Album: Stations of the Crass (1979)

"Mother Earth"

Now that the sun have vowed is light
And bid the world good night;
To the soft bed my body I dispose,
But where were shall my soul repose?

Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother?
Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother?
Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother?
Mother? She's the anti-mother, mommy is that you?
She's the anti-mother, mother, mother is that you?

It's Myra Hindley on the cover,
Your very own sweet anti-mother.
There she is on the pages of The Star,
Ain't that just the place you wish you were?
Let her rot in hell is what you said,
Let her rot, let her starve, you'd see her dead.
Let her out but don't forget to tell you where she is,
The chance to screw her is a chance you wouldn't miss.
Let her suffer, give her pain is the verdict you gave,
You just can't wait to piss on her grave.
You pretend that you're horrified, make out that you care,
But really you wish that you had been there.
You say you can't bear the thought of what she did,
But you'd do it to her, you'd see her dead.
Tell me, what is the difference between her and you?
You say that you would kill her, well, what else would you do?
Don't you see that violence has no end? Isn't limited by rules?
Don't you see as angels preaching you're nothing but the fools?
Fools step in, where angels fear to tread,
You see, to kill others is the ethic of the dead.

She's the anti-mother, mommy is that you?
She's the anti-mother, mother, mother is that you?

That single mug shot from the past
Ensures your fantasy can last and last.
It gives you the chance to air your hate
Because she got there first, you were too late.
Hindleys' crime was to do what others think,
Took her anger and her prejudice and pushed it to the brink.
Then you goodly christian people, with your sickly mask of love,
Would tear that woman limb from limb, you'd never get enough.
So you keep the story alive,
So you can make yourselves believe,
That you are so much better than her.
But you aren't, that's YOUR GUILT laying there.

She's the anti-mother, mommy is that you?
She's the anti-mother, mother, mother is that you?
She's the anti-mother, mommy is that you?
She's the anti-mother, mother, mother is that you?
Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother? Mother?

In fact this song is about media coverage of serial killer Myra Hindley, in particular the tabloid Daily Star, who launched their first edition with the 'readers verdict' headline "Let Her Rot In Hell". However, we believe that the title “Mother Earth” tries to make connections of sexism with nature destruction by man.

you can hear this song among others in my space
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=138247270

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=194391038


"Contaminational Power"

Cause a disturbance, don't let this slide by,
Do you want to end up a McDonalds french fry?
Atomic power, atomic power,
Death shower, maggies power.

The dust is settling, ticking in your brain,
Ain't imagination gonna blow you away.
Who cares a fuck as it's work for the people?
Compromised labour you build your death with.
Cheaper goodies, more time with the family,
Don't be fooled with their gestures of equality.
The only thing that's equal is your own rotting corpse,
Staring at each other to see who'll make it first.

Cause a disturbance, don't let this slide by,
Do you want to end up a McDonalds french fry?
Atomic power, atomic power,
Death shower, maggies power.

She holds it over you, you won't hear a thing,
No great contender to help the people win.
Another white paper gets waved in the air,
A victory for the modern world, but you won't be there.
Are you gonna let it shower over you?
The new great energy that sucks off yours,
Giving all you wanted as it settles in your pores,
Make it known just this once that people ain't toys.

Cause a disturbance, cause a fucking noise,
Atomic power is just another of their ploys,
To build their firepower and defend the nation,
They expose us to contamination.
Contamination, contamination, contamination,
Contamination, contamination, contamination,
Contains the nation, that old sensation
Contamination, contamination,
Contamination, contamination,
Cause a disturbance, cause a fucking noise,
Atomic power is just another of their ploys.
TO BLOW YOU RIGHT AWAY.

A call to resistance against the domination and pollution from western way of life, especially against the domination of nuclear power.

