21st Century Show by Earth And Fire, Album: Earth And Fire, 1970

Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
Twenty-first century show

Marching and moaning and crying
And dying in no time
Like home-lost pigeons
And full of suspicions in their mind
Let us go to the merry-go-round
Come on now let them go
It’s the twenty-first century show
Nothing there they really need

Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
Twenty-first century

Neuro-surgeons are dreaming
Of more and more
They’re begging and begging
'oh please' at your door
Let us go to the merry-go-round
Observations of a fool
It’s the twentieth centuries’ fool
But he stays really cool

Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
Twenty-first century

Our technical friend can be
A deadly friend in the end
Will wisdom survive this
Technical friend
Your friend
Let us go to the merry-go-round
Come on to the sun
I’m glad there is one
Let it shine
Let it shine

It’s a famous progressive/psychedelic band from Holland. This song has many striking similarities with the basic concept of In the court of the Crimson King by King Crimson that we have presented some weeks ago: The anxiety and fear of a totally dominated by technology and dehumanizing future. In the end there is also a call for quest for the natural way.

You can hear this song (no. 86) among 99 others of their nearly complete discography from 1969 up to 1987 in http://earthandfire.ning.com/

Twelve dreams of Doctor Sardonicus, by Spirit, 1970

We perform 3 songs from this album

Prelude/Nothing to hide

You have the world at your fingertips;
No one can make it better than you.
You have the world at your fingertips,
But see what you've done
To the rain and the sun;
So many changes have all just begun
To reap...
I know you're asleep....
Wake Up!


Nature’s way

It's nature's way of telling you something's wrong
It's nature's way of telling you in a song
It's nature's way of receiving you
It's nature's way of retrieving you
It's nature's way of telling you
Something's wrong

It's nature's way of telling you, summer breeze
It's nature's way of telling you, dying trees
It's nature's way of receiving you
It's nature's way of retrieving you
It's nature's way of telling you
Something's wrong
It's nature's way, it's nature's way
It's nature's way, it's nature's way

It's nature's way of telling you
Something's wrong
It's nature's way of telling you
In a song, oh-h

It's nature's way of receiving you
It's nature's way
It's nature's way of retrieving you
It's nature's way
It's nature's way of telling you
Something's wrong,
something's wrong

This song is a call for listening nature’s signs and warnings either for good, or for doing wrong, in order to regulate our activities. If we act according to this very ancient advise we would not be threatened by climatic changes, ozone hole, acid rain etc and we were not living in heavy and repressive urban environments as the following song notifies:

Animal Zoo

Living in the city, I've been abused
The jobs I keep, the people I meet
Don't do more than make me amused
Everywhere I turn now, just more bad news
So don't look now and don't ask how
We're gonna find our way back to the Animal Zoo

Oh no, something went wrong
Well you're much too fat and a little too long
Hey hey, you got too much to lose
Gotta find your way back to the Animal Zoo

Looking at my body, I'm slipping down
The air I breathe, the water I drink
Is se lling me short and turning me round
Everyone I see now on their way too
So don't look now and don't ask how
We're gonna find our way back to the Animal Zoo

Oh no, something went wrong
Well you're much too fat and a little too long
Hey hey, you got too much to lose
Gotta find your way back to the Animal Zoo

You can hear in youtube the Nature’ s way

Album: Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane 1969

We perform three songs from this classic album:

Eskimo blue day

Snow cuts loose from the frozen
Until it joins with the African sea
In moving it changes its cold and its name
The reason I come and go is the same

Animal game for me
You call it rain
But the human name
Doesn't mean shit to a tree

If you don't mind heat in your river and
Fork tongue talking from me
Swim like an eel fantastic snake
Take my love when it's free

Electric feel with me
You call it loud
But the human crowd
Doesn't mean shit to a tree

Change the strings and notes slide
Change the bridge and string shift down
Shift the notes and bride sings

Fire eating people
Rising toys of the sun
Energy dies without body warm
Icicles ruin your gun

Water my roots the natural thing
Natural spring to the sea
Sulphur springs make my body float
Like a ship made of logs from a tree

Redwoods talk to me
Say it plainly
The human name
Doesn't mean shit to a tree

Snow called water going violent
Damn the end of the stream
Too much cold in one place breaks
That's why you might know what I mean

Consider how small you are
Compared to your scream
The human dream
Doesn't mean shit to a tree

Describing the life of Eskimos, this song make tipps about the respect of nature. The vulgar phrase “Doesn't mean shit to a tree” that had provoked the conservative ethics of its time is a call for the human activities to be gentle with nature and protect her.

