Doomed Planet by Cirith Ungol, Album: One Foot In Hell, 1986

Trapped on a dying world a world to late to save
Mankind is on the move and he's marching to his grave
False prophets filled with greed leaders who rule by fear
By their lies they are betrayed and their message crystal clear

We're living on a doomed planet a planet to late to save
We're living on a doomed planet mankind's marching to his grave

Dark clouds foul the sky as the end is well at hand
The acid rain will fall sweeping death across the land
The poison rivers flow to a helpless dying sea
Of the wicked race of man this world will soon be free

We're living on a doomed planet a planet to late to save
We're living on a doomed planet mankind's marching to his grave

Trapped on a dying world, a world of hate and pain
The judgement has arrived and the verdict is insane
The masses cringe in fear for their sentence has arrived
May the punishment be slow and the guilty flayed alive

A band with doom attitude in lyrics. Nuclear threat and environmental pollution couldn’t be absent from their interests

You can hear some songs from this band in youtube


Atom smasher/Black machine


I'm Alive/What Does It Take?

and in myspace

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=37249652

Greek government is passing a bill to restrict freedom of speech for bloggers

Anything that can't be controlled is repressed! Will Greece become the next blackhole in Web?

Because of an avalance of political corruption and scandals that came to light last months in Greece and the undrground interconnection of interests or blackmailing between corrupted reporters either TV-performers or journalists who created blogs on their own and equally corrupted politicians, govenment took the chance for more civil restrictions among others in the last four years. Now the target is the bloggers, a source of free communication, information and dialogue.

With the new act the confidentiality of the bloggers is going to be lifted, bloggers are forced to write the name of the responsible of the blog and so submitted to any kind of exposition in their real life, either their information is true or not.

for more information about this serious case visit:

http://athens.indymedia.org/

http://panosz.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/press_blogs/
http://argos.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/black_hole/
http://www.indy.gr/newswire/kato-ta-ksera-sas-apo-ta-blogs
http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,id=3235992
http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,id=33072408

Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden, Album: Powerslave, 1985

Hear the rime of the Ancient Mariner
See his eye as he stops one of three
Mesmerises one of the wedding guests
Stay here and listen to the nightmares
of the Sea

And the music plays on, as the bride passes by
Caught by his spell and
the Mariner tells his tale.

Driven south to the land of the snow and ice
To a place where nobody's been
Through the snow fog flies on the albatross
Hailed in God's name,
hoping good luck it brings.

And the ship sails on, back to the North
Through the fog and ice and
the albatross follows on

The mariner kills the bird of good omen
His shipmates cry against what he's done
But when the fog clears, they justify him
And make themselves a part of the crime.

Sailing on and on and North across the sea
Sailing on and on and North 'till all is calm

The albatross begins with its vengeance
A terrible curse a thirst has begun
His shipmates blame bad luck on the Mariner
About his neck, the dead bird is hung.

And the curse goes on and on at sea
And the curse goes on and on for them and me.

Day after day, day after day,
we stuck nor breath nor motion
As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean
Water, water everywhere and
all the boards did shrink
Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink.



There, calls the mariner
there comes a ship over the line
But how can she sail with no wind
in her sails and no tide.

See... onward she comes
Onwards she nears, out of the sun
See... she has no crew
She has no life, wait but there's two

Death and she Life in Death,
they throw their dice for the crew
She wins the Mariner and he belongs to her now.
Then ... crew one by one
They drop down dead, two hundred men
She... She, Life in Death.
She lets him live, her chosen one.


One after one by the star dogged moon,
too quick for groan or sigh
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang
and cursed me with his eye
Four times fifty living men
(and I heard nor sigh nor groan),
With heavy tramp, a lifeless lump,
they dropped down one by one.



The curse it lives on in their eyes
The Mariner he wished he'd die
Along with the sea creatures
But they lived on, so did he.

And by the light of moon
He prays for their beauty not doom
With heart he blesses them
God's creatures all of them too.

Then the spell starts to break
The albatross falls from his neck
Sinks down like lead into the Sea
Then down in falls comes the rain.

Hear the groans od the long dead seamen
See them stir and they start to rise
Bodies lifted by good spirits
None of them speak
and they're lifeless in their eyes

And revenge is still sought, penance starts again
Cast into a trance and the nightmare carries on.

