THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

778-Tom Robinson-War Baby.

1983-Number 6 single.

Best Bit-At 1.08. 2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate. Great artist, great song.

Thomas Giles Robinson was born on June 1st, 1950, in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, Robinson is gay, and has spent his life promoting the cause of the ‘LGBT’ community. At the age of 13 in 1963, Robinson realised that he was gay when he fell in love with another schoolboy. Up until 1967 male homosexual activity was a crime in England, punishable by prison, and at the age of 16 he had a nervous breakdown and attempted to commit suicide.

In 1976 Tom Robinson founded the Punk Rock/New Wave group the ‘Tom Robinson Band,’ their debut single was ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway,’ written by Robinson, which reached Number 5 in the UK. Robinson also wrote ‘Glad to be Gay, which made Number 18 in the UK in 1978, and is now considered by many as ‘Britain’s national gay anthem.’ The Tom Robinson Band remained active until 1979, releasing two studio Albums, and seven singles, including extended plays, there are also two official live Albums, and five compilation Albums available. In the UK, the Tom Robinson Band had three top 40 singles, with ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ charting the highest, the song also reached Number 13 in Australia.

After the split of the Tom Robinson Band, Robinson founded the ‘New Wave’ band ‘Sector 27’ in 1979. With ‘Sector 27’ he recorded one studio Album called ‘Sector 27,’ and released four singles. Shortly after the release of the Album, the bands management company went bankrupt, the band disintegrated, and Robinson suffered another nervous breakdown. At the time Robinson had also just split from his lover, and he decided to go and live in a friends spare room in East Berlin, Germany, which was where he wrote ‘War Baby.’

‘War Baby’ was the first of four singles released from Tom Robinson’s second Album ‘Hope and Glory,’ from 1984, the song was written by Robinson, and produced by Robin Millar. As a solo artist Tom Robinson has released 14 Albums between 1982-2015, and 20 singles between 1980-1996. Two of those singles have reached the UK top 40, with the other being ‘Listen to the Radio: Atmospherics,’ which was the follow up to ‘War Baby,’ and peaked at Number 39 in 1983.

Sir Robin John Christian Millar CBE, who produced ‘War Baby,’ and its parent Album, was born on December 18th, 1951, in Tottenham, London, England. Millar is one of the worlds most successful music producers, with sales in excess of 55 million record sales to his credit. In 2010 He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, (CBE) and in 2023 he was knighted in the New Year Honours for services to music, people with disabilities, young people, and charity. Millar’s production credits include the ‘Fine Young Cannibals self titled debut Album, (see also best songs 563) and ‘Wonderful Life,’ by Black, but his most successful work came with Sade in 1984, when he produced the Album ‘Diamond Life,’ which has gone on to sell 10 million copies worldwide.

Tom Robinson wrote ‘War Baby’ when he was massively in debt, particularly with the British tax authorities, he was technically bankrupt at the time, as well as suffering from depression. Robinson has described writing ‘War Baby’ whilst stoned after a bad experience at a gay sauna while living in Germany. He has said that he wrote ‘Only the very young, and the very beautiful can be so aloof.’ And the rest of it poured out onto the page, eight, ten pages of the stuff, just hand-written, stream of consciousness stuff. And it took about a year to get those ten pages down to something that you could actually sing in four minutes.’ ‘War Baby’ has been described as being about Robinson’s experiences of the divisions between East and West Germany, however, as to what it is all about says Robinson,’I couldn’t tell you, I just wrote what sounded right. Tom Robinson has also said,’War Baby’ is the song that I’m most proud of. … I think it’s the most truthful song that I’ve written, because I didn’t think about it at all.’

‘Corresponding disasters every night on the TV, sickening reality keeps gripping me in its guts. All my friends talk and joke and laugh about Armageddon, but like a nightmare it’s still waiting there at the end of every day.’