You can hear this song in youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUno1WVXEwI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaW6r5lMe4I

The Farm

Bought myself a farm way out in the country
Took to growin lettuce milkin cows and honey
Bought myself a farm (way out in the country)
Bought myself a farm way out in the country

Spent time in the hayloft with the mice and the bunnies
Spent time in the country
Yes it's good livin on the farm
Ah so good livin on the farm
Yes it's good livin on the farm

Here comes my next door neighbour comin down the road
He always looks so regal ridin on his toad named Lightnin
The toad's name is Lightnin he's ten hands at the shoulder
And if you give him sugar you know he'll whinny like a boulder
Yes he will
Well I gotta get back to work now and clear away some logs
Ah the sun is shinin westwards yeah I think I'll saddle up my frog and
Get outta here


This song is a vision of returning to a natural and idyllic way of life in egalitarian ecological communities, in a farm in the country, a very common theme by hippie culture and music.


Wooden ships

Black sails knifing through the pitchblende night
Away from the radioactive landmass madness
From the silver-suited people searching out
Uncontaminated food and shelter on the shores
No glowing metal on our ship of wood only
Free happy crazy people naked in the universe
WE SPEAK EARTH TALK
GO RIDE THE MUSIC

We performed this song 2 weeks ago by CSN. We put here only the introduction by Jefferson Airplane. You can hear the Jefferson Airplane version in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC0zpuCqo_w


From Wikipedia:

The album has been seen as stereotypical of the hippie philosophy of the time with its anti-war and pro-anarchism songs. The theme of nature, communities and ecology was also explored with the songs "The Farm" and "Eskimo Blue Day". Ironically, the title track was actually inspired by a "Volunteers of America" garbage truck that awoke singer Marty Balin one morning. The album provoked even more controversy with lyrics such as "Up against the wall, motherfucker" which appeared on the opening track and "shit" which is said several times on "Eskimo Blue Day".

Mercy mercy me (The ecology song) by Marvin Gaye, Album: What’s goin’ on, 1971

Woo ah, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no

Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east

Woo mercy, mercy me, mercy father
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no

Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas, fish full of mercury

Ah oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no

Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying

Oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be

What about this overcrowded land
How much more abuse from man can she stand?

Oh, na na...
My sweet Lord... No
My Lord... My sweet Lord

A very beautiful and sensitive jazz song. No matter it's not “pure” rock, it was one of the first that covers in a very simple and comprehensive way all the ecological problems of the planet. Personally, we consider it more “rock” than many naive love songs or about having fun with sex/drugs/rocknroll, performed by pure “rock” artists. It’s also the first that uses the term ecology.


You can hear this song in youtube with similar the lyrics theme slide presentation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-XpUacV-TE

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott Heron, Album: Pieces of a man, 1971

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.


This is a revolutionary poem/song, written in 1970, that we can consider it as proto-rap and it is referred especially to an Afro-American -probably militant- revolution against the racism that were suffered. But it can be interpreted and used for any socio-political call to action, either violent or non-violent.

No matter the fact that characters and situations mentioned in the song are contemporary of late sixties and maybe unknown today, its basic theme is diachronic and still an important reference by the activistic socio-political movements because of the strong truths that it deals with: The virtual and false glamorous reality that is propagated by the Mass Media and the pathetic effect to the audience which forces them to reduce their lives in consuming and watching TV. The singer warns us that the real revolution will come if we regain our lives and reclaim our true needs away from the imposing fake mass culture.

You can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTCQSk2l8bc

Wooden Ships - Crosby, Stills & Nash - 1969

Stills: If you smile at me, I will understand
'Cause that is something everybody everywhere does
in the same language.
Crosby: I can see by your coat, my friend,
you're from the other side,
There's just one thing I got to know,
Can you tell me please, who won?
Stills: Say, can I have some of your purple berries?
Crosby: Yes, I've been eating them for six or seven weeks now,
haven't got sick once.
Stills: Probably keep us both alive.

Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy,
Easy, you know the way it's supposed to be,
Silver people on the shoreline, let us be,
Talkin' 'bout very free and easy...
Horror grips us as we watch you die,
All we can do is echo your anguished cries,
Stare as all human feelings die,
We are leaving - you don't need us.

Go, take your sister then, by the hand,
lead her away from this foreign land,
Far away, where we might laugh again,
We are leaving - you don't need us.

And it's a fair wind, blowin' warm,
Out of the south over my shoulder,
Guess I'll set a course and go...

Generally, we try to publish songs according to the year of their publication (starting from 1963 and Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall ). However, since this blog is in fact an ongoing research, songs that we weren't aware of surface occasionally (something that will increase in frecuency in the future). It is a fact that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and (later) Young were in the heart of hippie movement or more precisely "have a strong association with the segment of 1960s counterculture known as the Woodstock Nation", according to wikipedia. They are known for their activist politics and we believe that there is a strong "green" component in that. One piece of evidence is the present song.

Again in wikipedia, we read that

Wooden Ships was written at the height of the Vietnam War, a time of great tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, nuclear-armed rivals in the Cold War. It was one of the few songs of that era that openly dealt with the ever-present fears of an apocalyptic nuclear war (preceeded by Tom Lehrer's "We Will All Go Together When We Go", and "Eve of Destruction", sung by Barry McGuire).

The song poignantly depicts the horrors confronting the survivors of a nuclear holocaust, where presumably two sides have virtually annihilated each other (and everyone else). One man from each side stumbles upon the other, and they reflect on the pointlessness of the conflict.

However, there are also other opinions that can be found here.

In fact, the song was written by David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Paul Kantner (of Jefferson Airplane fame). However, Kantner could not be credited on the original release of Crosby, Stills & Nash due to legal issues. The song was also released by Jefferson Airplane the same year on the album "Volunteers" (with which we will deal within the next week). Both versions are considered to be original versions of the song, although they differ slightly in wording and melody.

CSNY were members of the Laurel Canyon community (see our comments on Mayall's "Nature's disappearing"), an L.A. neighborhood with distinctive bohemian spirit. They will continue to publish songs with environmental themes, solo or in various combinations. Neil Young is active in such matters still today. But this is the subject of a prospect post.

you can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0rG2ME4sAc

GARDEN OF EDEN and LAST LONELY EAGLE by New Riders of the Purple Sage, Album: New Riders of the Purple Sage 1971

HEY LOOK IN THE AIR
THERE’S SMOKE FILLIN’ EVERYWHERE
AND HEY, LOOK ON THE GROUND
THERE’S BLOOD SPILLING ALL AROUND

CHORUS:
WE LIVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, YEAH
DON’T KNOW WHY WE WANT TO TEAR
THE WHOLE THING TO THE GROUND
WE LIVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, YEAH
DON’T KNOW WHY WE WANT TO TEAR
THE WHOLE THING DOWN

HEY LOOK AT THE GREEN, GREEN TREE
IT AIN’T QUITE AS GREEN GREEN AS IT USED TO BE
AND HEY, LOOK AT THE COOL CLEAR WATER
IT AIN’T QUITE AS COOL AND CLEAR
AS IT OUGHT TO BE, AND

CHORUS:
WE LIVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, YEAH
DON’T KNOW WHY WE WANT TO TEAR
THE WHOLE THING TO THE GROUND
WE LIVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, YEAH
DON’T KNOW WHY WE WANT TO TEAR
THE WHOLE THING DOWN

HEY LOOK AT THE PEOPLE
SOMETIMES WE FORGET
THAT WE’RE JUST PEOPLE
AND WE’RE FALLING HEAD OVER HEELS
‘CAUSE ALL OF US FORGET QUITE HOW TO FEEL

WE LIVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, YEAH
DON’T KNOW WHY WE WANT TO TEAR
THE WHOLE THING TO THE GROUND
WE LIVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, YEAH
DON’T KNOW WHY WE WANT TO TEAR
THE WHOLE THING DOWN


This song is ironic: people believe that they create gardens of Eden, but in fact they minimize nature, they pollute the air and water, and generally they affect their own lives and their piece of mind


