For more than half a century, artists are addressing the upcoming ecological catastrophe, and a political system unable to fight that development.
On the occasion of this week’s Global Climate Strike, declared by Fridays for Future, here are sounds of protest by Atom™, Diane Di Prima, Janek Schaefer, Leslie Winer, and others – realized between the early 1940s and 2020.
Featured cover art: Gary Clail / On-U Sound System – End Of The Century Party
Gary Clail & On-U Soundsystem – Privatise the Air Part 1
music against the neoliberal doctrine of Thatcherism (1989, On-U Sound)
The Fugs – Exorcising the evil Spirits from the Pentagon October 21, 1967
an attempt at (1967, Reprise Records)
The Almanac Singers – Which Side are you on?
an anthem of labor song (early 1940s, Folkways Records)
Leslie Winer – 5
addressing power structures in a laid back style (1990, Transglobal)
Amiri Baraka – Dope
in a rage about the political system in the U.S. (1980, Folkways Records)
Anna Lockwood & Harvey Matusow – End
climate change appears as a fantasy world (1970, Sveriges Radio)
Atom™ – R3V
life after the revolution (2020, Raster)
Klaus Beyer – Unser deutscher Wald
reflecting the prediction of vanishing forests (1983, Subraum)
Dennis Dragon – 25 Years at the same Spot
observing changes at Malibu Beach (1982, Freeway Records)
Joseph Beuys – Description of existing World social and political Systems
thoughts about the nature of systems (1974, Audio Arts)
Sue Ann Harkey – The Greenhouse Effect
approaching the Greenhouse Effect philosophically (1986, Auxilio De Cientos)
Allen Ginsberg – A Tale of the Tribe (from the preface to T. Leary’s “Jail Notes”)
the ecological catastrophe begins rehearsing in the Sixties (1997, Mercury)
Diane Di Prima – Revolutionary Letter No. 16
mixing utopian anarchism with ecological awareness (1969, Giorno Poetry Systems)
The Evolution Control Committee – Pollution
polluted air is all around (1996, self released)
Janek Schaefer – Imagine a World…
detrimental consequences of a way of life (2014, REV. Laboratories)
La Düsseldorf – Geld
problem no. 1 (1978, Strand)
Jean C. Roché – Palmar
an ideal world (1973, L’Oiseau Musicien)
* Spotify listeners will find only 7 of the 17 tracks on their platform