"Save the Earth", included in "Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster" movie (1971)

Animals, God's animals
Don't go away, don't go
Flowers, my flowers
Don't go away, don't go
The sea has cobalt, it's full of mercury
Too many fumes in our oxygen
All the smog now is choking you and me
Good Lord, where is it gonna end?

Got to get it back, someday
Got to get it back, and soon now
For tomorrow maybe you and me
We're movin', we're movin', movin' to the Moon now
It's up to us to make a choice
We know what it's worth to save the Earth
Come raise your voice

Save the Earth! (save the Earth)
Save the Earth! (save the Earth)
See the evil problem around us

Save the Earth! (save the Earth)
Save the Earth! (save the Earth)
And the Solution: stop pollution

A pop song included in a Godzilla environmental movie, where the gigantic creature, that has been created from radiation by nuclear explosions, decides to become defender of the earth and environment against another monstrous creature that has been created by pollution and spread death and havoc to planet Earth.

The lyrics above were found in the American version of the movie. The original slightly different lyrics in Japanese song version titled “Give back the Sun” performed by Keiko Mari were found translated in this site:
http://www.godzillamonstermusic.com/G5355.htm

Read also about the silly copyright adventures of this song below:
http://www.godzillamonstermusic.com/G-011.htm

You can hear this song in youtube

"Dragonfly" by Ziggy Marley, album: Dragonfly (2003)

Everybody's worried about time
but I just keep that shit off my mind
people living on twenty four hour clocks
but we're on a ride that never stops

Hey mister bee the world change but you remain the same
and I wonder how you'll survive with the environment going down the drain
Hey miss dragonfly I see you look at me with your beautiful eyes
you must be wondering what type of creature am I

A dog looked at me and said ziggy why can't we trust man
puss and me get together why can't you all just understand
an old tree stood there silently listening to every word we said
as a tear fell he cried what type of creature is man

I said hey mister tree the world change but you remain the same
and I wonder how you survive with the environment going down the drain
hey miss butterfly I see you look at me with your beautiful eyes
you must be wondering what kind of creature am I

Everybody's worried about time
but I just keep that shit off my mind
people living on twenty four hour clocks
but we're on a ride yes we're on a ride we're on a ride that never stops

Hey mister bee the world change but you remain the same
and I hope you'll survive with the environment going down the drain
Hey miss butterfly i see you look at me with your beautiful eyes
you must be wondering what type of creature am I
you must be wondering what type of creature is man

Bob Marley's son, follows his father legend in political songs, but slighlty different in music. An ironic song about nature that can't be adjusted to a continually changing and polluted environment by humans who were perceived by other forms of life as a strange being.

You can hear this song in youtube

10000 maniacs (1987), (1989)

A Campfire Song by 10,000 Maniacs, album: In my tribe (1987)

A lie to say,
"Oh my mountain has coal veins and beds to dig.
500 men with axes and they all dig for me."

A lie to say, "Oh my river where many fish do swim,
half of the catch is mine when you haul your nets in."

Never will he believe that his greed is a blinding ray.
No devil or redeemer will cheat him.
He'll take his gold to where he's lying cold.

A lie to say, "O my mine gave a diamond as big as a fist."
But with every gem in his pocket, the jewels he has missed.

A lie to say, "O my garden is growing taller by the day."
He only eats the best and tosses the rest away.

Never will he be believe that his greed is a blinding ray.
No devil or redeemer can cheat him.
He'll take his gold to where he's lying cold. Six deep in the grave.

Something is out of reach
something he wanted
something is out of reach
he's being taunted
something is out of reach
that he can' beg or steal nor can he buy

his oldest pain
and fear in life
there'll not be time

A lie to say "O my forest has trees that block the sun
and when I cut them down I don't answer to anyone."

No, no, never will he believe that his greed is a blinding ray
no devil or redeemer can cheat him.
He'll take his gold where he's lying cold.


A song that depicts the predecence of greed at the expense of environmental protection, sustainability and saving of natural sources



“Poison in the well” by 10000 maniacs, album: Blind man’s zoo (1989)

Tell me what’s gone wrong.
I tilt my head there, under the faucet, but when I turn it on -- dry as paper.
Call the neighbors.
Who’s to blame for what’s going on?
In the dark without a clue I’m just the same as you.

O, they tell us there’s poison in the well,
That someone’s been a bit untidy and there’s been a small spill.
Not a lot, no, just a drop.
But there you are mistaken, you know you are.
I wonder just how long they knew our well was poisoned but they let us just drink on.

O, they tell us there’s poison in the well,
That someone’s been a bit untidy and there’s been a small spill.
All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea.
Someone’s been a bit untidy, they’ll have it cleaned up in a week.
But the week is over and now its grown into years since I was told that I should be calm, there’s nothing to fear here.
But I drank that water for years, my wife and my children.