Now the curse is finally lifted
And the Mariner sights his home
Spirits go from the long dead bodies
Form their own light and
the Mariner's left alone

And then a boat came sailing towards him
It was a joy he could not believe
The Pilot's boat, his son and the hermit
Penance of life will fall onto Him.

And the ship it sinks like lead into the sea
And the hermit shrieves the mariner of his sins

The Mariner's bound to tell of his story
To tell his tale wherever he goes
To teach God's word by his own example
That we must love all things that God made.

And the wedding guest's a sad and wiser man
And the tale goes on and on and on.

An epic song based on Samuel's Coleridge (1772-1834)poem about a sailor who killed an albandros and its revenge. Of course the poem is from moral and religious point of view, but it reflects the current ecological post-materialistic perspectives of beauty and respect of wilderness

you can hear this song in two parts in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fy7B5pM44A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU-ASGR9_g8

Cloudbusting by Kate Bush, Album: Hounds of love, 1985

I still dream of Orgonon.
I wake up cryin'.
You're making rain,
And you're just in reach,
When you and sleep escape me.

You're like my yo-yo
That glowed in the dark.
What made it special
Made it dangerous,
So I bury it
And forget.

But every time it rains,
You're here in my head,
Like the sun coming out--
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen.
And I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen.

On top of the world,
Looking over the edge,
You could see them coming.
You looked too small
In their big, black car,
To be a threat to the men in power.

I hid my yo-yo
In the garden.
I can't hide you
From the government.
Oh, God, Daddy--
I won't forget.

'Cause every time it rains,
You're here in my head,
Like the sun coming out--
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen.
And I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen.

It's you and me, Daddy.

It's you and me... Daddy---

It's you and me... Daddy---

E-yeah yeah yeah yeah yo-ohhhhhhhhhh

And every time it rains
You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out.
Your son's coming out.
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen.
And I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen.

Ooo-ohh, just saying it could even make it happen.

I'm Couldbusting Daddy.

Your son's coming out.
Your son's coming out.


A song about a controversial method of weather modification, invented by Wilhelm Reich. The song was based in “Book of Dreams”, an semi-autobiography, semi-novel book by W.Reich’s son Peter. In the video clip starring Kate Bush as Peter, and Donald Sutherland as W. Reich. The video has a happy end in contrast with the facts in reality: W. Reich persecuted because of his controversial work, his books burned by FDA agents and died in Prison in 1957. But he became a legend in hippie culture and rock mucic. Many artists performed songs that refer to his person and his inventions (Hawkwind, Turbonegro, etc) and many individual researchers or scientists, even today, confirmed many of his theories and perform with success many of his controversial experiments

You can hear this song and hear the video in you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRHA9W-zExQ

Smash the mac by Crass, Album: Best before 1984

Roll up, roll up, to the land of dreams.
We weave and spin a web of fantasy.
We touch on the pain and fear.....
Then whisk you back to the consumer world.
Touch the surfaces smooth the veneer,
While three-quarters of the world starves.
What do you care?
The glitter continuing to glitter
The tinsel showers and Tinkerbell
Waves the magic wand.
Sell sell buy buy.
You know the name of the game.....

All right Jack sitting on the fence,
All right Jack sitting on the fence,
All right Jack sitting on the fence,
All right Jack sitting on the fence.

They sit on the fence;
Real people stand against
And say they have the best intention,
Just a rip-off trick, it's always hip
To keep in with dissention
And if an arms dealer is the record boss,
The record labels can run'em at a loss.
It's money well spent to control the dross
What they don't break gets bent.... John.

All right Jill sitting on the fence.
All right Jill sitting on the fence.
All right Jill sitting on the fence.
All right Jill sitting on the fence.

The people are fooled by the
parasites who mindlessly entertain
And take rich pickings fom the
bombed out crowds who've paid to
bury their pain
While the clowns in the pantomine don't give a toss
And sing about fucks and fads and loss
Sliding around in a genital froth,
Our world slips down the drain.

That's really really wonderful.
Well off the wall.
That's really really marvellous.
Sitting on the fence.
Really terrific well out to lunch.
That really is a buzz sitting on the fence.

Preening and posing in a life of pretence,
In a cynical mockery of caring,
Well you can't see a turd in a barrel of shit
If that's their idea of sharing.
Yeah peace is in so dump an old track
Buy a little cred with the Greenham pack,
The biz is keen to kill or catch,
As the people scream they're cheering.

