Eco-communities as a social vision

Eco-communities as a social vision
Egalitarian and ecological communities, like the pictured East Wind (www.eastwind.org), are very close to our vision of an ecological society

19 July, 2007

Revolution 1 – The Beatles - 1968 - "non-violence"

You say you want a revolution
Well you know
we all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be alright
Alright Alright

You say you got a real solution
Well you knowwe'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be alright
Alright Alright

You say you'll change the constitution
Well you know
we all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know know it's gonna be alright
Alright Alright

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This song is not about the need for potecting the earth, but about another value of today's ecological movement, namely non-violence. As a member of the then peace movement, John Lennon was reluctant (if not overtly hostile) about a violent revolution, especially of the Maoist tendency, which had an impact on the youth movement - especially in the French May 1968 insurrection. He was pressed by the leftist press to take a position about the events of the period, and this song was his reaction. Many called him "traitor", but I believe he was firm and faithful to his pacifist principles. Lennon stated his opposition to destruction and hatred that was begining to overwhelm the youth movement. He couldn't do otherwise, since one year before the Beatles were singing "All you need is Love". Remaining firm to his values, he expressed the feelings of many pacifists of his time, as well as many ecologists and greens of today. The principle of "non-violence" is often used as one of the criteria that differentiate the Greens as a political movement from the European Left. The denouncing of political violence by the left parties brings them closer to the Greens.




you can hear this song in:



you can also here Revolution (not 1 but live) in:

18 July, 2007

When the music's over - The Doors - 1967


Yeah, c'mon
When the music's over
When the music's over here
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights (x2)

For the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end

Cancel my subscription to the resurrection
Send my credentials to the house of detention
I got some friends inside
The face in the mirror won't stop
The girl in the window won't drop
A feast of friends alive she cried
Waiting for me outside

Before I sink into the big sleep
I want to hear
I want to hear
The scream of the butterfly

Come back, baby
Back into my arms
We're getting tired of hangin' around
Waitin' around
With our heads to the ground

I hear a very gentle sound
Very near
Yet very far
Very soft
Yet very clear
Come today
Come today

What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered
And ripped her
And bit her
Stuck her with knives
In the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences
And dragged her down

I hear a very gentle sound
With your ear down to the ground—
We want the world and we want it,
We want the world and we want it, now
Now? Now!

Persian night! babe
See the light! babe
Save us!
Jesus!
Save us!

So when the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the light
Turn out the light

For the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end

So when the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the light
Turn out the light


a video with this song:



17 July, 2007

San Francisco - Scott McKenzie - 1967 - Hippies as proto-ecologists!


If you're goin' to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're goin' to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation
Such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation
With a new explanation
People in motion, people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there


"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" is a song, written by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas, and sung by Scott McKenzie. It was released in May 1967 and became a cultural icon. Phillips wrote the song to promote the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (Summer of Love). It became an instant hit, and also became the anthem of the "hippie" era.

you can hear this song in the link below

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

09 July, 2007

Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire - 1965



The eastern world, it is explodin’.
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin’

But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction.

Don’t you understand what I’m tryin’ to say
Can’t you feel the fears I’m feelin’ today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away
There’ll be no one to save, with the world in a grave
Take a look around you boy
It’s bound to scare you boy

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction.

Yeah, my blood’s so mad feels like coagulatin’
I’m sitting here just contemplatin’
I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation.
Handful of senators don’t pass legislation
And marches alone can’t bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction.

Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it’s the same old place
The poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace

And… tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don’t believe
We’re on the eve Of destruction
Mm, no no, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction.



you can hear this song in youtube

05 July, 2007

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, 1963 - The first song about ecological crisis?


We consider as the first rock song with ecological hints (or protoecological), Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall” (1963). To be more specific, it was a folk-rock protest-song.

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
(The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963)


Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve,
I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

http://bobdylan.com/songs/hardrain.html

you can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReIEDHMu0Zw

Send us your comments. Do you consider this song as ecological? Does it move your ecological feelings?