Tell me, where to now, if your fight for a bearable life can be fought and lost in you backyard?

O, don’t tell us there’s poison in the well,
That someone’s been a bit untidy, that there’s been a small spill.
All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea.
Someone’s been a bit untidy, they’ll have it cleaned up in a week.

A song about the common cases of poisoning water supply of whole towns by corporations or industries and the efforts to be kept in secret, exposing to health hazards thousands of residents.

You can hear A Campfire song in youtube

“After the Gold Rush” by Neil Young, Album: After the gold rush (1970)

Well, I dreamed I saw the knights
In armor coming,
Saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and
Drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree.
There was a fanfare blowing
To the sun
That was floating on the breeze.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst thru the sky.
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high.
I was thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
Thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.

Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying
All around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home.

A song that has three verses/parts telling something different in a different history time (past-present-future) and has puzzled many funs about theit meaning, especially in the first verse

but we think that all three visions have something common. The first verse is a medieval vision of knights and queens, and an archer splits a tree. Then we come to present in 70s (or in every next decade Young has sung this song and changed the year). We think that he wants to say that man has been hostile to Mother Nature, during the ages, but only nowadays has thwe technological power to eliminate Her.

Nearly all agree that the second verse is about a battlefield and the last about escaping from the destroyed earth by pollution and war to other planets.

You can read some efforts of song interpretation here

You can hear this song in youtube

"Save the Planet" by Jim Colyer (2005)

We're floating on a grain of sand in the vastness of space
If future generations are going to inherit this place
We've got to Save The Planet
Do something while there's still time
Save The Planet
This earth is yours and mine

The tropical rainforest is disappearing more everyday
We'll never replace it, we'd better not burn it away
Save The Planet
The wonders of nature are free
Save The Planet
Have you ever planted a tree?

If the skies are blue
And the oceans too
Isn't this a better home for me and you?
If the air is clean
And the land is green
Wouldn't you like to be part of this lovely scene?

solo

I'm thinking of the animals that once roamed the African plain
Their numbers have dwindled, pretty soon none will remain
Save The Planet
Do something while there's still time
Save The Planet
This earth is yours and mine
Save The Planet
The wonders of nature are free
Save The Planet
Have you ever planted a tree?

Save The Planet
Save The Planet
Save The Planet
Save The Planet

A song by an independent artist about the environmental destruction, the loss of rainforests, the extinction of animal species, the concern about future generations' natural inheritance.

You can hear directly this song in artist's site

Yoy can visit Jim Colyer's site for more information about him and listening to more songs performed by him

"Goodbye to a river" by Don Henley, album: Inside job (2000)

“The rains have come early”, they say “We're all gonna wash away”
Well, that's all right with me
If heaven's torrent can wash clean the arrogance that lies unseen
In the damage done since we have gone where we ought not to be
Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river; so long

Lakes and levees, dams and locks, they put that river in a box
It was running wild and men must have control
We live our lives in starts and fits; we lose our wonder bit by bit
We condescend and in the end we lose our very souls
Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river, so long

The dirty water washes down poisoning the common ground
Taking sins of farm and town and bearing them away
The captains of industry and their tools on the hill
They're killing everything divine
What will I tell this child of mine?

I make a church out of words as the years dull my senses
And I try to hold on to the world that I knew
I struggle to cross generational fences
And the beauty that still remains; I can touch it through you

Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river, so long
Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river, so long
Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river, roll on

A song/lament about how people treat natural landscapes, in this case a river, by changing its way, polluting its water, bulding dams etc. Probably the artist (ex-Eagles member and environmentalist) expresses personal feelings about the destruction of a river in his homeland. We read in wikipedia about his environmental activities:

In 1990, Henley founded the Walden Woods Project to help protect Walden Woods from development. The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods was started in 1998 to provide for research and education regarding Henry David Thoreau.

Henley co-founded the non-profit Caddo Lake Institute in 1993 to underwrite ecological education and research. As part of the Caddo Lake Coalition, CLI helps protect the Texas wetland where Henley spent much of his childhood.

