Earth Day is a day to increase awareness of our planet's environmental problems, to encourage everyone to get interested in our ecology and promote Earth's health. We need alternative fuels, the sun and the wind, conservation and less waste. Even saving electricity for 1 hour does a lot to help.
Pull on your green shirt. Here are some of the best rock songs to play on Earth Day:
1 - Death of Mother Nature Suite by Kansas, tells the story of Mother Earth's waning life.
Every day she gets a little weaker... We've strangled all her trees and starved her creatures,
There's poison in the sea and in the air ... Kerry Livgren and Kansas wrote many songs about treating the Earth better. The violin guitar arena rock band was active for years in ecology and peace. This song tops our list for Earth Day.
2 - Songs from the Wood by Jethro Tull. Another great band with dozens of pro-Earth songs (The Whaler's Dues, Velvet Green, Heavy Horses, Farm on the Freeway, more...)
3 - Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) by Marvin Gaye. He saw it coming before many of us, and he sang about it in 1971. Marvin Gaye sang of how we're destroying our earth; maybe he heard it through the Grape Vine.
4 - Mother Earth (Natural Anthem) by Neil Young. Throughout four decades Neil Young has been an activist for peace and for ecology. This song was written just for the occasion.
5 - The Trees by Rush. The song can be interpreted in many ways, even about segregation or how quickly we go to war. But bottom line, it's about the struggle of the Trees, so how can we pass it up?
6 - Winds of Change by Jefferson Starship (Grace Slick/Pete Sears).Grace Slick gets to sing 2 songs on our list, in 2 different decades. This is a song about the changing environment and how change is inevitable. Mountains crumble and cities fall, don't come to an end... We need to act now to make the changes positive.
7 - Panda by Jefferson Airplane. Grace Slick has often picked up the cause of ecology over several decades, and this is her second song in our list. We could also include Volunteers, as we all need to volunteer and participate to save earth, which would give her a third track, but we'll stop there.
8 - The Shape of Things by the Yardbirds. Even in the 60s these guys knew we had to wake up and save the world to come. (Come Tomorrow) Now the trees are almost green. But will they still be seen? ...
9 - Mission (A World Record) by ELO (Electric Light Orchestra). The song tells the story of space travelers watching the Earth, so beautiful from above but dying down below. A bit morose, but fitting. This song stirs up Earth-saving emotions.
10 - Don't Kill it Carol by Manfred Mann's Earth Band (MMEB).
Oh Carol oh, won't you let this flower grow, Don't kill it, Carol. "Earth Hymn" is another appropriate track by MMEB.
11 - Dont Kill the Whale by Yes (Jon Anderson). While this song is from the Tormato LP, you could also include the whole of Tales from Topographic Oceans as an Earth Day long-play (Roger Dean cover included and intact).
12 - The Ocean by Led Zeppelin
13 -- White Man by Queen, about the Native Americans watching us pillage the land.
14 - Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles (George Harrison). Generally a feel-good track that just sounds like hope. Can we harness that sun into solar energy? Here comes the solar panel.
15 - All the World by Kansas. (Dust in the Wind, and Point of Know Return are also fitting songs by the same band, Kansas, along with our top track.)
16 - Green Day by Green Day
17 - The Forest by The Cure
18 - Last Man on Earth by Alice Cooper
19 - A Pillow of Winds by Pink Floyd
20 - Planet Earth by Duran Duran
Honorable Mention: "Against the Wind" by Bob Segar.
There you have it: now you can make a mix CD to play during your Earth Day celebration event. Please just make sure your CD player is on solar power or attached to a windmill.
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