Posted by Snow in 
An ecoTunes Playlist That Won’t Make You Cringe
Gathering from all corners of the musical map–bluegrass ballads, black-metal dirges, pop sarcasm, and classic folk anthems–Bookmark this set of songs in favor of not trashing the planet, in the order we’d play them on our iPod.
Marvin Gaye, “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” (1971)
The classic tsk-tsk tune where Marvin croons in a soulful linchpin to any self-respecting green playlist or jukebox.
Johnny Cash, “Don’t Go Near the Water” (Boom Chicka Boom version; 1989)
The Man in Black lays in down starkly and advises the listener about the bad news to children about their environmental inheritance in classic Cash fashion.
Metallica, “Blackened” (1988)
The kings of metal poignantly explore the world of environmental sustainability in noisy and thrashy style of Mother Earth’s demise.
I See Hawks in L.A., “In the Garden” (2008)
Country rockers from the city of highway sprawl deliver a rockabilly tune about bees, weather, logging, and a paradise “bothered” rather than lost.
The Postal Service, “We Will Become Silhouettes” (2003)
A happy, rhythmic, can you can dance to it synth-pop indictment of the air we breathe.
Mos Def, “New World Water” (1999)
The rapper-actor gets creative and artistic by dropping F-bombs on rising oceans, poisoned water, and imminent shortages.
Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi” (1970)
A definitive classic, denouncing pesticides, overdevelopment, and painful breakups.
Ted Nugent, “Great White Buffalo” (1978)
Sweet guitar licks and Nugent’s hunter-conservationist take on species extinction.
Wolves in the Throne Room, “Vastness and Sorrow” (2007)
Gorgeous black-metal onslaught by Earth First!-leaning farmsteaders. Unintelligible lyrics paint a scorched, wasted earth.
The Roots, “Rising Down” (2007)
A hip-hop general survey of worldwide environmental malaise hits global warming and not-so-natural eco-disasters.
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, “Johnny Appleseed” (2001)
Rousing (and sage) advice about vital resource management from a punk-rock icon.
Jean Ritchie, “Black Waters” (1971)
The Appalachian folksinger calls out the coal companies in this (unfortunately) timeless bittersweet tune.
Talking Heads, “(Nothing But) Flowers” (1988)
Playfully sarcastic, joyously upbeat, David Byrne’s visions of a carless, fast-food-free future in which plant life overtakes factories and freeways.
Peter Gabriel, “Down to Earth” (2008)
Just hearing this slick piece of pop from the WALL-E soundtrack triggers enviro-endorphin sunbursts in the brain
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