You can hear this song in youtube

"Pass it down" by Alabama, album: pass it down (1990)

We live in the land of plenty
But many things aren't plenty anymore
Like the water from our sink
They say's not safe to drink
You gotta go and buy it at the store
Now we're told there's a hole in the ozone
Look what's washing on the beach
And Lord, I believe, from the heavens to the seas
We're bringing Mother Nature to her knees

So let's leave some blue up above us
Let's leave some green on the ground
It's only ours to borrow, let's save some for tomorrow
Leave it and pass it on down

Well there's a change taking place way on the mountains
Acid rain is falling on the leaves
And down in Brazil, the fires are burning still
How we gonna breathe without them trees

So let's leave some blue up above us
Let's leave some green on the ground
It's only ours to borrow, let's save some for tomorrow
Leave it and pass it on down

There's a place where I live called the Canyon
Where Daddy taught me to swim
And that water, it's so pure
And I'm gonna make sure
Daddy's grandkids can swim there like him

Now we all oughta feel just a little bit guilty
When we look into the eyes of our kids
'Cause brothers it's a fact, if we take and don't put back
They'll have to pay for all we did

So let's leave some blue up above us
Let's leave some green on the ground
It's only ours to borrow, let's save some for tomorrow
Leave it and pass it on down

A beautiful song that calls us to promote a more environmental freiandly way of life and to create a healthier and crear nature as it was in past times.

You can hear this song in youtube

"Piggies" The Beatles Album: White Album (1968)

Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt?
And for all the little piggies
Life is getting worse,
Always having dirt
To play around in.

Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts?
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt,
Always have clean shirts
To play around in.

In their sties, with all their backing,
They don't care what goes on around.
In their eyes, there's something lacking;
What they need's a damn good whacking!

Everywhere there's lots of piggies,
Living piggy lives.
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives,
Clutching forks and knives
To eat their bacon.

A metaphor about human greed, consumerism and littering, no matter the social class they belong. Of course higher classes control these lower motives, but noone is innocent about the planet bad condition.

We read in wikipedia about this song:

It was written by George Harrison as social commentary on class and corporate greed.

There was an additional verse written for the song in 1968 but omitted during the actual recording. It involved the "piggies" playing "piggy pranks" in order to achieve its rhyming couplet of "piggy banks." Harrison reinstated this verse in all live performances of the song in the 1990s. A version can be heard on his double album Live in Japan.

Yeah, everywhere there's lots of piggies
Playing piggy pranks
And you can see them on their trotters
Down at the piggy banks
Paying piggy thanks
To thee pig brother

The original lyrics read "to cut their pork chops" (as heard on the Anthology 3 album). Lennon created the tape loop for the pig noises that were sampled for this song.

Though Harrison intended the song as social commentary, it was often misinterpreted as an anti-police anthem, due to the commonly used term "pig" which is used as slang for policeman.

Charles Manson interpreted many of the songs from The White Album to justify his murders, and took the phrase "what they need's a damn good whacking" to mean that he should attack the police.During the murders of Sharon Tate, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, Gary Hinman and others, knives and forks were used to stab them because these utensils were mentioned in the song.The words 'political piggy', 'pig' and 'death to pigs' were written with the victims' blood on the walls.

You can hear this song in youtube

"Sun Rising" by Laurence Wright (2004)

Since time began man has fought through fear and for greed
And when at war he’s also killed mother natures seed
As the bombs explode the earth is scarred by this awful fight
And all can see the victors will be the victims of this terrible blight

Sun Rising, shining down on earth
Sun Rising, what is life worth?
Sun Rising, helping us to grow
Perhaps until we die we just won’t know.

And when at peace man has ravaged the forests and the seas
He’s taken all the fishes and he’s timbered all the trees
He’s filled the air with the stench of smog in his rush to succeed
And then he’s dumped his waste and left the earth - he’s left the earth to bleed

And man is remorseless as he marches to his fate
He must soon see the harm he’s done before it is to late
How can there be any doubt that some good must be done
If we are to prevent the setting of our rising sun

Sun Rising, (shining down on earth)
Sun Rising (what is life worth?)
Sun setting is it now to late?
Perhaps .(spoken)

A beautiful song from a British independent artist about war and environmental destruction. He writes about this song:

An environmental song reflecting on how mankind continues to abuse mother earth

You can hear this song among others in Laurence Wright's site

Visit his personal site for more information

Album: "Help Yourself" by Julian Lennon (1991)

We are a rock revolving
Around a golden sun
We are a billion children
Rolled into one
So when I hear about
The hole in the sky
Salt-water wells in my eyes

We climb the highest mountain
We'll make the desert bloom
We're so ingenious
We can walk on the moon
But when I hear of how
The forests have died
Salt-water wells in my eyes

I have lived for love
But now that's not enough
For the world I love is dying
(And now I'm crying)
And time is not a friend
(No friend of mine)
As friends we're out of time
[ Find more Lyrics at www.mp3lyrics.org/1ojd ]
And it's slowly passing by..yyy...yyy...yyy
Right before our eyes

We light the deepest ocean
Send photographs of Mars
We're so enchanted by
How clever we are
Why should one baby
Feel so hungry she cries
Salt-water wells in my eyes

I have lived for love
But now that's not enough
For the world I love is dying
(And now I'm crying)
And time is not a friend
(No friend of mine)
As friends we're out of time
And it's slowly passing by..yyy...yyy...yyy
Right before our eyes

We are a rock revolving
Around a golden sun
We are a billion children
Rolled into one
What will I think of me
The day that I die
Saltwater wells in my eyes
Saltwater wells in my eyes

Surely John Lennon's son has taken many ispirations from his father legend. A beautiful song/lament about the realization of environmental destruction and social injustice despite the so called technological progress.


