I have a new release coming out on 21 March, as a song and a music video, and it’s a big change of genre for me, because it is entitled “Mother Nature Rap.” I thought that I would take action as a singer-songwriter by becoming a rapper, rapping about threats to the environment. I think I may well be one of the oldest rappers around too, seeing as I will be 69 on my next birthday, which is also on 21 March, the Vernal Equinox and the first day of spring. I recorded the basic song at Verdelho Studio, here in Portugal, with Ricardo Verdelho as my producer and he created the backing rap track behind my vocals and guitar. I sent the result to my good friend Crum, who has been a member of Hawkwind, as well as in Shockhead and The Moonloonies. He has a new band now called STARRATS, and has been a synth player in all these bands. Crum added his synth wizardry to “Mother Nature Rap,” just like he did on my other recent recording, “Time For Ocean Aid.” So my rap song has a distinctive space-rock and synthwave sound to it too. I asked my friend the acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Augusto Almeida if he could make a music video for this song, and so it was that I spent 20 February being filmed. We started off at Sergio Dimiendes’s Nimbo Studio in the countryside outside Setubal. Pedro had come up with an opening scene in which I am filmed sat outside the studio reading a newspaper. Maria Calheiros Lucas calls me and I go up some steps and into the studio where I am filmed rapping my song.
Later in the afternoon we went to Sende Portugal, an amazing co-working space, also outside Setubal, and run by Edo Sadikovic and Maruchi Rodriguez. There are acres of woodland and it was in these that I was filmed singing and dancing as the late afternoon sun’s rays grew less, making the lighting conditions a lot better. Taking a short break from the filming, I was introduced to a game known as malha in Portugal but is also called petanque, and is played in France. It employs rather heavy metal balls that players throw into a circle drawn on the ground. I was happy to find that as a newcomer to this game I managed to play well enough, though I failed to win. Pedro’s fiance Bianca Ferreira was in charge of taking all the still photos, and she captured a photo of me holding the malha balls.
After a delicious evening barbecue and meal came the last of the filming for the day. I was dancing and rapping to the camera in a woodland clearing illuminated by coloured lights. And finally I was filmed raising my outstretched arms with a psychedelic video being projected on a screen behind me. I am really looking forward to seeing how the music video turns out but am sure it is going to be as brilliant as Pedro’s other work. In the meantime, here are the lyrics:
Mother Nature Rap
You wanted a utopia, you’re living in a dystopia,
Too many people with myopia in the world today.
Mother Nature don’t care about neatness, so leave the wildflowers grow,
Help to save the wildlife, you reap what first you sow,
Mother Nature ain’t here for your dream, you’re in hers so let it be,
Respect all her creation, and go and hug a tree,
But all the forests you’ve cut down, you know that should never have been,
The Mother’s lungs have been cut out, it’s happened but it’s obscene.
The oceans you’ve filled with plastic, and the land you’ve poisoned badly,
We’re in the beginning of the end, and the future’s looming sadly.
The children know what’s happening, and the grown-ups have let them down,
The Arctic ice is melting, and the cities on the coasts could drown.
“Time For Ocean Aid” was released on 2 February, World Wetlands Day. My song features synth and piano by Crum, who has played in Shockhead, Hawkwind, and The Moonloonies, but now fronts STARRATS. His keyboard wizardry gives my acoustic protest song a space-rock and psychedelic flavour. Psyche-folk is a new genre for my music. Daz, also from STARRATS, has created the music video for “Time For Ocean Aid.” I had recorded the basic acoustic track with the help of Ricardo Verdelho at his VerdelhoStudio in Quinta do Conde in Portugal. The lyrics for “Time For Ocean Aid” were included in my new book, Saving Mother Ocean, which was published on 26 November, 2021, by Moon Books. It tells the story, not only of “Time For Ocean Aid,” but also for my song “Where Does All The Plastic Go?” and how I responded to the call to action I felt. In my songs and book I am hoping to motivate many more people to take action in any way they feel, to help save not only the oceans but the environment, wildlife habitats, and life on Earth! The lyrics are:
We've got to save the birds, we've got to save the bees, We've got to save the forests, we've got to save the seas. When I look at all the mess we've made, I think it's time for ocean aid. Micro-plastic pollution, it's bound to make you think, it is even in the air and the water that we drink. The Amazon has burned so much, Australia's been burning too, Wildfires are the new normal, so what are we gonna do?
We've got to save the birds, we've got to save the bees, We've got to save the forests, we've got to save the seas. When I look at all the mess we've made, I think it's time for ocean aid.
There's an insect Armageddon, a sixth great extinction underway, But keep the economy growing, There's more jobs I hear them say.
We've got to save the birds, we've got to save the bees, We've got to save the forests, we've got to save the seas. When I look at all the mess we've made, I think it's time for ocean aid.
Where are the real world leaders? Please tell me where they are. The ones in the media are just talking more blah-blah.
We've got to save the birds, we've got to save the bees, We've got to save the forests, we've got to save the seas. When I look at all the mess we've made, I think it's time for ocean aid.
“Time For Ocean Aid” is part of my much bigger, in fact mind-bogglingly massive, “Ocean Aid” project. You see, I am hoping that one day there will be a stadium-sized “Ocean Aid” concert, or concerts, with many internationally famous rock and pop acts taking part. It is an international campaign too because the oceans are under threat worldwide. Plastic pollution, overfishing, seabed mining, oil spills, nuclear waste, “dead zones,” coral bleaching, military testing and sonar, as well as, last but certainly not least, climate change, are all taking a heavy toll on marine life and the health of the oceans. I want to raise funds for Sea Shepherd and was honoured by having Captain Paul Watson, who founded Sea Shepherd, endorsing my book Saving Mother Ocean. My message is finding media coverage around the world but I need it to keep on doing so. So far I have been in Filippo Solibello’s book SPAM Stop Plastic A Mare, published in Italy, I’ve been featured twice in The Portugal News, been on the radio in Spain, Ireland and the US, been featured in the GONZO Weekly in England, given coverage in The Wave magazine of the Rotary Club of Wyndham Harbour in Australia. In Wales, the country I was born in, I am delighted to have the full support of Mike Kennedy, who runs SWND Magazine and the SWND Records label. “Ocean Aid” has been featured in a 2-page article in the SWND Magazine.
Please help me spread the word about “Ocean Aid!” It is certainly time for helping to save the seas!
