1. |
||||
Questions to ask an urban 4x4 driver
Chorus
Hey you, in your SUV
Showing off your property
In your gas guzzling, smart new car
Who the hell do you think you are?
Flattening the earth and poisoning the air
Why don't you care?
Do you know how many die in the fight
To get the oil to feed your heart's delight?
Do you know how many suffer
From Colombia to Nigeria?
Do you know how far the poison's spread
How many dead?
Chorus
Do you see the rivers running black
Or will you only turn your back?
Do you choke on the polluted air
or do you really just not care?
Do you know how many more must die
Or wonder why?
Chorus
Do you see the stricken fish and birds
Or hear the cries across the world
Are you afraid of sounds of war
Or do you just want more and more
Do you ever stop, or even try
To wonder why?
Barren earth, and poisoned sea
Is this how we want the world to be?
See http://www.stopurban4x4s.org.uk/ for news and ideas from the Alliance against Urban 4x4's
|
||||
2. |
||||
Life
It isn't just me, it isn't just you,
That helps things along
We all fit together – like the notes in a song
What makes the garden grow?
It isn't just you or me – we know
It's the rain and the sun and the soil and the seed
The butterfly and the troublesome weed
The silent worm, and the buzzing bee
All fit together with you and me.
We like to think we're in control
Of pretty much everything
But just remember what happens
When we start to sing
Many voices join together
One big sound comes out
It isn't just you, it isn't just me
That it's all about.
Things just grow because they have to
Without the help of me or you
And we are part of all that ever grew
We live life – and life lives us too.
It isn't just me, it isn't just you,
That helps things along
We all fit together – like the notes in a song
What makes the garden grow?
It isn't just you or me – we know
It's the rain and the sun, and the soil and the seed
The butterfly, and the troublesome weed
Winter gales and the summer breeze,
New young leaves on ancient trees
The soaring eagle, flying free
All fit together with you and me
|
||||
3. |
||||
Take the Britishness Test
A safe just tolerant society
Is what the Home Office wants for you and me
And all those hopeful immigrants who thought they might be free
In our safe, just tolerant society.
But if you want to stay you've got to prove you're a Brit
Take the Britishness test, and get the certificate
Do you know the rules about buying a beer?
You'd better get it right - or you can't stay here
They say they believe in integration
And they wouldn't dream of assimiliation
But you've got to pass the examination
To be part of the great British nation
If you're a medic or an engineer
You've definitely got a safe place here
But if you're trying to escape rape or murder
You may just have to travel further.
Do you know what the Queen does for a job?
How many people keep a dog?
How can you find out the number of the zoo -
And at New Year what do the Welsh do?
All these examples were taken from the first edition of the book 'Life in the UK' that potential British citizens have to study before their test to see if they qualify for full Britishness and a passport (separate fees for the test and the passport)
|
||||
4. |
Masters of Intervention
02:16
|
|||
Masters of Intervention
Masters of intervention
Don't even mention
The profits they want to make
They just keep raising the stakes
They tell us they believe in democracy,
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Well I don't feel happy when you destroy the earth
Kill children, or mothers about to give birth
I don't feel happy about the billions you make
Selling weapons to whoever will take them
I don't feel happy with tanks on the roads
Or planes taking off with their deadly loads
Masters of deception
Tell us we don't understand
They've got it all worked out
They've got a plan.
Well I don't want you to control the rest
Of the world to do what you think best
Your notion of liberty leaves the rest of the world in poverty
I don't like your tariffs and your free trade agreements
As you grab resources from every continent
I don't want you playing with your new war toys
Strutting around being bully boys
You say you'll get rid of weapons of mass destruction
But it's different in your own land -
That's terrorist prevention...
Masters of destruction
Say the wars they wage are just
It's always the other side
That's in the wrong.
But who gets killed in all these wars?
Who is dying for whose cause?
