Gorillaz, the brainchild of former (and again current) Blur front man Damon Alburn, conclude their second album Demon Days with a three part finale embedded with environmental themes. The gospel choir sings:
‘In these demon days it’s so cold inside,
so hard for a good soul to survive,
you can’t even trust the air you breathe cos,
mother earth wants us all to leave’
The first part of the finale is a spoken word narrative, over a beat, about an innocent people being contaminated by a sinister and cynical business invasion. These invaders 'hiding behind dark glasses', violate the local people's sacred place, a cave in the mountain, and steal their jewels to fuel 'the chaos of their own world'. The spirit of the mountain, namely 'Monkey', gets angry with this and wreaks some kind of catastrophic vengeance on the world.
Although I don’t hold with Gaia theory, I do like the idea of personifying the world as an angry and powerful entity that can destroy us.
PUNK
PUNK
Politicised punk rock bands focus most of their fury against social injustice, but there are examples where these bands also tackle environmental issues.
In ‘I want to conquer the world’ a relatively youthful Bad Religion acknowledge the paradox of trying to impose world peace and harmony over everything through forceful rule. The last, triumphant stanza goes:
“I want to conquer the world
Expose the culprits and feed them to the children,
I'll do away with air pollution and then save all the whales,
We'll have peace on earth and global communion.
I want to conquer the world.”
Expose the culprits and feed them to the children,
I'll do away with air pollution and then save all the whales,
We'll have peace on earth and global communion.
I want to conquer the world.”
It’s sung with the intensity of a megalomaniac, they are the words of a blatantly naive character. Though these would be worthy efforts, it’s really a song about seeing the wrongs of the world and feeling powerless to change them. It’s an acknowledgement that the idea of one person having the power to right all the world’s wrongs is a pipe dream, but nonetheless it’s a rally cry for all the idealistic teenagers who feel the same (but in a less nauseating way than 'Invisible Children'). For another similar effort from this band see: punk rock song.
In Bad Religion's massive repertoire built up since 1979 there are many other great examples, this is just a personal favorite.
In Bad Religion's massive repertoire built up since 1979 there are many other great examples, this is just a personal favorite.
In ‘Franco Un-American’ NOFX sing about the revelations of an average American to all of the problems of the world and the realisation that his country is complicit in many of them. It’s all done with the level of humor and self-awareness you expect from this band.
The character Franco changes through the song from first line:
‘Let the whales worry about the poisons in the sea, outside of California it’s foreign policy’,
To
‘now I can’t sleep from years of apathy, all because I read a little Noam Chomsky’.
video
Sikth
Sikth are one of those bands... if your auditory digestive system is scream intolerant you'll be rushing to the porcelain throne. But in between the weird dual vocalist attack there is real technical skill and also environmentalism.
Both of their albums have imagery drawn from the degradation of nature and if the presentation is a bit abstract and interpretive in most of their songs, in 'When will the Forest speak?' a poem spoken in a multitude of strange voices makes it obvious (sort of).
"when will the forest speak,
when all is dried up and way too weak?"
and
"the yeti no longer has a home,
the trees are gone & nothing is grown"
and
"up high on this glorified cement post card I spit,
I spit, I spit upon thee"
There are lots of bits that are interpretive, but the frequent use of imagery from nature in their songs is further evidence of their environmental position. The personification of nature into 'the Yeti' also shows their stance on the nature of nature as a benevolent force:
"the yeti is waiting to take us into his home,
care for us just like one of his own"
In the first track of their second album 'Bland Street Bloom', the song does what is says on the label. Damning the inexorable spread of the same shop franchises in every town centre. The environmental aspect of this song is emphasized more in the video.
[more to come]
video
Sikth
Sikth are one of those bands... if your auditory digestive system is scream intolerant you'll be rushing to the porcelain throne. But in between the weird dual vocalist attack there is real technical skill and also environmentalism.
Both of their albums have imagery drawn from the degradation of nature and if the presentation is a bit abstract and interpretive in most of their songs, in 'When will the Forest speak?' a poem spoken in a multitude of strange voices makes it obvious (sort of).
"when will the forest speak,
when all is dried up and way too weak?"
and
"the yeti no longer has a home,
the trees are gone & nothing is grown"
and
"up high on this glorified cement post card I spit,
I spit, I spit upon thee"
There are lots of bits that are interpretive, but the frequent use of imagery from nature in their songs is further evidence of their environmental position. The personification of nature into 'the Yeti' also shows their stance on the nature of nature as a benevolent force:
"the yeti is waiting to take us into his home,
care for us just like one of his own"
In the first track of their second album 'Bland Street Bloom', the song does what is says on the label. Damning the inexorable spread of the same shop franchises in every town centre. The environmental aspect of this song is emphasized more in the video.
[more to come]
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