Kreator 1987, 1990

Album: Terrible certainty, 1987

Toxic Trace

Pesticide in torrents, how fast it flows
Total pollution the earth can't stand much longer
Chemical industry brings new diseases
The fear of self-destruction is growing stronger
Nuclear waste in an uncontrolled deluge
Reduces the earth to an airless planet
Reformation lies far away
Now is your only chance to save it

Contamination in every place
Condemn the human race
Everything will decay
Broken down by toxic trace

New plagues have come and soon there'll be more
Apocalypse not for the first time
Suppression is alive and that's for sure
Everyone will be annihilated
Enforcement of the last eclipse
Can't ignore predictions from the past
Ignore the warnings of ancient Prophets
Every minute of your life could be your last

Contamination in every place
Condemn the human race
Everything will decay
Broken down by toxic trace

Metamorphoses of the earth to a lifeless desert
Voracity for richness, ruin of Mankind
Craving more and more, to the world's Requiem
This is the earth's last century

Now depravation from things that count,
to make an easier life for me
Total confusions for the non-believers
who ignore the writings on the wall
Times of suffering for everyone,
no-one can hide from reality
Social injustice will be no more,
without exception, devastate all

Times have changed from the past to now
The earth is mankind's subject
Perfect creation stands over all
Experimenting with lethal objects
Domination, submission, demand for more
De-humanizes the brains of the rulers
What gives them the right to menace us all
This time will come but then it will be too late



Album: Coma of souls 1990


When The Sun Burns Red

Savage heat is searing
Global warming has begun
Mother Earth is reeling
No protection from the sun
Forest fires are raging
While the rivers turn to ice
Foolish man creating
Mother Nature's cruel demise

Hailstorms, tornadoes
Cold spells, untimely frosts
Heat waves and blizzards
Global death's the cost

Faces the end of time
As we plunge headlong towards the day
Can't deny the signs
When the sun burns red
The earth will turn
From blue to gray

Winter turns to summer
Then the seasons disappear
No one needs a prophet
To explain what's all too clear
Oceans overflowing
Islands drowning everywhere
Leaders wouldn't admit it
Now they're crying in despair

Hailstorms, tornadoes
Cold spells, untimely frosts
Heat waves and blizzards
Global death's the cost

Face the end of time
As we plunge headlong towards the day
Can't deny the signs
When the sun burns red
The earth will turn
From blue to gray

Now rain shall wash away sad remains of man
Cities once so proud will crumble into sand
Buildings all collapse when all is done and said
The guilty ones will die with the innocent...
When the sun burns red


Material World Paranoia

Dehumanization through industrialization
Bring fear to the masses of reincarnation
Manic frustration deterioration
Nature fights back for its own preservation

Concrete coffin breeds lunacy
Cold steel skeleton
Desperation in the factory
Crank out oblivion

Material world paranoia
Corporations rule the earth
Material world paranoia
Enslavery begins at birth

Power's illusion brings global confusion
A forgone conclusion of mind's evolution
Nature's destruction through massive production
A blatant example of mindless construction

Concrete coffin breeds lunacy
Cold steel skeleton
Desperation in the factory
Crank out oblivion

Material world paranoia

Don't dream about how life can be
Experience your dreams
Before this prefab culture wastes your life
Stay on the straight and narrow course
Material wealth is yours
But the promise of a better future is a lie

The promise of a better future is nothing but a lie

Three songs with strong apocalyptic descriptions about environmental destruction. The last song is also a strong acusation against the dominance of industrialism and consumerism in our society, their causes and their impacts to us and environment.

you can hear these songs in youtube:

Toxic trace

when the sun burns red

material world paranoia

Album: Scum, by Napalm Death 1987

Multinational Corporations/Instinct of survival

Multinational corporations
Genocide of the starving nations
Advertise the product you make
Never give but always take

Kill and lie for security
Your shit on supermarket shelves to see
Instinct of survival

The multinational corporations
Makes its profit from the starving nations
Indigenous peoples become their slaves
From their births into their graves

The multinational corporations
Makes its profit from the starving nations
Another product for you to buy
You'll keep paying until you die

Polluted Minds

They not only pollute the air
They pollute our minds
They're destroying the earth
And destroying mankind

Polluted minds
Kill mankind
They don't give a shit
Long as profits are high

They don't give a shit
If people die
Polluted minds
Kill mankind

Point Of No Return

Systematic rape of nature
Profit precedes need
Maintaining economic stature
Steal the fruit yet leave no seed

And of future generations?
What of their inheritance
A world of contamination
Poisoned by our ignorance

