5 More Years - Environmental Protest Songs

What if the only big trees were in the museum, and it cost a dollar and a half just to see them?

Few things encapsulate the times as much as a protest song. Across the decades many songwriters/eco-activists have used their talents to both entertain and warn us of ongoing environmental degradation and collapse.

"A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for BS", said Phil Ochs. That is why some of my favourite tunes are protest songs, specifically, environmental protest songs. They are like bathroom tissue for the mind, wiping away the cultural programming bullshit.

Environmentalism has been the focus of music since about the 1940s. However, the earliest environmental protest song, called "Woodman Spare That Tree", was published way back in 1837.  

That old familiar tree, 

Whose glory and renown 

Are spread o'er land and sea, 

And wouldst thou hack it down? 

Woodman, forbear thy stroke! 

Cut not its earth, bound ties; 

Oh! spare that ag-ed oak 

Now towering to the skies!

The 1960s, which ushered in the folk music era, was a hotbed of environmental protest songs. In 1966 Pete Seeger created what is considered the first enviro-focused album called "God Bless The Grass". I was a five year old environmentalist at the time.

God bless the grass that grows through the crack. 

They roll the concrete over it to try and keep it back.

The concrete gets tired of what it has to do 

It breaks and it buckles and the grass grows thru 

And God bless the grass

In 1970 Joni Mitchel released one of my favourite environmental protest songs of all time, "Big Yellow Taxi". I was 9, and did not want to have to go to a tree museum when I grew up.

They took all the trees 

And put them in a tree museum 

Then they charged the people 

A dollar and a half just to see 'em

When I was 10, David Bowie wrote an enviro protest song that has become one of my favourites, even if it is terrifically sad. It is a song called "Five More Years". In this prescient poem he describes an Earth doomed to destruction. 

News guy wept and told us  

Earth was really dying 

Cried so much his face was wet 

Then I knew he was not lying 

We've got five years  

stuck on my eyes 

Five years  

What a surprise 

We've got five years 

My brain hurts a lot 

Five years 

That's all we've got

We made it past 1971, but how much longer do we have now? 5000 years? 500? 50? Or perhaps 5 years? If we knew, would we live differently? Would work and status and the acquisition of stuff continue to be major goals? 

Or would we cast all of that aside to concentrate on the well being of all, and the enjoyment of our beautiful planet in the time we had left?

Five years 

I hope we have more. 

Five years 

This is such a bore. 

Five years 

it scares me a lot 

Five years - is that all we've got?

An effective environmental protest song cuts through the BS, and leaves a lasting impression. The songs I have highlighted here have affected a lot of lives, including mine. 

The enviro-protest song format is still going strong (although perhaps not AS strong as previous socially/environmentally conscious times), because the need to prompt people to action still exists, and the problems have only got worse. 

Check out the Cactus Blossoms' tune "Change Your Ways Or Die" on our sidebar, for one example. 

I look forward to a time when the Earth is so cared for by humanity that we no longer need protest songs. Will that happen in my lifetime? Maybe if we collectively demand it, and make it a priority.

Do you have a favourite environmental protest song?