Lyrics :
Earth Song
What about sunrise
What about rain
What about all the things
That you said we were to gain...
What about killing fields
Is there a time
What about all the things
That you said was yours and mine...
Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we've shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying Earth, this weeping shore?
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
What have we’ve done to the world
Look what we've done
What about all the peace
That you pledge your only son...
What about flowering fields
Is there a time
What about all the dreams
That you said was yours and mine...
Did you ever stop to notice
All the children dead from war
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying Earth, this weeping shore?
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
I used to dream
I used to glance beyond the stars
Now I don't know where we are
Although I know we've drifted far
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Hey, what about yesterday
(What about us)
What about the seas
(What about us)
The heavens are falling down
(What about us)
I can't even breathe
(What about us)
What about apathy
(What about us)
I need you
(What about us)
What about nature's worth
(ooo, ooo)
It's our planet's womb
(What about us)
What about animals
(What about it)
Turned kingdoms to dust
(What about us)
What about elephants
(What about us)
Have we lost their trust
(What about us)
What about crying whales
(What about us)
Ravaging the seas
(What about us)
What about forest trails
(ooo, ooo)
Burnt despite our pleas
(What about us)
What about the holy land
(What about it)
Torn apart by creed
(What about us)
What about the common man
(What about us)
Can't we set him free
(What about us)
What about children dying
(What about us)
Can't you hear them cry
(What about us)
Where did we go wrong
(ooo, ooo)
Someone tell me why
(What about us)
What about baby boy
(What about it)
What about the days
(What about us)
What about all their joy
(What about us)
What about the man
(What about us)
What about the crying man
(What about us)
What about Abraham
(What about us)
What about death again
(ooo, ooo)
Do we give a damn
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
"Earth Song" is the third single from Michael Jackson's album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. It is the fifth song on the second disc of the album. It is a ballad that incorporates elements of blues, gospel and opera. Jackson had a long-standing history of releasing socially conscious material such as "We Are the World", "Man in the Mirror" and "Heal the World". However, "Earth Song" was the first that overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare. "Earth Song" was made for the "Dangerous" album but it failed to make the album. The song was written and composed by Jackson; the task of production was split between Jackson, David Foster and Bill Bottrell.
Jackson explained: "I remember writing 'Earth Song' when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is 'Earth Song.' And that's what inspired it. And it just suddenly dropped into my lap when I was on tour in Austria."
In this song, Michael Jackson not only addresses environmental issues such as deforestation and overfishing of the oceans, but also talks about other moral issues, for example how children die because of a war.
Jackson addresses these issues primarily through questions. He begins with very natural images, e.g. sunrise and rain. Thus he immediately seems to set the focus on appearances of nature. But he then contrasts this by the notion of killing fields, something very man-made. This is a first hint at human destructive power. This is not only limited to us humans, as one could assume at the first moment, but also concerns nature. A killing field can be a place of a war, and a place where we killed animals or destroyed nature in order for personal wealth, space and belongings. A killing field (of a war) looks often very devastated and desolate after the battle is over. Nature might look like this, too. Think of a newly logged area, for example. It looks exposed, injured, and defenceless. By combining these contrasting images, the beauty of a sunrise and the destructive power, Michael Jackson implies that this beauty might be gone soon, too, as we apparently do not stop to destroy everything and everyone around us. We even do not protect ourselves. And “the blood we’ve shed before” can be meant literally as well as metaphorically. First, there is the real blood due to wars and hunts; second, blood can also be a metaphor for guilt, for what we have done to the Earth.
It is very interesting to see that Michael Jackson addresses God with all his questions. Especially the lines “That you said we were to gain,” That you said was yours and mine,” and “that you pledge your only son” in the next stanza indicate this. However, it is still a very self-centered approach since he says that we “were to gain” “things” like sunrise and rain. I wonder how we can ever “gain” them. It is nothing we can possess. At the same time, the killing fields are also referred to as something that was supposed to be “yours and mine.” When he asks “Did you ever stop to notice/ All the blood we’ve shed before/ Did you ever stop to notice/ This crying Earth, its weeping shores?” does he ask God why we possess such a destructive force at all, why God allows these things to happen in the world he created?
