"Age of Machine" by Greta Van Fleet, album "The Battle at Garden's Gate" (2021)

Perfect child

Plugged in since the womb
Prophet of the dune
In this electric tomb
Man has made
An omnipresent force
Heading on a course
For interstellar shores

God machine
Malfunctioned as it grew
And the circuits blew
Falling down on you
Now you're free
Unplug from the source
No more underscores
Open up the doors

Feeling
Oh god, the feeling
We need some healing
We need some healing
God knows if you feel defeated
You have been cheated
You have retreated

Feeling
Oh god, the feeling
We need some healing
We need some healing
God knows if you feel defeated
You have been cheated
You have retreated

Destroying the environment is also a destruction of culture and ourselves, either physically or mentally, our inner selves, reducing us to bare lives or living machines.

Album "E Pluribus Funk" by Grand Funk Railroad (1971)

Loneliness

Loneliness cries deep from my soul,
Keeps trying to tell me about the world growing so cold.
Too many people trying to take from my Earth,
But we can't live without controlling our birth.

Deep inside a voice cries out for you,
It's not alone 'cause, people, I been cryin' too.
If we don't stop what we all see is wrong,
I guarantee you mankind won't live long.

CHORUS
There's a land, a glorius land,
It's right here on Earth.
Understand what you can from the land,
Your life is it's worth.
Woah-oh, woah-oh, woah-oh-oh.
Woah-oh, woah-oh, woah-oh-oh.
Woah-oh, woah-oh, woah-oh-oh.

To face the problems that everyone's found,
We must replace what we took out of the ground.
Pray for your brother, let your soul find a way,
Help one another, oh, please listen to what I say.

CHORUS

Loneliness ...
Oh ..., I can't get away from loneliness ...
Yeah, loneliness ... oooo ...
Loneliness ...
Yeah, loneli- ... loneli- ... lo- ... neliness ...
I just can't get away from loneli- ...loneliness ...
Yeah, ... yeah ...

Loneliness ...
Can't get away from loneliness ...

Save the Land

Look out for the land rush, it’s coming day by day.
Said, get ready for the land rush, it’s headed right your way.
Look what you’re paying, to live on your land,
And most folks don’t even have some, but I don’t understand.


Chorus
Spread the news across the land, and just do the best you can,
All we’ve got is just the land; take a stand, save the land.


Sometimes I sit here thinking, but all the answers just don’t appear.
I’m calling to my brothers and sisters, let’s get together and kill this fear.
There ain’t really gonna’ be much to it. we can control the thing if we try.
With just a little more understanding, the whole world will get by.

Two beautiful songs from Grand Funk, appeals for respect and mindful treat of land and Earth as a whole

You can hear these songs in youtube
Loneliness
Save the Land

Genocide (The Killing of the Buffalo) by Thin Lizzy, album: Chinatown (1980)

When they try to tell you knowledge is a dangerous thing
"It's such a dangerous thing"
The people that have it are the people that sin
And the people that need it are the people that can never win
"They can never win"
Let me get you out of here Little Broken Wing

There are people round here that are right
There are people round here that like to sleep at night
There are people round here that go slow
There are people round here that don't kindly to the killing of the buffalo

When they tear up all the treaties and break up all the plans
"They break up all the plans"
Did you do your duty and kill on command?
Did you know the redman used to roam this land?
"He used to roam this land"
Now the souls of lost warriors blow across the sands

People round here they get it right
People round here we like to sleep at night
There are people round here that go slow
People round here that don't take kindly to the killing of the buffalo, oh no

So listen to my story and listen to it well
"You better listen well"
Listen to the glory of the gory details of the tale I tell
Did you know the redman very well?
"I used to know him well"
Did you know the hunting ground before it became a hell?

There are people round here that are right
There are people round here that like to sleep at night
There are people round here I don't know
There are people round here that don't take kindly to the killing of the buffalo

The killing of the buffala-o
The killing of the buffala-o

So listen to my story of Genocide
How they were hunted and slaughtered till there was no place left to hide
Did you know the redman used to hold his head with pride?
Till every man, woman and child were destroyed

There are people round here that get it right
There are people round here that couldn't sleep at night
There are people round here I don't know
There are people round here that don't take kindly to the killing of the buffalo

There are people round here that understand
There are people round here that couldn't give a damn
There are people round here that go slow
There are people round here that don't take too kindly to the killing of the buffalo

A song that refers to the mass genocide of Buffalos in USA during the last decades of 19th century. We read in everything2.com

Two things led to the near extinction of the American buffalo or bison. The first threat to them came when the Indians began hunting on horseback, instead of following the migratory hordes and killing them on foot. But this was still of small account compared to the wholesale slaughter that went on when American colonists set out to exterminate the buffalo in order to deprive the hostile Indians of their primary source of food.

