My next release is "Mother Nature Rap."
Photo by Bianca Ferreira
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.
You wanted a utopia, you’re living in a dystopia,
Too many people with myopia in the world today.