IF YOU GO DOWN ROUND THE BEND IN THE RIVER
YOU’RE GONNA FIND A FEW CHANGES
BEEN GOING DOWN THERE
‘CAUSE THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE
ROUND THE BEND IN THE RIVER
HAVE FORGOTTEN THEIR DREAMS
AND THEY’VE CUT OFF THEIR HAIR

CHORUS:
AND TAKE A LAST, FLYING LOOK
AT THE LAST LONELY EAGLE
HE’S SOARING THE LENGTH OF THE LAND
SHED A TEAR FOR THE FATE
OF THE LAST LONELY EAGLE
FOR YOU KNOW THAT HE NEVER WILL LAND

IF YOU GO DOWN WHERE THE LIGHTS
PUSH THE NIGHTTIME
BACK FAR ENOUGH SO YOU CAN’T FEEL THE FEAR
REMEMBER THE BOY WHO YOU LEFT ON THE MOUNTAIN
WHO’S SITTING ALONE WITH THE STARS AND HIS TEARS

CHORUS

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE GAS-POWERED FLATLAND
WHERE MOST OF THE PEOPLE JUST THINK
THAT THEY’RE FREE
REMEMBER THE PEACE THAT YOU HAD
ON THE MOUNTAIN
COME BACK TO THE LOVE THAT YOU HAD HERE WITH ME

CHORUS

TAG:
FOR YOU KNOW THAT HE NEVER WILL LAND

This song is similar with the above but the singer cries for what has been lost through "civilization" and "development". The last eagle will never land on these places. It's symbolic about the loss of the natural spirit, of the indigenous people, of the pure nature. Today, we can add the threat of extincion of the endangered species that are represented by the Bald Eagle.

you can hear these songs in youtube: in youtube:


Garden of eden
Last Lonely Eagle

you can hear two songs from this band, members of which are from Grateful Dead:

http://www.nrpsmusic.com/music/index.html

Poppy by Edgar Broughton Band, Album: Edgar Broughton Band, 1971

I laid on a poppy
It laid on me
A lot of thinking
And did it all for free
I thought of you…..
I thought of you

I wanted to swim in the river
But I saw what they had done
All the fish are dying in there
and we ain’t got no sun

I thought of you…..
I thought of you

I wandered in a meadow
All that rubbish there
Look at them with the plastic picnic
Talking ‘bout the length of my hair

I laid on a poppy
It laid on me
A lot of thinking
And did it all for free
I thought of you…..
I thought of you

I wanted to swim in the river
But I saw what they had done
All the fish are dying in there
And we ain’t got no sun

I thought of you…..
I thought of you

I’m gonna take a walk in the country
Take a look at that big blue sky
Take a breath of that clean spring air
Before they say die

I thought of you…..
I thought of you

Here there is also a disapointing notice towards the disapearing Nature, polluted rivers, forests with plastic rubbish by visitors who prefer not to critisize their waste-producing way of life, but the long hairs of the true nature's childred, the hippies.

You can hear some songs from this band in you tube and in my space

Nature's Disappearing, by John Mayall And The Blues Breakers, Album: USA Union 1970

Man’s a filthy creature
Raping the land and water and the air
Tomorrow may be too late?
Now’s the time that you must be aware
Nature’s disappearing
Polluted death is coming, do you care?

Garbage going nowhere
Soon the dumps will spread to your front door
Lakes and rivers stagnant
Nothing lives or grows like years before
Nature’s disappearing
The world you take for granted ... soon no more

Read about pollution
Make manufacturers uncomfortable
Boycott at the market
Containers that are non-returnable
Aluminum, glass or plastic
Eternal waste that’s not destructible

We’re of a generation
That may live out our natural time
But as for all our children?
Born to suffocate in human slime
Nature’s disappearing
And we are guilty of this massive crime

A song with lyrics that are decades ahead of its season. All the ecological problems that humanity and planet faces today are developed; also the proposals for escaping the crisis, especially concerning the wastes. The singer urges people as consumers to boycott the waste-producing markets in order to press and oblige manufacturers to conform to a nature-friendy production and to prefer to buy products with (listen to it) RETURNABLE containers, not only recycable.

you can hear it live in youtube

Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz - 1971

Oh lord, wont you buy me a mercedes benz ?
My friends all drive porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So lord, wont you buy me a mercedes benz ?

Oh lord, wont you buy me a color tv ?
Dialing for dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh lord, wont you buy me a color tv ?