This began in the 1870s and became known as the Great Buffalo Massacre. Sadly, this was so successful that by 1889, a population of some 75 million buffaloes was reduced to a mere 540, a horrendous situation that led to the prairies being littered with the bones of the slaughtered buffalo. By the turn of the century, these few pitiful survivors were reduced to a mere few dozen.

Almost before it was too late, Congress realised the enormity of the crime that had been committed in the name of progress. In 1902, 50,000 dollars were set aside for the protection of the country's last herd in the Yellowstone National Park. Since then the buffalo have thrived.

You can hear this song in youtube

“Do The Evolution” by Pearl Jam, Album: Yield (1998)

Woo..
I'm ahead, I'm a man
I'm the first mammal to wear pants, yeah
I'm at peace with my lust
I can kill 'cause in God I trust, yeah
It's evolution, baby

I'm at piece, I'm the man
Buying stocks on the day of the crash
On the loose, I'm a truck
All the rolling hills, I'll flatten 'em out, yeah
It's herd behavior, uh huh
It's evolution, baby

Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, he's my clone
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
This land is mine, this land is free
I'll do what I want but irresponsibly
It's evolution, baby

I'm a thief, I'm a liar
There's my church, I sing in the choir:
(hallelujah, hallelujah)

Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, admire my clones
'Cause we know, appetite for a nightly feast
Those ignorant Indians got nothin' on me
Nothin', why?
Because... it's evolution, baby!

I am ahead, I am advanced
I am the first mammal to make plans, yeah
I crawled the earth, but now I'm higher
2010, watch it go to fire
It's evolution, baby
Do the evolution
Come on, come on, come on

A song sarcasm to the silly feelings of superiority through a linear perception of evolution towards more wiser forms of life. That’s why we humanoids named ourselves Homo sapiens. But the reality seems to be the opposite as Pearl Jam sing and show in their video clip.

You can hear this song and see the cartoonish videoclip in youtube

Album: “Όλα από χέρι καμένα” (All burned by the hand) (1988) Lyrics:Kostas Tripolitis, Music:Thanos Mikroutsikos, Performer:Vasilis Papakonstantinou

Twenty years before, three great greek artists joined together to produce this unconventional and under-appreciated album that no matter it passed unnoticed in our country and generally received negative reviews mainly for its pessimistic or brutal and nasty language of its lyrics, it has many ardent followers and is considered a classic work in modern greek rock music. We present two songs from this album:

Μπουμ

Έπειτα απ' το μεγάλο μπουμ
χίλιοι φακοί να κάνουν ζουμ,
πλάνα ωραία της καταστροφής
με φωτιές και σάρκες να τραφείς
όταν η αράχνη θα νοιώθει ευφυής
στριμωγμένη στο μπετόν της οροφής.

Είχες πει χρειάζεται καιρός
να φτιαχτούν σκουπίδια ένας σωρός
να σκεπαστούνε φεγγίτες και φωταγωγοί
να συμβούνε θάνατοι αργοί
να γεννηθούνε καινούργιοι πυροτεχνουργοί
για να αξίζει να επιστρέψεις στον πλανήτη γη.

Τη ζωή που σκότωσα εγώ
είναι η ζωή που νοσταλγώ
με τα σκεπάσματά σου έχω σκεπαστεί
το κορμί σου έχω αφουγκραστεί
η ύπαρξή σου καράβι που έχει βυθιστεί
με φωνάζεις τελευταίο ασυρματιστή.

Μπαίνοντας πρωί σε ένα ταξί
καίγομαι μέσα στο οξύ
βλέπω στα μάτια των περαστικών
ξυραφιές ονείρων χθεσινών
σου κοκκινίζει τα νύχια το μανόν
και είσαι θύτης μα και το θύμα συνθηκών.

