Pride (In the name of love) by U2, Album: The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

One man come in the name of love
One man come and go
One man come here to justify
One man to overthrow
In the name of love!
One man in the name of love
In the name of love!
What more? In the name of love!

One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resists
One man washed on an empty beach
One man betrayed with a kiss

In the name of love!
What more in the name of love?
In the name of love!
What more? In the name of love!

...nobody like you...there's nobody like you...

Mmm...mmm...mmm...
Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love!
What more in the name of love?
In the name of love!
What more in the name of love?
In the name of love!
What more in the name of love...

A song-Hymn dedicated to Martin Luther King and his non-violence action against the racial discriminations in USA. This way of action seems to be the only solution for everlasting social changes. Because they can change minds and ways of thoughts. A violent action doesn't change minds, it is based in inducing fear but causing internal rage that someday will be released and a new round of violence will start.

We have perfomed another song by Grave Digger, about Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence, "Silent Revolution" where we wrote extenxively about non-violence and its adoptation by ecological movement as the only effective way of social activism.

You can hear this song in youtube

"Hey You" by Madonna (2007)

Hey You
Don't you give up
It's not so bad
There's still a chance for us

Hey You
Just be yourself
Don't be so shy
There's reasons why it's hard

Keep it together
You'll make it alright
Our celebration is going on tonight
Poets and Prophets would envy what we do
This could be good
Hey You

Hey You
Open your heart
It's not so strange
You got to change this time

Hey You
Remember this
None of its real
Including the way you feel

Keep it together
We'll make it alright
Our celebration is going on tonight
Poets and Prophets will envy what we do
This could be good
Hey You

Save your soul little sister
Save your soul little brother
Hey You
Save yourself
Dont rely on anyone else

First love yourself, then you can
Love someone else
If you can change someone else
Then you have saved someone else
But you must
First love yourself, then you can
Love someone else
If you can change someone else
Then you have saved someone else
But you must first

Hey You
There on the fence
You've got a choice
One day it will make sense

Hey You
First love yourself
Or if you can't
Try to love someone else

Keep it together
We'll make it alright
Our celebration is going on tonight
Poets and Prophets will envy what we do
This could be good
Hey You

First love yourself, then you can
Love someone else
If you can change someone else
Then you have saved someone else
But you must
First love yourself, then you can
Love someone else
If you can change someone else
Then you have saved someone else
But you must first.

A song written by the famous celebrity as a charity for the Live Earth Campaign.

You can hear this song in youtube

Album: "Redneck Wonderland" by Midnight Oil (1998)

Concrete

In the city the heart still whispers
Flaking metal a silent witness
There's chemical fields and cathode clouds
The milky way is emasculated as exhaust fans
And smart cards shrink wrap the coloured air
And send it coughing to eternity
We can see the bright light but we can't reach it
We are not afraid enough to call
Go back wrong way you cannot stay you cannot live here

Concrete you don't free my soul

In the city the sound is biting
Cement fingers they are clutching
The emissary of trash decorates the way
No wild acres you can see, yearning to breathe
Concrete you don't free my soul
Blackened hands and heart of steel,
No wish to consume, embellish, discard and expire

Concrete you don't free my soul

Concrete you don't free my soul




Comfortable Place On The Couch

Comfortable suburban home
Too afraid to go out on your own
Comfortable place on the couch
Natures a stranger keep it out
Haul away

So you got coastline for fence
It could be your first line of defence
You'll never be ready for this
Ignorance is bliss haven't you heard
Haul away

Give me your sermon on the mount
Give me your final account
Your house is so blissfully calm
I'll bury you down at the farm
Haul away

They say the truth is what you see
I know the truth is what you feel

Two songs from their 1998 Album about alienation from our natural roots, the perception of Nature as a foe or threat and our imprisonment in “safe” concrete environments, but full of pollution and dull emotions.

You can hear some songs in myspace

Album: "Scarsick" by Pain of Salvation (2007)

Kingdom of Loss

Someone sells us Toys
in a cheap cartoon

Someone sells us Cars
in the latest Bond
that's coming soon

Someone sells us Trends
through a sitcom star

Someone sells Herself
in a docu-soap that goes too far
Life is on sale!

"Could someone please just tell me what happened?
I mean, first we pay for fast-food
that will make us all fat and tired.
So then we pay for elevators,
so we won't have to climb the three stairs up to our apartments.
Then we buy freaking stairmaster machines
So we can burn away while watching someone make real food on TV.
Now, if that doesn't make us winners I don't know what will.
I bet we would hang ourselves if the world would just cut the slack.
And now you think maybe you should see a shrink,
Help you feel alive again - yeah, that's a plan!
Just tell us who to pay.

