Martian Landscape by UFO, Album: No heavy petting, 1976

Come from the land where the wheat is still wheat
Where the waters in the rivers is still water
In this land every man lends a hand when you need it
But your hands are full of life
So you can help yourself and feel it
It's been a long way from the red of my home
From the valleys and the green plains never ending

Everyone knows that the sun in his land is stronger
And your hands are full of life
If you can only wait just longer

So let it be a small haven big in Your heart
Don't let it turn into an ogre
Tryin' to climb and climb
and forget this place where
I can still find time
To sing in rhyme

Martian landscape.
I'll learn to lie in your arms
Where all the freedom is mine and it comes
Martian landscape,
I'll turn my face to your sun
Where your horizon is mine and it comes


A vision of a land where nature is clean from civilization. It’s a mystery why this place is called “martian”. Probably, the songwriters having the name “UFO” (which came from Mars) wrote the song before first landing and sending pictures from plain rocky Mars surface.

You can hear this song in youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhf36xKRCi4

You can hear some UFO classics in myspace:

Doctor doctor

Rock Bottom

Too Hot to Handle

Love to Love

Too young to Know

Crosby Stills & Nash: To the Last Whale...: Critical Mass/Wind on the Water, Album: Wind on the water (1975).

Over the years you have been hunted
by the men who threw harpoons
And in the long run he will kill you
just to feed the pets we raise,
put the flowers in your vase
and make the lipstick for your face.

Over the years you swam the ocean
Following feelings of your own
Now you are washed up on the shoreline
I can see your body lie
It's a shame you have to die
to put the shadow on our eye

Maybe we'll go
Maybe we'll disappear
It's not that we don't know
It's just that we don't want to care.
Under the bridges
Over the foam
Wind on the water
Carry me home.

A lament for the devastating whale hunting usually for useless human needs

You can hear this song in you tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHf6anDazW0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9P8y2ipMRM

Winter in America, by Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson, Album: The First Minute of a New Day, 1975

Uh from the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
And to the buffalos who once ruled the plains
Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds looking for the rain
Looking for the rain

Just like the cities stagger on the coastline
In a nation that just can’t stand much more
Like the forest buried beneath the highway, never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow

And now it’s winter, winter in America
Yes now that all of the killers have been killed, sent away, Yeah
But the people know, the people know, it’s winter
Winter in America
And ain’t nobody fighting cause
Nobody knows what to say
Save your soul, lord knows from
Winter in America

The constitution, a noble piece of paper
With free society, a struggle but they died in vain
And now democracy is a ragtime on the corner
Hoping for some rain
It looks like he’s hoping, hoping for some rain

And I see the robins perched in baron treetops
Watching lasting racists marching across the floor
Just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow
And now it’s winter
Winter in America

Yes now that all of the killers have been killed, or betrayed, Yeah
But the people know, the people know, it’s winter
Lord knows it’s winter in America
And ain’t nobody fighting cause nobody knows what to say
Save your soul
From a winter in America

a very strong song who accuses the american way or progress. There is also a reference to the forever lost nature under the cement and pavement of civilization

You can hear this song in youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6T2A0QdJVA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK_j04keKRE

OLD MAN NOLL by New Riders of the Purple Sage, Album: Brujo 1974

OLD MAN NOLL WAS A MEAN OLD SOUL
HE LIVED ACROSS THE HILL
I DIDN’T KNOW HIM VERY WELL
AND NOW I NEVER WILL

HE HAD SOME SHEEP THAT GRAZED HIS LAND
AND HE WAS VERY OLD
AND ALL THE KIDS WOULD STAY AWAY
WE KNEW HE WAS A SCOLD

BUT OUR BEST TREEHOUSE WAS ON HIS HILL
AND OUR NAVY SAILED ON HIS POND
THE YEARS HAVE ONLY BROUGHT ME PAIN
NOW I’M SAD THE OLD MAN’S GONE ..CAUSE NOW

CHORUS:
THE FREEWAY ROLLS WHERE OLD MAN NOLL
USED TO RUN HIS SHEEP IN THE MEADOW
AND AS YOU DRIVE BY, IF YOU REALLY TRY
YOU STILL CAN SEE HIS SHADOW