Your violent ideology
Makes human rights a mockery
The latest drone technology
Kills from a distance - shockingly
When murder's by remote control
It doesn't make it moral
We've seen it all before we know
War doesn't take us where we want to go
Dedicated to all victims of Western 'regime change'
|
||||
5. |
Democracy
01:28
|
|||
Democracy
Democracy, democracy
The blessing of the West 'cos the West knows best
Democracy, democracy
The neo-liberal fantasy
And if there' s an ideological clash then we'll have a bash to make them do
What we want, cos we know we're right , we can win this fight and the future's bright
Democracy, democracy
From the land of the free to you and me
Democracy, democracy
Set the global markets free.
You can rise up against your oppressive regimes
And we'll send in tanks and submarines
To help - if we can make a profit or two,
But if not we'll leave it up to you...
Democracy, democracy
A corporate ideology
Is meant to make us all feel free -
Why is it that we disagree?
Consumer choice is just a lie
We buy and sell as the forests die
Monetary or military - these systems cannot set us free
Corruption rules in every state
Elections fuel fear and hate...
Democracy, democracy
The blessing of the West 'cos the West knows best
Democracy, democracy
The neo-liberal fantasy
Democracy, democracy,
From the land of the free to you and me
Democracy, democracy
Not to be confused with - Liberty.
|
||||
6. |
||||
The Ant and the Grasshopper - The Fable Retold
Grasshopper sang in the fields all day
Everybody loved to hear her play
She sang with the sun, she sang with the moon
But the summer ended far too soon
Then the days grew shorter and the nights got colder
And Grasshopper started to feel pangs of hunger.
Ant worked away the summer long
Didn't have time to sing any songs
Biting anyone in her way
Certainly didn't have time to play
But when the nights got colder and the days grew shorter
Ant would be able to feed her daughter.
'Ant, could you spare me a bite to eat?
I'm feeling rather thin and weak
I'm losing my will and strength to play
Finding it hard to get through the day
The nights are long and it's getting colder
And this poor grasshopper's feeling older.'
'What have you been doing the summer long?
Wasting time, singing your song
Your life is not at all constructive
You certainly havn't been productive
You're an idle scrounger, you deserve to die
I'm not going to share my food supply!'
'Nobody likes you because you bite
And you don't sing under the moon at night
You're prepared to steal other creatures' food
And claim you're working for the common good
When the nights get warm and the days grow long
Then you will certainly miss my song!'
Ant turned away with a hardened heart
She had targets to meet, and problems with staff
She could see Grasshopper fading away
On a chilly winter's day
But when the summer came back
And the days grew long
Faintly she could hear a familiar song.
What's the point in working all day
And never having time to play
If we won't share what we have with others
Treat the whole world as our neighbours?
We'll re-write the story, so we'll all be free
Living in peace and harmony
I've always hated this particular one of Aesop's fables since I first heard it as a child. It's so unfair!
|
||||
7. |
||||
The Complaint of the Cockcroach
You despise us, criticise us, try to paralyse us
Call us vermin, want to wipe us out
You say there's too many of us - but we'd like to know
Why is it US that have to go?
You're doubling your species every day
Who's going to drive you lot away?
You're stealing the land, the sea and the air
And we say - that's not FAIR
There's too many of you - don't you see
You've already exceeded the earth's capacity
You're a plague and a crisis, you're out of all proportion
When will you learn to exercise some caution?
It isn't just you - it's your shopping and machines
Your industrial chemicals that you think make you clean
Everywhere you go you leave a trail of destruction
Chaos and poison from your mass production
You're the single biggest ecological disaster
Yet you keep multiplying faster and faster
With your houses, cars and pets and your families that grow
Where are the rest of us meant to go?
You make agricultural deserts where the rest of us can't thrive
You think it's the only way to stay alive
But how will you survive here all on your own?
It'll be a lonely planet when we've all gone
But when it comes to survival we've got the edge on you
There's no catastrophe we won't be able to get through
When your world collapses and you realise it's the end
Then you may wish you'd been a better friend
To the rest of us, who crawl or fly
Tunnel underground, or buzz through the sky
To the creatures you call pests, and a waste of space -
You may finally recognise we all have our place
But it'll be too late, if you don't act now
Realise your mistakes, and work out how
You can share the earth with the rest of us here
You've got to stop reproducing - isn't that clear?
