“I wrote it in the mid-80s when it seemed like everything was going to end. “In California, the body counts keep getting higher/It’s evil out there, man that state is always on fire,” sings Wainwright, on a track that features the deft acoustic bass work of the great Danny Thompson. His 1986 song “Hard Day On The Planet” was eerily prescient, with lyrics about “a new disease every day” and a reference to the burning forests of California. Satire about environmentalism is a hard trick to pull off in songwriting, but few are better equipped to do it than the droll doomsayer Loudon Wainwright. 26: Loudon Wainwright: Hard Day On The Planet (1986) The bleak lyrics – “The landscape is crying/Thousands of acres of forest are dying” – came at a time when the world was seeing a marked acceleration in deforestation. It was Wilder who composed the band’s urgent message about “taking good care of the world” in the environmental song “The Landscape Is Changing,” which appeared on the 1983 album Construction Time Again. He quickly established himself as an influential member of the band and his songwriting became an important part of the band’s repertoire.

The lyrics, co-written by Cyrus with Antonina Armato, Tim James, and Aaron Dudley, are simple and heartfelt (“Everything I read/global warming, going green/I don’t know what all this means/but it seems to be saying/wake up, America, we’re all in this together”), and were important because the platinum-certified album reached a huge young fanbase and brought environmental issues into their consciousness.Ĭlick to load video 27: Depeche Mode: The Landscape Is Changing (1983)Īlan Wilder joined Depeche Mode in 1982 after answering an anonymous advertisement in Melody Maker for a young synthesizer player. Greta Thunberg is the 21st-century’s most famous teenage environmental activist – the young Swede even performed on a 2019 climate song with The 1975 – but perhaps the most famous environmental song by a teenager was Miley Cyrus’s hit “Wake Up America,” which the former Disney starlet released on her 2008 album Breakout. She was also once arrested for protesting the Vietnam War. Baez was an activist who marched side by side with Martin Luther King against racial segregation. Baez’s version of “Rejoice In The Sun,” which had “Silent Running” as the B-side, was issued as a single by Decca Records in 1971, before the film was even screened. The song was composed by Peter Schickele and Diane Lampert, the only lyricist jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley ever worked with. Folk singer Joan Baez recorded two songs for the soundtrack, the most famous of which is “Rejoice In The Sun,” a song that celebrates the power of natural life. Silent Running was a cult environmental-themed science fiction thriller, starring Bruce Dern, which was about a time when plant life on Earth had become extinct. Though we weren’t able to squeeze in all our favorites – and had to leave out wonderful songs by Ken Boothe (“The Earth Dies Screaming”), The Byrds (“Hungry Planet”), Peter Gabriel (“Here Comes The Flood”) and Country Joe McDonald (“Save The Whales”) – we scoured reggae, jazz, country, folk, soul, rock and pop for songs both disturbing and inspiring.Ĭlick to load video 29: Joan Baez: Rejoice In The Sun (1971) To mark Earth Day, we have selected our 30 best environmental songs. As global warming continues to wreak havoc, acres of forest are cut down without a thought for tomorrow, and finding a peaceful oasis on our old Earth is harder than ever before, it seems clear that these songs will only become more relevant. The best Earth Day songs, then, reflect not only the ways in which our planet has changed over the years, but also the ways in which we have expressed concern over its survival.

Songs about the natural world, including those by Woody Guthrie, have been around since the 40s, and many of the greatest songwriters have penned compositions about the planet on which we all exist. ( work publisher - NOT related to the Island imprint now owned by UMG) Polygram Music Blue Mountain Music Ltd.Every year, on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement. Bono ( singer of U2) Adam Clayton The Edge ( U2 guitarist David Evans) Larry Mullen, Jr.Ĭhappell Music ( UK) Gallo Music Island Music ( Island Music Ltd.) Island Music, Inc.

A day without me lyrics u2