Musicians have been pleading for people to pay attention to the environment ever since I was a child. When I think back to the era of these songs it’s shameful that we haven’t come further. In the 70s we bought tiny cars, turned off lights when we left the room, put on sweaters, and kept the heat at 68 degrees. After two decades of amnesia we arrive in the now where all those old ideas seem new again – and necessary.
Joni Mitchell
Big Yellow Taxi
“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
Beach Boys
Don’t Go Near the Water
Jackson Brown
Doctor My Eyes
“People go just where they will;
I never noticed them until
I got this feeling
That it’s later than it seems.”
Jethro Tull
Wond’ring Again
“There’s the stillness of death on a deathly, unliving sea,
And the motor car magical world long since ceased to be.”
Kansas
Death of Mother Nature Suite
“Once she ruled the earth with love and wisdom;
But we were much too smart to live her way;
With greed and lust we tried to rise above her.”
John Cougar Mellencamp
Rain on the Scarecrow
“Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow;
This land fed a nation, this land made me proud.”
The Pretenders
My City Was Gone
“The farms of Ohio had been replaced by shopping malls.”
Rush
The Trees
“And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.”
Blue Oyster Cult
Godzilla
“History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.”
James Taylor
Traffic Jam
“Damn this traffic jam!”
Image: lanuiop