Freegal Songs for Earth Day

Earth Day: flowering crabapple  image credit: Ellen Mackey 2012

I’ve been searching the web for the best Earth Day songs and then searching Freegal to see what was available there.

Some of these songs celebrate nature; others lament what we’ve done to it.

Kansas                         Death of Mother Nature Suite

 John Prine                   Paradise

 Yardbirds                     Shapes of Things

 Johnny Cash                Don’t Go Near the Water

James Taylor               Traffic Jam

Woody Guthrie            This Land Is Your Land

Bruce Springsteen       This Land Is Your Land            

 Michael Jackson          Earth Song

Nitty Gritty Dirt           Fishin’ in the Dark

   Band

 John Mayer                 Waiting on the World to Change

 Dave Matthews           One Sweet World

   Band

 Kenny Loggins             Conviction of the Heart

                                    This Island Earth (album)

 John Denver                Calypso

                                    The Wind

                                    Annie’s Song

                                    Sunshine on My Shoulder

                                    Rocky Mountain High

 Walk Off the Earth      Little Boxes

 Pete Seeger                 God Bless the Grass

Best Songs for Earth Day: “Calypso” by John Denver

Ocean wave  image credit

Calypso. What a great word. What a great for a boat. And a song.

"To sail on a dream on a crystal clear ocean..."

I'm from the desert and I have to admit that I don't really get all the books I read about people and their longing for the sea.

But what I do get is that the oceans comprise two-thirds of the earth's surface, and that all of us--even high and dry landlubbers--depend on the health of the sea for the health of our planet.

So, let's cut way back on the carbon, let's figure out a way to do with much, much less plastic, and let's do our best to keep the ocean in good shape. For Jacques and John and for all of us humans living on earth.

“Calypso” by John Denver is available for free download from Freegal.

Best Songs for Earth Day: “The Garden Song” by John Denver

Garden and barn at Littleton Historical Museum. Ellen Mackey 2011

Try to imagine these days someone writing a simple little song about planting a garden. Then imagine it becoming a big hit.

Yeah, I can't imagine it either. I mean, I can see Mumford & Sons using garden imagery, but infusing it with something more sinister than a crow watching hungrily. The crow would probably need to peck out the eyes of memory, or something heavy like that.

I suppose in the 70's more people had a little garden they tended on their farm or in their backyard.

I have a particular affection for this song because I was able to pluck it out on my little guitar, even with my limited guitar skills.

It’s available for free download on Freegal.

Best Songs for Earth Day: “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver

Rocky Mountains, Guanella Pass.  Ellen Mackey 2012

He seems quaint now, a "aw, gosh" folk singer with a bowl haircut and big round glasses singing songs like "Sunshine on My Shoulder," and "Thank God I'm a Country Boy."

But the guy could sing. In the early 1980's, I had the quintessential Colorado experience: listening to John Denver in concert at Red Rocks amphitheater.

We were kind of far from the stage, and when someone in jeans and a t-shirt came out a couple of hours before the show and sang a rousing "Johnny B. Goode," I wondered who this rockin' warm-up act was.

It was Denver himself, showing that he could hang in with the best of them on something besides his trademark mellow and meditative ballads.

Back in 1976, Newsweek called him the "most popular pop singer in America." 

Then disco happened. And new wave. And rap. And all the rest.

But John Denver's poetry still quietly evokes the beauty of Colorado. And his music is still the kind that us old fogies will sing along with when nobody else is watching.

“Rocky Mountain High” is available for free download on Freegal.

A Song for the Perseid Meteor Shower: "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver



Photo: NASA

 Looked up John Denver, and there he was on Freegal, tons of his stuff available for a free download.

"And what does he have to do with the Perseids?" you ask.

When he was 27, he went on a camping trip in Colorado during the Perseid meteor shower, and he was inspired to write his best-known song "Rocky Mountain High."

The line "I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky" refers to the meteors he saw that night. In the still night, he also saw "shadows from the starlight."

I saw him in concert at Red Rocks in the early 80's. Great show.