You can hear this song among others in myspace

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=278475250

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=198373559

North sea Oil by Jethro Tull, album: Stormwatch 1979

Black and viscous --- bound to cure blue lethargy
Sugar-plum petroleum for energy
Tightrope-balanced payments need a small reprieve
Oh, please believe we want to be in North Sea Oil

New-found wealth sits on the shelf of yesterday
Hot-air balloon --- inflation soon will make you pay
Riggers rig and diggers dig their shallow grave
But we'll be saved and what we crave is North Sea Oil

Prices boom in Aberdeen and London Town
Ten more years to lay the fears, erase the frown
before we are all nuclear --- the better way!
Oh, let us pray: we want to stay in North Sea Oil

An ironic song about the strong dependence of our lives and society from energy consuming (oil or nuclear)

You can hear this song in you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjvNY2zzEC8

“NO NUKES Concerts” held by Musicians United for Safe Energy, 1979

Musicians United for Safe Energy, or MUSE, was an activist group founded in 1979 by Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall of Orleans. The group advocated against the use of nuclear energy, forming shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979. MUSE organized a series of five No Nukes concerts held at Madison Square Garden in New York in September 1979.

The No Nukes Concerts were the main political effort of MUSE. Other musicians performing at the concerts included Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, James Taylor, Carly Simon, The Doobie Brothers, Jesse Colin Young, Gil Scott-Heron, Tom Petty, and others. The album No Nukes, and a film, also titled No Nukes, were both released to document the performancese.The profits of all this effort went to various anti-nuclear groups.

In 2007, Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash and Jackson Browne, as part of the No Nukes group, recorded a music video of the Buffalo Springfield song For What It's Worth.

The No Nukes Concerts were a particularly significant event because it was one of the first times that a large-scale concert was organized not around support for a particular cause (e.g. charity performance for Third World poverty), but rather in protest of a national policy and a rather hot-button issue in the U.S. at the time.

The No Nukes Concerts raised millions to donate to various anti-nuclear groups around the country. Also they probably greatly aided in raising public awareness and encouraging greater safety measures. MUSE founder John Hall was elected to the U.S. House in 2006 on an alternative energy platform, so there's at least one MUSE member who's still making a real difference.

The group faced considerable scrutiny from the press, who tended to hardball the founders with questions about whether it was an artist's place to try to change public policy. However, the prickly Bonnie Raitt would often respond that if the press had done their job reporting on the risks of nuclear energy in the first place, they wouldn't have had anything to protest!

The No Nukes protest concert in 1979 was one of the defining '70s events for aging '60s hippies, a way to prove that they held political and social power. In many ways, the concert worked: by the end of the '80s, nuclear weapons and power eventually faded away (All music)

References:
www.ugo.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://wc09.allmusic.com


some songs from these concerts in you tube:

Bobbie Raitt

James Taylor and Carly

The times they are a changin'

Bruce Springsteen

And the 2007 video by No Nukes artists, mentioned above, about the campaign against nuclear nightmare who came back in clean-energy-disguise, with a cover of Buffalo Springfield highlight "For What It's Worth"

Album: Power in the darkness by Tom Robinson Band, 1978

Power In The Darkness

Power in the darkness
Frightening lies from the other side
Power in the darkness
Stand up and fight for your rights

Freedom... we're talking bout your freedom
Freedom to choose what you do with your body
Freedom to believe what you like
Freedom for brothers to love one another
Freedom for black and white
Freedom from harassment, intimidation
Freedom for the mother and wife
Freedom from Big Brother's interrogation
Freedom to live your own life... I'm talking 'bout

Power in the darkness
Frightening lies from the other side
Power in the darkness
Stand up and fight for your rights

(Voice from The Other Side:) "Today, institutions fundamental to the British system of Government are under attack: the public schools, the house of Lords, the Church of England, the holy institution of Marriage, even our magnificent police force are no longer safe from those who would undermine our society, and it's about time we said 'enough is enough' and saw a return to the traditional British values of discipline, obedience, morality and freedom.

What we want is:
Freedom from the reds and the blacks and the criminals
Prostitutes, pansies and punks
Football hooligans, juvenile delinquents
Lesbians and left wing scum
Freedom from the niggers and the Pakis and the unions
Freedom from the Gipsies and the Jews
Freedom from leftwing layabouts and liberals
Freedom from the likes of you..."