Someone sells us Man in a White House speech
Then Woman tightly pressed between two bouncing breasts, on a Baywatch beach
Someone sells us Us everywhere I turn
Then introducing Them to earn stock-points on our concern

All for sale, all for sale

Welcome down to planet Earth
Please don't ask us what it's worth
You will notice that the world you found
Is slightly tattered and worn down

Someone sold us every stain
Now if you wish to complain
There's an open spot at 6 PM
It's when Caucasia is listening

If you're tearing down my world
Please just try to do it gently
There is love inside
For a dream that has to die

"See, it's really all about time and choice.
The fast food saves us enough time to squeeze lunch in exactly when we want it.
The elevators save us just a little more, the StairMaster
lets us choose exactly when to walk the stairs.
Time is so important these days, it's becoming a fucking disease, and I guess in a way it is since it's bound to kill us all in the end.
Now with all the time and money we stash away on others' expense,
I can only assume that the tickets to hell are really expensive.
For some reason, it's important to be first in line."

Someone sells us God in 2-for-1 with Shame
Someone sells us War and the marketing looks just the same
Someone sells us Fear on TV each day
a shape for every taste; if the flavour's right, we gladly pay

All on sale,
We're all on sale,

Welcome to the only Earth
Please enjoy your only birth
You will learn to take more than you give
Buying scars you must live with
Someone sold us every scar
They somehow made us what we are
We all want that spot at 6 PM
But no one is really listening

No - not anymore
We're all too busy buying Sex, buying War
Buying Self-confidence, Security, Insurance Plans
Just buying More & More

As you're tearing down our world
Please just try to do it gently

There's still love inside
For the dream that has to die

As you're tearing down our world




Idiocracy

Silence
Cold skin
Black mind
Blue light
Broken
Shut down
Knuckles
All white

Babel
Cold fact
Core mine
Black gold
Failure
Lockdown
Gun-hands
All sold

We're waiting, so close your eyes
Relax and take a deep breath now
Believe the lies
When you wake up you'll be democratized

Violence
Cold pin
Blood crust
Blinded
Damp sheets
Needles
Stale smiles
Sick bed

Guiltknife
Scarsoil
Sinstain
Killchrome
Footbare
Gone wrong
Blue lights
Bring me home

We're waiting, so close your eyes
Relax and take a deep breath now
Believe the lies
When you wake up we'll all seem nice
So close your eyes
Just take another deep breath now
And fantasize
Pretend the world we're forming
Is a paradise

Why can't I close my eyes?
Why can't I just be hypnotized,
Industrialized and privatized?
All mesmerized

'Cause I can see
And what I see around me makes me paralyzed
Yes I can see
And what I see is not worthy a democracy
It's uncivilized
So please close my eyes
I don't want to see this undemocratic,
semi-automatic mediocracy and hypocracy
Pretending we're free
Under plastic flags waving dependency
For this idiocracy

Close my eyes...



Flame To The Moth

I long for the summer
I long for the sun, gently touching my face
I'll open my eyes, let it burn every splinter
Unleash desert storms on its way to my heart

And I had this coming every day of my life
This is where I stop fighting, eyes open wide

You took this blade and cut a wreck
And in one blow laid bare your neck
Where did we go wrong?

I once had blue eyes, hungry and wise
Now they are black from this dark age of lies
We're all privatized, industrialized
We capitalize on the beams in our eyes
It's all in the eyes

Eyes - tearing with sorrow
Burning with anger and passion and lust
The swift wind of thought
Of wildness and laughter
The soil of defiance
The firm ground of trust

(we had this coming - every day of our lives)
(we should start fighting for eyes open wide)

But I am put here, in this world gone insane
Where everything's for sale
From nature, over stars down to DNA
Then I can gladly say
That I'd be the first to break that norm
Any day, any way
And the last to join the ranks
To hunt down the Daily Threat
Or any other brand of prey

You took this blade and cut a wreck
And in one blow laid bare your neck
Where did we go wrong?

We once had blue eyes, probing the skies
Now they are blackened from this modern life
All privatized, industrialized - a failure
Offensive and sore to the eye

One small step for man
Maybe this time I'll fly
And if I hit the ground, it's the way we all die
We are wrecks of the cut
Soups of the season
With dollar sign scars
From this dark age of treason

We all know how to cry
Then we learn how to smile
How to smile
We're all telling the truth
Tell us the truth!
Then we learn how to lie
And oh, how we lie
Now we lie

When you bow your heads tomorrow
At the world we build today
I want you to remember
That I stood my ground and said no (say no)
I said no...
Say no!