Oblivious to reality
Conscience spurned
Beyond the point of no return

Dragnet

The ascension of human intelligence
To atomic genocide
Homo Sapiens = the disease the cause the pollution
Erase the aeons of evolutions
Pushed too far, just a matter of time
Seemingly nothing to halt the tide......
Except the end - accept the end?

some small and ear-splitting songs performed in an outrageous way about nuclear threat, the destruction of environment, exploitation of third world societies, consumerism, etc for only economical purposes by a fistfull of multinational corporations.

you can hear some Napalm Death songs from their early hardcore era in youtube:

nazi punks fuck off

Siege of power

Unchallenged Hate

The Kinks in 80s & 90s

"Give The People What They Want" album: Give the People What They Want, 1981

Hey, hey, hey...
Give the people what they want

Well, it's been said before, the world is a stage
A different performance with every age.
Open the history book to any old page
Bring on the lions and open the cage.

Give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
The more they get, the more they need
And every time they get harder and harder to please

The Roman promoters really did things right.
They needed a show that would clearly excite.
The attendance was sparse so they put on a fight
Threw the Christians to the lions, sold out every night

Give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
The more they get, the more they need
And every time they get harder and harder to please

Give 'em lots of sex, perversion and rape
Give 'em lots of violence, and plenty to hate
Give the people what they want
Give the people what they want

When Olswald shot Kennedy, he was insane
But still we watch the re-runs again and again
We all sit glued while the killer takes aim
"Hey Mom, there goes a piece of the president's brain!"

Give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
Blow out your brains, and do it right
Make sure it's prime time and on a Saturday night.
You gotta give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
Give the people what they want

A song about the "panem et circenses" and consumerism tension of modern people, who were slaves to their neverending passions and authority and Mass Media tries to stimulate continuously. They produce through the years such slave of passions character types and then they were self-justified claiming hypocritically that that's what people really want, so let's fullfill their "needs".



"Wall Of Fire" album: Phobia, 1993

Standing at the end of the horizon
Looking at another setting sun
Nature gave us all these toys to play with
But we've abused them, each and every one
They stretched the chord, snapped the wire
Lit the fuse but can't retire
We're going to the wall of fire
Tip-toeing on the great high wire
Let's have a real fire

The city slickers built the great illusion
Now they're the first to crumble in the sun
Now we're going through the wall
Let's see the flames before we fall
We're going through the wall of fire
Let's have a real fire
Tip-toeing on the great high wire
Through the wall of fire

We drove on many rocky roads together
Through the storms and hurricanes we rode
Unified so no one could destroy us
We stretched the bounds
But always kept the code
Liberals shout and cause concern
Forget next week while we all burn
Let's run right through the wall of fire
Let's have a real fire
Death-defying while the flames grow higher
Through the wall of fire
Let's go through the wall of fire
Running through the wall of fire

A self-critic song about our destructive way we used nature before the now visible dead end of our actions.

Some Kinks' classics in youtube:

Lola

sunny afternoon

all day and all night

you really got me

Album: Low budget by The Kinks, 1979

"National Health"

Nervous tension, man's invention,
Is the biggest killer that's around today
Let the tension out or it will build and build inside
And strike you down some day
Nervous tension, man's invention
Is the biggest waste of human energy
Let the tension out, or it will surely kill
And that will be a tragedy

Valium helps you for a while
But somehow valium seems to bring me down
There's no pill I can recommend where side effects
Aren't guaranteed to send you round the bend

You gotta let out the tension
With a little bit of exercise
Loosen up your muscles
And feel the knots in your body untie

We oh we oh
Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah
Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah

It sure beats quaaludes
It sure beats cocaine
Even Freud recommends it
Cos it relieves the strain

Altogether now
Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah
Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah

Some people say it sends you deaf
Some people say it sends you blind
Some people say it makes you old
some people say it blows your mind

But I say

If it's good for your health
It's good for your mind
If it keeps you together
It's really all right
We oh we oh

Oh c'mon, kick the cat

Oh oh oh oh it's the state of the national health
Oh oh oh oh Blame it on the national health

Nervous tension, nervous tension, nervous tension
Nervous tension. nervous tension, nervous tension
Nervous tension, man's invention
Is the biggest killer that's around

Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah
Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah an

Valium helps you for a while
But somehow valium seems to bring me down
There's no pill I can recommend where side effects
Aren't guaranteed to drive you round the bend

I say I say

Oh oh oh oh it's good for your health
Keeps you together, it's the state of the national health
Oh oh oh oh Blame it on the national health
Oh oh oh oh it's the state of the national health
Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah

A song about the strees of mobern life, the usually ineffective for real cure and with numerous side effects drugs and a proposal for natural ways of losing mental tension. There were some references to S. Freud and especially Wilhelm Reich's concept of body armouring as somatic muscular blocks or knots