Keep the people working

When they sell the final weapon, we can all watch it blow
Keep the people working, working
Keep the people working, working
Keep the people working, working
Gotta keep the people working

In the bed of iron they cast the final weapon
Just to keep the people working, got to keep the people working

From the mines of Anatolia to the isle of Mandalay
Along the coast of sullen Africa, they're queuing up to pay
No cause, I don't discriminate, I sell to those who buy
There never was an innocent who didn't want to die
And with demand upon the increase what could keep the cost down
If I keep the people fighting, I can really go to town
No surprise, the cash you borrow, we can close the deal tomorrow
Just Swiss francs or dollars won't cause me any borrow, boy

In a bed of iron they cast the final weapon
Just to keep the people working, got to keep the people working
In a bed of iron they cast the final weapon
Just to keep the people working, got to keep the people working

Everybody itching for someone to serve the task
I'll arm the politician for the coup, the crew, the cast,
I have a score of different faces, I can look like a lord
Seen in high places, flying on the Concorde

Well you can marvel at precision, you can dial a telephone
Call up color vision from the safety of your home
You can mount the great offensive from a button by the chair
If you arm the right system, you can ionize the air

In a bed of iron, they cast the final weapon
Just to keep the people working, got to keep the people working
In a bed or iron they cast the final weapon
Just to keep the people working, got to keep the people working
Like the wind across the frontier or the breaking light of day
I push across the mountains, all around the Bay of Biscay

Freeze in North America, boil in Pakistan
All along the amazon, from the fire to the frying pan

Whether air, sea or battle ground, desert sand or snow
When they sell the final weapon we can all watch it blow

Another song from this album that deals with the destructive weapons people construct and sell all over the world to produce havoc in humans and environment. Usually we don't blame people who work in such indyustries, work is considered as something sacred, so the system can be cool by keeping people working in eny post it likes without asking questions.


You can hear "Saltwater" in youtube

"Coal Tattoo" by The Kingston Trio, Album: Time To Think (1963)

Travelin' down that coal-town road,
Listenin' to my rubber tires whine.
Goodbye to Buckeye and white Sycamore;
I'm leavin' you behind.

I've been coal miner all of my life—
Layin' down track in the hole.
Gotta back like an ironwood, bit by the wind;
Blood veins blue as the coal.

Somebody said, "That's a strange tattoo
You have on the side of your head."
I said, "That's the blueprint left by the coal.
A little more and I'd been dead."

Well, I love the rumble and I love the dark.
I love the cool of the slade,
And it's on down the new road, lookin' for a job.
This travelin' nook in my head.

I stood for the union and walked in the line
And fought against the company.
I stood for the U. M. W. of A.
Now, who's gonna stand for me?

I've got no house and I got no job,
Just got a worried soul;
And a blue tattoo on the side of my head
Left by the number nine coal.

Some day when I'm dead and gone to heaven,
The land of my dreams;
I won't have to worry on losin' my job,
On bad times and big machines.

I ain't gonna pay
My money away
On dues or hospital plans.
I'm gonna pick coal
Where the blue heavens roll
And sing with the angel band . . .

A song about the impacts of working as a coal miner. Coal tattoo is a metaphor for occupational diseases, common in coal miners, some of them are chronic or lead to premature death.

You can hear a cover of this song by Kathy Mattea in youtube

You can hear some songs by The Kingston Trio in myspace

“The Sun Is Burning” by Ian Campbell (1963)

The sun is burning in the sky
Strands of clouds go slowly drifting by
In the park the lazy breeze
Are joining in the flowers, among the trees
And the sun burns in the sky

Now the sun is in the West
Little kids go home to take their rest
And the couples in the park
Are holdin' hands and waitin' for the dark
And the sun is in the West

Now the sun is sinking low
Children playin' know it's time to go
High above a spot appears
A little blossom blooms and then draws near
And the sun is sinking low

Now the sun has come to Earth
Shrouded in a mushroom cloud of death
Death comes in a blinding flash
Of hellish heat and leaves a smear of ash
And the sun has come to Earth

Now the sun has disappeared
All is darkness, anger, pain and fear
Twisted, sightless wrecks of men
Go groping on their knees and cry in pain
And the sun has disappeared

A metaphoric song about a nuclear disaster: a nuclear explosion produces heat like the sun and is like the beneficial in its distance sun has touched the Earth. Then it disappears leaving darkess, havoc, complete disaster. This song has also been covered by Simon & Garfunkel in their debute in 1964.

