Listen to the Earth
Hello!
The story behind the song Listen to the Earth spans about 3 decades. In 1990 I left Adelaide travelling around Australia with a couple of friends. In the evenings I would often gently play my 12 string guitar as my friends lay down in their fancy swags to sleep on the ground. (I had swag envy as I only had a leaky old single air mattress really more of a surf mat to sleep on) The instrumental section in Listen to the Earth was written over a number of these evenings.
The song had no words or title just a pretty, jangly guitar section.
In early 1991 back in Adelaide briefly before heading off overseas the first draft of the words for the song arrived quickly and easily. The theme was inspired by a David Suzuki book I had read ‘The Greenhouse Effect’ and how that would change our climate in the future.
I remember roughly recording it on a cassette and sending it to a friend from Sturt college days who was a passionate environmentalist. I dedicated it to her and then set off on adventures that initially spanned a couple of years of sailing oceans and seeing some of the world.
So many years later in 2019 while teaching in Vanuatu I recorded a version of Listen to the Earth at a little home studio in the great sounding township of Freshwota numba 3. It is not a great version more of a live demo.
Moving forward to February 2022 my creative and life partner Jill Smith and I were discussing possible ideas for collaboration on and I mentioned a climate change song I had written in 1991. I played it to Jill and we decided to update it and Jill wrote some more verses with a little of my help. The musical arrangement was also completely changed and it continues to evolve.
Jill had lots of photographs that she had taken that fitted in well with the overall theme of the song and we stumbled across an invitation from SALA looking for people to host events. We looked at each other and said why not and this event simply sprang from that.
The song ‘Listen to the Earth’ is a protest song in the tradition of protest songs that have spanned forever. A call for people to stand together to make the world a cleaner, better place to live and leave for our future generations.
Our overall theme of ‘Listen to the Earth’ is more than that though. It is a message to slow down and appreciate our planet. Jill’s photographs often encapsulate simple moments seen through her camera lens of interest and beauty in our land and sea scapes. It is a reminder to look beyond our busy lives and see the good and bad in our current state of the earth.
I hope you enjoy our first foray into SALA. I encourage you all to listen to each other, listen to your heart and mind and listen to the earth.
With Love
Pete Chambers