Don't Go Near The Water: Songs with an environmental theme.

As the thread title suggests, I'm starting with 70s Beach Boys, Pacific Ocean BLue, but any direction people can take it would be great.

Burn On--Randy Newman

Spirit, Nature's Way
Canned Heat, So Sad (The World's In A Tangle)
Captain Beefheart, Blabber 'n' Smoke

Oooh, I'd forgotten about Nature's Way

Tony Scott - CO2 (The Greenhouse Effect)

Dramarama - What Are We Gonna Do?

"It's April 21st and everybody knows today is Earth Day..."

Suicide, Radiation

Hurricane Smith, Don't Let It Die

... that's a good one for ya!

Yes - Holy Lamb
Lloyd Cole - So You'd Like to Save the World

"Big Yellow Taxi"

"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"

Ecosongs

JARVIS STREET REVUE. canadian green party rock from 1970, i think. you got "mr. business man," "mr. oil man" and "20 years," which is quintessential hippy-dippiness.

"forget about your car a while and take a bike to work,
forget about your clean white shirt, you won't mind the dirt
when you're aliiiiiiiiive!"

also music machine "mother nature-father earth."

The Who (environmental theme, but anti-):

I don't care about pollution
I'm an air-conditioned gypsy
That's my solution
Watch the police and the taxman miss me!
I'm mobile!

Also Ten Years After:

World pollution, there's no solution
Institution, electrocution
Just black and white, rich or poor
Them and us, stop the war
I'd love to change the world
But I don't know what to do
So I'll leave it up to you

As for pro, I See Hawks in L.A. have a couple okay ones on their new album -- “Ever Since the Grid Went Down” and “Environmental Children of the Future.”

Albert Hammond: "Down by the River"

City life was getting us down so we spent a weekend out o' town
Pitched our tent on a patch of ground down by the river
Lit a fire and drank some wine you put your jeans on top of mine
I said: Come in, the water's fine down by the river

Down by the river, down by the river
Said: come in the water's fine down by the river

Didn't feel too good all night, so we took a walk in the morning light
And came across the strangest sight down by the river
Silver fish lay on it's side, it was washed up by the early tide
I wonder how it died down by the river

Down by the river, down by the river
A silver fish lay on it's side down by the river

The doctor put us both to bed, he dosed us up and he shook his head
'Only foolish people go', he said, 'down by the river'
'The mighty willows weep', said he, 'because they're dying gradually
From the waste from the factories down by the river'

Down by the river, down by the river
'Mighty willows weep', said he, 'down by the river'

In time the riverbanks will die, the reeds will wilt and the ducks won't fly
There'll be a tear in the otter's eye down by the river
The banks will soon be black and dead and where the otter raised his head
Will be a clean, white skull instead down by the river

Down by the river, down by the river
The banks will soon be black and dead down by the river
Down by the river, down by the river
The banks will soon be black and dead down by the river

'After The Goldrush'!

Black Sabbath, "Hole In The Sky"

"Apeman" by the Kinks mentions this sort of thing, along with general 20th Century Man sentiments of unhappiness with city life.

I think Im sophisticated
cos Im living my life like a good homosapien
But all around me everybodys multiplying
Till theyre walking round like flies man
So Im no better than the animals sitting in their cages
In the zoo man
cos compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an ape man
I think Im so educated and Im so civilized
cos Im a strict vegetarian
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians
I dont feel safe in this world no more
I dont want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an ape man
Im an ape man, Im an ape ape man
Im an ape man Im a king kong man Im ape ape man
Im an ape man
cos compared to the sun that sits in the sky
Compared to the clouds as they roll by
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an ape man
In mans evolution he has created the cities and
The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance
And Id be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle
cos the only time that I feel at ease
Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree
Oh what a life of luxury to be like an ape man
Im an ape, Im an ape ape man, Im an ape man
Im a king kong man, Im a voo-doo man
Im an ape man
I look out my window, but I cant see the sky
cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes
I want to get out of this city alive
And make like an ape man

"3.10 Smokey Thursday" by Danny O'Keefe is also worth hunting out, another 1970 ecological tract. Can't find the lyrics anywhere, but it's a goodie.

Springhouse may not have gotten much love in the Shoegaze poll, but "Layers" is as Green as it gets.

Sitting in transit
Car fumes breathe up smoke up to the sky
A layer is ransacked in Antarctica

But don't get lazy
When they start building cities underground
And don't get crazy, to keep us on the land and all around

I'm willing to take a stand
To keep us on the grass and on the land

Fish are dying
As sunlight starts to destroy their basic cells
People are crying
And years ago we were the first to yell

I'm willing to take a stand
To keep us on the grass and on the land

Peek through the tinted glass
To see if it is safe to go out once more
Dried out seas of purple grass
And you only thought this could happen in a nuclear war

I'm willing to take a stand
To keep us on the grass, to keep us on the land
To keep us on the grass and on the land

IIRC, even the packaging for Land Falls was ecofriendly. can't accuse them of preaching but not practicing.

"Out in the Country" written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. The most famous recorded version is Three Dog Night's, but there is also a version recorded by PW.

Before the breathin' air is gone
Before the sun is just a bright spot in the night-time
Out where the rivers like to run
I stand alone and take back somethin' worth rememberin'

Surely there are some global warming songs out there by now, about how Manhattan, or Amsterdam, or somewhere will be underwater...