Three songs that deal with our manipulation and alienation through consumerism, our dependence from useless things that allegedly make easier our lives. In fact many of them weaken our mind and health. Behind all there is the increase of profits, the industrialization, privatization and commercialization of anything can be patented and be sold.

You can hear a cover of “Flame to the Moth” in youtube
You can hear songs from this album in their myspace

"Lonely planet" by The the, Album Dusk (1993)

Planet Earth is slowing down
Overseas, underground
Wherever you look around
Lord, take me by the hand
lead me through these desert sands
To the shores of a promised land.

You make me start when you look into my heart
And see me for who I really am.

If you can't change the world. Change yourself.
If you can't change the world. Change yourself.

I didn't care if the sun didn't shine
& the rain didn't fall from the sky
I just cared about myself
From this world to the next
And from the next back to this.
By our actions we are bound.
We're running out of love
running out of hate
running out of space for the human race.
Planet Earth is slowing down.

You make me cry when you look into my eyes.
And see me for who I really am.

If you can't change the world. Change yourself.
If you can't change the world. Change yourself.
And if you can't change yourself....change the world.

I'm in love with the planet I'm standing on
I can't stop
I can't stop thinking of
All the people I've ever loved
All the people I have lost
All the people I'll never know
All the feelings I've never shown.
The world's too big. And life's too short.
To be alone...To be alone.

A song that calls for a change in ourselves as the only possible way to influence the planet decline as a whole.

You can hear some songs by The The in youtube
Armageddon days are here (again)
Infected
Love is stonger than Death
I saw the light
Dogs of lust

Malvina Reynolds' songs against water pollution (1970, 1973)

Clean Water (1970)

Clean water, clean water, clean water.
Mister and Mrs. me and you,
What makes you think our gunk should go,
Out where the sparkling rivers flow,
Down from the mountain heads of snow,
Out to the rolling sea?

Rivers where fish are dancing round
Where ferns and willow trees abound,
And sunny water bugs are found.
Rivers that once were food and home
For fish and ferns and sunny bugs and me.

Clean water, clean water, clean water.
Clean water, clean water, clean water. I cry.
Get that junk and that gunk
Out of my clean water
Before the fish and the sunny bugs all die,
And you and I.



The Fragile Sea (1973)

Our fathers knew the ocean as a friendly enemy,
They took their equal chances in the storm.
They trusted in the sail, they fought the mighty whale,
They played like sunny children on the shore.

Chorus:
The sea, the sea, the fragile sea.
Our source, our provider and our road to liberty.
Now we use it as a dump hole in this mad economy,
And we never will survive a dying sea.

Our sister is the sea bird, our brother is the gar,
The smallest plankton creatures as important as we are.
The chain of life's been moving thru a hundred million years,
We cut it at our peril and the pipeline is the shears.
(Chorus)

Do you see the seagull dead in his integument of tar
Who was once a soaring creature of the sky?
It's the oil company that's now the ruler of the sea
That makes ocean and its children fail and die.

(Chorus)
Have you seen the crystal waters of the North Canadian coast?
That's how this planet's oceans used to be.
With our muscle and our brain we must make it so again,
For we never will survive a dying sea.

It's impressive how clear view has an old woman and in early seventies about environmental ploblems and extensive contamination hazards that will become huge the following years in many places in her country. Sewage or dumping of toxic waste near rivers or underground water poisoned residential areas (Woburn, Hinkley, Love Canal, etc), Exxon Valdez disaster eliminated the once "crystal waters of the North Canadian Coasts" and many others.

you can hear her most famous song "little boxes" performed by Pete Seeger in youtube

“Μπες στο κλίμα” (Enter the climate*) by Kostas Lebadas, performed by various, The Green Album WWF (2007)

Ποια υπερθέρμανση γεννάει
Ένα τέρας που ξυπνάει
Θα μας πνίξει θα μας φάει
Μπες στο κλίμα!

Ποια πλημμύρα μας τραβάει
Σε ένα ηφαίστειο που ξεσπάει
Δες χιονίζει μήνα Μάη
Μπες στο κλίμα!

Ξύπνα τη μνήμη σου
Ξέχνα τη φήμη σου
Παρ' την ευθύνη σου
Γι αυτή τη Γη που βουλιάζει
Σκέψου τα μέρη σου
Πες το στο ταίρι σου
Είναι στο χέρι σου
Ένα παιδί σου φωνάζει
Δείξε μου πόσο σε νοιάζει
Μπες στο κλίμα!

Κάθε μέρα που περνάει
Σαν αρρώστια προχωράει
Άλλο αστείο δε χωράει
Μπες στο κλίμα!