Power in the darkness
Frightening lies from the other side
Power in the darkness
Stand up and fight for your rights


Glad To Be Gay

The British Police are the best in the world
I don't believe one of these stories I've heard
'Bout them raiding our pubs for no reason at all
Lining the customers up by the wall

Picking out people and knocking them down
Resisting arrest as they're kicked on the ground
Searching their houses and calling them queer
I don't believe that sort of thing happens here

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Pictures of naked young women are fun
In Titbits and Playboy, page three of The Sun
There's no nudes in Gay News our last magazine
But they still find excuses to call it obscene

Read how disgusting we are in the press
The News of The World and the Sunday Express
Molesters of children, corruptors of youth
It's there in the paper, it must be the truth

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Don't try to kid us that if you're discreet
You're perfectly safe as you walk down the street
You don't have to mince or make bitchy remarks
To get beaten unconscious and left in the dark

I had a friend who was gentle and short
Got lonely one evening and went for a walk
Queerbashers caught him and kicked in his teeth
He was only hospitalised for a week

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

So sit back and watch as they close all our clubs
Arrest us for meeting and raid all our pubs
Make sure your boyfriend's at least 21
So only your friends and your brothers get done

Lie to your workmates, lie to your folks
Put down the queens and tell anti-queer jokes
Gay Lib's ridiculous, join their laughter
'The buggers are legal now, what more are they after?'

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Two songs from a revolutionary band in support of the freedom of sexual choice and against racism in general and institutional punishment of sexual minorities. The freedom of sexual orientation and self-determination of one’s body is of great importance in ecological movement and in a vision of a true free society. Traditional left parties or communist regimes ban homosexuality and persecute people for their sexual orientation or their voluntarily management of their body concerning sexuality.

You can hear these songs in you tube:

Power in the darkness

Glad to be gay

We Almost Lost Detroit by Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson, Album: Bridges, 1977

It stands out on a highway
like a Creature from another time.
It inspires the babies' questions,
"What's that?"
For their mothers as they ride.
But no one stopped to think about the babies
or how they would survive,
and we almost lost Detroit
this time.
How would we ever get over
loosing our minds?
Just thirty miles from Detroit
stands a giant power station.
It ticks each night as the city sleeps
seconds from anniahlation.
But no one stopped to think about the people
or how they would survive,
and we almost lost Detroit
this time.
How would we ever get over
over loosing our minds?
The sherrif of Monroe county had,
sure enough disasters on his mind,
and what would karen Silkwood say
if she was still alive?
That when it comes to people's safety
money wins out every time.
and we almost lost Detroit
this time, this time.
How would we ever get over
over loosing our minds?
You see, we almost lost Detroit
that time.
Almost lost Detroit
that time.
And how would we ever get over...
Cause odds are,
we gonna loose somewhere, one time.
Odds are
we gonna loose somewhere sometime.
And how would we ever get over
loosing our minds?
And how would we ever get over
loosing our minds?
Didn't they, didn't they decide?
Almost lost Detroit
that time.
Damn near totally destroyed,
one time.
Didn't all of the world know?
Say didn't you know?
Didn't all of the world know?
Say didn't you know?
We almost lost detroit...

From www.allmusic.com :
"We Almost Lost Detroit," shares its title with the John G. Fuller book published in 1975, recounts the story of the nuclear meltdown at the Fermi Atomic Power Plant near Monroe, MI, in 1966. This song was also contributed to the No Nukes concert and album in 1980.

You can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b54rB64fXY4

Jethro Tull, Album: Songs from the wood, 1977

Songs From The Wood

Let me bring you songs from the wood:
to make you feel much better than you could know.
Dust you down from tip to toe.
Show you how the garden grows.
Hold you steady as you go.
Join the chorus if you can:
it'll make of you an honest man.

Let me bring you love from the field:
poppies red and roses filled with summer rain.
To heal the wound and still the pain
that threatens again and again
as you drag down every lover's lane.
Life's long celebration's here.
I'll toast you all in penny cheer.

Let me bring you all things refined:
galliards and lute songs served in chilling ale.
Greetings well met fellow, hail!
I am the wind to fill your sail.
I am the cross to take your nail:
A singer of these ageless times.
With kitchen prose and gutter rhymes.
Songs from the wood make you feel much better.


Jack-In-The-Green

Have you seen Jack-In-The-Green?
With his long tail hanging down.
He sits quietly under every tree ---
in the folds of his velvet gown.
He drinks from the empty acorn cup
the dew that dawn sweetly bestows.
And taps his cane upon the ground ---
signals the snowdrops it's time to grow.

It's no fun being Jack-In-The-Green ---
no place to dance, no time for song.
He wears the colours of the summer soldier ---
carries the green flag all the winter long.