You despise us, criticise us, try to paralyse us
Call us vermin, want to wipe us out
You say there's too many of us - but we'd like to know
Which one of us will be the first to go?
See www.populationmatters.org, if you are concerned about the continuing expansion of the human ecological footprint
|
||||
8. |
Floating
02:20
|
|||
Floating
Swimming on a summer's day, floating in the sea
Resting on the waves, sweetly free
Remember there was a time when this could never be
If you float you're damned, you must be a witch
You're a child of Satan, a whore and a bitch
You may work healing with potions and herbs
You may bring children into the world
But you have powers that make us afraid
You're a role model we must eradicate.
Floating on a summer's day, sweetly free
One with the rest of life in the sea
Dolphins, fish and whales, let them be, let them be
If you want to be saved you must drown
Be the best bride of Christ in town
Consider the common good - obliterate yourself, that you should
There's no place for women like you
Who take control over what they do
Who know their minds and use their power
They're bound for hell and eternal fire
Floating on a summer's day, swimming in the sea
One with the ocean of life, sweetly free
Singing with the waves - let her be, let her be...
During the bloody inquisition in Europe, women accused of witchcraft were thrown into deep water. Supposedly, if they were innocent, they would drown anyway. If they did not drown, they were assumed 'guilty', tortured and then burnt to death.
All over the world, women have been, and still are, murdered simply for being women.
|
||||
9. |
The Other
01:15
|
|||
The Other
Whom do you find before you?
A friend, a sister, a brother?
Or do you only find the other,
The other?
What do you call out?
A name or a number?
Do you hear yourself in the voice of the other,
The voice of the other?
So life turns around
And we become the other
And we lose our names
And we are only numbers, only numbers
Whom do you find before you
A friend, a mother, a lover?
Or do you only find the other,
The other?
|
||||
10. |
Children
05:28
|
|||
Sing with the Children
Sing with the children, speak with the children
Dream with the children, sing for the children
They will inherit the earth, though they never asked for it
What will we leave them, what will we leave them?
Will we leave them a desert, or will we leave them fertile land
Will we leave them a war zone - or will we leave them peace?
Will we leave them forests and the sacred trees
Or will we leave them a concrete waste?
What will we leave them?
Will we leave them the oceans and the roaring surf
And the life that clings to the rocks at low tide?
Will we leave them rivers, and clear water
Or will we leave them poison, hunger and thirst?
They will inherit the earth, though they never asked for it..
Will we leave them the creatures that roam across the earth,
Or will we leave them fading memories?
Will we leave them Spring and the Dawn Chorus,
Or will we leave them silence and death?
What will we leave them?
Will we leave them laughter and the joy of life
Or will we leave them anger and hate ?
Will we leave them freedom and imagination
Or will we leave them prisons of despair?
Will we leave them wisdom, and the power of healing
And will we leave them poetry and song?
They will inherit the earth, though they never asked for it...
What will we leave them?
|
||||
11. |
Get out of your car
02:43
|
|||
Get out of your car
Get out, get out, get out, get out
Get out, get out, get out of your car
Get out, get out, get out, get out
Get out of your car
You could try dancing in the street
You could arrange to meet
A friend by bus or foot or bike
You might even find you like it
Millions of square miles of the planet
Covered in car-parks, roads and tarmac
We could use for growing food -
Then we wouldn't need trucks to bring us food
And we wouldn't need the roads to carry the trucks
Have to look in both directions
'Cos of death on wheels approaching
We just want to walk in peace
Have space for kids to play in safety
Air to breathe that isn't nasty
Sounds to hear that aren't machines..
Lives to live that have some meaning
Even without automation
Transport's hard if you're disabled
But we would all be enabled
If we lived our lives more slowly-
Took the time to think more clearly-
Didn't think the world was just
Made in heaven to please us
We can't fly like eagles
We don't dive like ducks
We depend on technology
Which was meant to set us free
But it looks like we're heading for catastrophe ......
Get out of your car...
(A city cyclist's viewpoint)
|
||||
12. |
No More Shopping
02:08
|
|||
What on Earth are we going to do?
If we want to save the islands and the polar bears
We need to make big changes everywhere
Bio-fuels cannot feed us
Nuclear power brings diseases
What on earth are we going to do?