Ποιος στα αλήθεια κυβερνάει
Ποιος θυμάται ποιος ξεχνάει
Για ποιο μέλλον συζητάει
Μπες στο κλίμα!

Translation:

Learn which superheat is bearing
a rising monster
that will suffocate and eat us
Enter the climate*

Learn which flood is sweeping us away
to a volcano ready to detonate
Look! It's snowing on May
Enter the climate*

Wake your memory
Forget your fame
Take your responsibility
For this Earth that is sinking
Think of your country
Tell it to your partner
It’s in your hands
A child is shouting at you
Show me how you care about
Enter the climate*

Every day that passes
like disease is spreading
No more pretending
Enter the climate*

Who really governs?
Who thinks, who forgets?
For what future does he talk about?
Enter the climate*

(*) “Enter the climate” is a word playing in greek language. It means “Get the spirit of the age”: the world “climate” has two meanings in greek: both climate and spirit of the age.

A song that urges people to become aware and more active to fight the climatic changes. It was written for this purpose and for economical support of WWF and is included as bonus track in the CD “The Green album” in the greek edition, among many famous activistic songs by Bob Marley, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, etc:

1. THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON (ACOUSTIC VERSION) -THIEVERY CORPORATION
2. SIGN 'O' THE TIMES – PRINCE
3. GET UP, STAND UP - PETER TOSH
4. IF YOU TOLERATE THIS YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE NEXT-MANIC STREET PREACHERS
5. WILD WOOD - PAUL WELLER
6. EVERYTHING IS BROKEN- BOB DYLAN
7. NOTHING BUT FLOWERS -TALKING HEADS
8. ARMAGIDEON TIME - THE CLASH
9.;PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER - PATTI SMITH
10. LONELY PLANET - THE ΤΗΕ
11. LAST GREAT AMERICAN WHALE – LOU REED
12. MY CULTURE-ONE GIANT LEAP feat. ROBBIE WILLIAMS & MAXI JAZZ
13. WHO BY FIRE – LEONARD COHEN
14. EVE OF DESTRUCTION-PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS
15. WORLD ON FIRE - SARAH McLACHLAN
16. PERFECT DAY - LOU REED

You can obtain this CD from WWF site

You can hear this song in youtube

Eagle And The Hawk By John Denver, Album: Aerie (1971)

Ohhhhhh,

I am the Eagle,
I live in high country,
The rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky.

I am the Hawk,
And there's blood on my feathers,
But time is still turning,
They soon will be dry.

And all those who see me,
And all who believe in me,
Share in the freedom I feel when I fly!

Come dance with the west wind,
And touch on the mountain tops,
Sail over the canyons,
And up to the stars.

And reach for the heavens,
And hope for the future,
And all that we can be,
Not just what we are...

A John Denver's fan wrote about this song:

The Eagle And The Hawk was written as a theme song for a documentary The Eagle and the Hawk featuring Morley Nelson an ornithologist. John joined Nelson in a campaign to restore a Red-tailed Hawk and a Bald Eagle back to health. It starts quietly building up to crescendos in imitation of the eagle soaring upwards. “Reach for the heavens, and hope for the future, and all that will be, not what we are”.

You can hear this song in youtube

"We Are The Future" by Stratovarious, Album: Dreamspace (1994)

What is wrong with a man destroying the land.
Our planet is full of waste.
Sheltering ozone layer is no more a shield,
the temperature is rising up.

Now it's time to stop this madness,
Preventing increasing sadness.
Let's put end to all this while we can.

Man against another man, how somebody can,
judge by colour of the skin.
See the signs make up your mind,
Now it's time for the change, it is not too late.

Now it's time to stop this madness,
preventing increasing sadness.
Let's put end to all this while we can.

Save us, we are the future.
Lead us into the better world,
show us the way to reality.
No more injustice or cruelty.
Save us, we are the future.
Lead us into the better world,
show us the way to reality
injustice is all gone.

Fast, fast stop this course now last,
last or we won't last,
past stop living in the past or you will die.
End, end, end of our time,
Time our precious time,
Crime, crime against mankind we have to pay.

In the course of mad destruction,
there'll be no coming back,
the nuclear end is in sight.
Soon there will be no one to fight with.
Take a look into the sky, it may be your last time.
The complete end is in sight, soon
there will be no one to fight, with me.

Save us, we are the future.
Lead us into the better world,
show us the way to reality.
No more injustice or cruelty.
Save us, we are the future.
Lead us into the better world,
show us the way to reality
injustice is all gone.

A call to mankind to realize its impacts towards environment and itself by pollution, wars, hate, racism, injustice etc.

You can hear in youtube