Oh lord, wont you buy me a night on the town ?
Im counting on you, lord, please dont let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh lord, wont you buy me a night on the town ?

Everybody!
Oh lord, wont you buy me a mercedes benz ?
My friends all drive porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh lord, wont you buy me a mercedes benz ?

Thats it!

This loud a capella song by Janis Joplin is indicative of the "meta-materialistic" values so explicitly expressed by the hippie-movement and transmitted to the ecological and green movement. The sarcasm of consumerist desires is overwhelming. It also contains an underlining criticism of the religious approval of individual accumulation of material wealth as an indication of God's favor or grace. According to wikipedia:

Joplin wrote "Mercedes Benz" together with the poet Michael McClure and Bob Neuwirth, as a social commentary on how people relate happiness to money and material possessions

.
McClure's beat poetry is known as heavily infused with an awareness of nature, especially in the animal consciousness that often lies dormant in mankind. McClure has since published eight books of plays and four collections of essays, including essays on Bob Dylan and the environment. On the 14th January 1967, McClure read at the famous Human Be-In event in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco and transcended his Beat label to become an important member of the Sixties Hippie counterculture. McClure was a close friend of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison and is generally acknowledged as having been responsible for promoting Morrison as a poet. To this day, McClure still performs spoken word poetry concerts with Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek and they have released several CDs of their work.
"Mercedes Benz" was recorded on October 1, 1970, and was the last song Joplin ever recorded; she died on October 4th.

you can hear this song in youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XlTxc1CjD8

Killer by Van der Graaf Generator, Album H to He who am the only one, 1970

So you live in the bottom of the sea,
and you kill all that come near you ....
but you are very lonely, because all the other fish fear you .....
And you crave companionship and someone to call your own;
because for the whole of your life you've been living alone.

On a black day in black month
at the black bottom of the sea,
Your mother gave birth to you and died immediately ....
'Cos you can't have two killers living in the same pad
and when your mother knew that her time had come
she was really rather glad.

Death in the sea, death in the sea,
somebody please come and help me, come and help me
Fishes can't fly, fishes can't fly,
Fishes can't and neither can I, neither can I ....

Now I'm really rather like you,
for I've killed all the love I ever had
by not doing all I ought to and by leaving my mind coming bad.
And I too am a killer, for emotion runs as deep as flesh
and I too am so lonely, and I wish that I could forget

We need love,
We need love,
We need love ..........

This of obscured lyrics song can be interpreted as having ecological extensions. It can be considered that describes the loneliness of man who tries to isolate himself from his natural environment by devastating the surrounding nature and killing creatures that never tries to understand and create manmade “safe” environments. This isolation makes him more selfish and more aggressive towards the surrounding environment, even towards other people. The depressive attitude of these lyrics reminds me the figure of a bloodthirsty emperor or dictator and his realm of terror.

You can hear this song in youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaPTXK94UBA

Black Sabbath: Children of the grave, Into the Void, album Master of Reality, 1971

In their 1971 album, mainly of religious content, “Master of reality”, Black Sabbath call young people to leave the pathetic condition of making consent and of offering their fates and lives to politicians and generals (as described in their songs War Pigs and Electric Funeral) and to make a stand against war and nuclear fear, in their revolutionary song “Children of the grave”.

Children Of The Grave

Revolution in their minds - the children start to march
Against the world they have to live in
Oh! the hate that's in their hearts
They're tired of being pushed around
and told just what to do
They'll fight the world until they've won
and love comes flowing through

Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
Will the sunrise of tomorrow bring in peace in any way
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?

So you children of the world listen to what say
If you want a better place to live in spread
the word today
Show the world that love is still alive you must be brave
Or you children of today are children of the grave

In another song of this album “Into the void”, there is also a description of a nuclear warfare and it’s impacts, but the solution is still naive, the escaping to other planets to rebuild a new peaceful society. But in a free interpretation, the other planets could be the vision of a new peaceful and ecological society, or the construction of egalitarian ecological communities.