A world run for profit is not sustainable
We can't go on expanding more and more.
We need to change the way we live
Take much less and learn to give
Not destroy the earth with war.
Turn off computers, travel less
Grow and eat our food locally
Don't waste money on the military
Invest in solar energy
That's what we're going to do.
Talk to your neighbours,
Switch off the mobile phone
Forget the stereo and start to sing
Watch the stars, enjoy the flowers
Work less – and with the extra hours
You can be happy gardening.
Do we really need to buy so many versions of one thing
Mostly made in countries far away?
If instead of going on shopping sprees
We took the time to care for trees
We could grow a forest in a day.
|
||||
13. |
||||
The Ballad of the Maytime Mermaids
'Twas on a lovely summer night, the loch was smooth and calm
Three women got into a boat, preparing to disarm
They took an angle-grinder, some hacksaws and a drill
And waited for the moment when all around was still.
Disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm
Upholding international law, we sail off to disarm.
They got a little nervous when the engine wouldn't start
Luckily it came to life and so they could depart
Angie navigated, slightly red and hot
But soon they crossed the water and reached their chosen spot.
Disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm
To end the threat of nuclear crime we sail off to disarm.
They reached the Maytime base, no police or guards were there
For three long hours they worked away,and stripped the whole place bare
With the last computer overboard, they took a well-earned rest
Had their picnic and waited, knowing they'd done their best.
Disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm
Justice will be done, as we sail off to disarm.
And now a strange new habitat has formed for creatures down below
Round fax machines and modems, the waving weeds do grow
The jelly fish are singing, the women can take heart
In transforming the nuclear-military threat, at least they've made a start.
Disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm, disarm
Transforming weapons into life, we peacefully disarm.
In 1999 Ellen Moxley, Ulla Roder and Angie Zelter went on to 'Maytime' an accoustic research barge in Loch Goil, Scotland and threw overboard computers and equipment relating to the Trident nuclear submarines, causing £80,000 worth of damage.
Their defence that they were acting to prevent the crime of preparations for mass murder was accepted in court, and the presiding judge, Sheriff Gimblett, instructed the jury to find them not guilty.
|
||||
14. |
Public Safety
02:24
|
|||
Public Safety
Who is it that you protect
With your policy?
You say it's for the public good
But you're searching for an enemy
Shot to kill, shoot to kill
Who gave the order?
Shoot to kill, shoot to kill,
It's not the people's will - is this democracy?
You want to take away our right to disagree
Make protest a crime - end civil liberty
Exclusion zones and barricades make out we're the enemy
But arms dealers are welcome - sheer hypocrisy!
Shoot to kill, shoot to kill, we never did agree
Shoot to kill, shoot to kill - who is guilty?
Never put to a vote, in case we disagree
Never put through parliament - no accountability
You hope your propaganda will keep us in apathy.
Who is it that you protect
With your security?
An innocent man is murdered - and you call this public safety?
Shoot to kill, shoot to kill
We never did agree
Shoot to kill, shoot to kill
Who is guilty?
We must all take responsibility
Your propaganda will not keep us in apathy.
In memory of Jean Charles de Menezes, murdered by London Metropolitan police on the London Underground, 22nd July, 2005 - an innocent victim of the 'war on terror'
|
||||
15. |
Song of the Arms Dealer
01:40
|
|||
Song of the Arms Dealer
If you want an Uzi or an AK47
Just step my way to armaments heaven
I'm here to help you with professional advice
I tell it how it is, I don't tell lies.
I mind when my neighbour won't talk to me
She knows what I do and she doesn't agree.
But I'm a nice bloke, loving and giving
Just doing my job, earning a living.
You can't have morals when you're in this game
You're not the one who should take the blame.
If all the states want to blow each other up
We shouldn't try to stop them - it'd be bad luck.
Well I know it's a shame to die before your time
I hope my children reach their prime
But we can't afford to be sentimental
Business is business - it's not gentle.
