The Bomb, Sex and Suburbia

I listened to a remarkable song the other day. It is a minor hit from 1954 by Bill Haley & the Comets (of "Rock Around the Clock" fame) called "Thirteen Women (And Only One Man In Town)". To really appreciate the tune, you've got to keep the context of the times in mind. Over an anxious rockabilly beat, Haley sings a song of nuclear paranoia and the ultimate male post-apocalyptic fantasy. Singing a verse in 1954 like "Last night I was dreamin' / dreamed about the H-Bomb / Well, the bomb went off and I was caught / I was the only man on the ground" invoked real anxieties in a Cold War world. But things aren't so bad, because out of the survivors "there's thirteen women and only one man in town...I had two gals every mornin' / Seein' that I was well fed / And believe you me, one sweetened my tea / while another one buttered my bread..." This is a full decade before Peter Sellers' famous fall-out shelter speech in 'Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' (where the ratio of women to men was a slightly less exciting 10 to 1). Being the 1950's, sexual innuendo had to be a bit more subtle. But he ain't talkin' about tea and toast, this is a full on threesome for breakfast before moving on to more in the afternoon (the next verse makes that clear). The last verse of "I thought I was in heaven and all these angels were mine / But I woke up and ended the dream because I had to get to work on time" brings it all back home to the 50's suburban malaise; but with the sexual frustrations still right under the surface. Cold War paranoia, sexual taboo, suburban frustration...all in a two minute tune. Pretty remarkable.