"A Gallon Of Gas"

I've been waiting for years to buy a brand new cadillac
But now that I've got one I want to send it right back
I can't afford the gas to fill my luxury limousine
But even if I had the dough no one's got no gasoline

I went to my local dealer to see if he could set me straight
He said there's a little gas going but I'd have to wait
But he offered some red hot speed and some really high grade hash
But a gallon of gas can't be purchased anywhere for any amount of cash

I can score you some coke and some grade one grass
But I can't get a gallon of gas
I've got some downers some speed all the drugs that you need
But I can't get a gallon of gas
There's no more left to buy or sell
There's no more oil left in the well
A gallon of gas can't be purchased anywhere
For any amount of cash

I love your body-work, but you're really no use
How can I drive you when I got no juice?
Because it's stuck in neutral and my engine's got no speed
And the highways are deserted
and the air smells unnaturally clean.

It's got power-assisted overdrive and carpets on the floor,
but it's parked out front just like a dead dinosaur.
And I'll be paying off the bank for 45 years or more.
It should go 100 miles an hour,
but it's never moved away from my door.

Who needs a car and a seven-forty-seven
When you can't buy a gallon of gas
Who needs a highway, an airport or a jet
When you can't get a gallon of gas
There's no more left to buy or sell
There's no more oil left in the well
A gallon of gas can't be purchased anywhere
For any amount of cash
You can't buy a gallon of gas

A humoristic song about our strong dependence from oil fuels: our expensive car, all its accesories, facilities for transportations, roads, highways are completely useless if oil supplies and deposits were used up and consumed.

You can hear this song in youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne0PF0uLfBo

The Kinks, 1973

"Preservation", Album: Preservation: Act 1, 1973

Once upon a time
In a faraway land
Lived a villain called Flash
He was such a wicked man
He terrorized the people
He broke arms and crushed hands
He ruled with a fist and he purchased all the land

Then he plowed up the fields and cut down the trees
For property speculation
And he did it all for a pot of gold
And for his own preservation

The people were scared
They didn't know where to turn
They couldn't see any salvation
From the hoods and the spivs
And the crooked politicians
Who were cheating and lying to the nation

Save the fields and the trees
And give them back to the nation
Bring the government down
A new leader must be found
For the sake of preservation

He said he did it to help us all
And did it for the good of the nation
But he did it for a pot of gold
And for his own preservation

When money is evil
And power is corrupt
The devil moves in and takes over
Mr. Flash broke his word
And now he's got to pay
For his crimes and his lies and his evil ways

And it's gonna get rough
And it's gonna get rough
It's a crime and a sin that no one can win
In a story of self preservation

An interesting song about the use of authorities by people with power for their own purposes and interests, cheating people about their real intentions in order to earn their vote and consent. The song focuses on environmental destruction for profitable reasons.


"Demolition" Preservation: Act 1 1973

I spy with my little eye
Anything here that I can buy.
I see a little thatched cottage
Looking so neat
With compulsory purchase we can buy it up cheap.
Then we'll pull up the floor boards,
Knock down the walls,
Rock the foundations,
Until the house falls.
Like a pack of cards,
Crashing to the ground.
Then we'll build a row
Of identical boxes
And sell them all off at treble the profits.
Demolition.

The deeds are in my pocket,
I've got a contract in my hand.
An opportunity for luxury living.
I'll arrange the mortgage
To be repaid a hundred percent.
I can't wait around so make your decision.
We'll buy up all the cottages
And every house and every street,
Until we've got everything we need.
Every town in the vicinity,
Every farm and village green.
We're gonna buy up everything,
Then it's Demolition.
Demolition. Demolition.

Two up, two down,
It hasn't got a garden,
But it's got a lovely patio.
Stainless steel kitchen sink,
Gas fired central heating,
Whaaa -- specifically designed for modern-day living,
Nothing's permanent and nothing lasts,
We've sold all the houses so put 'em up fast.
We're gonna buy up this town
And pull it all down.
How I love to hear the demolition sound
Of concrete crashing to the ground.
Demolition.

It's time to make some money,
It's time to get rich quick.
It's the wonderful world of capitalism.
I've got to make a profit,
I've got to satisfy my greed,
It's my faith and my religion,
Demolition. Demolition. Demolition.
And we'll buy up the towns,
And we'll knock 'em all down
Build a brand new world of our own.
(repeat)

a similar song with the above, from the point of view of those who have interests in destruction of traditional architect and natural environment for their own sake and greed. Criticism is done in capitalism, as the system which allows such of economic motivation devastating attitudes towards society and nature



"Plastic Man" album: The Great Lost Kinks Album, 1973

A man lives at the corner of the street,
And his neighbors think he's helpful and he's sweet,
'Cause he never swears and he always shakes you by the hand,
But no one knows he really is a plastic man.