So forget those photos of the wounded and dying
Stop your ears so you don't hear the crying
I can offer you a really good price -
Leave compassion at home - that's my advice
Step this way for the best deals in town
Don't let the pacifists get you down
This is the arms dealers' paradise
We tell it how it is - we don't tell lies
(From the opera 'Soya Susie and the Gene Dictators', based on an actual interview read in a newspaper)
|
||||
16. |
||||
Flights of Shame
In the back of the holiday flight there's someone shackled, crying to be free
Beaten up, throttled, silenced by private security
Sent back to death and torture by a shameful policy.
Remember Jimmy Mubenga
Remember Joy Gardner
Remember Faith and her children, and all the other exiles looking for peace
Who have suffered or died at the hands of immigration.
Our wars of aggression and our economic policies make innocent people into refugees.
We have no right to deny them sanctuary
Shame on us to deny them sanctuary.
To avoid embarrassment, the European governments charter flights of shame.
Like KQ 101, the Shame of Africa - death flight could be its other name.
Our post-colonial policies make people into refugees,
We have no right to deny them sanctuary.
Remember all the children and families
Seized from their homes at dawn
Crying with terror, locked in vans, driven for hours, held in detention indefinitely.
How can you justify such a policy?
We have no right to deny them sanctuary - shame on us to deny them sanctuary.
Jimmy Mubenga died in 2010 while being deported from Heathrow to Angola. Three G4S security staff who used violent 'restraint techniques' were arrested subsequently and are still undergoing investigation but at the time of writing no-one has been charged with his murder.
Joy Gardner, originally from Jamaica, died in hospital in 1993 after a struggle with police and an immigration officer who came to to her home in London to serve a deportation order. Her head was bound with tape until she suffocated and went into a coma.
The three police were acquitted of manslaughter in 1995.
Nigerian Faith and her three small children were snatched in a dawn raid from their home in Birmingham and taken to a detention centre. Subsequently the children saw their mother beaten up by guards who tried to force them onto a flight to Italy.
See 'Outsourcing Abuse' by Birnberg Peirce and Partners, Medical Justice and NCADC
KQ101 - Kenya Airways - the so-called 'Pride of Africa' , Flight KQ 101 flies deported asylum seekers from Heathrow to Kenya, from whence people are returned to countries with dubious human rights records all over the continent of Africa, such as DC Congo and Cameroon.
|
||||
17. |
Reach Out
02:23
|
|||
Reach Out
Remember that fear and hate are tools of a repressive state
We can only reach out, try to connect
And when the debts are called in
How many will stand
On the side of unjust power and the side of war,
And how many will choose to take another way
Create the change we need today?
We can only share another kind of world
|
||||
18. |
The People are Dancing
02:33
|
|||
The People are Dancing
In the North West of Ireland they found gas in the sea
The Dail and the oilmen were jumping with glee
They'd pipe it up the estuary,and over the land
Bu the locals took control, and foiled their plan.
They wanted to refine it there too, don;t you know
At Ballinaboy, where the forest used to grow
They moved tonnes of peat, and underneath they found
Aluminium in the ground.
Shell came to build the pipeline, but the people said NO
The pressure's too high - we think it'll blow
Bog is damp and unstable, the pipes will soon rust
You're a bunch of politicians that we cannot trust.
We've been fishing for years in Broadhaven Bay
And there's dolphins and whales and salmon at play
If Shell gets their way, they'll fill it with waste
How could they defile such a beautiful place?
And at last Shell had to shell out
Too afraid to defend themselves in court
But all the millions of compensation
Won't bring back the dead of the Ogoni nation.
Then they started attacking Broadhaven Bay
Pushing the fishing boats out of their way
For defending his community, the Chief got given
Seven long months in Mountjoy prison.
But the people know what they have to lose
The way of Shell is not what they choose
They'll fulfil the Mayo prophecy
And make the last stand for liberty.
Take heed you politicians, and Shell make no mistake
The whole world is watching and the West is awake
You won't get your way with bullying and bribes
The people are dancing - dancing for their lives..