OLD MAN NOLL WAS A MEAN OLD SOUL
AT LEAST THE KIDS THOUGHT SO
BUT WE WERE MUCH, MUCH YOUNGER THEN
AND NOW, I JUST DON’T KNOW

THE WAY IT WAS WHEN IT WAS HIS
THE LAND WAS CLEAR AND FREE
THE LAND WAS LIFE AND WITH HIS WIFE
WAS ALL THAT HE COULD SEE

SO WHEN THE HOUSES CAME AND BROUGHT
THE KIDS WHO THOUGHT HE WAS MEAN
I THINK THAT NOW, AT LAST I SEE
HOW SAD HE MUST HAVE BEEN …CAUSE NOW

THE FREEWAY ROLLS WHERE OLD MAN NOLL
USED TO RUN HIS SHEEP IN THE MEADOW
AND AS YOU DRIVE BY, IF YOU REALLY TRY
YOU STILL CAN SEE HIS SHADOW

memories from childhood of a now paved and extinct by "progress" place with childs-play adventures in free nature

you can hear some songs in myspace

The growth of environmental movement in early seventies and the appearance of green parties

We saw in a previous post that environmental awareness increased gradually during the 1960s, something that affected the lyrical influences of rock music.

During the 1960s, several events illustrated the magnitude of environmental damage caused by man. In 1962 the publication of the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson drew attention to the impact of chemicals on the natural environment. In 1967 the Torrey Canyon oil tanker went aground off the southwest coast of England, and in 1969 oil spilled from an offshore well in California's Santa Barbara Channel. In 1971 the conclusion of a law suit in Japan drew international attention to the effects of decades of mercury poisoning on the people of Minamata. At the same time, emerging scientific research drew new attention to existing and hypothetical threats to the environment and humanity. Among them were Paul R. Ehrlich, whose book The Population Bomb, published 1968, revived concerns about the impact of exponential population growth. Biologist Barry Commoner generated a debate about growth, affluence and "flawed technology." Additionally, an association of scientists and political leaders known as the Club of Rome published their report The Limits to Growth in 1972, and drew attention to the growing pressure on natural resources from human activities. Meanwhile, nuclear proliferation and photos of Earth from space emphasized the consequences of technological accomplishments, as well as Earth's truly small place in the universe. In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, and for the first time united the representatives of multiple governments in discussion relating to the state of the global environment. This conference led directly the creation of government environment agencies and the UN Environment Program. The United States also passed new legislation such as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act- the foundations for current environmental standards.

Thus, in early seventies, the environmental concerns find their way to the highest levels of goverments and the international community. The interest for environmental issues is reflected to various rock songs of that period, that we have already presented. The environmental movement takes gradually political character and the first green parties begin to pop up around the world. They incorporate many values of the counterculture and the new social movements of the sixties.

In March of 1972 the world's first green party, the United Tasmania Group, was formed at a public meeting in Hobart, Australia. At about that same time, in Atlantic Canada, 'the Small party' was formed with similar goals. In May 1972, a meeting at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, launched the Values Party, the world's first countrywide green party to contest Parliamentary seats nationally. A year later in 1973, Europe's first green party, the UK's Ecology Party, came into existence.

Album: Everyone is everybody else by Barclay James Harvest, 1974

Child of the universe

I'm a child of South Africa
I'm a child of Vietnam
I'm a child of Northern Ireland
I'm a small boy with blood on his hands

Yes I'm a child of the universe
Yes I'm a child of the universe
You can see me on the TV every night
Always there to join in someone else's fight

I didn't ask to be born and I don't ask to die
I'm an endless dream, a gene machine
That cannot reason why

Yes I'm a child of the universe
Yes I'm a child of the universe
You can see me on the TV every day
I'm the child next door three thousand miles away

A child of the third world with uncertain future and expendable life in countries with war or starvation is known to us only from TV, but is so close to us no matter the distance. Not only we are brothers as humanity, but we must also realize his/her misery feeds our wealth.


