That Cloud
Words and Music by Bob Nolan © 1976
(Copyright Renewed 2004)
Not so very long ago a small young child I used to know
Would rise each dawn
And run to meet the morning sun before the sun had quite begun
To warm the earth
And there behold the wondrous things of joy and life and flying wings
As they were born
Until that cloud of rancid grey came rollin’ in to stay, and stay!
To blind the sun!
And on my hill a blossom rare reached up for life that wasn’t there
And cried for we,
The sun and me.
And so, I hold it as it dies and lock it in my mem'ries' eyes for it may be the last
I’ll ever see.
And when the children run to play on some far distant lonely day,
They’ll go, and never know
That they can never be.
(The multi-track recording is by Dave Bourne.)
When Bob’s grandson, Calin Coburn, was a small boy he would often stay up all night, sitting by himself out in the desert waiting for the sunrise. He enjoyed being alone at that time; he loved the stillness around him and in the beauty of the dawn he found a kind of comfort. He still remembers sitting there on the cool sand thinking about things too large for his understanding. Like his grandfather before him, he saw through the pettiness and hypocrisy around him and calmly accepted life - with no illusions whatsoever.
In the latter part of 1950, the Nevada Test Site was established sixty miles north of Las Vegas. From 1951 to 1958 more than one hundred atomic tests were conducted in the atmosphere above the facility. The atomic tests usually took place at dawn and the flash of light from the blast and the mushroom cloud that followed were usually visible in Las Vegas. It wasn't until 1963 that all testing moved underground.
At that time, adults dreaded an atomic war but little children were free of such fear. Because Calin lived on the outskirts of Las Vegas, he had a ringside seat when the testing was taking place. He remembers sitting on the porch with his mother, waiting for the flash in the same way he would anticipate any other spectacular event.
As Bob Nolan recalled the joyful way his small grandson greeted each day, he was inspired to write this song. Perhaps, too, he was remembering himself as a child. Possibly the two children became all children in his mind as he contemplated a future threatened by nuclear warfare.