You can hear this cover in youtube

"When the North Pole Melts" by Captain Sea Level (1988)

Want to tell you 'bout the greenhouse effect and a little ozone hole
That started out over Antarctica, but has now spread to the North Pole.
You will soon see every warm-weather man
At the Jersey Shore in March.
'Long as you use a sunscreen while you tan,
Your skin will never parch.
But What Will Santa Do

Chorus:
When the North Pole Starts to Melt?
What is gonna happen to his little elves?
Will they be too busy swimming to make the toys?
And what will Santa do?
If the North Pole melts too fast
Is this Christmas gonna be his last?
What will parents have to tell their girls and bays?

I used to snowski at Christmas time
But now I ski on a lake.
Scandinavia's now growing lemons and limes
And Quebec has rattlesnakes.
The Sahara desert now has grown
To the entire Continent.
But you do not have to lose your home:
Just trust the government!
But What Will Santa Do...

Chorus

The Australian Labor Party wants to see the economy grow;
So their platform says that we will tow Santa from the Equator to the South Pole.
If the Russians will get him through the Bering Strait,
The currents can do rest.
But the Conservatives would rather that we make him wait,
And put him to the market test.
But What Will Santa Do?

Chorus

You may not believe my story because the ending's not very nice,
You may not believe in Santa Claus.
You may not believe in Christ,
But if you don't believe this warning
'Bout the climate and the ozone hole:
Look under your tree one Christmas morning
All you'll see are lumps of coal.
And that's what Santa will do

A clever humoristic song that tries to raise awareness of the oncoming global warming effects. We read about this song and Captain sea level:

Facing abrupt climate change in the Arctic, a major consumer-goods manufacturer considers three options to adapt to global warming: reduce output, relocate factory to the south, or fundamental product change.

Captain Sea Level sang songs about sea level rise at various forums in coastal states during the 1980s. The Captain and his friends at the Environmental Protection Agency Chorus originally performed this environmental song at the Climate Institute's First International Conference in Washington, D.C. just before Christmas 1988. Shortly thereafter, the Captain took up swing dancing, bought a windsurfer, and was never heard again. For that, we can all be thankful. The other singers continue to perform in the Washington area.

You can hear this song here

”There's Only So Much Oil On The Ground” by Tower Of Power, Album: Urban renewal (1975)

There's only so much oil on the ground
Sooner or later there won't be much around
Tell that to your kids while you driving downtown
That there's only so much oil on the ground

Can't cut loose without that juice
Can't cut loose without that juice
If we keep on like we doing things for sure
Will not be cool - It's a fact
We just ai't got suffiecient fuel

There's only so much oil in the ground
Sooner or later there won't be none around
Alternate sources of power must be found
Cause there's only so much oil in the ground

There's only so much oil in the earth
It's a fact of life - for what it's worth
Something every little boy and girl should know since birth
That there's only so much oil in the ground

There's no excuse for our abuse
No excuse for our abuse
We just assume that we will not
Exceed the oil supply
But soon enough the world will watch the wells run dry.

A song about the oil energy crisis in middle 70s. There is a concern for alternative energy sources to be developed.

You can hear this song in youtube

“Tungsten” by Malvina Reynolds, (1968)

Chorus:
Tungsten, wolfram, makes the steel so hard.
It goes thru the side of an army tank as tho it were a paper card.
If you want to rule the world, never mind wrong or right,
All you got to have is tungsten wolframite.

There's only one thing in all this world hard as the tungsten steel,
That's the heart of a financier working on a tungsten deal.
Only one thing in all this world hard as the tungsten kind,
It's a diplomat with tungsten on his mind.
(Chorus)

The air is full of heavy words all about democracy,
And the boys they fight in many lands to keep the free world free,
And the words have a beautiful ringing sound that keeps us all up tight,
But the fact of the matter is tungsten wolframite.
(Chorus)

Tungsten, wolfram, what a happy sound,
Tungsten in stockpiles and underneath the ground,
Tungsten in China, sheelite in Malay,
But there are no tungsten mines in the USA.
(Chorus)