Crazy city

Running alone in the crazy city
Look at the face of once were pretty
People then wonder what happened
To make it that way

Listen around you, have you heard?
Climb on the back of a silver bird
London to L.A. before you can think
What to say

Stop awhile, take a smile
Know that you're living in today
Up and down, look around
No need to hide yourself away

Out in the country's where I'm going
Back where the tree of life's still growing
Take a free ride where the tide
Flows the way of your heart

Follow the wild dove where he's flying
Out where the sun is never crying
Wait at the gate or they'll stop you
And blow you apart

Stop awhile, take a smile
Know that you're living in today
Up and down, look around
No need to hide yourself away


A call to stop a while our urban routine we are bound on and to think about the free nature we sacrifice for a clockwork "safe" and predictable life

You can hear Child of the Universe in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7hkRnmEgzI

Give Me The Good Earth by Manfred Mann's Earth Band Album: the good earth 1974

Give me the good earth that I was born on,
Give me the sunshine, the grass and the trees.
Give me the open skies that I can dream on,
Give me the flowers, the birds and the bees.

Give me the good earth to lay my head on,
Give me the mountains, the cool summer breeze.
Give me the forests, deep river valleys,
Give me the oceans, the fish and the seas.

I don't need to know about the things that lay beyond my life
I don't need to know about the things that I don't need

Give me the good earth to rest my mind on,
Give me the rainfall that fills empty streams.
Give me the life, the hills and the meadows,
Give me the seasons and the changes they bring.

I don't need to know about the things that lay beyond my life
I don't need to know about the things that I don't need

Give me the good earth that I was born on,
Give me my sunshine.
Give me open skies that I can dream on,
Give me the rainbow...
Give me the good earth,
Give me the good earth...

Give me the good earth that I was born on,
Give me the sunshine, the grass and the trees.
Give me the open skies that I can dream on,
Give me the flowers, the birds and the bees.

Give me the good earth to lay my head on,
Give me the mountains, the cool summer breeze.
Give me the forests and deep river valleys,
Give me the oceans, the fish and the seas.

A demand for the pure and clear nature that has been deprived from our lives by the heavy urbanization and industrialization and trying to fulfil our needs with useless substitutes and pastimes

You can hear some representative songs by Manfred Mann in youtube:

Spirits in the night

Father of night

Davy's on the road again

Album: The Adventures of Panama Red by New riders of the purple sage, 1973

CEMENT, CLAY AND GLASS

I LIVE BY THE SIDE OF ROLLING OAKS ROAD
TRACT 25 JUST LIKE THE MAN SHOWED IT TO ME
NOTHIN' TO HIDE IT, NOTHIN' BESIDE IT
I REALLY CAN'T FIGHT IT, THE WHOLE PLACE IS BLIGHTED WITH

CEMENT, CLAY AND GLASS
TREES AWAY, CONTRACTOR'S PAY
NO DELAY, 10 UNITS TODAY
OF CEMENT, CLAY AND GLASS

TREES GREEN, NONE TO BE SEEN
YOU CUT DOWN THE HILLS BUT YOU PAY HIGHER BILLS
FOR YOUR CEMENT, CLAY AND GLASS
CEMENT, CLAY AND GLASS

I LIVE BY THE SIDE OF ROLLING OAKS ROAD
TRACT 25 JUST LIKE THE MAN SHOWED IT TO ME
THERE'S NOTHIN' TO HIDE IT, NOTHIN' BESIDE IT
I REALLY CAN'T FIGHT IT, THE WHOLE PLACE IS BLIGHTED WITH

CEMENT, CLAY AND GLASS
CEMENT, CLAY AND GLASS

a song about the unatural urban environment which is hostile to trees, free space and our vital needs.

