Hangin' Out In 100b

I’ve been known to be a bit derogatory when it comes to the whole green craze. Of course it’s a good thing when people protest for the things they care about, especially when it’ll make the environment a priority in politics. I just don’t like feeling like I’m being guilted into caring about certain causes. I know that the world is a precious place, so I try to make the right decisions because I simply do care. Not because I’m scared I’ll kill the children of the future, or exterminate the mighty elephant because I dared to use more than one sheet of toilet paper. I’m on Earth’s team – gooo nature! But sometimes I get the feeling that the whole eco-scare has gotten a bit out of hand. And don’t even get me started on Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize. Woodsy Owl has been telling the world to ‘give a hoot, don’t pollute’ since 1973, where’s his prize??

But I digress, I came across a site called Ecorazzi recently, which has the latest in green gossip. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as green gossip, let alone that it had a whole site dedicated to it. While I marveled at the greenness of it all, I came across an interesting post about the Top Ten Most Eco-Friendly Songs from canada.com.

10. Midnight Oil – Dreamworld (1987)

“Dreamworld” is a single from Australian band Midnight Oil’s 1987 album Diesel & Dust, which is filled with protest songs, highlighting the plight of the Aborigines. The lyrics ‘Farewell to the Norfolk Island pines, no amount of make believe can help this heart of mine’ gave this song its spot on this list.

   9. The Pretenders – My City Was Gone (1984)

In this amazing song Chrissie Hynde laments the loss of the pretty Ohio countryside of her childhood with the lines: I went back to Ohio, but my pretty countryside had been paved down the middle by a government that had no pride.

   8. Pixies – Monkey Gone To Heaven (1989)

One of my favorite Pixies songs! It doesn’t force its message on you, in fact I’m ashamed to say that after at least a thousand listens I only recently made the ‘green’ connection. I just thought it was another abstract Pixies song, like the cryptic “Caribou”. “Monkey Gone To Heaven” tells of the ocean dying and the hole in the ozone layer, but never gets preachy even though God (he’s seven) is mentioned in the end.

7. Black Sabbath – Into The Void (1971)

This song is a strange mix of doom and hope. On the one hand, we’re all doomed because the earth has been taken over by misery, pollution, and satan, but then man takes off with their rockets to ‘find another world where freedom waits’. So don’t fret, we’re gonna be fiiine, we’ll just keep planet-hopping till we get it right. See, Sabbath is not all about gloom and destruction.

6. Marvin Gaye -Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (1971)

The beautiful “Mercy Mercy Me” is poignant and dreamy and would be much higher on my own personal list, because it’s still very much alive thanks to covers by The Strokes and John Legend & Alicia Keys.

5. Tracy Chapman – The Rape Of The World (1995)

Not exactly an ambiguous title, but then Tracy Chapman is not one to mince words. She accuses mankind of horrible crimes against nature with such a calm and controlled voice that it’s almost more disturbing than if she’d screamed it out. Personally, I like my songs a bit more ehm mysterious. I like having to analyze the meaning of a song myself, so I can selfishly feel like I own just a tiny little bit of it. But I do appreciate that sometimes an important message is best left as simple as possible.

4. Jackson Browne – Before The Deluge (1974)

“Before The Deluge” is a great seventies folk song and sounds more like a Christian Rock song if it weren’t for the lines ‘some of them were angry at the way the earth was abused by the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power’.

   3. Cat Stevens – Where Do The Children Play (1970)

Ahhh Cat Stevens. Remember when he was denied entry into the US because he was on a ‘terrorist watch list’? “Where Do The Children Play” is just another reason why it’s highly unlikely that he knowingly had anything to do with anything to do with terrorism. Just leave the man be and enjoy his sweet, gentle songs.

   2. Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi (1970)

I love her music, but I think Joni Mitchell is totally intimidating. Sometimes you hear reports about her outbursts during concerts, whenever she feels people are acting inappropriately. She seems so intense and serious, which makes it all the more surprising that this song still sounds so breezy and fresh. It doesn’t feel like she set out to write a song accusing people of ruining the world. She merely reports what she sees and it just happened to result in a beautiful and profound song.

   1. Bruce Cockburn – If A Tree Falls (1987)

Oh dear. I’m really really sorry, really. I know he’s a very serious artist who is all about the earth and trees and flowers and all that wonderfully important nature stuff, but I can’t help but chuckle whenever his name comes up. At heart, I’m really just a three-year-old who thinks farts are hilarious and Cockburn would make an awesome porno name. Heh heh … Cockburn. So thank you Ecorazzi for this excellent chart! We’ve always only heard the gloomy side of Global Warming, but it also gave us these songs and Bruce Cockburn. His name almost makes up for either freezing to death on a giant block of ice, or burning to death in a fiery, disease-ridden hell pit … depending on what impending ecological doom theory proofs to be correct.

Alrighty, that’s more than enough from me, I leave you with a magnificent rendition of the number six in this chart.

    The Strokes ft. Eddie Vedder & Josh Homme – Mercy, Mercy Me