A song about a heavy metal (Tungsten) of great economic and military importance, because of its hardness and high melting point. But the Tungsten-rich minerals are located mainly in Third world so immoral corporations and diplomats not only exploit people under bad working conditions in mines to extract the precious metal, but also destroy sensitive ecosystems by strip mining that have the bad luck to bear a mineral-rich underground and in many cases support local conflicts and civil wars if they are favourable for their business. But such a form of unethical exploitation is timeless, Gold, diamonds, rubins, Uranium, Tungsten and today is Tantalum:
A heavy metal of great importantance in modern electronics, Tantalum, is extracted from the mineral Coltan found in Central Africa in Congo/Rwanda borders, where gorillas’ ecosystem in under great threat, civil wars are supported to facilitate its exploitation and bad working, almost slavery, conditions for the local people and children is going on. We read in wikipedia:

Coltan is the colloquial African name for columbite-tantalite, a metallic ore from which is extracted the elements niobium and tantalum. Tantalum from coltan is used in consumer electronics products such as cell phones, DVD players, and computers. Export of coltan from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to European and American markets has been attributed by experts to helping finance the present-day conflict in the Congo, with one aid agency asserting that “much of the finance sustaining the civil wars in Africa, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is directly connected to Coltan profits”

The Congo is a politically unstable area. The Rwandan occupation in the east of the Congo has meant the DRC has been unable to exploit the resource for its own benefit. A 2003 UN Security Council report[8] charged that a great deal of the ore is mined illegally and smuggled over the country's eastern borders by militias from neighbouring Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

Coltan smuggling has also been implicated as a major source of income for the military occupation of Congo. An activist website, Toward Freedom, states that the search for coltan has fueled a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo; they state that demand for coltan has caused Rwandan military groups and western mining companies to seek hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the rare metal, often by forcing prisoners-of-war and even children to work in the country's coltan mines.

The coltan mining area in the DRC is within one of the main ranges of the threatened Eastern Lowland gorilla. It is also alleged that coltan mining could have severe environmental repercussions on the forests and wildlife in the area, in particular the gorilla.

You can hear a Malvina’s song in youtube

Album: "Living with war" by Neil Young (2006)

After the Garden

Won't need no shadow man
Runnin' the government
Won't need no stinkin' WAR
Won't need no haircut
Won't need no shoe shine

After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone

What will people do?
After the garden is gone
What will people say?
After the garden

Won't need no strong man
Walkin' through the night
To live a weak man's day
Won't need no sunshine
Won't need no purple haze

After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone

Where will people go?

After the garden is gone
What will people know?

After the garden

After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone

(We live in the garden of Eden, yeah
Don't know why we wanna tear the whole thing to the ground
We live in the garden of Eden, yeah
Don't know why we wanna tear the whole thing down

And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden)


Let's impeach the president

Let's impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

He's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let's impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government's protection
Or was someone just not home that day?

Let's impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he's racking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There's lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean
Thank God

We read in Wikipedia about this album and songs

“Living with War” (2006) is an album full of protest songs. The album's lyrics, titles, and conceptual style are highly critical of the policies of the George W. Bush administration.

“After the Garden”, the opening track, protests the Bush administration's policy regarding global warming. The lyrics express displeasure with the administration's perceived inaction in dealing with the issue. Young presents the consequences of not taking action to combat global warming through the lyrics.

"Let's Impeach the President" starts off with a trumpet playing the first six notes of Taps, then having a chorus sing about various reasons to impeach George W. Bush. The song is sung to the tune of Steve Goodman's song "The City of New Orleans," perhaps a reference to 2005's Hurricane Katrina, another area of critical views.
The Restless Consumer

The people have heard the news
The people have spoken
You may not like what they said
But they weren't jokin'

Way out on the desert sands
Lies a desperate lover
They call her the "Queen of Oil"
So much to discover

Don't need no ad machine
Telling me what I need
Don't need no Madison Avenue War
Don't need no more boxes I can see

Covered in flags but I can't see them on TV

Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies

The restless consumer flies
Around the world each day
With such an appetite for taste and grace

People from around the world
Need someone to listen
We're starving and dying from our disease
We need your medicine
How do you pay for war
And leave us dyin' ?
When you could do so much more
You're not even tryin'

Don't need no TV ad
Tellin' me how sick I am
Don't want to know how many people are like me
Don't need no dizziness
Don't need no nausea
Don't need no side effects like diarrhea or sexual death

Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies

The restless consumer lies
Asleep in her hotel
With such an appetite
For anything that sells

A hundred voices from a hundred lands
Need someone to listen
People are dying here and there
They don't see the world the way you do
There's no mission accomplished here
Just death to thousands

A hundred voices from a hundred lands
Cry out in unison

Don't need no terror squad
Don't want no damned Jihad
Blowin' themselves away in my hood
But we don't talk to them
So we don't learn from them
Hate don't negotiate with Good

Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies

The restless comsumer flies
Around the world each day
With such an appetite for efficiency
And pace...

Don't need no more lies.

