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All the Earth Loves a Green Musician

Posted Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:58pm PDT by Shawn Amos in GetBack

Happy Earth Day. I hope you all are celebrating with recyclable party hats. Here are a few facts for those of you who need a conversation starter at that Earth Day rally you're attending.

Earth Day was founded in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson and is credited with starting the modern-day environmental movement. 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day celebration. Now more than 500 million people participate in 175 countries. April 22 was selected because it's after spring break, students are in school, Easter and Passover have come and gone, and the weather is warm. There's an Earth Day flag (a picture of our planet, of course), an Earth Day symbol (a green circle with a horizontal green line in the middle), and a nonprofit Earth Day Network group.

Criminally, there's no Earth Day song. You'd think a 39-year-old movement would have a theme song by now. If John McCain can get a theme song for a failed Presidential run, someone can come up with an Earth Day tune. I'm nominating one of these ten musicians to write one. They're some of the greenest artists around. If they can't write an anthem for planet, all hope is lost, and I'll just blast "Free to Be You and Me" from my boombox at Earth Day 2010.

 

GALLERY: See GetBack's Gallery of Green Musicians

 

Radiohead
It shouldn't come as any surprise that one of the most groundbreaking bands is also one of the most environmentally progressive. While on tour, Radiohead uses low-energy LED lights and refillable water bottles and all of the merchandise sold at their shows is made from recyclable materials. Plus, lead singer Thom Yorke has become a leading spokesperson for The Big Ask, a consortium of 18 nations committed to reducing carbon emissions.


 

 

 

Chrissie Hynde
The Pretenders frontwoman is a long-time animal rights activist. She's regularly seen at PETA demonstrations, most recently protesting horse-drawn carriages in New York City (even though she married Simple Minds' singer Jim Kerr in a NYC horse-drawn carriage back in the '80s). A devoted vegan, Hynde recently opened up a health food restaurant in her hometown of Akron, Ohio, called the VegiTerranean.

 

 

 

Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow has become a strong voice in the fight against global warming. She participated in the 2007 Stop Global Warming Tour, and she powers her tour bus with biodiesel. She even challenged Karl Rove about the Bush Administration's global warming policies at a White House Correspondents Dinner.

 

 

 

Sting
Sting has been an activist since his early days in the Police. He often supported human rights issues through his work with Amnesty International. But in 1989 Sting and his wife turned their attention to environmental issues by forming the Rainforest Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to saving the world's rain forests and the indigenous people who live within them. Sting holds a Rainforest Foundation benefit concert every year at Carnegie Hall, and he's even had a Colombian tree frog named after him ("Dendropsophus stingi") for his hard work.

 

 

 

Bonnie Raitt
The legendary blues artist is the co-founder of Musicians United for Safe Energy, the activist group behind the famed No Nukes concerts in 1979 (staged in response to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March of that year). 30 years later Raitt still plays shows and speaks and records charity singles on their behalf, including a 2007 remake of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth."

 

 

 

Guster
Admittedly, Guster is not a household name, but the band is a deeper shade of green than most of their musical peers. In 2004 Guster member Adam Gardner and his wife founded Reverb, which helps touring musicians make their performing activities more environmentally sound. Reverb has worked with Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, and John Mayer, among others.

 

 

 

Willie Nelson
Willie smokes the green, but he also champions green power. In 2005 he formed Willie Nelson Biodiesel, a company that makes truck fuel from vegetable oil. A year later "BioWillie" fuel was being sold at 22 truck stops. Lately, though, BioWillie has all but disappeared, and Willie left the company's board. Maybe it was the weed?

 

 

 

Jack Johnson
It's no surprise that a former surfer who grew up in Hawaii would be an environmentalist. But Jack Johnson wins the prize for writing one of the coolest-ever children's songs about recycling, "The 3 R's" from the "Curious George" soundtrack.

 

 

 

Neil Young
Neil Young's biggest activist achievements are his yearly Farm Aid and Bridge School benefit shows. Still, Neil is a serious green activist too. He even went as far as to convert his 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV (a car that gets about 1 block to the gallon) into a hybrid electric dubbed the Linc-Volt. It's the inspiration behind his latest CD, "Fork in the Road."

 

 

 

 

THERE'S MORE: Now see the brownest celebrities!

7 Comments

1. Yahoo! Music User -
Even though you earthlings act like you care about me one day out of every stinking year, it is way too little, way too late. But, thank you anyway, Mr. Amos, for mentioning me in this blog.
Have a Nice Day!,
The Earth

2. DUDE -
Dear Earth,
Please have a bit of patience..Change takes time...I know it doesn't appear to happen quickly,but people are starting to figure it out.Hang in there just a little longer.
Your Bud,
DUDE

3. Anne -
Instead of an Earth Day song, we should just follow the example set by these musicians.

4. Jc -
Hey, how about U2? Wait....they're on Africa and political trash so nevermind

5. __A_YAHOO_USER__ -
jc.naks, go back to "Funny Satirical Comments 101"...and the DUDE can be your tutor.

Hang int here

~D33PPURPLE

6. James -
Pearl jam

7. bomber -
How about noted tree hugger grumpy Don Henley!
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