Translation:

Boom

After the Great Boom
millions of lenses making zoom
Beautiful views of the destruction
Flesh and fire to feed yourself
When the spider will feel genius
Living squeezed in a crack of a concrete roof

You’ve said it will take time
for litters to become a pile
and to cover buildings up to roofs
to die with slow deaths
for new pyrotechnists to be born
to worth to return to planet earth

The life that I killed by myself
is the life that I’m longing for
I am covered with your blankets
I have strained my ears to your body
Your existence is like a sunken ship
You call me last radio operator

In the morning, when calling a taxi
I feel burned in an acid
In the passers-by eyes I saw
razor slashes of yesterday dreams
Your nails are bright red by the manon
You’re the culprit and the victim of conditions

A post-apocalyptic song about a dystopian society after a nuclear or environmental holocaust, about the terrible Now, about the warnings in the Past, and about the continuing indifference, cynism or vanity in a harsh environment (Spectaculation of the disaster, beautification in every day sick atmosphere)

Όλα από χέρι καμένα

Ήρωες, μίξερ, μανταλάκια, σερβιέτες,
λάβαρα, κόμιξ, σούπερ-μάρκετ, ηγέτες,
ρήτορες, μπλέντερ, βιταμίνες, μονώσεις,
κι ότι σου τάζουνε για να καυλώσεις.

Κίνημα, χάπια, σελοτέιπ, πτυχία,
άγιοι, σέρβις, μπόντυ μπίλντινγκ, ηχεία,
κάμερες, γκέι, φουστανέλες, ψυχώσεις,
κι ότι σου δίνουνε για να καυλώσεις.

Όλα από χέρι καμένα
και τα σπίρτα μας βρεγμένα
Λείψανα ,κέικ, χορωδίες, μουστάρδες,
βίζιτες, χύτρες, ινστιτούτα, κονκάρδες,
κόλλυβα , πόστερ, after-shave, διαγνώσεις,
κι ότι σου τάζουνε για να τα χώσεις.

Κλίσματα, σέντρες, γκομενάκια, πακέτα,
άγγελοι, telex, ανθοδέσμες, κουφέτα,
πρόεδροι, κέτσαπ, βαλβολίνες, ενέσεις,
κι ότι σου υπόσχονται για να τη πέσεις.

Όλα από χέρι καμένα
και τα σπίρτα μας βρεγμένα

Έρανοι, άλμπουμ, ονειράκια, πατέντες,
κάψουλες, μπόνους, φωτοκόπιες, κουβέντες,
κίναιδοι, τίτλοι, wind-surfing, εκπλήξεις,
κι' ότι σου δίνουνε για να πηδήξεις.

Ήρωες, μίξερ, μανταλάκια, σερβιέτες,
λάβαρα, κόμιξ, σούπερ-μάρκετ, ηγέτες,
ρήτορες, μπλέντερ, βιταμίνες, μονώσεις,
κι ότι σου τάζουνε για να καυλώσεις.

Translation:

All burned by the hand

Heroes, mixers, clothes pegs, sanitary pads,
Banners, comics, supermarkets, leaders
Orators, blenders, vitamins, insulators
And everything they promise you to turn you on

Movements, pills, sellotapes, degrees
Saints, services, bodybuilding, speakers
Cameras, gay, fustanellas*, obsessions
And everything they offer you to turn you on

All burned by the hand
And our matches are wet

Relics, cakes, choirs, mustards,
Fees for a house call, pressure cookers, institutes, badges,
Collyva**, posters, after-shave, diagnoses
And everything they promise you to push them in

Enemas, kickoffs, girlfriends, parcels,
Angels, telex, bouquets, koufeta***,
Presidents, ketchups, valvolins, injections
And everything they promise you to screw up

All burned by the hand
And our matches are wet

Collections, albums, dreams, patents,
Capsules, bonuses, photocopies, chats,
Prostitutes, titles, wind-surfing, suprpises,
And everything they give you to have a real good fuck.

Heroes, mixers, clothes pegs, sanitary pads,
Banners, comics, supermarkets, leaders
Orators, blenders, vitamins, insulators
And everything they promise you to turn you on

All burned by the hand
And our matches are wet

(*) Fustanella: Greek traditional kilt
(**)Collyva: Greek traditional offering in funerals made from boiled wheat
(***)Koufeta: Sugar-coated almonds offered in wedding ceremonies

A song that is a sarcasm to our worship of consumerism by making it a fundamental social value and be trapped by becoming addicted to it. A society that is manipulated by a kits mixture of old fashion traditions and modern fake plastic items and values, and by a salad of things, actions and ideas having an ideological content either of high quality and importance or inferior and unimportant.