Another song from this album that critisizes the whole USA policy of oil dependence and eternal wars and conflicts to retain it in order to support a highly consuming society with strong class division and unequal access to meet basic human needs.

You can hear all these songs in youtube:
After the garden
Let's Impeach The President
Restless Consumer

“Modern Man Hurricane Blues” by Adrian Belew, Album: Op Zop Too Wah 1997

When I was a boy
Simple times, simple joy
And life was not full of hate and chaos
A modern man
Lives in some kind of hurricane
I need your love to keep me calm
When the world is a storm

Hell fire man desire
Downtown scream siren
Ghetto gun drug lord
Kill children stillborn
Asphalt flesh bone
Trash bag alley bomb

Hey, hey, it's a sin
About the shape the world is in
Hey, hey, it's a shame
Modern man hurricane

Earth dump suck soil
Sewer spit sea oil
Toxic ocean chemical fish
Man made death wish

Hey, hey, it's a shame
Modern man hurricane

I need your love to keep me calm
When the world's a storm

Modern society claims that creates a safe place for humans, but in reality, our life is always under stress, anxiety, pollution and social violence.

You can hear some songs in youtube
I'm down
I see you
Writing on the wall

“I love the world” by New Model Army, Album: Thunder and Consolation (1989)

The roll of distant thunder breaks, the afternoon of silence wakes
They hurry through from Petergate as if they know this dance
In fury blind, I drive at night across the moors, the open roads
Beneath the freezing starry skies, racing in some trance
These cities are illusions of some triumph over Nature's laws
We've seen the iron carcass rust and buildings topple into dust
And as the waters rise, it seems we cling to all the rootless things
The Christian lies, technology, while spirits scream and sing
Oh God I love the world

Well I never said I was a clever man but I know enough to understand
That the endless leaps and forward plans will someday have to cease
You blind yourselves with comfort lies like lightning never strikes you twice
And we laugh at your amazed surprise as the Ark begins to sink
This temple that is built so well to separate us from ourselves
Is a power grown beyond control, a will without a face
And watching from outside I wish that I could wash my hands of this
But we are locked together here, this bittersweet embrace
Oh God I love the world

And if one day the final fire explodes across the whitened sky
I know you've said you'd rather die and make it over fast
With courage from your bravest friends, waiting outside for the end
With no bitterness but an innocence that I can't seem to grasp
I know somehow I will survive - this fury just to stay alive
So drunk with sickness, weak with pain, I can walk the hills one last time
Scarred and smiling, dying slow, I'll scream to no one left at all
I told you so, I told you so, I told you so . .
Oh God I love the world

Great lyrics about the roots, the purposes of our progress and civilization, what is achieved and what is lost and the possible ending by causing environmental disaster after its uncontrolled expansion.

You can hear this song in youtube

Album: “The bees made honey in the lion's skull” by Earth (2008)

The whole album and consequently the homonymous song are instrumental tracks. But both cover beautiful artwork and album title strike us to give them naturalistic interpretation.

First of all, it is obvious that both (cover and title) refer to the Biblic myth of Samson, an extremely strong (and quite goofy, we add) hero, like our Greek Hercules, and his encounter with an aggressive lion. We read in wikipedia about this story:

On the way to ask for the woman's hand in marriage, Samson is attacked by a lion and simply grabs it and rips it apart, as the Spirit of God moves upon him, divinely empowering him. This so profoundly affects Samson that he just keeps it to himself as a secret. He continues on to the Philistine's house, winning her hand in marriage. On his way to the wedding, Samson notices that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and have made honey. He eats a handful of the honey and gives some to his parents…

Then, in the wedding feast he bet a riddle to be solved:

"Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet." which is a veiled account of his second encounter with the lion (at which only he was present)

and consequently no one of the Philistine participants could tell the meaning. Then, in brief, all become raged, wedding was broken, Samson got pissed off, caught 300 foxes, tied burning torches on their tails and released them towards Philistines’ fields to be completely burned….

OK, extreme violence (notice that all these are God’s Will for sure!!!!) narrated in a quite “artistic” way. We prefer to isolate the story of lion’s death and Samson’s riddle and interprete them in a more naturalistic way by putting them in the natural circle of life and death, where death becomes a new start or use for other forms of life to appear and develop, in an endless recycle where nothing is lost and nothing becomes waste. Also, time and nature heals and even a war machine or a battlefield (lion and its deadly struggle with Samson as metaphors) once spread terror and death, many years later both are bustling with plant and animal life.

