Editing Two Tribes (section)

==Title and lyrics==
The single was released at a time when the [[Cold War]] had [[Cold War (1979–85)|intensified]] and fears about global [[nuclear warfare]] were at a peak. Although Johnson would attest in a 1984 radio interview that the "two tribes" of the song potentially represented any pair of warring adversaries (giving the examples of "[[cowboy]]s and [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] or [[James T. Kirk|Captain Kirk]] and [[Klingon]]s"), the line "On the air America/I modelled shirts by Van Heusen" is a clear reference to then [[President of the United States|US President]] [[Ronald Reagan]]. Reagan had advertised for [[Phillips Van Heusen]] in 1953 (briefly reviving the association in the early 1980s). The title of his first film had been ''[[Love Is on the Air]]''.

The lyric "working for the black gas" is, according to Johnson, "About oil surpassing gold. How you might as well be paid in petrol."<ref name="zttaat.com">''No&nbsp;1'' magazine, 4 August 1984 http://www.zttaat.com/article.php?title=181</ref> And the line "Are we living in a land where sex and horror are the new gods?" was inspired by the 1959 British film ''[[Cover Girl Killer]]''. Johnson explained, "The TV was on in the background while I was doing me ironing and suddenly this character came out with that statement."<ref name="zttaat.com"/> (The actual dialogue, which occurs at about 48 minutes 24 seconds into the film, is "Surely sex and horror are the new gods in this polluted world of so-called entertainment?")

The track featured snippets of narration from actor [[Patrick Allen (actor)|Patrick Allen]], recreating his narration from the British ''[[Protect and Survive]]'' [[public information film]]s about how to survive a nuclear war. (The original ''Protect and Survive'' soundtracks were [[sampling (music)|sampled]] for the 7-inch mixes.)

The 12-inch A- and B-sides featured voice parts by British actor [[Chris Barrie]] imitating Ronald Reagan. Barrie also voiced the Reagan puppet on ''[[Spitting Image]]''. Barrie's parts as 'Reagan' included praise for the band, as well as parts of [[Adolf Hitler]]'s speech to a court after the [[Beer Hall Putsch]]: "You may pronounce us guilty a thousand times over, but the Goddess of the Eternal Court of History will smile and tear to tatters the brief of the State Prosecutor and the sentence of this court, for She acquits us." Barrie also voiced the last sentence of "[[History Will Absolve Me]]" (Spanish: "La historia me absolverá") which is the concluding sentence and subsequent title of a four-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks on 26 July 1953. Barrie would return for the band's next single, "[[The Power of Love (Frankie Goes to Hollywood song)|The Power of Love]]", imitating [[Mike Read]] in a parody of the DJ's ban on their previous single, "Relax".

The song's title derives from the line "two mighty warrior tribes went to war" from the film ''[[Mad Max 2]]'' (the line is also spoken by [[Holly Johnson]] at the beginning of the session version).<ref name="guard">{{Cite news |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |language=en-GB |title=The best No&nbsp;1 records: Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes |first=Dorian |last=Lynskey |date=2012-05-31 |accessdate=2024-02-26 |department=Music |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/frankie-goes-hollywood-two-tribes |issn=1756-3224 |oclc=60623878}}</ref>