I think the song Wooden Ships is about nuclear winter. This is a theory by the astronomer Carl Sagan. Dr. Sagan used open literature data on number and size of nuclear weapons to calculate the amount of ash, dust and debris in the atmosphere caused by a full scale nuclear war that would last for decades. The immediate result would be something similar to an ice age. The lyrics to the song, as available on this site, seem to ignore the first stanza of the song which was performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at Woodstock and by Jefferson Airplane on their Volunteers album. Jefferson Airplane thoughtfully provided the complete lyrics to all of the songs on the Volunteers album, and the first stanza of Wooden Ships is omitted from those performances. The first stanza is:
Black sails knifing through the pitchblende night
Away from the radioactive landmass madness
From the silver-suited people searching out
Uncontaminated food and shelter on the shores
No glowing metal on our ship of wood only
Free happy crazy people naked in the universe
WE SPEAK EARTH TALK
GO RIDE THE MUSIC
The next stanza starts with the line:
If you smile at me you know I will understand...
which is where the recorded versions of the song start.
The first line of the song references "the pitchblende night", which might imply a mixed sky of dark and somewhat lighter skies. However, pitchblende if the ore from which uranium is derived (now called uranite, or something similar). I think that is a clear connection to the idea of nuclear winter, and have wondered why the first stanza wasn't included in both of these recordings. Three Dog Night also had a song that included the phrase "the bright spot in the sky", which I think the sun would appear to be after a full nuclear exchange. The ideas that people suffering from radiation exposure would glow in the dark (Silver people on the shoreline) and that wooden ships would save others are incorrect.
I think the song Wooden Ships is about nuclear winter. This is a theory by the astronomer Carl Sagan. Dr. Sagan used open literature data on number and size of nuclear weapons to calculate the amount of ash, dust and debris in the atmosphere caused by a full scale nuclear war that would last for decades. The immediate result would be something similar to an ice age. The lyrics to the song, as available on this site, seem to ignore the first stanza of the song which was performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at Woodstock and by Jefferson Airplane on their Volunteers album. Jefferson Airplane thoughtfully provided the complete lyrics to all of the songs on the Volunteers album, and the first stanza of Wooden Ships is omitted from those performances. The first stanza is:
Black sails knifing through the pitchblende night Away from the radioactive landmass madness From the silver-suited people searching out Uncontaminated food and shelter on the shores No glowing metal on our ship of wood only Free happy crazy people naked in the universe WE SPEAK EARTH TALK GO RIDE THE MUSIC
The next stanza starts with the line:
If you smile at me you know I will understand...
which is where the recorded versions of the song start.
The first line of the song references "the pitchblende night", which might imply a mixed sky of dark and somewhat lighter skies. However, pitchblende if the ore from which uranium is derived (now called uranite, or something similar). I think that is a clear connection to the idea of nuclear winter, and have wondered why the first stanza wasn't included in both of these recordings. Three Dog Night also had a song that included the phrase "the bright spot in the sky", which I think the sun would appear to be after a full nuclear exchange. The ideas that people suffering from radiation exposure would glow in the dark (Silver people on the shoreline) and that wooden ships would save others are incorrect.
Jim Michael