John Luther Adams, The Place Where You Go To Listen

The Clean - "Safe in the Rain"
Robyn Hitchcock - "Love"

Don Cherry, "Blue Lake"

Courage of Lassie - "The Rainforest Falls"

Black Sabbath-Electric Funeral

BOC-Godzilla

"Pollution" - Tom Lehrer
"I Love The Escarpment" - Sarah Harmer

Dave Matthews Band, "Don't Drink the Water," "One Sweet World"

I can't believe no-one's mentioned "After the Gold Rush" yet.

Also, much later from Neil - "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)"

Also, this:

http://www.amazon.com/United-States-Mind-Horace-Silver/dp/B0002Y4TQ0

Is packed full of crazy hippie granola bar light jazz funk. I think it's just good enough to be hilarious, but everyone else I've played it for sees it as just wack bullshit.

wait guys, "After the Gold Rush"

!@#$%%$ internet explorer find function

Well, it's only gonna be about an hour, friend
'Til they dam your favorite river
So you can water-ski just one more reservior
And them supersonic ships are gonna take you
Cross a sea of pavement
To one more faceless brickyard on the shore

Yeah, it's only gonna be about an hour or so
'Til they rip off all your mountains, boy
And that one last tired old eagle bites the sand
And all of that high-and-mighty scenery's
Gonna be leveled to the ground, boy
By a bunch of them mindless strip mines on the land

Well, it's only gonna take about a minute or so
'Til the junkyards fill the prairies, boy
And them smokin' yellow grass fires start to burn
And the warnings on them beer cans
Gonna be buried in them landfills
No deposit, no sad songs, and no returns

Yeah, it's only gonna take about a minute or so
'Til the factories blot the sun out
You gonna have to turn your lights on just to see
And them lights are gonna be neon, sayin'
"Fly Our Jets To Paradise"
And the whole damn world is gonna be made of styrene

Yeah, it's only gonna be about a second, boy
'Til they take away all this country
And they'll tell you not to listen to this here song
And that far-off sound of freedom's
Gonna be an echo from the past
And the final tune is gonna be sad and long

And it's only gonna be about an eye-blink, boy
'Til they pull out the wool to blind us
So we just can't read all the messages on the wall
But the only words that matter
Oughta be scribbled all over them billboards
In big old black and bloody letters, ten feet tall

THERE WON'T BE NO COUNTRY MUSIC
THERE WON'T BE NO ROCK 'N' ROLL
'CAUSE WHEN THEY TAKE AWAY OUR COUNTRY
THEY'LL TAKE AWAY OUR SOUL

There Won't Be No Country Music (There Won't Be No Rock 'n' Roll) -- C.W. McCall

Selfless man slip by my side
Uttering words about the turning tide, and
She slowly furnishes my continuous ride
Towards insanitary bits of hide
Hair quite long and lavender-dyed
Split nostrils are green open wide
Velvet breasts with crimson legs astride
Uttering words about a turning tide
And she asks me can I ever provide
Transparent radiation
Transparent radiation
Oh, radiation
Transparent radiation
My liquid head open to the rain
I walk through a bushel and a peck of grain
I hear in my ear a hurricane
And speak to the man about a train
Touch with my hand an aeroplane
Eyes wide open on the coast of Maine
Red signs outside which I contain
Some sensuality that I can't explain, ah
Some sensuality that I can't explain
Transparent radiation
Transparent radiation
Oh, radiation
Transparent radiation
Tables bearing the fruits of Lent
Styrofoam people quite violent
Clear light blowing right out of my tent
Ozone over our continent
Expert men not knowing what they meant
They all eat babies for nourishment
Funny bird with her forehead bent
Slogans tell me that I can rent
Ah, yes they tell me that I can rent
Transparent radiation
Transparent radiation
Oh, radiation

Transparent Radiation -- Red Crayola (and Spacemen 3)

all of "earth rot" by david axelrod....

distant early warning by rush:

An ill wind comes arising
Across the cities of the plain
There's no swimming in the heavy water
No singing in the acid rain
Red alert
Red alert

Um, the complete Midnight Oil catalog.

they also had songs about miners and being nice to aborigines

She wore a black tiara
rare gems upon her fingers
and she came from distant waters
where northern lights explode
to celebrate the dawning
of the new wastes of winter
gathering royal momentum
on the icy road

With chill mists swirling
like petticoats in motion
sighted on horizons
for ten thousand years
the lady of the ice sounds
a deathly distant rumble
to Titanic-breaking children lost
in melting crystal tears

Capturing black pieces
in a glass-fronted museum
the white queen rolls
on the chessboard of the dawn
Squeezing through the valleys
pausing briefly in the corries
the ice mother mates
and a new age is born

Driving all before her
un-stoppable, un-straining
her cold creaking mass
follows reindeer down
Thin spreading fingers seek
to embrace the sill-warm bundles
that huddle on the doorsteps
of a white London Town

Oh, sunshine, take me now away from here
I'm a needle on a spiral in a groove
and the turntable spins
as the last waltz begins
and the weather-man says
something's on the move

Something's On the Move -- Jethro Tull (you didn't say they had to be good songs)

no 'monkey gone to heaven'? curiouser and curiouser...

Mothers of Invention, Nine Types of Industrial Pollution
Frank Zappa, Outrage At Valdez

... both instrumental but what the hell

"White Coats", "I Love The World" by New Model Army

"Butcher" by Killing Joke

All of Peggy Suicide by Julian Cope

Dead Kennedys - Moon Over Marin

Probably a whole load of songs by self-described "green anarchists" Oi Polloi

Poco, Blue Water

depeche mode - the landscape is changing

World Party is another band where pretty much any random song has at least a 50% chance of being all treehuggy.

Dr. Octagon, "Trees"
Mos Def, "New World Water"

Other hiphop?