THANK THE DAY

SAILING ON THE OCEAN LEAVING ALL CONFUSION
OF WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT TO BE
SAILING UP THE GREEN WALL LAUGHING AS THE WIND BLOWS
SINGING, SLIDING DOWN THE OTHER SIDE
WORKING IN THE SUN HAVING GOOD HARD FUN
WHEN NIGHTTIME COMES WE'LL REST AND THANK THE DAY
WE THANK THE DAY

LANDING ON AN ISLAND I COULDN'T KEEP FROM SMILING
THE PEOPLE THERE WERE FRIENDLY AS CAN BE
LIVIN' IN AN OCEAN OF SYNCOPATED MOTION
LAUGHING, SINGING ALL OUR CARES AWAY
WORKING IN THE SUN OUR DAYS BE SPENT IN FUN
WHEN NIGHTTIME COMES WE'LL REST AND THANK THE DAY
WE THANK THE DAY

SAILING ON THE OCEAN LEAVING ALL CONFUSION
OF WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT TO BE
SAILING UP THE GREEN WALL LAUGHING AS THE WIND BLOWS
SINGING, SLIDING DOWN THE OTHER SIDE
WORKING IN THE SUN OUR DAYS BE SPENT IN FUN
WHEN NIGHTTIME COMES WE'LL REST AND THANK THE DAY
THANK THE DAY

another escaping to nature song where people are smiley and friendly in contrast with a depressing urban environment

you can hear some songs from NRPS in my space

Bein' Green by Van Morrison, Album: Hard Nose the Highway, 1973

It's not easy bein' green
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer bein' red or yellow or gold
Or something much more colorful like that

It's not easy bein' green
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
And people tend to pass you over
'Cause you're not standing out like flashy sparkles
On the water or stars in the sky

But green is the color of spring
And green can be cool and friendly like
And green can be big like an ocean
Or important like a mountain or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why
But why wonder, why wonder?
I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
And I think it's what I want to be

Great allegoric lyrics!

You can hear some songs in youtube:

Moondance

Warm love

Brown eyed girl

Tupelo honey

days like this

BALLAD OF THE BEACON, BY WISHBONE ASH , ALBUM: WISHBONE FOUR, 1973

Well be leaving this town in the morning
Tomorrow well be able to see
I’ve had me enough of this city
And she’s had enough out of me

I’m turning my sights on the country
Sold everything that I own
I’m heading away from the bright lights
Looking for where the wind blows

Say if I climbed to the mountains
Would you still follow me there
Steal me away in an echo
The mountains will always be there

Another “escaping the stress-producing city for living in the country” song.

You can hear this song in you tube but in a bad sound quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPjnxeJt3iY

You can hear some other songs from Wishbone Ash in you tube:

Blowing free

Jailbait

leaf and stream

Mama Nature said, by Thin Lizzy, Album: Vagabonds Of The Western World ,1973

Mama Nature said
"It's murder what you've done"
I sent you forth my brightest world
Now it's nearly gone

Birds and bees
Been telling me
You can't see
The forest for the trees

You cover up your lies
With sympathies
And I got no solutions
To your persecution

Mama Nature said
"I can't believe it's true"
I gave you life and food for thought
Look what did you do

You're killing my rivers
Drowning my baby streams
Day by day by day by day
I hear them scream

I'm so disillusioned
I'm so disillusioned

Mama Nature said
"You're guilty of this crime"
Now it's not just a matter of fact
But just a matter of time

Cruel will be the vengeance
So savage is the deed that's done
And I've got no solutions
To your own pollutions

Another clear ecological song where Nature takes revenge and condemns us for our crimes against Her

You can hear some songs from Thin Lizzy in You tube:

Whiskey in the jar

The rocker

Emerald

Cowboy song

The City by FLEETWOOD MAC Album: Mystery To Me, 1973

Gonna stay out of New York
There's something there that drives me crazy
Gonna stay out of New York
There's something there that bleeds me dry

It gets so bad that I stop breathin'
And then the sun don't wanna shine
There's something wrong with New York
It's a prison without walls

No I won't go back there
I just don't like that place at all
You might call it sophistication
But I say time is runnin' out

I won't go back to New York
There's a darkness all around
No, I just can't handle it

You know that place is gettin' me down
You can say it's sophistication
But I say time is runnin' out

A strong distaste and disregarding of urban dehumanizing environment and desire for escape.