Into The Void

Rocket engines burning fuel so fast
Up into the night sky they blast
Through the universe the engines whine
Could it be the end of man and time
Back on earth the flame of life burns low
Everywhere is misery and woe
Pollution kills the air, the land, the sea
Man prepares to meet his destiny
Rocket engines burning fuel so fast
Up into the black sky so vast
Burning metal through the atmosphere
Earth remains in worry, hate and fear
With the hateful battles raging on
Rockets flying to the glowing sun void
Through the empires of eternal
Freedom the final suicide

Freedom fighters sent out to the sun
Escape from brainwashed winds and pollution
Leave the earth to all it's sin and hate
Find another world where freedom waits

Past the stars in fields of ancient void
Through the shields of darkness where they find
Love upon a land a world unknown
Where the sons of freedom make their home
Leave the earth - to satan and his slaves
Leave them to their future in their graves
Make a home where love is there to slay
Peace and happiness in every day.

Comparing this album with the previous (Paranoid) that we presented one month ago, we can conclude that now there is a strong call to action for social change in contrast with the pathetic people’s waiting for the Judgement day for deliverance.

You can hear these songs in you tube:

Children of the grave


Into the void

Van Der Graaf Generator - Whatever would Robert have said? - After the Flood - Album: The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other 1970

Whatever would Robert have said?

I am the suck of air you take
that you've had many times before;
I am the blow you try to fake,
but which still throws you out the door;
I am the air that fills your lungs,
but leaves you emptier below;
I am the void that you can't explain,
but which is where you want to go.

Flame sucks between the balls of steel;
nothing moves, the air itself congeals.
Look at the flame if you want to,
hear the sharp crack of the fission,
smell the brief vapour of ozone,
feel static motion.

I am the love you try to hide,
but which all can understand;
I am the hate you still deny,
though the blood is on your hands;
I am the peace you're searching for,
but you know you'll never find;
I am the pain you can't endure,
but which tingles in your mind.

Flame sucks between the balls of steel;
nothing moves, the air itself congeals.
Look at the flame if you want to,
hear the sharp crack of the fission,
smell the brief vapour of ozone,
feel static motion.

I am the joy you really pay for,
but which comes completely free;
I am your god on the final day,
for the truth is you and me...


After the flood

Continuing the story, humanity stumbles--
gone is the glory, there's a far distant rumble.
The clouds have gathered and exploded now:
axes shattered, there is no North or South!
Far off, the ice is foundering slowly...
the ice is turning to water.
The water rushes over all,
cities crash in the mighty wave;
the final man is very small,
plunging in for his final bathe.
This is the ending of the beginning...
this is the beginning of the end,
middle of the middle, mid-point, end and start:
the first peak rises, forces the waves apart.
Far off, the ice is now re-forming:
poles are fixed once more,
water's receding, like death-blood.
And when the water falls again,
all is dead and nobody lives.
And then he said:
'Every step appears to be the unavoidable consequence of the
preceding one, and in the end there beckons more and more
clearly total annihilation!'
This is the ending of the beginning...
this, the beginning of the end.
And when the water falls again
all is dead and nobody lives....


"Whatever would Robert have said?" seems to refer to the dependence of man to nature, which he/she ignores. "After the flood" describes an atmosphere of doom, which coincides remarkably with the current situation of climate change, melting of the poles ice caps, and fear for wide range meteorological upheaval.

There is a very interesting review by Steven McDonald in allmusic, which sais that:
Peter Hammill has always had an abiding interest, it seems, in the blurred boundary between the mystical and the scientific, and between the rational and magical mind; this is certainly evident on the debut Van Der Graaf Generator album, even though Hammill had yet to really begin focusing himself on what it was that was driving him (...) Hammill's lyrics, delivered with all the passion and intent he can muster, reference mysticism, numerology, astrology, various religious pantheons, the Malleus Maleficarum (leading Hammill to conclude, a bit too hopefully, that magic needs to be gray to be balanced), Robert van deGraaf himself (in "Whatever Would Robert Have Said?"), the future of humanity, and surviving ecological catastrophe. This being the start of the 1970s, the hopeful notes are drowned out by the tidal wave of fear, sadness, and despair, despite which, the music does tend to be rather uplifting, thanks to the undercurrent of barely restrained majesty VDGG tended to have (possibly thanks to Hugh Banton, who had been rather used to communicating with God via church and cathedral organs; he brought that expertise to a position more normally occupied by determined B3 thumpers engaged in battle with show-horse guitarists).
McDonald's review in allmusic

For an impression of what "Whatever would Robert have said?" souns like, there is an interesting video at youtube