He's got plastic heart, plastic feet and toes,
(Yeah, he's plastic man)
He's got plastic knees and a perfect plastic nose.
(Yeah, he's plastic man)
He's got plastic lips that hide his plastic teeth and gums,
And plastic legs that reach up to his plastic bum.
(Plastic bum)

Plastic man got no brain,
Plastic man don't feel no pain,
Plastic people look the same,
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kick his shin or tread on his face,
Pull his nose all over the place,
He can't disfigure, or disgrace,
Plastic man (plastic man).

He's got plastic flowers growing up the walls,
He eats plastic food with a plastic knife and fork,
He likes plastic cups and saucers 'cause they never break,
And he likes to lick his gravy off a plastic plate.

Plastic man got no brain,
Plastic man don't feel no pain,
Plastic people look the same,
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kick his shin or tread on his face,
Pull his nose all over the place,
He can't disfigure, or disgrace,
Plastic man (plastic man).

He's got a plastic wife who wears a plastic mac,
(Yeah, he's plastic man)
And his children wanna be plastic like their dad,
(Yeah, he's plastic man)
He's got a phony smile that makes you think he understands,
But no one ever gets the truth from plastic man (plastic man)

Plastic man (plastic man).


A song about the superficial emotions and lack of deep communication between modern people. Formal ways of behaviour, fake smiles in order to be acceptable,pretention of coolness and happiness. Also contact with nature is "plastic": either as a movie-like scene in canned-holidays, or as artificial plastic plants in a vase


You can hear this song in youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g5Jy1wj2ds

The Kinks, 1970-1971

The - Apeman album: Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1, 1970

I think I'm sophisticated
'cos I'm living my life a good homo sapiens.
But all around me ev'rybody's multiplying

And they're walking round like flies man:
So I'm no better than the animals
Sitting in the cages in the zoo man

'cos compared to the flowers and the birds
And the trees
I am an APEMAN.
I think I'm so educated and I'm so civilised

'cos strict vegetarian. And with the over population
And inflation and starvation crazy politicans.
I don't feel safe in this world
No more don't want to die in a nuclear war.
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an APEMAN.

I'm an APEMAN
I'm an APE
APE MAN
Oh, I'm an APE MAN.
I'm a king-kong man
I'm a voodoo man
Oh, I'm a APE MAN.

'cos compared to the sun that sits in the sky
Compared to the clouds as they roll by
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an APE MAN. Lalalala...

In man's evolution he has created
The cities and the motor traffic rumble

But give me half a chance and I'd be taking
Clothes and living in the jungle.
But the only time that I feel at ease
Swinging up and down in a coconut tree.
Oh, what alife of luxury to be like an APE MAN.

I'm an APE MAN
I'm an APE
APE MAN
Oh, I'm an APE MAN.
I'm a king-kong man
I'm a voodoo man
Oh, I'm a Ape MAN.
I look out of the window, but I can't see the sky
'cos air polution is a fogging up my eyes
I want to get out of this city alive
And make like an APE MAN.

Come and love me
be my APE MAN girl
And we'll be so happy in my APE MAN world.
I'm an APE MAN
I'm an APE
APE MAN
Oh, I'm an APE MAN.
I'm a king-kong man
I'm a voodoo man
Oh, I'm a APE MAN.

I'll be your Tarzan
you'll be my Jane
I'll keep you warm and you'll keep me sane
We'll sit in the trees and eat bananas
All day just like an APE MAN.

A "call of the wild", a humoristic imaginary escape and reverse evolution in order to save ourselves from the dangers, stress, loss of freedom and uncertainty of the based in technology and consumerism civilization



"20th Century Man" album: Muswell Hillbillies, 1971

This is the age of machinery,
A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm hydrogen bombs biological warfare,

This is the twentieth century,
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity,
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem.

Ain't got no ambition, I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.
My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security,
I'm a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century.

You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough,

Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to die here.

I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.

Don't wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman,
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna die here.

My mama says she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Ain't got no security,
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.

This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.

The same theme as Apeman but now described in a dramatic and reppessing way. The heavy urbanizing and polluted environment, the threat of the uncontrolled development of technology, the everyday stress make young people anxious and with the need for escape.