You can hear some classics from Fleetwood Mac in you tube:

Green Manalishi

Fool Noone

Don't stop

The Chain

Second hand news

Go your own way

peacekeeper

Happy old world by Barclay James Harvest, album Once Again, 1971

Looking like something from out of space we came
Nothing much to look at, but did he complain?
He didn't mind us being here to live in peace and grace
What we're doing to him now could put us back in space

We're thinking like some creatures off the ocean floor
Losing sight of what we've really come here for
Can I be heard above the sounds of prejudice and hate?
Take time to look around before it gets too late

It's a happy old world
Give and take a bit
That's what you make of it
A happy old world
But I'm sorry to be leaving it
It's a happy old world
Give and take a bit
That's what you make of it
A happy old world
But I guess I still, I still believe in it
It's a happy old world

We're tearing up the rivers and a thousand streams
And highways, they're in places where they've never been
We're building towers in the sky and racing for the sun
Oh Lord, any eye can see what harm we've done

I need some help to get myself out of this maze
We can both just say goodbye and go our separate ways
My mind's not on this song I sing, my heart's not in the lines
Guess I'll go and kill myself, so would you kindly close the blinds

Oh a happy old world
Give and take a bit
That's what you make of it
A happy old world
But I'm sorry to be leaving it
It's a happy old world
Give and take a bit
That's what you make of it
A happy old world
But I guess, guess I still believe in it
It's a happy old world

A song that notifies our alienation from our roots in nature. We behave like we came from outer space, or from depths of the sea and we swept out natural landscapes to create heavy urban environments, as nature is a foe.

You can hear some songs from this period of this band in youtube:

Mocking Bird

Mother dear

Album: A question of Balance by Moody Blues, 1970

"Question"

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war.

It's where we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need.
In a world of persecution
That is burning in it's greed.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
Because the truth is hard to swallow
That's what the wall of love is for.

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me.
It's more the way that you mean it
When you tell me what will be.

And when you stop and think about it
You won't believe it's true.
That all the love you've been giving
Has all been meant for you.

I'm looking for someone to change my life.
I'm looking for a miracle in my life.
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the the love I knew
Could safely lead me through.

Between the silence of the mountains
And the crashing of the sea
There lies a land I once lived in
And she's waiting there for me.

But in the grey of the morning
My mind becomes confused
Between the dead and the sleeping
And the road that I must choose.

I'm looking for someone to change my life.
I'm looking for a miracle in my life.
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the the love I knew
Could safely lead me to
The land that I once knew.
To learn as we grow old
The secrets of our souls.


"How Is It (We Are Here)"

How is it we are here, on this path we walk,
In this world of pointless fear, filled with empty talk,
Descending from the apes as scientist-priests all think,
Will they save us in the end, we're trembling on the brink.

Men's mighty mine-machines digging in the ground,
Stealing rare minerals where they can be found.
Concrete caves with iron doors, bury it again,
While a starving frightened world fills the sea with grain.

Her love is like a fire burning inside,
Her love is so much higher it can't be denied,
She sends us her glory, it's always been there,
Her love's all around us, it's there for you and me to share.

Men's mighty mine-machines digging in the ground,
Stealing rare minerals where they can be found.
Concrete caves with iron doors, bury it again,
While a starving frightened world fills the sea with grain.

How is it we are here
How is it we are here
How is it we are here


"Don't You Feel Small"

Ask the mirror on the wall
Who's the biggest fool of all,
Bet you feel small,
It happens to us all.

See the world
Ask what's it for,
Understanding, nothing more,
Don't you feel small,
It happens to us all.

Time is now to spread your voice,
Time's to come there'll be no choice,
Why do you feel small,
It happens to us all.

Look at progress,
Then count the cost,
We'll spoil the seas
With the rivers we've lost.

See the writing on the wall,
Hear the mirror's warning call.
That's why you feel small,
It happens to us all.

Ask the mirror on the wall
Who's the biggest fool of all,
Bet you feel small,
It happens to us all.


In this album Moody Blues deal with social-orientated questioning about our destination, our arrogance, the questionable concept of progress, war and some ecological references (bold parts).

We read in wikipedia about this album:

For the first time, The Moody Blues used political strife as a basis for songwriting with the UK number two hit in May 1970, "Question", which dealt with the controversy resulting from the ongoing Vietnam War.

You can hear some songs from this album in youtube:

Question

Melancholy man

Tortoise and the hare

And the tide rushes in

The balance