'Face the Fire' in the wake of the March 1979 crisis at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The song is an attack on nuclear power (and the powerful financial interests behind it), and at the same time an appeal to promote solar power. The song makes it to this list while Fogelberg donated his "share of publisher and writer royalties received from Face the Fire to the Campaign for Economic Democracy Education Fund to be used for anti-nuclear and pro-solar energy activities". Therefor it is definitely music supporting the anti-nuclear, clean energy movement.
Jorge Santana
Three Mile Island
from LP 'It's All About Love', 1979
Guillermo "Jorge" Santana (13 June 1951 – 14 May 2020) was a Mexican-born American Latin rock / Latin funk / disco guitarist and songwriter, brother of musician Carlos Santana. He recorded Three Mile Island in the aftermath of the TMI Harrisburg partial meltdown March 28, 1979. This song was also released as a 7" single (without cover artwork).
Joy Ryder & Avis Davis
No More Nukes
Single, 45 rpm, 1979
Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band
The Meltdown
Single, 45 rpm, 1979
Released without original atwork
Gary Lapow
Nucalypso
Single, 45 rpm, 1979
Released without original atwork
Lev A
Radiation Nation on a Three Mile Isle
Single, 45 rpm, 1979
Geff Ratcheson
Dixy Lee Raydiation
Single, 45 rpm, 1979
Wet Paint
No Nukes (Is Good Nukes)
Single, 45 rpm, 1979
Released without original atwork
Al Shade, Jean Romaine, Faron Shade
Three Mile Island
from LP: Three Mile Island (Potter Country was made By The Hand of God, But The Devil Made Three Mile Island), 1979
Charlie King
Somebody's Story
LP, 1979
As longtime anti-nuclear activist, Charlie King was involved in the Clamshell Alliance, founded in 1976 to oppose the construction of the Seabrook nuclear power plant. The ‘clams’ “have developed the habit of gathering by the thousands to reclaim a piece of of land owned by New Hampshire’s electric company. It’s our little way of saying a resounding NO to their nuclear power schemes”. In May 1977, 1,414 activists were arrested at Seabrook. Many stayed in custody for up to over two weeks. Those ‘jails’ became 'Academies of Anti-Nuclear Activism', staging theatrical performances, music creation, and workshops about anti-nuclear activism. It was there that Charlie King penned the song, Acres of Clams. The song became an anthem of the anti-nuclear movement.
On this album, his second, King is accompanied by a number of performers, like Tex Lamountain & Pat Decou, known for their Karen Silkwood release a few years earlier and Sheryl Fox and Court Dorsey with whom he would form Bright Morning Star. King plays at peace and enviromental events to this date (2023).
Listen to the song Acres of Clams, written and performed by Charlie King.
On this album, his second, King is accompanied by a number of performers, like Tex Lamountain & Pat Decou, known for their Karen Silkwood release a few years earlier and Sheryl Fox and Court Dorsey with whom he would form Bright Morning Star. King plays at peace and enviromental events to this date (2023).
Listen to the song Acres of Clams, written and performed by Charlie King.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Reactor
LP, 1980
Gil Scott-Heron
Shut 'Um Down
Single 7", 1980
Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music. The song We almost Lost Detroit' (about the partial meltdown at the Enrico Fermi reactor on October 5, 1966) is another of his songs opposing nuclear power and is included on the No Nukes Album. This 7" was released for promotional use only, no cover art.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
We Are The NRC
Single, 45 rpm, 1980
Aaron Este
Three Mile Island
Single, 45 rpm, 1980
Tom Paxton
All Clear In Harrisburg
From the LP: The Paxton Report, 1980
Tom Paxton is an American folk musician, active during the Vietnam War era as both a singer and a songwriter. While attending college he became familiar with the music of Woody Guthrie, who became a significant influence. Paxton’s 1965 song Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation, emphasised the double talk of the US president, who denied escalation while sending more and more soldiers. In 2007 Paxton rewrote Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation as George W. Told the Nation, an angry response to the US invasion of Iraq and the Second Gulf War.
In a 1979 interview Paxton said that he wrote several songs about stopping the spread of nuclear power, because the issue had “captured my interest more than anything else since the days of the antiwar movement.” “The goals of my antinuclear songs are the same as every other song I write; to make the thing as clear as possible to as many people as possible.” All Clear In Harrisburg was written in the aftermath of the March 1979 accident.
