Back in February, 2009, we posted a story about Neil Young’s new CD and called it the worst CD ever recorded. But New York Times environmental blogger Andrew C. Revkin has just recorded a new song that gives Young some stiff competition.
Revkin, it turns out, is no mere reporter. He is a singer/songwriter extraordinaire. And when we say extraordinaire, we mean shitty.
Read Revkin’s own words from his New York Times Dot Earth blog:
With music in mind, and reflecting on the unrelenting gulf gusher, I’ve decided it’s time for my first musical Dot Earth post. I’ve written a number of posts about music’s role in exploring the human relationship with the environment, but I haven’t sung a post — until now at least.
A few years ago, I wrote a song called “Liberated Carbon,” about humanity’s long love affair with fossil fuels and our climb up what Loren Eiseley once called the heat ladder. The unrelenting leak in the Gulf of Mexico is liberated carbon at its worst.
On Thursday, I stopped by the Bronxville, N.Y., recording studio of my Uncle Wade bandmate Al Hemberger and his brother, Ted, and we recorded a slightly updated version of the song, inserting BP where OPEC once was mentioned.
Unfortunately, Revkin’s fancy, new studio version of the song isn’t embeddable, so if you want to hear it instead of the older, poor quallty video version embedded with this story, you’ll have to go to the source link at the bottom of this story.
Should you choose to listen to neither version, here’s the first verse and chorus just to give you a little flavor of Mr. Revkin’s lyrical stylings:
LIBERATED CARBON (© 2010 Andrew Revkin)
It took a thousand generations for our species to rise.
But gathering and hunting was no way to get by.
We yearned to burn more than dung and sticks.
Then someone came along and said, “Hey, try lighting this.”
He opened up the ground and showed us coal and oil.
He said, “Come liberate some carbon. It’ll make your blood boil.”Liberated carbon, it’ll spin your wheels.
Liberated carbon it’ll nuke your meals.
Liberated carbon, it’ll turn your night to day.
Come on and liberate some carbon, babe, it’s the American way.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Source: New York Times
