Brett: "Atomic Garden is an anti-nuke song, about the stupidity of having more than one nuclear bomb on the earth."[1]
Brett tried to model Atomic Garden after an Elvis Costello kind of song.[2]
The videoclip (filmed and edited by Gore Verbinsky) can be found in the Big Bang video.
"This video was shot entirely in the old Epitaph warehouse. We had a smoke machine, some black cloth, a chair, a window frame, and the overactive imagination of our friend and director Gore Verbinski. Add a super 8 camera, some stock footage with wild strobe effects and you've got one of the earliest, rawest, punk rock videos ever made."[3]
It was filmed in five hours on the last day of mixing of the Generator album. Jay: "(...) Greg was leaving at noon, and we started filming at 6 AM in the warehouse. Greg filmed until 11:30, got in his truck and split, and then we just continued filming until 5, and then we were done."[4]
Brett: "It pays homage to the great Sergei Eisenstein."[5]
The song was first released on Sympathy For The Record Industry as a 7" in 1991. The cover artwork was done by The Pizz, just as the etchings on the vinyl.
During Atomic Garden in Las Vegas in 1999 Greg replaced Gorbachev's name with that of Slobodan Milosevic (that was in the middle of the bombing of Serbia).
At the end of the Live At The Palladium version of the song, Jay was talking about the war, since during that timeframe the war and how people seemed to be taking the toll on human life for granted was on his mind a lot.
Former webmaster of The Bad Religion Page, Roger Vulture, sang this song, from beginning to end, onstage with Hetson, Jay, Brian and Bobby.
Brett played piano on the song.[6]
The talking at the end of the original recording is just some radio program. Live, Jay just makes up stuff.
Jay: "on the original recording, it was a radio program talking about nuclear weapons, a couple of different edits... not 100% sure who the people talking were. just something that Brett showed up with at the studio... it didn't really need to make sense, just talking in the background.
"(...) i just make up shit depending on how i'm feeling or what i'm thinking about... sometimes its just about dirty socks. i wish i knew."[7]
| 08/20 | added Inspirations - By wrong planet |
| 08/02 | added info about the video - By wrong planet |
| 06/02 | Added reference for Jay's quote about the talking at the end of the song - By Marty |