#219: Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream) by Icicle Works
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: June 1984
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #9
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)”
Lyrics: “Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)”
The Icicle Works are a band from the UK named after the 1960 short story “The Day the Icicle Works Closed” by science fiction author Frederik Pohl. The story was first published in the February 1960 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. It is set on the planet Altair Nine (a cold world with colorful/pink snow) and explores economic collapse, exploitation, and political intrigue. The planet’s sole major industry is the “Icicle Works” (formally Altamycin, Inc.), which harvests natural antibiotic molds from the atmosphere/snow. These are frozen and exported across the galaxy as a valuable commodity. About a year before the story begins, news arrives of the “Gumpert Process,” a cheap synthetic method of producing equivalent antibiotics. Demand collapses, the works shut down, and mass unemployment follows. Most of the population is left destitute.