Go Fuck Yourself with Your Atom Bomb Pop Songs

Here's a measure of how far the Middle East still has to go, at least in terms of pop culture attitudinizing toward power (nuclear power, that is).

Some 50 years ago, Allen Ginsberg told "America" to "Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb."

A decade or two after that, Frank Zappa noted that having nuclear weapons and football teams helps, but "you can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline."

In 1978, the LA-based Weirdos waxed ironic with the tune "We Got the Neutron Bomb."

And now:

In recent days, Iran's airwaves have been buzzing with two new tunes apparently designed to rally public support for the clerical regime's increasingly tense stand-off with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

The first song is entitled "Oriental Sun, Nuclear Science," and sung to a backdrop of military-style marching music by Ali Tafreshi. The second similarly catchy tune is "Nuclear Know-How" by Reza Shirazi.

Both extol the wonders of a "great and powerful Iran" which has destroyed "the arrogance of the oppressors" and "defends its independence by using science."

Whole bit, courtesy of AFP via Lebanon's Daily Star, here.

Reason's Charles Paul Freund unveiled the deeper meaning of Middle Eastern pop videos a while back. Let's hope there's some sort of eye-rolling going on over there when it comes to Iran's nuclear chart-toppers.