You can hear three songs from this album in youtube:
The driver
Engine of ruin
Miami Morning Coming Down II (Shine)

“Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel (2008)

Did you think that your feet had been bound
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Well come on down

All these rules don't apply
When you're high in the sky
So come on down
Come on down

We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
To hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze

Did you think you'd escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
you're always afraid of the change

You've got a lot on your chest
Well you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down

Like the fish in the ocean
We felt at home in the sea
We learned to live off the good land
We learned to climb up a tree
then we got up on two legs
But we wanted to fly
When we messed up our homeland
and set sail for the sky

We're coming down
Comin' down to earth
Like babies at birth
Comin' down to earth

Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities

This song has been written as the end theme of the Disney-Pixar computer animated sci-fi film WALL-E which has many striking environmental references and scenes. The song lyrics are relative to the film plot about the return of humans to re-inhabit earth after hundreds of years of abandoning the planet because of heavy pollution and complete destruction of the environment by wasteful use of sources and huge litter production.

You can hear this song in youtube

“Evolution” by Korn, album: Untitled (2007)

I'm digging with my fingertips,
I'm gripping at the ground I stand upon.
I'm searching for fragile bones.
(Evolution)

I'm never gonna be refined;
keep trying but I won't assimilate.
Sure, we have come far in time...
(Watch the bough break)

And I'm sorry I don't believe,
by the evidence that I see,
that there's any hope left for me...
It's evolution!
Just evolution!

And I, I do not dare deny
the basic beast inside;
it's right here,
it's controlling my mind!
And why do I deserve to die?
I'm dominated by
this animal that's locked up inside!

Close up to get a real good view,
I'm betting that the species will survive.
Hold tight, I'm getting inside you...
(Evolution)

And when we're gonna find these bones,
they're gonna want to keep them in a jar.
The number one virus,
caused by procreation.

And the planet may go astray;
in a million years they'll say:
"Those mother fuckers were all deranged!"
It's evolution!
Just evolution!

Take a look around... (take a look around...)
Nothing much has changed!
Take a look around... (take a look around...)
Nothing much has changed!

Why? (why.) (why) (why)
Why do I deserve to die? (do i deserve to die)
(Why? Why? Why?)

A song that ironically wonders if all these human destructive reactions (including towards environment) is a process of natural evolution, expressing also existential pursuits .

You can hear this song in youtube with the interesting humoristic video where there is a debate about a possible decline of human mental evolution

###STICKY###: Metallica’s “The day that never comes” lyrics & video: Your interpretation

You can view lyrics here

Official interpretation of the video in wikipedia:

On August 4, 2008, in an MTV interview, the song lyrics were said to have been made to tackle the subject of forgiveness and resentment. The band's drummer Lars Ulrich claimed that the lyrics were inspired by a father-son relationship. The content of the video itself is of a different theme or setting that what the lyrics themselves were written about, a second interpretation. The video is said to be in a war background in comparison to the "One" video, but will not make any modern day references as in the war in Iraq and the Middle East (although the video depicts images of Middle East war in present day, making that affirmation false). Frontman James Hetfield spoke on the lyrics of the song and also the radical difference of the song lyrics and vision intended to the music video.

“That's the beauty, I think, of writing vague but powerful lyrics — that someone like a movie director can interpret it in his own way and obviously, someone creative is able to take the metaphors and apply them to whatever he needs in his own life," the frontman explained. "The main [theme of the video] is the human element of forgiveness and someone doing you wrong, you feeling resentment and you being able to see through that in the next situation that might be similar and not take your rage or resentment out on the next person and basically keep spreading the disease of that through life...The one thing that I wasn't keen on here was Metallica plugging into a modern war or a current event [that] might be construed as some sort of political statement on our part... There are so many celebrities that soapbox their opinions, and people believe it's more valid because they're popular. For us, people are people — you should all have your own opinion. We are hopefully putting the human element in what is an unfortunate part of life. There are people over there dealing with situations like this, and we're showing the human part of being there”

Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and Ulrich also commented by stating ultimately, the concept of the video deals with humanity and the relationships between human beings and how your basic sense of humanity can override any sort of politicized situation

Our interpretation of this video:

We agree with the double song interpretation and that the different theme of video reveals another interesting meaning of the lyrics. About the video, our interpretation also focuses on slightly different aspects:

Death can lurk everywhere in a war zone, so there is too much stress, distrust and insecurity in every single moment, that even the most simple human contact and help/favour, lasting only few minutes in normal conditions, like a battery charge of a car, becomes a whole complicated and frustrating process under state of alert and ready to fire.

But we don’t like Metallica’s effort to disregard politics from their work. The new album is a beautiful flashback of their past but only musically, not so in lyrics. Their strong anti-war, anti-authoritarian lyrics that contribute a lot to shape our thoughts during our puberty are quite diminished nowadays with an obvious similar effort to this direction by band members as we see in their statements.

Post your interpretation of the video, or your thoughts of the new album