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1) Mercy Mercy Me - Marvin Gaye (1971)
"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" was the second single from Marvin Gaye's legendary 1971 album, What's
Going On.
Following the breakthrough of the title track's
success, this song, written solely by Gaye, became one of his most poignant anthems of sorrow at the world dealing with the
environment. Led by Gaye playing piano, strings conducted by Paul Riser, multi-tracking vocals from Gaye and additional background
vocals by The Andantes, the instrumentals provided by The Funk Brothers and a leading sax solo by Wild Bill Moore, the song
rose to #4 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart and #1 for two weeks on the R&B singles charts on August 14 through to
August 27, 1971. As the single became his second million seller from What's Going On the album crashed on the soul album
charts in the top five, and began charging up the pop rankings. "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" soon became one
of Gaye's most famous songs in his extensive catalogue. In 2002 it was his third single recording to win a "Grammy
Hall of Fame" Award. Like "Inner City Blues", Bob Babbitt, not James Jamerson, plays the bass line.
Source: Wikipedia.com
2) Big Yellow Taxi (Paved Paradise): Joni Mitchell (1970)
"Big Yellow Taxi" is a song written and originally performed by Joni Mitchell. It reached #67 in 1970 (U.S.,
Billboard). Mitchell got the idea for the song during a visit to Hawaii. She looked out of her hotel window at the spectacular
Pacific mountain scenery, and then down to a parking lot. Joni said this about writing the song to journalist Alan McDougall
in the early 1970s:
"I wrote 'Big Yellow Taxi'
on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and
saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could
see, and it broke my heart... this blight on paradise. That's when I sat down and wrote the song."
The song is known for its environmental statement (from the lyrics "Paved
paradise to put up a parking lot", "Hey farmer, farmer, put away that DDT now") and sentimental sound. The
line, "Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum/And charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em"
refers to Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu, which is a living museum of tropical plants, some rare and endangered.
In the song's final verse, the political gives way to the personal. Mitchell recounts the departure of her
"old man" in the titular "big yellow taxi", referring to the old Metro Toronto Police patrol cars that
until 1986 were painted yellow. In many covers the departed one may be interpreted as variously a boyfriend, a husband, or
a father. The literal interpretation is that he is walking out on the singer by taking a taxi; otherwise it is assumed he
is being taken away by the authorities.
The song was first
put out as a single and then was put on the album Ladies of the Canyon in 1970; a later live version was released in 1975
and reached #24 on the U.S. charts. Mitchell's playful closing lyrics have made the song the most identifiable in her
repertoire, still receiving significant airplay in Canada. In 2005, it was voted #9 on CBC's list of the top 50 essential
Canadian tracks.
In 2007, Joni Mitchell released the album
Shine that includes a re-work of the song. Many other artists have covered the song, including Amy Grant, Melanie (Melanie
Safka), Counting Crows with and without Vanessa Carlton, Sandi Thom, Kaya, Pinhead Gunpowder, Paul Tillotson, Moya Brennan,
Keb Mo, Chris Thomas King, Keren Ann, the a cappella quintet Toxic Audio, Bob Dylan, Green Day, The Tragically Hip, and Jack
Johnson. Tracy Chapman has performed a version of her own during her live shows.
Source: Wikipedia.com
3) The Trees
- Rush (1978)
"The Trees" is a song
by progressive rock band Rush from their 1978 album Hemispheres.
Neil Peart has remarked that the inspiration for penning the song simply came from a humorous comic strip he read
which depicted trees arguing like people.
Source: Wikipedia.com
Is there a message in "The Trees"?
"No. It was just a flash. I was working on an entirely different thing when I saw a cartoon picture of these trees
carrying on like fools. I thought, "What if trees acted like people?" So I saw it as a cartoon really, and wrote
it that way. I think that's the image that it conjures up to a listener or a reader. A very simple statement."
-- Neil Peart, in the April/May 1980 Modern Drummer magazine
Source: www.nimitz.net/rush/faq2ans.html#70
4) Dreamer - Ozzy Osbourne (2001)
"Dreamer" is the third track from Ozzy Osbourne's
album Down to Earth, which was released on 16 October 2001. The song describes the rockstar's vision of a better world
for his children, where they are happy and safe.
Although
the song was written in the late nineties, it wasn't considered for release until after the terrorist acts of September
11, 2001.
Ozzy Osbourne compares "Dreamer" to
John Lennon's hugely famous "Imagine", which contains the line: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm
not the only one." Ozzy has said himself that The Beatles have had a huge influence on him (he first decided that his
way of getting out of "that shithole" was through music after hearing Twist and shout). Ozzy can relate to them,
as they are all successful musicians who grew up in underprivileged areas of England.
Another reference to John Lennon is the line "After all, there's only just the two of us." This is
an acknowledgment of the Beatles song "Two of Us." Although Paul McCartney wrote it to his wife Linda, it has since
become accepted as a description of his relationship to close friend Lennon, and was even used as the title to a VH1 TV-movie
about them.
Source: Wikipedia.com
5) Mother Nature's Son - The Beatles (1968)
"Mother Nature's Son" is a Lennon/McCartney song, released by The
Beatles on The Beatles (The White Album). It was written primarily by Paul McCartney, and was inspired by a lecture given
by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi while The Beatles were in India. The same lecture inspired Lennon's unreleased song "Child
of Nature," the tune of which he later re-used for "Jealous Guy." The song was later covered by Harry Nilsson.
Source: Wikipedia.com
6) Up the Country - Canned Heat (1969)
"Going Up the Country" (also Goin' Up the Country) is a song performed by the American blues-rock group
Canned Heat. It appeared on their album Living the Blues and was also released as a single, reaching #11 on the U.S. Billboard
Hot 100 singles chart, #19 on UK Singles Chart and number one in 25 other countries. It was sung by its writer, Alan Wilson,
and featured a prominent flute part played by multi-instrumentalist Jim Horn.
The group performed the song during their set at the Woodstock music festival in August 1969, and it has been described
as the "unofficial anthem" of the festival. In the 'Woodstock' movie, Canned Heat's spoken intro to
their performance of the song is heard, but it cuts to the studio recording, played over a montage of festival attendees.
Conversely, the 'Woodstock' album features the festival performance of the song (though without the spoken intro.)
The melody is virtually a note-for-note copy of "Bull
Doze Blues" recorded by Henry Thomas in the late 1920s. On the original recording, Thomas accompanied himself on the
quills, an early Afro-American instrument similar to panpipes. The melody that Thomas played on the quills was reproduced
on flute by Jim Horn for the recording of "Going Up the Country".
Also notable is in Blind Willie Mctell's original version of "Statesboro Blues". In the fifth verse
the lyrics are "Going up the country, Mama, don't you want to go".
There are two distinct versions of the studio recording, which differ by only one note in the flute phrase. In most
versions, the third note of the opening flute phrase is cut short. (This difference is repeated when the flute phrase is repeated
at the end of the song.) In some versions, the note is sustained for an extra second.
Source: Wikipedia.com
7) Out in the Country
- Three Dog Night (1970)
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8) Share the Land - The Guess Who (1970)
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