Of course, there’s being involved
and being involved. “Don’t Let It Die”
was a charity single for the World Wildlife Fund (celebrating its tenth
anniversary in ’71) and the scope of its work – protecting endangered species,
fighting pollution, etc. – was beyond anyone’s simple ability for the most
part*. Helping pandas and bald eagles
was as easy as buying a single; perhaps some were moved to join the WWF, but I
am guessing the single did well as it was a way to help easily (through
consumer culture as opposed to reading-The
Silent Spring-culture) and it helped that it was a good song; so many
charity songs aren’t (the last good one I heard was the US single for Haiti)
and as such they tend to go straight into The Void, having accomplished
whatever their purpose was, raising money for their cause, and making their
various points.
Charity singles usually err deeply on the side of
sentimentality – after all, they are supposed to pull heartstrings – but
Smith’s voice here is elegantly plaintive, sketching out the song (which he
intended to give to John Lennon**; so if it sounds like something he could have
sung, that’s why) as clearly as he can, but almost shyly as well. Thus the bold lyrics, simple enough for
everyone to understand, are slightly blurred, and the whole thing sounds as if
it was recorded quickly, most likely at Abbey Road (where Smith had worked so
closely with The Beatles and guided Pink Floyd from the start). But it’s a muffled sound, as if the studio
was down a well, or perhaps the mikes were next door; this is no “War”
militantly proclaiming itself, but something nearly oblique. Smith played his demo to Mickie Most, who
said it was good enough to release as a single; and the roughness of the demo
works with the lions and kangaroos and beauty of nature itself.
This is a man in his late 40s, a man who’d served in WWII in
the RAF, a man who knew about death, singing about the ecological necessity of keeping things alive;
appealing to one and all to do their bit – not in a patriotic way, but as a way
to show that you, the individual, who actually knows and cares about tigers and
elephants, and think of them as a gift to the world, are willing to stand up
and at least buy this single. That death
is a possibility haunts this song, a very grown-up one, very British as opposed
to the more sentimental US version of the ecological movement, which could be
just as “lite” and dippy as you could imagine***.
The listener has the power to keep all of nature going; it
is a stewardship that goes back to the Bible, back to Adam naming all the creatures. They are yours; you should look after
them. Creatures that are wild and
endangered have to be looked after; they are beautiful and rare, and can
startle you when you least expect it.
Whether they are in the wild or in Chelsea Cloisters, down the street or
in a nearly inaccessible place, those creatures deserve respect and protection,
encouragement and yes, love. This song
is like a muffled echo from the studios and halls of Abbey Road, a rough and
hopeful voice that speaks up for itself, modestly, in favor of those who can’t
speak at all.
Next up: well,
everyone’s got to start somewhere.
*In the early 70s in Los Angeles, our kindergarten class
went to another school to learn about the importance of keeping the Earth tidy
from Woodsy Owl: “Give a hoot, don’t
pollute!” was the catchphrase, and this particular Woodsy was so big and serious that it was a
genuinely frightening experience. I thought something terrible would happen to me if I littered, and I haven’t since.
**”Across The Universe” by The Beatles, a John Lennon song,
was donated to the World Wildlife Fund charity album (No One’s Gonna Change Our
World, 1969, organized by Spike Milligan) as the group didn’t really know what
to do with it. On that album it was sped
up a little and bird noises were put on the track, which may not make a lot of sense but
that’s the ecological movement for you.
***As Pagan Kennedy says in her great book about the 70s, Platforms: “Ecology
connotes the connection among living organisms – cute organisms like baby seals with tears dripping from their big
black eyes. Seventies ecology was about
saving endangered species and local beauty spots, picking up litter and
cleaning the air; if you were sensitive, it was about feeling kind of weepy when
you thought about the plight of the earth…the word environmentalism, on the other hand, is not cute.” She says the ecological movement did have
some benefits – the founding of the EPA and passing of the Endangered Species Act
among them – but that this phase passed and became a fashion movement instead,
and that the ecological movement’s coverage by the press was the ‘safe’ option
as the Vietnam War continued on and people grew tired of it and yearned for,
well, cuteness instead.)
I may as well add here that the whole idea of nature’s usual
state being ‘in balance’ (y’know, the whole circle of life business) was also
part of the 60s-early 70s ecological movement, a movement that influenced
everything from cybernetics to those communes where people tried to mimic this
so-called balance inside geodesic domes.
That this was all something of a sham was revealed eventually, but Adam
Curtis’ series All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace ( esp. “The Use and Abuse of
Vegetational Concepts”) shows how messed up a lot of things got, including the
whole Population Boom idea, which meant I didn’t get to have a brother or
sister. Thanks a lot, guys.
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