All right Jack. All right Jill.
The pen is mighty and looks can kill.
All right Jack. All right Jill.
In one hand a gift in the other a bill.

We've seen their best and we're not impressed,
So lets get priorities straight.
A hamper from Harrods and the patronising gestures
Ain't gonna change the state.
While the people who care are prepared to act,
The pantomine clowns keep the system intact,
Shamming a commitment they so obviously lack.
The love they sing is hate.... fakes.

All right Jack shit on the fence.
All right Jill shit on the fence.
All right Jack shit on the fence.
All right Jack you shit on the fence.

But the fence, the fence, is owned by America.
Sit on the fence, owned by America.
They make no pretence, it's owned by America.
Sitting on the fence, owned by America.

On their side American troopers and bombs
On our side the trash and consumer cons
We've been occupied, culture smashed and betrayed
But the spirit is untouched... look out...

Smach the Mac, smach the Mac,
Smach the Mac, smach the Big Mac.
Smach the Mac, smach the Mac,
Smach the Mac, smach the Big Mac.

Bronco burgers, burnt out brains,
Sterile fat, deadly rain,
Chemical colours, Kentucky creams,
Cut your teeth on American.... dreams

Stickin chicken, American grains.
Licking shittin, American reigns.
Kiddies fit in American trains.
Bombs tick in American.... planes.

Smach the Mac. You're on your back.
Smach the Mac till it won't came back.
Smach the Mac. You're on your back.
Smach the Mac so it won't came back.

American tourist, American free,
Two week tour in our misery.
A good museum but a stinking home.
The natives hang on the rotten.... backbone.

America owns, American wins.
Comes in packets bottles tins.
Blind our eyes, fills our ears
It's been our soul for twenty.... years.

Smach the Mac. American tack.
Smach the Mac, smach the big Mac.
Smach the Mac, make it crack.
Smach the Mac, smach the big Mac.

We stand among your war machines
looking for the light
Squaddies grunts and filth sip
pepsi-cola wait to fight...

The bricks of our world
That you cover in plastic
Will sail through your plate-glass windows.

E.T. go home...
E.T. go home...

Mickey Mouse fuck off.

A protesting song against the dominating culture of consuming directed from the prevalence of USA-birth multinational corporations.

You can hear this song among others in myspace:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=114474935

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=282651923

99 luftballons by Nena, album: 99 luftballons, 1984

The original german lyrics


99 Luftballons
Hast du etwas Zeit für mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst du vielleicht g'rad an mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Und dass so was von so was kommt

99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Hielt man für Ufos aus dem All
Darum schickte ein General
'ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher
Alarm zu geben, wenn es so wär
Dabei war'n da am Horizont
Nur 99 Luftballons

99 Düsenjäger
Jeder war ein großer Krieger
Hielten sich für Captain Kirk
Das gab ein großes Feuerwerk
Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft
Und fühlten sich gleich angemacht
Dabei schoss man am Horizont
Auf 99 Luftballons

99 Kriegsminister -
Streichholz und Benzinkanister -
Hielten sich für schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen Krieg und wollten Macht
Mann, wer hätte das gedacht
Dass es einmal soweit kommt
Wegen 99 Luftballons

99 Jahre Krieg
Ließen keinen Platz für Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt's nicht mehr
Und auch keine Düsenflieger
Heute zieh' ich meine Runden
Seh' die Welt in Trümmern liegen
Hab' 'nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an dich und lass' ihn fliegen

And their translation in English:

Have you some time for me,
then I'll sing a song for you
about 99 balloons
on their way to the horizon.
If you're perhaps thinking about me right now
then I'll sing a song for you
about 99 balloons
and that such a thing comes from such a thing.

99 balloons
on their way to the horizon
People think they're UFO's from space
so a general sent up
a fighter squadron after them
Sound the alarm if it's so
but there on the horizon were
only 99 balloons.

99 fighter jets
Each one's a great warrior
Thought they were Captain Kirk
then came a lot of fireworks
the neighbours didn't understand anything
and felt like they were being provoked
so they shot at the horizon
at 99 balloons.

99 war ministers
matches and gasoline canisters
They thought they were clever people
already smelled a nice bounty
Called for war and wanted power.
Man, who would've thought
that things would someday go so far
because of 99 balloons.

99 years of war
left no room for victors.
There are no more war ministers
nor any jet fighters.
Today I'm making my rounds
see the world lying in ruins.
I found a balloon,
think of you and let it fly (away).