"Mountain Woman" album: Muswell Hillbillies, 1971

They lived together in a dirty old shack
At the edge of the black rocky mountain
And they drank mountain dew and they lived on the food
That they grew at the side of the mountain

She's a mountain woman, he's her mountain man
They live their lives down the valley
She's a mountain woman, he's her mountain man
Uneducated but they're happy

Mountain woman couldn't read nor write
But she knew good from evil, she know wrong from right
When the government tried to buy her water rights
Her intuition was her only guide

She's a mountain woman, he's her mountain man
They live their lives by the valley
She's a mountain woman, he's her mountain man
Uneducated but they're happy

Spend my life with my mountain woman
We're uneducated by we're happy

The civil servant used compulsory purchase
To acquire the valley for the nation
They'll dig up the land, they're gonna make a dam
And build a hydroelectric power station

And now she lives on the 33rd floor
Of a man-made concrete mountain
She got an elevator and refrigerator
And an automobile to run around in

Fast talkin' lawyers from the government
Went and beat proud mountain woman down
Hey mountain woman, take your mountain man
They took your land and flood your valley

Spend my life with my mountain woman
They're uneducated by they're happy

A song about a "Mountain woman", probably an Indian woman, or a resident from an imaginary untouched by civilization mountainous village. No need to read or write, but she knows exactly what she wants full with deeper natural senses and happiness. But the state took and destroyed her natural land for developing purposes (Dam,electric power, etc ) and now she lived in concrete urban "mountains" as an anonymous consumer of facilities of "civilization"


You can hear these songs in youtube

Apeman

20th century man

Mountain woman

The Kinks, 60s Decade

Dedicated Follower Of Fashion by The Kinks, album: Kinkdom 1965

They seek him here, they seek him there,
His clothes are loud, but never square.
It will make or break him so he's got to buy the best,
'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.

And when he does his little rounds,
'Round the boutiques of London Town,
Eagerly pursuing all the latest fads and trends,
'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.

Oh yes he is (oh yes he is), oh yes he is (oh yes he is).
He thinks he is a flower to be looked at
And when he pulls his frilly nylon panties right up tight
He feelsa dedicated follower of fashion.

Oh yes he is (oh yes he is), oh yes he is (oh yes he is).
There's one thing that he loves and that is flattery.
One week he's in polka-dots, the next week he is in stripes.
'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.

They seek him here, they seek him there,
In Regent Street and Leicester Square.
Everywhere the Carnabetian army marches on,
Each one an dedicated follower of fashion.

Oh yes he is (oh yes he is), oh yes he is (oh yes he is).
His world is built 'round discoteques and parties.
This pleasure-seeking individual always looks his best
'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.

Oh yes he is (oh yes he is), oh yes he is (oh yes he is).
He flits from shop to shop just like a butterfly.
In matters of the cloth he is as fickle as can be,
'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.
He's a dedicated follower of fashion.
He's a dedicated follower of fashion.

A song that critisizes consumerism and the conformism of following the fashion which becomes an end in itself, the only meaning of life.

You can hear this song in you tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQAR-nx4w88




"Village Green" Album: The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968

Out in the country,
Far from all the soot and noise of the city,
There's a village green.
It's been a long time
Since I last set eyes on the church with the steeple
Down by the village green.
'Twas there I met a girl called Daisy
And kissed her by the old oak tree.
Although I loved my Daisy, I sought fame,
And so I left the village green.

I miss the village green,
And all the simple people.
I miss the village green,
The church, the clock, the steeple.
I miss the morning dew, fresh air and Sunday school.

And now all the houses
Are rare antiquities.
American tourists flock to see the village green.
They snap their photographs and say "Gawl darn it,
Isn't it a pretty scene?"
And Daisy's married Tom the grocer boy,
And now he owns a grocery.

I miss the village green,
And all the simple people.
I miss the village green,
The church, the clock, the steeple.
I miss the morning dew, fresh air and Sunday school.

And I will return there,
And I'll see Daisy,
And we'll sip tea, laugh,
And talk about the village green.
We will laugh and talk about the village green.

A song from a concept album lamenting the loss of old traditions, and generally the loss of an old happy and natural way of life.

You can hear this song in youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34BydtUrt6c

Crime Of The Century, by Supertramp, album: Crime of the century, 1974

back in time for forgotten songs

Now they're planning the crime of the century
Well what will it be?
Read all about their schemes and adventuring
It's well worth a fee
So roll up and see
And they rape the universe
How they've gone from bad to worse
Who are these men of lust, greed, and glory?
Rip off the masks and let's see.
But that's no right - oh no, what's the story?
There's you and there's me
That can't be right

A song that probably refers to envrironmental destruction as the crime of the (20th) century. At first the singer seems to point at politicians and any kind of people with economic power to shape our lives: But the impersonal charges is the easy way to blame and the excuse for not taking personal responsibilities. So, if we take off the masks, we also see ourselves to be accomplices to the crime.

