The Beach Boys don’t like the beach anymore: an Earth Day playlist

Earth Day became a national holiday in 1970, in light of a growing concern for the planet’s health. In the 25 years following World War II, the United States experienced a major increase in the number of cars and an expansion of domestic manufacturing. This level of consumption quickly became unsustainable and a visibly disruptive presence across the American landscape. Many cars only got around 12 miles per gallon and lacked the technology to filter their emissions, creating a level of smog never experienced before. A major oil spill in Santa Barbara in 1969 then precipitated the growth of an environmental movement in California. Within the year following the spill, the nation celebrated its first Earth Day and established the Environmental Protection Agency. As musicians were singing about war and civil rights, they also began to look to the Earth as yet another battleground for activism.

If you’re looking for a way to end this Earth Day, consider giving these songs a listen.

“Mother Nature’s Son” — The Beatles 

The Beatles released “Mother Nature’s Son” on The Beatles (1968) (often referred to as the White Album). The Beatles wrote most of the album while studying meditation in India, so it carries much more of a transcendental tone than many songs being made in the UK and the United States at the time. The song consists of just three short stanzas. It doesn’t carry much of the political messages of the rest of these songs. Rather, it intends to be a sweet and simple ode to nature’s beauty. Jack White performed a cover of “Mother Nature’s Son” at the White House in honor of Paul McCartney winning the Gershwin prize in 2010. 

“Big Yellow Taxi” — Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell released “Big Yellow Taxi” on the album Ladies of the Canyon (1970), around the same time that Earth Day became a holiday. Mitchell wrote the song while in Hawaii as she noticed all of the development that had overtaken the islands’ natural beauty. Mitchell challenges the material prosperity applauded by American consumers in the late 20th century. She argues that the tourism in Hawaii attempts to generate a false sense of presence in nature: “They paved paradise / And put up a parking lot / Took all the trees / And put them in a tree museum.” Although inspired by Hawaii, the song expresses ubiquitous ills of a materialistic society. You can listen to her performance here.

“After the Gold Rush” — Neil Young

“After the Gold Rush” appears on Neil Young’s third studio album, After the Gold Rush (1970). The song carries the quality of a dream, and the meaning of the lyrics can be difficult to decipher. Young sings of a dream he had of “knights in armor coming / Saying something about a queen.” The vision is abstract, resembling something of a prophecy. Although much of the song seems like hallucination, the warning is clear: “Look at Mother Nature on the run / In the nineteen seventies.” Young performed the song in 1998 and changed the lyric “nineteen seventies” to “the twentieth century,” suggesting the uncertainty that still looms at the turn of the millennium. You can listen to it here.

“Don’t Go Near the Water”  — The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys were never known for especially political songs, let alone anything that didn’t celebrate sunshine, surfing, babes, and babes surfing in the sunshine. “Don’t Go Near the Water” carries a very different tone. Released on their 17th studio album Surf’s Up (1971), the song takes part in a growing movement of environmental activism. “Don’t Go Near the Water” diverges from the spirit of one of The Beach Boys biggest hits “Surfin’ USA,” which happily imagines, “If everybody had an ocean /Across the U. S. A. /Then everybody’d be surfin’.” Now, these “Oceans, rivers, lakes and streams / Have all been touched by man / The poison floating out to sea / Now threatens life on land.” The song sends a clear plea of urgency from the band that probably knew the oceans best. You can watch The Beach Boys perform the song here.

“Moon Over Marin” — The Dead Kennedys

Dead Kennedys released “Moon Over Marin” on their second album Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982). The song envisions a night at the Marin Headlands, a bay area beach known for its pollution. Jello Biafra sings “I clamp a gas mask on my head / On my beach at night / Bathe in my moonlight.” He exclaims excitedly, “I squish dead fish between my toes.” The song’s upbeat energy contrasts comically with its dark lyrics. Biafra sings, almost with optimism, “Another tanker’s hit the rocks / Abandoned to spill out its guts / The sand is laced with sticky glops.” The message is there, but it avoids the melancholy of the previous two songs. You can listen here.

“Some Kind of Nature” — Gorillaz

“Some Kind of Nature” appears on the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach (2010). The entire album imagines a world past the point of no return, taken over by plastic, styrofoam, and “some kind of metal made up from glue.”  Songs include “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach,” “Plastic Beach,” and “Superfast Jellyfish,” which predicts a radioactive sea with “superfast jellyfish.” “Some Kind of Nature” features Lou Reed singing the chorus: “Some kind of nature / Some kind of soul / Some kind of mixture / Some kind of goal / Some kind of majesty / Some chemical load.” Plastic Beach  not only makes a bold critique of our materialism but also makes listeners imagine the plastic world we are heading toward. You can watch the music video of “Some Kind of Nature” here.

Written by Hannah Hartt