You can hear these songs in youtube
Boom
All burned by the hand

the above photos/artworks were taken from the following pages:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11047054@N08/1012904609/
http://www.artshole.co.uk/siclark.htm

“Vapor trails” by Rush, album: Vapor trails (2001)

Stratospheric traces of our transitory flight
Trails of condensation held
In narrow paths of white
The sun is turning black
The world is turning gray
All the stars fade from the night
The oceans drain away

Horizon to horizon
Memory written on the wind
Fading away like an hourglass, grain by grain
Swept away like voices in a hurricane

In a vapor trail

Atmospheric phases make the transitory last
Vaporize the memories that freeze the fading past
Silence all the song birds
Stilled by the killing frost
Forests burn to ashes
Everything is lost

Washed away like footprints in the rain
In a vapor trail

Obscured lyrics that can be interpreted as dealing with atmospheric pollution. Vapor trails are condensed water vapors upon particles emitted from the exhaust of airplane engines, when certain atmospheric conditions allows such a phenomenon. These fuel emissions, invisible in other way, destroy ozone layer and enhance global warming, especially today when air transportations are steadily increased. There are also many studies that support an impact of vapor trails themselves to climatic change, acting as back-to-Earth reflecting surfaces of thermal radiation as we read in wikipedia:

Vapor trails or contrails, by affecting the Earth's radiation balance, act as a radiative forcing. Studies have found that vapour trails or contrails trap outgoing longwave radiation emitted by the Earth and atmosphere (positive radiative forcing) at a greater rate than they reflect incoming solar radiation (negative radiative forcing). Therefore, the overall net effect of contrails is positive, i.e. a warming. However, the effect varies daily and annually, and overall the magnitude of the forcing is not well known: globally (for 1992 air traffic conditions), values range from 3.5 mW/m² to 17 mW/m². Other studies have determined that night flights are most responsible for the warming effect: while accounting for only 25% of daily air traffic, they contribute 60 to 80% of contrail radiative forcing. Similarly, winter flights account for only 22% of annual air traffic, but contribute half of the annual mean radiative forcing.
The grounding of planes for three days in the United States after September 11, 2001 provided a rare opportunity for scientists to study the effects of contrails on climate forcing. Measurements showed that without contrails, the local diurnal temperature range (difference of day and night temperatures) was about 1 degree Celsius higher than immediately before; however, it has also been suggested that this was due to unusually clear weather during the period.

There is also a conspiracy theory that certain types of vapor trails are toxic chemicals spread in the atmosphere for some secret unindentified evil purposes, the so called chemtrails. In some cases they are some chemical agents for weather control, but the majority of all these theories seem to be implausible.

You can hear this song in youtube

“I'd Love To Change The World” by Ten Years After, album: A space in Time (1971)

Everywhere is freaks and hairies
Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity
Tax the rich, feed the poor
Till there are no rich no more

Id love to change the world
But I dont know what to do
So Ill leave it up to you

Population keeps on breeding
Nation bleeding, still more feeding economy
Life is funny, skies are sunny
Bees make honey, who needs money, monopoly

Id love to change the world
But I dont know what to do
So Ill leave it up to you

World pollution, theres no solution
Institution, electrocution
Just black and white, rich or poor
Them and us, stop the war

Id love to change the world
But I dont know what to do
So Ill leave it up to you

Someone who wonders about the unsolved and continouslly getting worse global problems (huge class differences between rich and poor, exploitation, war, environmental pollution, racial discriminations, war, etc. But he feels unable to do anything so he prefers to leave the burden of solution to next generations. But that's the main cause of their perpetuation: the irresponsibility of those who face these problems today to react effectively and the eternal postponement.

You can hear this song in youtube

Bicycle race by Queen, Album: Jazz (1978)

Celebrating the 1st World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) held in our city Thessaloniki, Greece, yesterday, 27/6/2008, we present Queen's classic "Bicycle Race". We give it a related interpretation as dealing with the demand of the right to use the environmental and health friendly bicycle in big and crowded cities that are under the rule of cars and oil dependance and also as having a relation with nudity and bike ride events, as we can read in the lyrics (Bicycle races are coming your way, So forget all your duties oh yeah!Fat bottomed girls they'll be riding today, So look out for those beauties oh yeah). and in wikipedia about the poster that promoted and connected the singles "Bicycle race" and "Fat Bottomed Girls":

The band had intended to sell the album with a poster depicting the all-female nude bicycle race staged to promote "Fat Bottomed Girls", but in the USA it was only available through mail order so as not to upset retailers. A small version of the poster comes with the Crown Jewels box set.