In a 1979 interview Paxton said that he wrote several songs about stopping the spread of nuclear power, because the issue had “captured my interest more than anything else since the days of the antiwar movement.” “The goals of my antinuclear songs are the same as every other song I write; to make the thing as clear as possible to as many people as possible.” All Clear In Harrisburg was written in the aftermath of the March 1979 accident.
Ray Anderson
Harrisburg Half Life
From the LP: Harrisburg Half Life, 1980
Ray Anderson is an American jazz trombonist. This 1980 album - described as Avant-Garde Jazz - is his first under his own name. Although not really part of the antinuclear movement, he dedicated this album, with an instrumental song about the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, to “all people, working to prevent nuclear disaster”.
Scott Hot Band
Three Mile High (No Nukes)
Single, 45 rpm, 1980
no original cover artwork
Leviathan
In the Heart of the Beast
LP, vinyl, 1980
The Raquette River Rounders
Harrisburg Rag
from the LP: The Raquette River Rounders, 1980
Various Artists
No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future
Triple LP, 1980 (Re-released on CD, 1997)
Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) is a group of artists and activists working for a future built on the natural power of the sun, and for an end to the threat of atomic power plants and nuclear weapons. This triple album and the feature film following it are the result of our five nights of benefit concerts in Madison Square Garden, New York, September 19.23, 1979. Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall were the key organizers of the event and guiding forces behind MUSE and the album. More information
Bill Wilson
S.L.O.
Single, 45 rpm, 1981
A song about Diablo Canyon
Joey Skidmore
Stop The Nukes
Single, 45 rpm, 1981
Bright Morning Star
Arisin'
LP, vinyl, 1981
In the summer of 1977 a Songs from Seabrook concert was held at Harvard University (New Hampshire). Several performers, amongst them Charlie King, Cheryl Fox and Court Dorsey met and later formed Bright Morning Star. Bright Morning Star spent the next twelve years touring the U.S. and Canada playing with Pete Seeger, Odetta, Holly Near, Gil Scott Heron, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Rait, sponsored by the burgeoning anti-nuclear movement at concerts, rallies, demonstrations, folk festivals, civil disobedience actions, and a slew of other events. Bright Morning Star began in the anti-nuclear movement, but moved through a whole host of movements, including labor, feminist, gay rights, anti-war, Central American Support, and Nuclear Weapons Freeze campaigns, among others. The band was named after the Appalachian Hymn Bright Morning Star, which Court Dorsey had rewritten for the Clamshell actions.
Some of the songs on the album were written as early as 1975. The song Seabrook is about an action áfter the TMI-accident.
Some of the songs on the album were written as early as 1975. The song Seabrook is about an action áfter the TMI-accident.
Anne Waldman
Uh-Oh Plutonium
Single, 45 rpm, 1982
Anne Waldman has been a fervent activist for social change; a vocal proponent for feminist, environmental, and human rights causes. She was active in Occupy Art, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street in Nwe York, and has recently been involved with Extinction Rebellion projects. In the 1970s, she was involved with the Rocky Flats Truth Force, an organization opposed to the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility ten miles to the south of Boulder, Colorado. With Daniel Ellsberg and Allen Ginsberg, she was arrested for protesting outside Rocky Flats, which led to a commitment to the accountability for nuclear waste to future generations, a vow that according to Waldman is “a nearly quarter of a million year project.”
This 1982 7” single is one of her poems set to music. Side A in English; side B in French. She says that her life's work is to "keep the world safe for poetry."
This 1982 7” single is one of her poems set to music. Side A in English; side B in French. She says that her life's work is to "keep the world safe for poetry."
Various Artists
Ominous Clouds
LP, vinyl, 1982
Produced for the Citizens for a Non-Nuclear Future
Jackson Browne
Somebody's Baby
7', 45 rpm, 1982
This single by Jackson Browne, one of the most outspoken artists of te Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) was released with The Crow On The Cradle as B-side. The song was recorded live at the No Nukes 1979 concerts. "The proceeds of this side are being paid to the Musicians for Safe Energy".
Various Artists
Out of the Darkness Songs for Survival
LP, Vinyl, 1984
Out of the darkness is a collection of some of the determined, heartfelt, engaging, humorous, angry, challenging, and loving songs which have been written and sung during marches, pickets, legal battles and meetings. Many of the contributing performers, like Charlie King, are firmly rooted in the antinuclear movement and some of those artists, like Sweet Honey in the Rock and Jesse Colin Young, also performed at the 1979 MUSE No Nukes concerts.
