The unforgettable 1962 release "Fallout Shelter" took a more direct approach in conveying the fears of teenagers everywhere over nuclear annihilation. Its melodramatic storyline of a boy who wants to share his family's shelter with his girlfriend and his father's intervention is a perfect blending of elements from the overt and the allegorical/subtle Bomb song.

I'd rather die with you than live without you and I hope that you feel the same.

Mom and Dad and I were getting ready for the game I couldn't play tonight, you know, my leg's still kinda lame.

Then I heard my mother call out our savior's name. I looked to the east and the sky was filled with flames.

Then Dad said don't worry, we don't have to be scared, we've got our new fallout shelter waitin' for us there.

When I told Dad I'd go get you, he said don't you dare, there's no room for your girl, son, that just wouldn't be fair.

I'd rather die with you than live without you and I hope that you feel the same.

Then I thought of all the happy times that we had spent together and the way we pledged our love to each other forever.

Could I be there in that shelter with you out here rather than hold you in my arms? No, my darlin', never.

Old Uncle Ben, everybody's friend, sits in there with his gun. The streets are all deserted now, did you see those people run?

You hold my hand, I understand the sickness has begun and if we live or if we die our hearts will beat as one.

I'd rather die with you than live without you and I hope that you feel the same.

"Fallout Shelter," which was recorded in two or three takes along with the ironically titled A-side of the disk ("That's When I Stopped Living"), was sung by 24-year-old Billy Chambers and a chorus of back-up singers from Florida Southern College. Chambers, who was in a rock band called the Dynamics, was recruited for the session because Braddock liked the singer's voice. This record would remain the only solo music issued by Chambers who left show business shortly after the single's release for the more stable field of construction. Chambers passed away in 1991 at the age of 52 from cancer.

Carl Chambers, Billy's cousin and the lead guitarist on "Fallout Shelter," recalled to CONELRAD in an interview that his cousin recorded the song primarily because Braddock had wanted him to do it and because he "really liked the other (A-side) song."

Carl Chambers added that there was a more favorable reaction to the A-side than to the more historically significant B-side. "Most people were put off by ‘Fallout Shelter,' although it seems that some found humor in it...our parents thought it was kinda morbid."

Braddock is even more direct in his recollection of how the song was received: "The reaction was about as close to zero as it could have gotten. Two or three stations may have given it a spin or two."

Local press attention that accompanied the release of the record ("soon to be on sale at all record shops") ignored the content of the songs and instead played up the community ties of the musicians who played on it.

Following CONELRAD'S initial interview with Bobby Braddock we provided him with a copy of "Fallout Shelter" because he no longer had one. He offered this harsh, but humorous self-assessment: "After hearing this little gem for the first time in decades, I'm now worried that the Board of Taste may get an injunction to shut down your website. There are few redeeming things about this record. The melody was okay, Billy wasn't a bad singer, guitar was good, but the lyrics were awful, the arrangement was hideous and it was so badly mixed that it's almost impossible to hear the words. But, it was fun revisiting it anyway."

Despite Braddock's less than charitable critique of his early composition, CONELRAD believes "Fallout Shelter" is a landmark Atomic Platter and one deserving of special attention. Whatever one thinks of the song's quality, it is difficult to dispute that it captured the period immediately preceding the Cuban missile crisis in an arresting manner. The defiant stand of the song's narrator echoed the way many young people (speed addicted or not) felt about the morality of shelters.

PERFORMED BY:
Billy Chambers		Vocals with Choral Accompaniment
Bobby Braddock		Piano
Carl Chambers		Lead Guitar
Gene Voss		Rhythm Guitar
Glenn Voss		Acoustic Bass
Tom Grimes		Drums