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

You say black I say white
You say bark I say bite
You say shark I say hey man
Jaws was never my scene
And I don't like Star Wars
You say Rolls I say Royce
You say God give me a choice
You say Lord I say Christ
I don't believe in Peter Pan
Frankenstein or Superman
All I wanna do is

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my

Bicycle races are coming your way
So forget all your duties oh yeah!
Fat bottomed girls they'll be riding today
So look out for those beauties oh yeah
On your marks get set go
Bicycle race bicycle race bicycle race
Bicycle bicycle bicyI want to ride my bicycle
Bicycle bicycle bicycle
Bicycle race

You say coke I say caine
You say John I say Wayne
Hot dog I say cool it man
I don't wanna be the President of America
You say smile I say cheese
Cartier I say please
Income tax I say Jesus
I don't wanna be a candidate
For Vietnam or Watergate
Cos all I want to do is

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

About the events in our city, yesterday:

No matter that the event had been announced in many Mass Media a month ago with positive public acceptance and support, General police officer of the city threatened with arrests anyone who would take part naked. So, all except one prefered to cover at least their genitals. Exactly after the bikers started to move to the city, strong riot police force attack the ride and arrest the one completely naked, an English citizen who came to Thessaloniki to take part to the event. The rest continue their ride and when they reached at the center of Thessaloniki they blocked off the central avenue of the city demanding the immediate release of the arrested biker. After an hour of negociations and pressures by the participators, police was forced to release him at last. All photos are from yesterday event.

You can see a video from this Naked Bike Ride in Youtube where you can also hear Queen's famous song.

Trees by Rush, Album: Hemispheres, 1978

There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble with the maples,
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade.

There is trouble in the forest,
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream "Oppression!"
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

We read in wikipedia

"The Trees" is one of Rush's more popular songs. A fable told through fantasy lyrics, a forest suffers from the competition of tall oak trees and shorter maple trees for sunlight. In the end, no one wins as the "trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw." The song's meaning is often debated by fans. Peart has been quoted as saying that the lyrics for this song were inspired by a cartoon and that the song has no deep meaning, but also has said that it is about collectivism.

We believe that this song is probably a naturalistic/environmental metaphor for the “equality” of Communist regimes. The two kinds of trees that have conflict represent the war of classes and the exploitation of the poor by the rich. But the most famous revolution in order to stop class division and exploitation has lead to an unbearable uniformity and total oppression through violence and terror.

You can hear this song in youtube

Piece of crap by Neil Young, Album Sleeps with angels (1994)

Photo was taken from http://www.artshole.co.uk/siclark.htm

Tried to save the trees
Bought a plastic bag
The bottom fell out
It was a piece of crap

Saw it on the tube
Bought it on the phone
Now you're home alone
It's a piece of crap

I tried to plug in it
I tried to turn it on
When I got it home
It was a piece of crap

Got it from a friend
On him you can depend
I found out in the end
It was a piece of crap

I'm trying to save the trees
I saw it on TV
They cut the forest down
To build a piece of crap

I went back to the store
They gave me four more
The guy told me at the door
It's a piece of crap

A song about the bad quality and useless products that flood markets and advertising sites in order to be quickly worn out and you’re forced to buy other. It’s a whole discipline of science in capitalism to make non versatile products that will be worn out quickly in order to increase profits by decreasing cost of production (using cheaper but of bad quality raw materials, either for lower cost production or for quick wear for endless buying). The result is the deterioration of the huge environmental problems of energy consumption and waste production and disposal.

You can hear this song in youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8jNkvP0vg

ELOY (70s Decade)

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

Something Yellow, Album: "Eloy" (1971)

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

A song about air pollution


Future City, Album: "Inside" (1973)

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

A song about the isolation and depression urban environment creates


Plastic Girl, Album: "Floating" (1974)

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

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

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

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

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


You can hear many Eloy classics in youtube:

Walk alone

inside

castle in the air

bells of notre dame

midnight fight/victory of mental force

Decay of Logos

Can't Happen Here by Rainbow Album: Difficult to cure 1981

Contaminated fish and micro chips
huge supertankers on Arabian trips
oily propaganda from the leaders' lips
all about the future
there's people over here, people over there
everybody's looking for a little more air
crossing all the borders just to take their share
planning for the future

and we're so abused, and we're so confused
it's easy to believe that someone's gonna light the fuse
can't happen here, can't happen here
all that you fear they're telling you, can't happen here