Jack, do you never sleep ---
does the green still run deep in your heart?
Or will these changing times,
motorways, powerlines,
keep us apart?
Well, I don't think so ---
I saw some grass growing through the pavements today.

The rowan, the oak and the holly tree
are the charges left for you to groom.
Each blade of grass whispers Jack-In-The-Green.
Oh Jack, please help me through my winter's night.
And we are the berries on the holly tree.
Oh, the mistlethrush is coming.
Jack, put out the light.

Cup Of Wonder

May I make my fond excuses
for the lateness of the hour,
but we accept your invitation,
and we bring you Beltane's flower.

For the May Day is the great day,
sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did lay
will heed the song that calls them back.

Pass the word and pass the lady,
pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,
pass the cup of crimson wonder.

Ask the green man where he comes from,
ask the cup that fills with red.
Ask the old grey standing stones
that show the sun its way to bed.

Question all as to their ways,
and learn the secrets that they hold.
Walk the lines of nature's palm
crossed with silver and with gold.

Pass the cup and pass the lady,
pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,
pass the cup of crimson wonder.

Join in black December's sadness,
lie in August's welcome corn.
Stir the cup that's ever-filling
with the blood of all that's born.

But the May Day is the great day,
sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did lay
will heed this song that calls them back.

Pass the word and pass the lady,
pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,
pass the cup of crimson wonder.


Velvet Green

Walking on velvet green.
Scots pine growing.
Isn't it rare to be taking the air, singing.
Walking on velvet green.
Walking on velvet green.
Distant cows lowing.

Never a care:
with your legs in the air, loving.
Walking on velvet green.
Won't you have my company,
yes, take it in your hands.

Go down on velvet green, with a country man.
Who's a young girls fancy and an old maid's dream.
Tell your mother that you walked all night on velvet green.
One dusky half-hour's ride up to the north.
There lies your reputation and all that you're worth.
Where the scent of wild roses turns the milk to cream.
Tell your mother that you walked all night on velvet green.

And the long grass blows in the evening cool.
And August's rare delight may be April's fool.
But think not of that, my love,
I'm tight against the seam.
And I'm growing up to meet you down on velvet green.

Now I may tell you that it's love and not just lust.
And if we live the lie, let's lie in trust.
On golden daffodils, to catch the silver stream
that washes out the wild oat seed on velvet green.

We'll dream as lovers under the stars ---
of civilizations raging afar.
And the ragged dawn breaks on your battle scars.
As you walk home cold and alone upon velvet green.

Walking on velvet green. Scots pine growing.
Isn't it rare to be taking the air, singing.
Walking on velvet green.
Walking on velvet green. Distant cows lowing.
Never a care: with your legs in the air, loving.
Walking on velvet green.

may be one of the most naturalistic rock albums. A Folk concept-hymn in nature

you can hear three of the above songs in you tube:

songs from the wood

jack in the green

velvet green

White man by Queen, Album: Day at the races 1977

I'm a simple man with a simple name
From this soil my people came
In this soil remain oh yeah oh yeah
He made us our shoes
And we trod soft on the land
But the immigrant built roads
On our blood and sand oh yeah

White man White man
Don't you see the light behind your blackened skies
White man White man
You took away the sight to blind my simple eyes
White man White man
Where you gonna hide from the hell you've made

Oh the red man knows wars
With his hands and his knives
On the Bible you swore
Fought your battle with lies oh yeah
Leave my body in shame
Leave my soul in disgrace
But by ev'ry god's name
Say a prayer for your race oh yeah

White man White man
Our country was green and all our rivers wide
White man White man
You came with a gun and soon our children died
White man White man
Don't you give a light for the blood you've shed?

White man White man
White man
White man White man
For you battled with lies
White man White man
Still lies
White man White man
Say you look around every skin and bone again

What is left of your dream?
Just the words on your stone
A man who learned how to teach
Then forgot how to learn
Oh yeah


A strong accusation of the cultural and territorial destruction of Indians by “civilized” white people

You can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feV4RuZSdIc

Peter Garrett – from singing for the Midnight Oil to the post of Australian Environment Minister

Peter Garrett became lead singer of the Midnight Oil in 1973. As well as its great musical and commercial success, the band became well known for its commitment to environmentalist and left-wing causes, and was particularly critical of United States military and foreign policies during the 1980s. Garrett served as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 1989 to 1993 and 1998 to 2004. He also joined the International Board of Greenpeace in 1993 for a two-year term. He served as adviser and patron to various cultural and community organisations including Jubilee Debt Relief, and was a founding member of the Surfrider Foundation. In 2000 Garrett was awarded the Australian Humanitarian Foundation Award in the Environment category and in 2001 he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New South Wales.