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

In memory of Nikolas Asimos: 20 years after his suicide

20 years were completed today, the Greek music composer and singer Nikolas Asimos committed suicide.

Nikolas Asimos was an unconventional music composer and singer, a very special case of a counter-culture artist, mostly because of his choice of lifestyle. His behaviour and songs were often received as provocatory by the general public and moved in the margin of music industry in Greece. He was anticomformist and allowed only a few of his songs to be released under famous music labels. The majority of his work was recorded on tapes in his home (tapes No 000001-000008), the so called “Illegals” by him. He was anarchist in his political orientation and the majority of his songs deal with such topics: social revolution, against authorities, against religion, education system, against consumerism, work, etc.

His music cannot be classified as a genre. He wrote and played, mainly by himself as performer, greek popular music, ballad, rock, blues, rebetica. His lyrics were sarcastic, provocative, offensive, outrageous and sometimes romantic and melancholic expressing his turbulent personal world and his rage against the society. It worths mentioning that his few releases under famous labels were extensively edited even censored by the music companies in order to make the stuff less provocative to the public.

His life was turbulent too, censorships, imprisonment, sanitarium, etc that led him to commit suicide in 17 of March 1988. After his death many of his songs reproduced, remixed or performed by other musicians and released by famous labels.



We present “Μπαταρία” (Battery), one of his most famous songs that has been performed by many Greek musicians and rock bands. It deals with mind manipulation, consumerism and the plastic ideals of modern life. Those who prefer to sacrifice, in favor of fake comforts, their freedom, quality of life, public health and generally choose not to take life on their hands, are condemned to be reduced to robot-like slaves, easily manipulated by their leaders, masters, etc. This song makes hints to the polluting urban and industrial environment: “pneumoconiosis”, the disease caused by chronic dust inspiration in heavy polluted cities, like those in Greece, and industries.

The song has been included in form of ballad in two compilations, the “illegal tapes" No 000003 (Γιατί φοράς κλουβί-Why you wear cage) and 000008 (Το φανάρι του Διογένη-Diogene's Lantern) “released” by him in 1979 and 1987 respectively. Later, after his death, it was remixed and reproduced in a more rock form and released in the compilation ”To falimendo tou cosmou” (World’s bankruptcy) .

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolas_Asimos
http://leonardo.spidernet.net/Recreatus/424/asimos3.html

Lyrics in Greek:

Μπαταρία - Νικόλας Άσιμος

Εκπορνεύεσαι κουρέλι
στην μπορντελοκοινωνία,
ξεπουλάς και την ψυχή σου,
για την υπεραφθονία.
Στην καρδιά σου βάλαν φρένα,
το μυαλό σου παίρνει βύσμα,
για χιλιάδες σαν κι εσένα
θα αρκέσει μια μπρίζα.

Κι η Πνευμονοκονίαση, κι η πνευμονοκονίαση
κι αυτή θα έχει πάψει.
Ρομπότανθρωπομήχανση και ξύπνοπνευματύπνωση
και χρυσωμένο χάπι.

Θα είσαι με μπαταρία,
να εκτελείς εργασία
με σούπερ ενημέρωση, τροφή και διασκέδαση,
θα πλέxεις ευφορία.

Για κοιτάξτε με σακάτη,
ένα έχω μόνο μάτι.
Μου ρουφήξατε το αίμα,
μα αλογόκριτο έχω βλέμα.
Αποφασισμένος πάντα
στην προσωπική μου μπάντα,
την ψυχή μου δεν πουλάω
και το δρόμο μου τραβάω.

Την πνευμονοκονίαση, την πνευμονοκονίαση
εγώ τη συζητάω
ρομπότανθρωπομήχανση και ξύπνοπνευματύπνωση
δε θέλω να τη φάω.

Ξερνάω την μπαταρία,
δεν εκτελώ εργασία.
Δεν θέλω ενημέρωση, κορσέ και διασκέδαση,
γουστάρω ελευθερία.