Supersonic planes for a holiday boom
Rio de Janeiro in an afternoon
people out of work but there's people on the moon
looking for the future
concrete racktracks nationwide
juggernauts carving up the countryside
cars by the million on a one way ride
using up the future

and we're so abused, and we're so confused
it's easy to believe that someone's gonna light the fuse
can't happen here, can't happen here
all that you fear they're telling you, can't happen here

Satellites spying for the CIA
the KGB and the men in grey
wonder if I'm gonna see another day
somewhere in the future
We got everything we need for a peaceful time
take what you want but you can't take mine
everybody's living on the Siegfried line
worried 'bout the future

and we're so abused, and we're so confused
it's so easy to believe that someone's gonna light it
easy to believe someone's gonna light the fuse
can't happen here, can't happen here
all that you fear they're telling you, can't happen here can it?

A song about modern man’s anxiety and stress concerning a variety of issues from environmental pollution and insecurity of new technology to cold war threat and poverty. The narrative form of the song is like we watch them in TV news or in newspapers and so we have as pathetic TV viewers or readers the illusion and complacency that all these threats don’t concern us.

You can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ9fix7bJow


You can hear some Rainbow classics below:

Temple of the King

Stargazer

All night long

Difficult to cure

Album: Sonic attack by Hawkwind, 1981

Lost Chances

Crystal evenings, long ago,
Twisted winds and weeping snow
We missed a turning in the past,
Is there anything that can last

The race is run, the time is right,
Get out your gun it's time to fight
And all our dreams just turn to dust,
Look to the future forget the past

Mistakes you've made can't be redeemed,
They are made because you dreamed a dream
Honest sunsets turn to paint,
The lie you tell becomes a taint

The house you built reverts to dust,
The sword you held it turns to rust
The lies you tell destroy your will,
The price you paid you're paying still

And the rocks in the river grow higher and higher
As the water gets lower and lower
There are ghosts in our lives that will not fade
There are ghosts in our lives that will not fade,
Until we've paid

A song about irreversible changes done by humans, either in nature, or in society and about a price that must be paid

We're living on a knife edge

Everytime I go out, I think I'm bring checked out,
Faceless people watching on a TV screen
Do you begin to sense it, just beneath the surface
Reflections of a window whilst walking down the street
Computers are abused, school records are fed
Police are checking on what you said
The number of your car's fed into a box
Your journey's being checked, it's a paradox
Duplicate forms, and ID cards are next in line to disregard

Future generations are relying on us
It's a world we've made - Incubus
We're living on a knife edge, looking for the ground


The need of a safe society created an orwellian everyday life. There is also a concern about what society future generations would inherit from us.

You can hear many classics from Hawkwind in myspace:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=113465962


http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=47647924


http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=100879213

White man by Queen, Album: Day at the races 1977

I'm a simple man with a simple name
From this soil my people came
In this soil remain oh yeah oh yeah
He made us our shoes
And we trod soft on the land
But the immigrant built roads
On our blood and sand oh yeah

White man White man
Don't you see the light behind your blackened skies
White man White man
You took away the sight to blind my simple eyes
White man White man
Where you gonna hide from the hell you've made

Oh the red man knows wars
With his hands and his knives
On the Bible you swore
Fought your battle with lies oh yeah
Leave my body in shame
Leave my soul in disgrace
But by ev'ry god's name
Say a prayer for your race oh yeah

White man White man
Our country was green and all our rivers wide
White man White man
You came with a gun and soon our children died
White man White man
Don't you give a light for the blood you've shed?

White man White man
White man
White man White man
For you battled with lies
White man White man
Still lies
White man White man
Say you look around every skin and bone again

What is left of your dream?
Just the words on your stone
A man who learned how to teach
Then forgot how to learn
Oh yeah


A strong accusation of the cultural and territorial destruction of Indians by “civilized” white people

You can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feV4RuZSdIc

Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult, album: Spectres 1977

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down

Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh no, they say hes got to go
Go go godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes tokyo
Go go godzilla, yeah

Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Godzilla ga ginza hoomen e mukatte imasu!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!

