In an early celebration of Earth Day, which is next Thursday, we'll be exploring four songs with nature themes this week!
SOMETHING OLD
Van Morrison - Redwood Tree
1972
Van Morrison - Redwood Tree
1972
There simply may not be any more grand notion to salute our Earth than Van Morrison offers with Redwood Tree. Redwood trees, also known as Sequoia trees, are behemoth pillars of nature. The largest living tree in the world is a Redwood called General Sherman, standing strong in the western Sierra Nevada of California.
Once establishing himself as a musical star, Morrison re-located to The United States from Ireland. He ended up with his family in the California countryside, surrounded by these giant woody wonders. The song is a celebration of reverence to the tree, asking "won't you keep us from all harm?" by allowing it to serve as overhead shelter.
Morrison and his back-up singers give their all here, creating a sweetly soulful work of music.
SOMETHING NEW
Iceage - Ember
April 7th, 2026
Iceage - Ember
April 7th, 2026
While this new single from the Copenhagen-based Iceage is the least directly connected to nature, it offers an interesting perspective in the context of this feature. Fire and its embers, as destructive of a force as they are, are also a part of nature. Wildfires have grown worse in recent years, betraying their environmental brethren of forests, but we have human nature to blame for that. Putting aside the noxious planet man has created, fire is still a beautiful part of nature that brings warmth, light, and nourishment to where there is frigidity, darkness, and hunger.
As for the song, the chorus kicks in with I love you in an ominous way and concludes with I caught you like an ember falling down. Lyrically, it's suspiciously dark love song with a sound that's rough around the edges (though catchy). I'd say that's appropriate for fire.
SOMETHING BORROWED
Lena Horne - Being Green (Kermit the Frog)
1971
Lena Horne - Being Green (Kermit the Frog)
1971
Jim Henson was a master of turning heaviness into easily understandable levity for his young audience. By blending ideas of racial prejudice with an appreciation for nature, Henson planted complete and utter acceptance of oneself, others, and the world around them for decades of children.
Kermit the Frog accepts being green, despite its difficulties, because he sees his color reflected in springtime, and of the same depth he sees in oceans, mountains, and trees. Henri Matisse once wrote, "there are flowers everywhere for those who are willing to see them." This is also true for what is green.
Lena Horne, who began her career in 1930s America, was no stranger to a lack of acceptance for her color. So when she recorded this song, and even better, performed it with Kermit, there's palpable significance.
I really love the mystique and jazz sensibilities she brings to this recording. The final moments of keyboard and bass lock into an amazing groove, that might just make you wish you were green too.
SOMETHING... ELSE FOR EARTH DAY
Stevie Wonder - The Secret Life of Plants
1979
Stevie Wonder - The Secret Life of Plants
1979
At the end of the decade, Stevie Wonder released Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" as a soundtrack for an ecological documentary. What came from a simple soundtrack was one of the most profound songs I know. Though, I'll admit, the profundity is rooted in Wonder's blindness. The extraordinary imagery of what he cannot see makes the pervading, unprejudiced beauty of nature very clear. He celebrates the power of plants in spite of their size, directly citing that they're a "species smaller than the eye can see," though even Van Morrison's aforementioned giant redwood trees still wouldn't be visible for Mr. Wonder.
Among the gorgeous instrumental arrangement, he poetically vouches for nature and puts it before himself: Who am I to doubt or question the inevitable being?