Garrett's first attempt at entering politics was in 1984, when he co founded the Nuclear Disarmament Party and stood for a seat in the Australian Senate in New South Wales at the December 1984 federal election. He needed 12.5% of the vote to win a seat in the Senate voting system, but a primary vote of just over 9% was insufficient when Labor gave its preferences to the conservative National Party ahead of the NDP.

Garrett decided to quit Midnight Oil on December 2, 2002, to focus on his political career. He won the seat of Kingsford Smith at the 2004 General Election for the Australian Labor Party and was selected as Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Heritage and the Arts. On Thursday, 29th November 2007, Labor Prime Minister elect Kevin Rudd named Garrett Minister for Environment, Heritage and Arts. However, he was stripped of the Climate change role, which was given to Penny Wong.

During the 2006 Victorian State election campaign, Garrett urged voters to not vote for the Australian Greens, but for his own Labor Party. This incurred the ire of Greens leader and former Garrett ally, Bob Brown who accused Garrett of having "sold out" and of going against the green movement, since joining the Labor Party.

Garrett has modified many of his earlier views and says he is now a "team player" in the Labor Party. He now supports the U.S.-Australia alliance, and no longer opposes the Joint U.S-Australian Defence Facility at Pine Gap. He says he will argue for environmental causes inside the Labor Party, but will observe the decisions of the ALP caucus, including accepting any decision to change Labor's "no new uranium mines" policy. Garrett's change of stance drew criticism from both journalists and Midnight Oil fans, who contrasted Garrett's former pronouncements on environmental and political issues he made before joining the Australian Labor Party.


we'll come back soon for presenting Midnight Oil songs and lyrics

Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult, album: Spectres 1977

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down

Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh no, they say hes got to go
Go go godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes tokyo
Go go godzilla, yeah

Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Godzilla ga ginza hoomen e mukatte imasu!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!

Oh no, they say hes got to go
Go go godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes tokyo
Go go godzilla, yeah

History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men


A song about the famous sci-fi monster Godzilla, a creation from mutations by radioactive pollution. The song is an allegory about the nuclear threat and the nuclear test in pacific ocean. The last bold words and some announcements in their concerts during 70s and 80s leads us to such an interpretation.

You can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTW19g-uUTw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHRm2DioMA

Save the Whales by country joe mcdonald album Paradise with an Ocean View 1976

When my grandpa was a boy,
he went down to the general store
Saw a picture book of a whale
shooting its spout and flashin' its tail

Then he got a sailor's dream
'bout cruisin' around on the salty sea
Joinin' up with a fishin' crew
to go out and get him a whale or two

Tell me what kind of men are these
who sail upon the salty seas
Up in the rigging in the afternoon,
swabbin' the decks and sharpenin' harpoons

Hooray and up she rises
Hooray and up she rises
Hooray and up she rises
Early in the morning

Shanghaied by the light of the moon,
put out from Boston in the middle of June
After six months out at sea,
it's nothin' but death and misery

Set out on a three-year cruise,
a union ship and a union crew
And after six months you begin to see,
that whalin's not what it used to be

A modern ship and a modern crew
with sonar scopes and explodin' harpoons
A mechanical boat made outta steel,
a floating machine built to kill the whales

Hooray and up she rises
Hooray and up she rises
Hooray and up she rises
Early in the morning

There're lots of whales in the deep blue sea,
we kill them for the company
We drag 'em 'longside and chop 'em in two
and melt 'em down and sell 'em to you

There hardly is a sailor alive
who can keep the tears from his eyes
As he remembers the good old days
when there were no whales to save

Thank the Russians and Japanese
for scouring the deep blue seas
Looking for ivory and perfume
and plastic toys and pet food

Another song against whale hunting, especially with modern devastating methods for profitable reasons and for fulfilling consumers’ useless needs.

You can hear this song in youtube

You can hear some songs of later Country Joe in my space:

Don’t bogart that joint

who cares