Oh no, they say hes got to go
Go go godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes tokyo
Go go godzilla, yeah

History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men


A song about the famous sci-fi monster Godzilla, a creation from mutations by radioactive pollution. The song is an allegory about the nuclear threat and the nuclear test in pacific ocean. The last bold words and some announcements in their concerts during 70s and 80s leads us to such an interpretation.

You can hear this song in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTW19g-uUTw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHRm2DioMA

Martian Landscape by UFO, Album: No heavy petting, 1976

Come from the land where the wheat is still wheat
Where the waters in the rivers is still water
In this land every man lends a hand when you need it
But your hands are full of life
So you can help yourself and feel it
It's been a long way from the red of my home
From the valleys and the green plains never ending

Everyone knows that the sun in his land is stronger
And your hands are full of life
If you can only wait just longer

So let it be a small haven big in Your heart
Don't let it turn into an ogre
Tryin' to climb and climb
and forget this place where
I can still find time
To sing in rhyme

Martian landscape.
I'll learn to lie in your arms
Where all the freedom is mine and it comes
Martian landscape,
I'll turn my face to your sun
Where your horizon is mine and it comes


A vision of a land where nature is clean from civilization. It’s a mystery why this place is called “martian”. Probably, the songwriters having the name “UFO” (which came from Mars) wrote the song before first landing and sending pictures from plain rocky Mars surface.

You can hear this song in youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhf36xKRCi4

You can hear some UFO classics in myspace:

Doctor doctor

Rock Bottom

Too Hot to Handle

Love to Love

Too young to Know

Mama Nature said, by Thin Lizzy, Album: Vagabonds Of The Western World ,1973

Mama Nature said
"It's murder what you've done"
I sent you forth my brightest world
Now it's nearly gone

Birds and bees
Been telling me
You can't see
The forest for the trees

You cover up your lies
With sympathies
And I got no solutions
To your persecution

Mama Nature said
"I can't believe it's true"
I gave you life and food for thought
Look what did you do

You're killing my rivers
Drowning my baby streams
Day by day by day by day
I hear them scream

I'm so disillusioned
I'm so disillusioned

Mama Nature said
"You're guilty of this crime"
Now it's not just a matter of fact
But just a matter of time

Cruel will be the vengeance
So savage is the deed that's done
And I've got no solutions
To your own pollutions

Another clear ecological song where Nature takes revenge and condemns us for our crimes against Her

You can hear some songs from Thin Lizzy in You tube:

Whiskey in the jar

The rocker

Emerald

Cowboy song

When The Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin, Album: IV, 1971

If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break, [X2]
When The Levee Breaks I'll have no place to stay.

Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan, [X2]
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.

Don't it make you feel bad
When you're tryin' to find your way home,
You don't know which way to go?
If you're goin' down South
They go no work to do,
If you don't know about Chicago.

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

All last night sat on the levee and moaned, [X2]
Thinkin' about me baby and my happy home.
Going, going to Chicago... Going to Chicago... Sorry but I can't take you...
Going down... going down now... going down....

1927/2005 the same story repeats: leeve collapse, Missisipi floods and thousands of mainly poor black people met with disaster, left in their fates by authorities

We read in wikipedia very interesting information and interpretation for this great song:

The original work for "When the Levee Breaks" was produced by the blues musical duo known as "Kansas Joe McCoy" and "Memphis Minnie." The lines at the end of the song, "Going to Chicago; sorry but I can't take you", quote "Going to Chicago Blues" by Jimmy Rushing and the Count Basie Orchestra.

In the first half of 1927, the Great Mississippi Flood ravaged the state of Mississippi and surrounding areas. It destroyed many homes and ravaged the agricultural economy of the Mississippi Basin. Many people were forced to flee to the cities of the Midwest in search of work, contributing to the "Great Migration" of African Americans in the first half of the 20th century. During the flood and the years after it subsided, it became the subject of numerous Delta blues songs, including "When the Levee Breaks", hence the lyrics, "I works on the levee, mama both night and day, I works so hard, to keep the water away" and "I's a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan, gonna leave my baby, and my happy home".

The song focused mainly on when more than 13,000 residents in and near Greenville, Mississippi evacuated to a nearby, unaffected levee for its shelter at high ground. The tumult that would have been caused if this and other levees had broken was the song's underlying theme
……

The song has a significant second connotation, aside from the literal breaking of water-retaining levees by floodwaters. The song was inspired originally by an event rife with social strife (when the levees broke in 1927, black labor was forced to repair it at gunpoint), and this fact carries through in the lyrics. Plant expanded the lyrics to include such phrases as "If you're goin' down south / they got no work to do / if you don't know 'bout Chicago" that add to the original themes of the poor being disenfranchised--the poor, working classes are the ones whose homes are going to be destroyed by floodwaters, and they are the ones who will have nowhere to go afterward.