Lyrics of the English version of this song:

99 Red Balloons

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base bugs in the software
Flash the message, something's out there
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by

99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky as 99 red balloons go by

99 Decision street
99 ministers meet
To worry, worry, super flurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by

99 knights of the air
Ride super high tech jet fighters
Everyone's a super hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify, and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by

99 dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go

All Lyrics versions were copied from:
http://german.about.com/library/blmus_nena99luftb.htm

A great anti-war pop song in the cold war era. It describes how easily a war could be started from a small mistake and turn cities and nature to dust


You can hear this song in youtube:

Original version in german

English version

Tribal Statistics by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Album: Somewhere In Afrika 1983

Who are you ?
Give details

Everywhere you look now, questionnaires
They want every detail of your affairs
Oh, so many people lives
Wrapped up in those...

Statistics, statistics - figures in a page
Statistics, statistics - numbers on a tape
Zulu, Xhosa,
Sotho, Venda
Zulu, Xhosa,
Sotho, Venda

Everywhere you go now
You're in their sight
Yes, they classify you
Shades of black and white
Oh, so many people lives
Wrapped up in those...

Statistics, statistics - figures in a page
Statistics, statistics - numbers on a tape
Zulu, Xhosa,
Sotho, Venda
Zulu, Xhosa,
Sotho, Venda

No chance of going back
And putting things right
These people rule with facts in the night
Oh, so many people lives
Wrapped up in those...

Statistics, statistics - figures in a page
Statistics, statistics - numbers on a tape
Statistics, statistics

Who are you ?
Give details
Who are you ?
Give details

Zulu, Xhosa,
Sotho, Venda
Zulu, Xhosa,
Sotho, Venda

Statistics, statistics - numbers on a tape

A song about the uniform, dehumanizing and bureaucratic way west observers use to perceive, describe and classify the cultural diversity of other civilizations in order to utilize/exploit them for their own sake and purposes.

You can hear this song in youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65fkqu5Hfok

Corrosion Of Conformity

A socio-politically orientated band that has started in early 80s playing punk rock and since early 90’s has played progressive metal

Poison Planet, Album: Eye to Eye, 1983

Because you're old and rich
You don't care about this earth
Only about your filthy profits

Poisoned Planet nuclear war
It's not you're problem anymore

The problems belong to your generation
The consequences to mine
You've spoiled my chances
and robbed me of my time

Bodies piled in rotting heaps
Mass-destruction empty streets

Martial law declared
nothing left to rule
Death will soon come
to the surviving few

Why should we pay the consequences?

A punk song with simple and clear views about pollution and war causes: The lust for profits. But the consequences of today’s wrong choices will affect strongly future generations.


Technocracy, Album: Technocracy, 1989

This ecological atrocity finally
caves in on itself...
perhaps it's all for the better

Lock your doors and say goodnight
As toxins leach out of sight
We're living in the new age
Of electronic security

Technocracy probable cause
Technocracy bending some laws

Living in fear
Making something of yourself
is making fifty grand a year

The technology that spawned
Our every convenience
Creating more and more poison
Pledge of toxic allegience

Technocracy probable cause
Technocracy bending laws

All American clones
On and on their sermon drones
Rabbit at your career
It goes on all around you
Part of this insanity
Working for the technocracy

Technocracy probable cause
Technocracy bending some laws

There are limits to growth on this planet
but there is no limit to your green or potential to exploit...
the end of suffering or just an eternal scream

A song about the uncontrolled expansion of technology for the wasteful use of natural sources and improvident development. In the last lines the band marks exactly this: The necessity to put limits to the lust for profits and exploitation of nature

You can hear Technocracy in youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk3rlgFrL3w

some other songs from their punk-era in myspace
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=299040598

and from their metal-era in youtube:

Clean my wounds

dance of dead

Break the circle

The Landscape Is Changing by Depeche Mode, Album: Construction time again, 1983

The landscape is changing, the landscape is crying
Thousand of acres of forest are dying
Carbon copies from the hills above the forest line
Acid streams are flowing ill across the countryside

cause I don’t care if you’re going nowhere
Just take good care of the world
I don’t care if you’re going nowhere
Just take good care of the world

Now we’re rearranging there’s no use denying
Mountains and valleys cant you hear them sighing?
Evolution, the solution, almost certainty
Can you imagine this intrusion of their privacy?

cause I don’t care if you’re going nowhere
Just take good care of the world
I don’t care if you’re going nowhere
Just take good care of the world

Token gestures, some semblance of intelligence
Can we be blamed for the security of ignorance

cause I don’t care if you’re going nowhere
Just take good care of the world
I don’t care if you’re going nowhere
Just take good care of the world

A song about the huge changes in landscape by humans: mountain slopes, forests, rainforests, wetlands are deforestated, or laid bare with a dramatic and non reversible way in order to be replaced by chemical/GMO-based single-crop farming, by water-wasting golf fields or industries, by mining or construction activities, etc. The singer takes himself out the so called progress who leads to nowhere and begs for respecting nature.

You can hear this song in remix version in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHaxSDr2vN0

ELOY (70s Decade)

Another return to time for some forgotten by us songs by the german progressive band Eloy: Three songs from their early years when they dealed with socio-political issues in their songs

Something Yellow, Album: "Eloy" (1971)

Some day when wake up in the morning
you'll never forget that day
you feel that there is something in the air you've never seen before
something tough, something yellow
and your lungs begin to melt
during chimneys smoking everywhere
you hear the voice of your president
we must do something against the smog.

A song about air pollution


Future City, Album: "Inside" (1973)

time's gone on
as you think about
cities are growing on
until they're crushing you
guess how you feel
once more it's catching your breathing
guess how you feel
guess how you feel
the day is dark
when you wake up in the morning
the streets are bare
when death is going round and around
time's gone on
as you think about
cities are growing on
until they're crushing you
guess how you feel
once more it's catching your breathing
guess how you feel
guess how you feel

A song about the isolation and depression urban environment creates


Plastic Girl, Album: "Floating" (1974)

She lives in a plastic, plastic world
She talks in plastic, plastic words
I must have been wrong
When I thought she was different
Because her lips and her eyes
Seemed like a sea of delight
She whispered in my ear
Words of boundless feelings
I was bewitched and I knew
We could spend the night together
But we'll never get the truth
of our dreams and wishes

She must know that I have to go on my way
She must learn that she has to turn or to go away

'Cause there's no place for me in a plastic world
I'll never talk to friends again in plastic words
Why people don't understand the emptiness
They'll never learn it with their plastic brains

We never had the chance to live with each other
But I will remember the irresistable moments
The synthetic world destroyed all my feelings
She's a girl full of plastic, she's a plastic girl

A song about alienation and commercialization of human relations in industrialized consuming societies


You can hear many Eloy classics in youtube:

Walk alone

inside

castle in the air

bells of notre dame

midnight fight/victory of mental force

Decay of Logos

To tame a Land, by Iron Maiden, Album: Piece of Mind, 1983

He is the king of all the land
In the Kingdom of the sands
Of a time tomorrow.

He rules the sandworms and the Fremen
In a land amongst the stars
Of an age tomorrow.

He is destined to be a King
He rules over everything
On the land called planet Dune.

Bodywater is your life
And without it you would die
On the desert the planet Dune.

Without a stillsuit you would fry
On the sands so hot and dry
In a world called Arrakis.

It is a land that's rich in spice
The sandriders and the "mice"
That they call the "Muad'Dib".

He is the Kwizatz Haderach.
He is born of Caladan
And will take the Gom Jabbar.

He has the power to foresee
Or to look into the past
He is the ruler of the stars

The time will come for him
to lay claim his crown,
And then the foe yes
they'll be cut down,
You'll see he'll be the
best that there's been,
Messiah supreme
true leader of men,
And when the time
for judgement's at hand
Don't fret he's strong
and he'll make a stand,
Against evil and fire
That spreads through the land,
He has the power
to make it all end.

A song based on Frank Herbert’s series of sci-fi novels “Dune” that refer to a dry planet where water was very rare, so there were many strategies and techniques invented by residents for retaining their bodywater.

There is a bad event about the history of this beautiful song, because of Frank Herbert’s threatening attitude. We read in wikipedia:

…when Steve Harris requested permission from the author to name the song "Dune" and to use a spoken quotation as the track's intro, his request was met with a stern reply from Frank Herbert's agent: "No. Because Frank Herbert doesn't like rock bands, particularly heavy rock bands, and especially rock bands like Iron Maiden". This statement was backed up with a legal threat, and eventually the song was renamed "To Tame a Land" and released in 1983.

You can hear this song in youtube:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFR8W8_IEWs