The Earth Dies Screaming (song)

"The Earth Dies Screaming" is a song by British reggae band UB40, released as their third single in October 1980 as a double A-side with "Dream a Lie". It continued the band's chart success, peaking at number ten on the UK Singles Chart.

Background and release
The song was inspired and named after the 1964 science-fiction horror film. The lyrics were written by drummer Jimmy Brown, who in an interview prior to the release of the song said that when writing a song he liked to use "genre forms… using something popular to get our ideas across" and that in "The Earth Dies Screaming", "the story has a science-fiction setting to say what I want about now". At the time, the fear of the threat of nuclear war was prevalent and this is what the band referred to in the song.

The 12-inch version of the song differs to the 7-inch in that it begins with a dub instrumental before going into the main song. This diverged from the normal, with other 12-inch reggae songs typically featuring the dub instrumental after the main song. The 12-inch single also featured a different cover sleeve, depicting the band performing. The 7-inch featured a picture of the British UB40 unemployment benefit card which had also been used as the artwork for the band's album Signing Off, and so to avoid confusion with the 12-inch release due to their similarity in size, the artwork was changed.

Track listings
7": Graduate / GRAD 10
 * 1) "The Earth Dies Screaming" – 4:45
 * 2) "Dream a Lie" – 2:53

12": Graduate / 12 GRAD 10
 * 1) "The Earth Dies Screaming" – 8:20
 * 2) "Dream a Lie" – 7:52

12": Graduate / 12 GRAD 10 (Netherlands)
 * 1) "The Earth Dies Screaming" – 8:20
 * 2) "Dream a Lie" – 7:52
 * 3) "My Way of Thinking" – 6:45