The second connotation of the song is built on an interesting twist. If the song is interpreted as a social statement reflecting class issues, then the poor themselves become the raging storm, restrained by oppressive (often governmental) institutions (the levees), and who will inevitably strike down what restrains them. In this interpretation, 'when the levee breaks,' it will be the former oppressors whose constructs are destroyed and who are cast out into the cold. In this interpretation, the song serves as a warning to oppressive upper classes that if they provoke a raging storm of social fury, they may sit on their social levee and "weep and moan," but "crying won't help [them], praying won't do [them] no good."

You can hear this song in youtube with a slide presentation from New Orleans hit by Katrina and leeve collapse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Ny9_CrUVY

MC5, Album: High Time 1971

Over and Over


People talkin 'bout solutions, over and over
'Bout how we need a revolution, over and over
I was talking 'bout ecology, over and over'
Bout how we'll be saved by technology, over and over

While the cat next door spends all his time
Trying to think up new antisocial crimes
I said no, I said hang on a minute now
I set let me outta hereI said no, no, no

People talking revolution, over and over
About a mass execution, over and over
Well I was working in a factory, over and over
Just trying to make it satisfactory, over and over

But all these inclinations toward manic frustration
I want my vaccination against castration
Vietnam, what a sexy war
Uncle Sam's a pimp, wants us to be whores,

I said no, I said I can't take much more of this
You better let me outta here
I said no, no, no
Oh you see I need a release for my frustration
Oh don't you see I can't hold my aggravation
Oh...no, no, no, no

I see people dyin', over and over
Why don't I sit around crying, over and over
I see people taking, over and over
Why don't I sit around waiting, over and over

The cop on the street wants us down on our needs
The president says we've got to have peace
The other cat says we need our liberation
The hippies telling us we're in the love generation

I said whoa, I said hang on a minute now
This can't go on much longerI said no, no, no

Over and over, over and overOver and over, over and over


This song is about the confusion and frustration the information and news avalance by Mass Media cause and the resulting passiveness and inactiveness of people. There is also a small reference to ecology, as one of the bad news we always hear by the Media, something that shows us that the environmental crisis was a quite popular theme of concern and anxiety in early 70s .

Poison

The partisans not the artisans
Are doing their dirty show
But i ripped my pants
Doing some dance
That i learned in France
And they think there ain'tnothin' to know

Used, abused
Locked up, beaten and fined
But i got free
Copped a plea
And i can see
That there ain't no freedombell gonna chime

This time
Truth and loveare my law and worship
Form and conscience my manifestation and guide
Nature and peace are my shelter and companion
Order is my attitude
Beauty and perfection
Are my attack

False faces
Fast company
A night of thrills
With no jealousy, no poison

Nobody's tool
Will be a public fool
To manipulate the masses
Who lie and cheat
And eat their meat
And think it's sweet
While the rest all clean their glasses
In status classes

This song has many hints against violence, and especially the bold part make a connection of love, peace and nature as some of the most gentle values to follow

you can hear in youtube MC5's highlights

kick out the jams

ramblin’ rose

Poppy by Edgar Broughton Band, Album: Edgar Broughton Band, 1971

I laid on a poppy
It laid on me
A lot of thinking
And did it all for free
I thought of you…..
I thought of you

I wanted to swim in the river
But I saw what they had done
All the fish are dying in there
and we ain’t got no sun

I thought of you…..
I thought of you

I wandered in a meadow
All that rubbish there
Look at them with the plastic picnic
Talking ‘bout the length of my hair

I laid on a poppy
It laid on me
A lot of thinking
And did it all for free
I thought of you…..
I thought of you

I wanted to swim in the river
But I saw what they had done
All the fish are dying in there
And we ain’t got no sun

I thought of you…..
I thought of you

I’m gonna take a walk in the country
Take a look at that big blue sky
Take a breath of that clean spring air
Before they say die

I thought of you…..
I thought of you

Here there is also a disapointing notice towards the disapearing Nature, polluted rivers, forests with plastic rubbish by visitors who prefer not to critisize their waste-producing way of life, but the long hairs of the true nature's childred, the hippies.

You can hear some songs from this band in you tube and in my space