These lines are part of the refrain. Line three and four are repeated in the second stanza, line two is changed to “All the children dead from war” and thus creates a direct connection to the “all the blood we’ve shed before.” By talking about children, Michael Jackson introduces the idea of innocence. Children are involved in something without being asked; they are killed without being guilty. And so is nature. Both children and nature are unable to defend themselves.
As in “The Landscape is changing” by Depeche Mode, Michael Jackson also admits the Earth to have emotions and the ability to express them as the shores are “weeping.” The effect of this is explained on the "The Landscape is changing" page.
Though Michael Jackson speaks to God, as in a prayer or a lament, I wonder if he does not address us, too. If we destroyed (and still destroy) our world, it is our task to recognize it, to stop it, and to do everything possible to recoup it. But to get there, we have to “notice” it first. Additionally, this conflation of God and Humans can be a further hint to how we see ourselves. We gained power over nature, we often regard ourselves as superior, and we have the power to destroy. We are conquerors of the earth rather than equal members. In this, we have made ourselves godlike. Later in the song, Michael Jackson says “What about everything/ I’ve given you.” There, the conflation between God and Humans becomes even stronger.
The lament of how we act with regard to the natural world is continued in the second stanza, where Michael Jackson explicitly asks what we have done to the world. He definitely does not mean anything positive. The next two lines (“What about all the peace/ That you pledge your only son?”) indicate that there is no peace at all; it is a rhetoric question, some sort of horror or formidable cognition. Again, this is contrasted by “flowering fields” and dreams, but the frame and the time (past tense) show that they have gone, they are memories. This is repeated in the fourth stanza: “I used to dream/ I used to glance beyond the stars.” I understand this in a rather metaphoric way: to glance beyond the stars means high ambitions and ideals. However, it can also be interpreted more literally. The stars have long been points of reference, but since we polluted the air, an orientation is much more difficult than centuries ago. Jackson further says that “Now I don’t know where we are/ Although I know we’ve drifted far.” This can be directly referred to the lost reference points and the involved disorientation. We went astray, we lost the way of a closer connection to nature (we can’t even see the stars). In a lot of cities, it has become reality that stars are not visible because of all the artificial lights (advertisement, street lamps etc.). Going back to the idea of high ambitions and ideals, Michael Jackson’s words could also be interpreted in the way that he argues that there are no ideals at all, or at least no ideals that allow a close connection to nature. By saying that we’ve drifted far, he makes clear that there has to be a right way, a solution. This right way is his idealistic vision of a world without war, injustice, and harm, a world in which we treat everything and everyone respectfully, other humans as well as nature. A world of peace.
His longing for such a world is further expressed in the line “Is there a time.” He asks if there has ever been a time without destruction, war, and exploitation of nature, and/or if there will ever be such a world in the future. By encompassing past, present, and future, he shows that this idea, this time of a world in peace perhaps never existed. Maybe we were told so, but upon examination, Michael Jackson (and we humans) has to find out that it does not. The question “is there a time” is thus the harmful recognition of something inexistent.
In the last part of the song, he addresses a lot of issues, so I will only discuss some major points. He speaks about “nature’s worth” and that it is “our planet’s womb.” I think this is a beautiful and apposite statement. As a womb is the place of a new life, nature constantly gives live. For example, it supplies us with our food, and forests clean the air.
There are also some religious, biblical references. He speaks about the “holy land/ Torn apart by creed.” Although this does not have anything to do with the environmental issues he talks about before (e.g. deforestation, air pollution, and overfishing), it sketches our moral behavior. Without any respect for the “holy land,” we destroyed it because of personal interests and opinions. We did not pay attention to other people’s feelings and attitude. Our relation to nature could be seen in the same way. Narrow-minded and only interested in our opinion, we destroy and exploit nature, and do not listen to its demands.
The very last line (except for the refrain) is important: “Do we give a damn.” This is the overall question. Even if we are aware of the (not only environmental) issues around us, do we care? Are we doing anything to prevent them?
.jpg)