Translated by us lyrics:


The Βattery – Nikolas Asimos

Prostitute rag yourself
in this fucking society
Sell our soul
for an affluence variety
Your heart is bounded with chains
They put a plug in your brain
For some thousands like you
it’s enough only one fuse

By pneumoconiosis, by pneumoconiosis
you won’t suffer anymore
robot-human-machinery an awake-mind-hypnosis
and a sweatened pill

You’ll be connected to a battery
for working all the day
with super information, food, amusement, recreation
you’ll produce euphoria state

Look at me a cripple guy
I have only one eye
You sucked my blood with pipe
but I still have a striking sight
Always making my mind
to my personal lonely side
I don’t sell my soul
I walk my own road

Pneumoconiosis, pneumoconiosis
get used to and have a chat with
robot-human-machinery an awake-mind-hypnosis
Don’t want to be laden with

I spit out the battery
I refuse to work all day
Don’t want no information, corset, recreation
In freedom I want to lay.


you can hear this song (rock version) in you tube:
Battery
And a live performance of another famous song, a sarcasm to music industry:
Ο Μηχανισμός (The Machinery)

Sodom

Album: Persecutionmania, 1987

Nuclear Winter

Run up the spiral staircase to annihilation
Deserted neglected into the dark
Devitalised souls cripple the planet in greed
Proceed until we are absorbed in blood
Causing the premature burial of nature
With the spark to a powder keg
Pining up their toys on the shoulders of the nation
Turning death into universal heir

Make us die slowly
Nuclear winter
Clouds of dust will hide the sun forever
Nuclear winter
Blows straight into your heart
Nuclear winter
Day of tomorrow we'll go through
Make your testament
Nuclear winter

Luminaries become dull structures
Atmospheric cataclysm is the result
Epileptic doom of lacerated cannibals
Wrapped up the earth in a shroud
Eternal darkness artificial brightness
Exclusive possession of death
Defaced skulls of radiation
Mutilated past recognition

Make us die slowly
Nuclear winter
Clouds of dust will hide the sun forever
Nuclear winter
Blows straight into your heart
Nuclear winter
Day of tomorrow we'll go through
Make you testament
Nuclear winter

Slow death is what we can expect
Strike will have just this one effect
Condemned to capital punishment
By the nuclear sword of Damocles
Disappeared without leaving a trace
Mans dignity and grace
Infected by intruder organism
Changed into weak willed subjects
Ineradicable misanthropy
We stick to nothing
Instinct of self preservation
Spreading venereal disease
Gods of war and vengeance
Commander with good conscience
Use our soul for research
In favour of nuclear technology

Arrived at the end of the spiral staircase
At the doorstep to immortality
Not reached the destination of our dreams
Decided in the struggle for existence
Life has lost, death has won the game
The length of our longing
Shall be the strength of our glory
Damocles proud and mighty among men

Make us die slowly
Nuclear winter
Clouds of dust will hide the sun forever
Nuclear winter
Blows straight into your heart
Nuclear winter
Day of tomorrow we'll go through
Make you testament
Nuclear winter

A song written in cold war era, filled with agony about the nuclear winter that follows a nuclear holocaust. Lucky are those who will die immediately….



Album: Agent orange 1989

Agent Orange

Operation >>Ranch Hand<<
Spray down the death
Down on their farms
Assault against the population
Suppress by military arms
Only you prevent the forest
Legalize the war
They are deprived of their power
Eradication without law

Agent Orange
Agent Orange
Agent Orange
A fire that doesn't burn

All the marks erased long ago
Scars are healed up
Cancer creeps into their innocent souls
Memorials of flesh and blood
Have survived unlawfully punished
Poisoned till the end of their lives
Physical deformity
What medicine will help?
Still births will rise

Agent Orange
Agent Orange
Agent Orange
A fire that doesn't burn

Grieved weak hearts are crying
Waiting for the end
In this condition they are dying
Newborns of the damned
Preserved in test tubes for generations
Vicious circle of transmission
There's no way for reparations
Must live with chemical agent called

Agent Orange
Agent Orange
Agent Orange
A fire that doesn't burn

A song about the destructive agent orange, a product by Monsanto for forest destruction in order to locate refuges of VietKong. The disastrous impacts to health and environment are visible even today. The same corporation is now responsible for the similar pesticides “round up” and the distribution of GMO corps that are round-up hardy, no matter the unknown impacts to our health and environment.

You can hear these songs in youtube:

Nuclear winter
Agent Orange

Countdown To Extinction by Megadeth, Album: Countdown To Extinction, 1992)

erronously we made a leap forward in time, but doen;t matter




Endangered species, caged in fright
Shot in cold blood, no chance to fight
The stage in set, now pay the price
An ego boost don't think twice

Technology, the battle's unfair
You pull the hammer without a care
Squeeze the trigger that makes you Man
Pseudo-start, the hunt is canned ...
The hunt is canned

All are gone, all but one
No contest, nowhere to run
No more left, only one
This is it, this is the Countdown to Extinction

Tell the truth, you wouldn't dare
The skin and thophy, oh so rare
Silence speaks louder than words
Ignore the guilt, and take your turn

Liars anagram is liars
Man you were never even there
Killed a few feet from the cages
Point blank, you're so courageous ...
So courageous

One hour from now
Another species of life form
Will disappear off the face of the planet
Forever ... and the rate is accelerating

a song that accuses the psychology and superiority feelings of human hunters who kill from safe place and with high tech weapons unprotected animals for fun or hobby, no matter the impact to environment and the accelerating extinction of endagered species.

you can hear this song in youtube with a related slide presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulpq8rDS28s

Album: Bedtime for Democracy, by Dead Kennedys, 1986

Cesspools In Eden

Poison is bubbling
Beneath your dreamhome
Buried there years before

Kid runs in crying
From playing in the garden
Mommy, I burned my hands!