Since 2001, the people of Erris, in NW Mayo, Ireland, have been resisting a consortium of companies led by Shell, who plan to transport raw gas at high pressure from the offshore Corrib Gas Field to be processed inland at a refinery in Glengad, in NW Mayo, Ireland. Transporting large quantities of gas at such high pressure, across a residential area, is unprecedented, and poses huge risks to health and safety. It would cause irrevocable damage to an unspoilt, environmentally protected region.
Ireland has created such favourable conditions for the oil and gas companies that the project has been dubbed the 'Great Gas Giveaway'.
Local people opposing the project have suffered extreme violence and intimidation from the Garda (Irish police) as well as private security. Many have been arrested and imprisoned, including the 'Rossport Five' who refused to comply with a High Court order allowing Shell access to their land to construct the pipeline, and the 'Chief', fisherman Patrick O'Donnell, who also had his fishing boats impounded because he refused to stop working when the Solitaire arrived in Broadhaven Bay to lay the offshore section of pipeline.
During the course of the struggle many international connections have been made with other fence-line communities, especially the Ogoni in the Niger Delta.
In 2009 Shell agreed in an out of court settlement to pay £6.9 million compensation to the families of the 'Ogoni Nine' - Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others, who were hanged in 1995 because of their opposition to Shell and the Nigerian government.
The title of the song refers to Ken Saro-Wiwa's poem 'Dance the guns to silence' -
'Dance your anger and your joys, dance the guns to silence'
See www.shelltosea.com
|
||||
19. |
Hurricane
03:59
|
|||
Hurricane
The hurricane blows, and the people have nowhere to go
Government leaders ring their hands - another natural disaster, they say
What a shame
But the companies mined the soil that rooted the trees
That stopped the rivers flooding
And there's nowhere left to go...
They're killing our earth, and we've nowhere left to run to
They've stolen our heritage - and all they give us back are deserts of lies, empty promises, and desolation.
The companies say they care, plant new trees, give money to the schools - greenwash their reputation
But we know that it's lies, when the rest of the world lives in deprivation
Hunger is real when rotting crops mean starvation
They're killing our earth, and there's nowhere left to run to
The oceans are poisoned - and who takes the blame?
The ways of war are killing us all
The oil refineries blaze - the rivers run with poison
So much life lost - the orchids and the trees, the birdsong
And the children playing
They're killing our earth, and we've only got each other left to run to
And our wisdom, and our strength and our sense of connection
Here, here in our hearts, we hold the future generations
We can only go on, try to halt the destruction
The earth is reborn every day with acts of love and transformation.
Written after Hurricane Mitch caused massive floods in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras in 1998. Thousands of people died or had their homes destroyed and the banana crop - a mainstay of the economy - was decimated
|
||||
20. |
We have a choice
02:51
|
|||
We have a choice
We have a choice
We can always change direction even when all paths seem to end in confusion
We have a choice
We can always make decisions, find out the truth, act on our knowledge
When we reach out, find ourselves in the other
We can work together, share our power
We can work together, listen to each other,
Find out who we could be, and what we have become
When we learn to be as whole as we can be
Then we can return, find out what we have lost
Listen to the forest, listen to the ocean, listen to the rest of life
We have a choice, nothing can last for ever
We can always change, life is movement
We can work together, listen to each other, we can become what we need to be
For the forest to survive, for the creatures to run wild, for the rivers to run free
For life to be
We have a choice
|
||||
21. |
||||
Keep the oil in the ground
Keep the oil in the ground
Leave the land with the people who respect it
First nations, guardians of the earth
Keepers of the sacred.
When will enough be enough?
Don't take, don't take, don't keep on taking
All to keep a bloated economy growing
All to keep the weapons factories going
All to keep the people trapped in a system addicted to consumption
Rushing headlong for destruction
Don't keep on taking - when will enough be enough?
All to try and stop the people thinking
Feeling, finding new ways of being
All to keep the power in the institutions, so they can control the revolutions
But life could be so easy, and we could have heaven on earth
Keep the oil in the ground
Keep the weapons unmade
Keep the wars unfought
Keep the oil in the ground, keep the gold in the ground, the uranium in the ground
Don't take, Don't keep on taking
|
||||
22. |
The Time is Now
02:46
|
|||
The Time is Now
Reclaim the common land
Reclaim the common right
Keep the vision burning bright
The future is behind
The past lies ahead
Woven together with a timeless thread.