The title of the album comes from a song by Frankie Armstrong which appears on the British Nuclear Power No thanks!!? album. The song The Sun is burning performed by Kate Wolf, is written by Ian Campbell and previously sung by Christie Moore and released on the 1979 Irish Anti-Nuclear 12” single. Don Lange was in the area of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant end of March 1979. Take the Children and Run is his haunting response to that event.
Listen to the song Take the Children and Run, written and performed by Don Lange.
The title of the album comes from a song by Frankie Armstrong which appears on the British Nuclear Power No thanks!!? album. The song The Sun is burning performed by Kate Wolf, is written by Ian Campbell and previously sung by Christie Moore and released on the 1979 Irish Anti-Nuclear 12” single. Don Lange was in the area of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant end of March 1979. Take the Children and Run is his haunting response to that event.
Listen to the song Take the Children and Run, written and performed by Don Lange.
Pat Scanlon & The Black Water String Band
Songs for Future Generations
LP, vinyl, 1984
A benefit record for Greenpeace New England
More information (text on inlay) [English]
More information (text on inlay) [English]
Red Tape
Radioactivist
CD, 2004
Red tape describes it’s musisc as political trash-punk. This band from Sacramento (California) formed in 1998 by Jeff Jaworski due to his life-long love of local punk/hardcore acts, consisted in its early days of practically only him. In time, drummer JD, guitarist Mark Meraji, and bassist Twig Von Wussow – all from local bands of the punk/hardcore scenes – joined him.
Radioactivist is their first full length album from 2004. Antinuclear? Definitely, but not really part of any antinuclear cause. Included in this list just for the sake of completeness and because it is part of the Laka-collection.
Radioactivist is their first full length album from 2004. Antinuclear? Definitely, but not really part of any antinuclear cause. Included in this list just for the sake of completeness and because it is part of the Laka-collection.
Sole
Plutonium
EP 12", 33 rpm, 2003
Selling Live Water is a solo studio album by American hip hop artist Sole, released in 2002. This is a 12 inch release of the title-song and Plutonium, one of the tracks on the original album. Selling Live Water draws influence from anarchist/socialist thinkers Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn and is about searching for truth in left- and right-wing propaganda in the press. If it wasn't for the blindfold, you'd ask / "what am I looking for, living for, breathing for?" / "who's them? not I, but it must be the plutonium in me."
Sole (”Rapper, Poet, Father, Anarchist, Autonomist, Producer, etc.”) is an American MC and one of the co-founders of Anticon-label. Born in Portland, Maine in 1977, Sole (real name James Timothy Holland Jr,) put out his first demo in 1992 at age 15, and founded the label 45Below.
Sole (”Rapper, Poet, Father, Anarchist, Autonomist, Producer, etc.”) is an American MC and one of the co-founders of Anticon-label. Born in Portland, Maine in 1977, Sole (real name James Timothy Holland Jr,) put out his first demo in 1992 at age 15, and founded the label 45Below.
Slow to Speak, Francis Englehardt
Chernobyl
EP 12", 45 rpm, 2016
Slow To Speak is the duo of Francis Englehardt and Paul Nickerson, mainly releasing original productions and remixes/versions of popular artists in a deep house music style.
This release, 30 years after the accident in then-Soviet Union, [read liner notes on the accident and its consequences]
This release, 30 years after the accident in then-Soviet Union, [read liner notes on the accident and its consequences]
Various Artists
BANDITS: Bands Against Nuclear Dumps In This State
CD, 2019
In 1988 New York Governor Mario Cuomo appointed a commission which was assigned the task of locating land on which the state would be constructing a federally-mandated nuclear waste storage facility. By mid-winter of 1990, this Siting Commission had been frustrated time and time again in its efforts to examine candidate properties in Allegany County. As part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Bump the Dump protest, the music which defined the event is being re-released in the B.A.N.D.I.T.S. 30th Anniversary Collection. The B.A.N.D.I.T.S. (Bands Against Nuclear Dumps In This State) first performed together on Sept. 23, 1989. The 30th Anniversary Collection contains 20 tracks including the song, “No Radiation Without Representation”, which became the anthem of the Bump The Dump protest. The CD is released by the Concerned Citizens of Allegany County (CCAC).