What's making our eyes so itchy?
Don't rub 'em-they'll swell up.

Oh Oh Oh Oh
It's the big waste dump
Oh, yeah

We built your ticky-tacky houses
On landfill soil
To cover up a gift
We left you years before

Of toxic chemicals
And leaking gas
Just dig a little while,
You'll find our acid baths

Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away:

Groundwater's poisoned
Air stings like hell
The lines for doctors grow long

Over martinis
The company laughs
We don't owe you one damn thing.

But what about all these fainting spells?
How'd you like a lick
From my open sores

And Oh:.Oh Oh Oh -
Why are our babies stillborn?

A storage tank's leaking
It's about to explode
Why evacuate
When you can watch the fun

Nothing happens here
Get out the lawn chairs
We'll drink pink lemonade
And watch Martinez burn

Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day

The land we sold you
Is right atop our acid pits
We fill them by the truckload
In the dead of night

There's thousands more toxic
Tips of the iceberg
We pay a little bribe
Or we just don't report them

And see what you get-
Cesspools
In Eden
In Eden
No accident-
Just a little of our greed-fueled negligence

So you've found the proof why
Your cancer rate's shot up
But whatcha gonna do
When we've got all the cards

Times Beach, Rocky Flats,
Love Canal & Bhopal
Merry Christmas, hostages
From the folks who care

Cesspools in Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
Cesspools in Eden
Have a nice day


A song about Love Canal case in USA: A place that was used as toxic disposal and later was sold as residential area. Many serious health hazards occurred among unsuspected residents. Jello Biafra makes a connection concerning economical purposes with the never justified victims of toxic tragedy in Bhopal and also with other mass toxic hazards in USA: Times Bleach and the atomic weapon factory Rocky Flats. You can read in wikipedia about all these environmental disasters below

Bhopal
Love Canal
Times Beach
Rocky Flats


Hop With The Jet Set

I say, come on!
To pleasures unknown
Where we fly to when we are all bored
C'mon for the ride
And hop with the jet set tonight

We'll sun ourselves red down in Montego Bay
Hotel-hired guards keep the natives away

We wanna save the whales
We'll go watch them feed,
Buzz around them in boats
'Til they won't breed
Just here for the ride
Then we hop with the jet set tonight

Check out them Indians' ancestral art
Some of that would look cute up on our walls
Yeah, suit it just fine
When you hop with the jet set tonight

We'll hire out some poachers to go steel their dolls
Who cares if they're sacred-they look awful cute

National Geographic found a stone age tribe
Let's feed them their first hot dogs on film
Won't that be a prize
To show the jet set tonight

Aren't they cute, aren't they pure:
Muse subscribers back home
Next weekend the junta exterminates them

Back home by the sea at our outdoor cafe
Our chameleon tongues catch the flies in the air

An interesting song about the prodigal vices of Jet-set people who use natural and cultural environment of the planet as disposable consuming items to waste their time and “heal” their boredom. Today this song continues to be topical because of the destruction of natural and protected environments for luxurious tourist and wasteful use of water golf accommodations (Greek nature and local society will suffer a lot by such future plans of “development”), or sex tourism who keeps alive sexual abuse of young women and children in SE Asia.

You can hear these songs in youtube

Cesspools In Eden

Hop With The Jet Set

Toxic Shock by Agnostic Front, Album: Cause for alarm, 1986)

Toxins - buried underground
Seep into the water

Dioxin - she drank for nine straight months
Deformed her unborn daughter

Factories - spewing poison fumes
The cause of acid rain
Destroy crops and animals
Lives flushed down the drain

Radon - creeps up from the earth
Public dies of cancer

Danger - of chemical nightmare
When will we find the answer
Barrels leak the vile substance
There's no containing them

Contamination - of the food we eat
Absorb plutonium

Seconds ticking fast away
On Earth's bio clock
Politicians allow the dumping
Must be forced to stop
I hope they live on an abandoned waste site
And die of toxic shock

A strong accusation about the whole toxics and poisons polluted the planet and the disregard of authorities to take measures or to promote an alternative more healthy model of development

you can hear some songs in myspace

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=333018963

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=286416102

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=283455665