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

The Final Speech: “We Shall Overcome”



Martin Luther King, Jr. leaning on a lectern. Library of Congress. photo credit


The folk song “We Shall Overcome” encapsulated the civil rights movement and was the theme of Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speech in 1968, before he was assassinated.

Its roots were in African-American hymns of the early 20^th century. Its themes were echoed by both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon Johnson.

It has been sung all across the globe in protests, from the US to Beijing to South Africa.

Interestingly, it was brought to prominence by folk singers of the 1960’s, most notably Pete Seeger and Joan Baez.

You can find both of their versions on Freegal, along with dozens of others, including Bruce Springsteen.