Open the prisons
Set free the dreamers
Don't be fooled by the lies and hate
Untie the borders,
Unwind the fences
Don't be fooled by the terrorist state.
Governments may try
To divide us all
Bu the strongest barrier
In time must fall
And we rise up again, in the dawn of another day
Reclaim the common will and find our common way.
Shut the army bases
Free the corporate spaces
Tear down the detention centres
Remember the past
Look to the future
Reclaim the present, the time is now
Reclaim the common land
Reclaim the common right
Keep the vision burning bright
Remember the past
Look to the future
Reclaim the present, the time is now
Our lives and the earth are not for sale
Reclaim our lives, the time is now
Written for a commemoration of the Chartists' mass meeting on Kennington Common in 1848. Although the Chartist movement did not immediately achieve any of its aims, it was of great significance and later in time, all its demands were realised, including the legalisation of trade unions and, eventually, universal suffrage.
|
||||
23. |
Washing Line
01:04
|
|||
Washing Line
Washing line, washing Line
It's very fine, very fine
To dry your clothes on washing line
If you use a tumble
Dryer, the planet will grumble
Make her happy, use a washing line.
Zero carbon, power of the wind and sun
Just leave them alone till they are done...
Washing line,washing line etc
If it rains, you needn't worry
You don't have to hurry
Wait till the sun comes out
And the wind will blow your clothes about...
It's environmenta - lly
So friend - ly to make the washing wait
(and if you hate housework it's great)
Washing line etc
|
||||
24. |
The British Winter
01:29
|
|||
The British Winter
If your house is rather old
Chances are you will feel cold
In the British winter.
T-shirts are not winter garb
This is not the warm Algarve
Behold the British winter.
Suffering is not our thing -
We want to make it through to Spring
Chilblain-free, warm and dry
We can do it if we try...So
Wear your woollies, and we''ll beat
The cold with our internal heat.
Brr brr brr brr...
Draft-proofing and insulation
Are handy for the British nation
In an icy winter.
Talk nicely to the sheep -
Their wool may be the thing to keep
Your loft protected from the winds of winter.
Suffering is not our thing
We want to make it through to Spring
Chilblain-free, warm and dry
We can do it if we try..So
Find your thermals, do your best
And save the country with a vest!
Written (and first performed) during a long meeting about home insulation
|
||||
25. |
Free the Turkeys
01:36
|
|||
Free the Turkeys
Free the turkeys, let them stretch their wings
Why should any animal be a special offer
Free the turkeys, let them stretch their wings
It isn't fair to deny them light and air
Free the turkeys, let them stretch their wings
Why should our festivity cause animals such misery?
Free the turkeys, let them stretch their wings
To be overfed, till you are better dead
Free the turkeys, let them stretch their wings
Leave the birds in peace, find something else to eat
Free the turkeys, let them stretch their wings
It will be cheaper too, and much better for you
Free the turkeys, let them stretch their wings
Written in response to a sign saying 'Free turkeys'(with every purchase above a certain amount)
|
||||
26. |
Biodiversity
01:55
|
|||
Biodiversity
Oh biodiversity is so sweet to me,
All life connected in harmony
So Mr Corporation, don't you be in such a hurry to destroy
Biodiversity.
Creatures and plants in the depths of the sea
Doing their thing so perfectly
Seaweed and algae, floating gently
All part of the richness of biodiversity.
If we destroy all natural habitat
We'll live in a barren waste - and who wants that?
Let all the creatures and the plants be free
Don't chemically threaten biodiversity.
Don't poison the ocean with an oil slick
It chokes up the fish and makes the birds' wings stick
What happens to the dolphins if we mess up the sea?
Basking sharks and whales and tuna - let them all be free!
Oh biodiversity is so sweet to me,
All life connected in harmony
From fish to flower, from bird to flea
The miracle of sweet biodiversity.
|
Camilla Cancantata Knighton, UK
Camilla Cancantata, composer and improviser, and founding member of Footloose, a community arts group.
Streaming and Download help
If you like Camilla Cancantata, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp