Another Reason to Love Sheryl Crow: She Might Be Peak Oil Aware...
Posted by Prof. Goose on February 9, 2008 - 11:00am
We found this video over at Kerry Trueman's blog, TakePart. Words under the fold.
It was the summer of the riots
And London sat in sweltering heat
And the gangs of Mini Coopers
Took the battle to the streets
But when the creed was handed down
For no more trucks and no more cars
They threw cans of petrol through the windows at Scotland Yard…
…When the Mounties stormed the palace of the Saudi family
They held them up for ransom
Without disturbing their high tea
But their getaway was shaky
They stalled in the Riyadh streets
Cause you can’t make it very far
When your tank is on empty
Crow’s song sends the message that we’ve built our whole way of life on a shaky foundation that’s bound to crack when we run out of gas. Towards the end of “Gasoline,” she sings: I’ve got a message and a megaphone, and I’ll scream it to the death…”
Will a post-petroleum scenario set to music get more Americans reflecting on the fact that there’s only so much oil in the ground? No doubt someone, somewhere, right now, is sitting in their car, stuck in traffic, grooving to the strains of “Gasoline.” I hope it sinks in, and makes a stain.
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I just watched this and it was very hard to clearly understand the words - all you pick-up is the Chorus: "Gasoline...will be free" which sounds great to most folks, like some paradise, not a nightmare. I hope upon repeated listening or in studio recordings the meaning becomes more clear. Otherwise folks might start playing this at NASCAR races and on the Fourth of July right after "Born in the USA" the highly misinterpreted Springsteen anti-Vietnam song.
Great to have Sheryl on board!
Way back in the year of 2017
The sun was growing hotter
And oil was way beyond it's peak
When crazy Hector Johnson broke into a refinery
And the black gold started flowing
Just like Boston tea
It was the summer of the riots
And London sat in sweltering heat
And the gangs of Mini Coopers
Took the battle to the streets
But when the creed was handed down
For no more trucks and no more cars
They threw cans of petrol through the
windows at Scotland Yard
Gasoline
Will be free, will be free Gasoline
Will be free, will be free
When the Mounties stormed the
palace of the Saudi family
They held them up for ransom
Without disturbing their high tea
But their getaway was shaky
They stalled in the Riyadh streets
Cause you can't make it very far
When your tank is on empty
The final can of gasoline was loaded on a truck
And driven through the streets of
Agra to the palace aquaduct
[ Lyrics found at www.mp3lyrics.org/aPAw ]
You see, all the majesty of
worship that once adorned these
fatal halls
Was just a target to the angry
As they blew up the Taj Mahal
Gasoline
Will be free, will be free Gasoline
will be free, will be free
Gary ran a market way down in Tennessee
Where all the farmers got
together and talked about this
great country
But when the government turned
it's back on farming
Man, what I hear
They dragged the pumps out of the ground
With a big vintage John Deere
I've got soldiers on my payroll
Standing guard on my front drive
Snipers on the roof poised at those
Who don't want me alive
Cause they audited my taxes
My family under threat
Cause I've got a message and a megaphone
And I'll scream it to the death
Gasoline
Will be free, will be free Gasoline
Will be free, will be free
You got the farms in Argentina
Making fuel from sugar cane
You got the bastards in Washington
Afraid of popping the greed vain
Cause the money's in the pipeline
And pipeline's running dry
And we'll be the last to recognize
Where there's shit there's always flies
End of song
This is a doomer song if I ever heard one.
It may be a doomer song, but if those are the full lyrics then it's hard to say it's about peak oil or even geologically difficult oil. Sounds far more like a complaint that the avatars of greed are withholding the gasoline for the joy of it, but after the revolution it ought to cost nothing. Maybe Hugo Chavez (from where gasoline is almost free) and NASCAR (where they'd like it to be free) will both take it up as an anthem. It might be the first time they agree on something, LOL.
Nope, I don't get it. If oil has run out, those are some real expensive Molotov cocktails!
The song has too many internal consistencies to form a coherent argument. Perhaps we should invite Ms Crow to communicate through the medium of a blog post, rather than song lyrics?
Oh my god... it's art, for crying out loud, not a Ph.D. dissertation.
I think she knows what peak oil is. And in case you haven't noticed, homo sapiens is anything but a rational creature.
I wonder how much she really understands peak oil. There's an interview in the NY Times that makes it sound like the song is about high gas prices more than peak oil.
And jeez, I guess the interviewer must be a kid. The first song about high gas prices? No way, Jose. There were a boatload of songs about high gas prices in the '70s.
I thought maybe the hook was "We'll be free of Gasoline"
No, it's "Gasoline will be free." The lyrics were up on the her web site, though she's either taken them down or moved them now.
Yeah, it's not a strong message. If you take it literally it sounds like that's what a populist uprising would demand. And if they are storming refineries, then you could give that out for free, but obviously it wouldn't last very long...
I dunno about this song raising awareness of PO.
Two things...
Way back in the year of 2017
The sun was growing hotter
And oil was way beyond it's peak
that's pretty clear. :)
I kept hearing "Gasoline, We'll be free" not "Gasoline will be free"
But then again this is from the guy who took eight hours trying to transcribe the words from "It's the End of the World As We Know It" with a cd player only to find that he had missed about half the words...
Yeah, but how many people remember the ending of Born in the USA?
Not many remember that part, they just chant "Born in the USA" as a patriotic anthem.
"Gasoline will be free" sounds like an American Hugo Chavez running for President
Speaking of ironic anthems, as Robert Wuhl points out in his "Assume the Position" video on HBO, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (& "call it macaroni") suggested that Yankees were gay country bumpkins.
And then we have "We will rock you" by Queen.
Wuhl's position is that gay anthems are as American as apple pie.
westexas-
Have you ever checked out Tarantino's alternate take on Top Gun?
It's much along the lines of Wuhl's contention, and pretty funny to boot.
Tarantino on Top Gun
Neither of those statements make any sense, nor does "The Sun was getting hotter". Ok, if you allow some artistic licence, then it could refer to Global Warming. But then why take "beyond it's peak" at face value? It could mean anything.
But who cares, we got celebrity endorsements! Woot!
"Gasoline will be free" is the slogan of the revolt she is describing. This is mainly a pro-biofuels piece. She is going to be performing at the Democratic National Convention and there is a big push on now to turn pale pink states into baby blue states using ethanol subsidies. The references to global warming are pretty clear: "And London sat in sweltering heat..." refers to European heat waves which have not crossed the Channel yet, but the main theme is a Willy Nelson-like pitting of farmers against oil companies. The oil interests are tied into Washington while the farmers are wrecking the local pumping station in Tennessee.
As we've been seeing here, biofuels don't really work in terms of scale and it is becoming clear that they will be leading to famine if they are not turned around quick. And, responding to that famine will cause more warming than continuing to use gasoline because putting marginal lands under cultivation around the world will release more carbon dioxide than biofuels grown on good croplands can displace. Democrats are nice people taken individually, but their politics tends to use science for advantage rather than be informed by it. We need conservation now and if they really do want gasoline to be free, they'd better opt for rationing before we go far into decline. Cutting oil use 8% a year through rationing should bring the price down to $15/barrel within a couple years. But, this has to be done with less fuel use, not one-for-one replacement. So far as I can tell though, they seem to want a market and cap-and-trade so that people can make money out of nothing. Imposing artificial scarcity should not be a path to artificial profits. That is why we use rationing rather than trading is such situations.
Chris
Good post but I've very seldom hear the cry of lower speed limits.But that goes back to the voter and what politician is going to stand up and say "55" until voter are screaming on price and the first solution to the problem is 55.
well, that's the problem with these new fangled, popular beat combo's...
Sounds pretty PO aware to me though.
I'll ask my children. They can hear a lot more frequencies than I can
ben harper wrote the lyrics. wouldn't be the first 'big name' singer who didn't understand aspects of what the words were about; & lose the meaning in the emphasis given.
I didn't phrase that very well I was suggesting it could be interpreted the other way aka double meaning as some people don't like even the remote possibility of the truth.That isn't the first song that doen't mean what it means.Not bad selling to the believers and non believers.
Well if "Another Reason to Love Sheryl Crow: She's Peak Oil Aware.", the first reason must be because she is hot.
IMHO Lance Armstrong definitely downgraded when he left her for one of the Olsen twins. Ick.
The Kinks - Gallon of Gas
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YEARS TO BUY A BRAND NEW CADILLAC
BUT NOW I'VE GOT ONE, I WANT TO SEND IT RIGHT BACK
I CAN'T AFFORD THE GAS TO FILL MY LUXURY LIMOUSINE
BUT EVEN IF I HAD THE DOUGH NO ONE'S GOT NO GASOLINE
I WENT TO MY LOCAL DEALER TO SEE IF HE COULD SET ME STRAIGHT
HE SAID THERE'S A LITTLE GAS GOING BUT I'D HAVE TO WAIT
BUT HE OFFERED SOME RED HOT SPEED AND SOME REALLY HIGH GRADE HASH
BUT A GALLON OF GAS CAN'T BE PURCHASED ANYWHERE
FOR ANY AMOUNT OF CASH
I CAN SCORE YOU SOME COKE AND SOME GRADE ONE GRASS
BUT I CAN'T GET A GALLON OF GAS
I'VE GOT SOME DOWNERS SOME SPEED ALL THE DRUGS THAT YOU NEED
BUT I CAN'T GET A GALLON OF GAS
THERE'S NO MORE LEFT TO BUY OR SELL
THERE'S NO MORE OIL LEFT IN THE WELL
A GALLON OF GAS CAN'T BE PURCHASED ANYWHERE
FOR ANY AMOUNT OF CASH
WHO NEEDS A CARAND A SEVEN-FORTY-SEVEN
WHEN YOU CAN'T BUY A GALLON OF GAS
WHO NEEDS A HIGHWAY, AN AIRPORT OR A JET
WHEN YOU CAN'T GET A GALLON OF GAS
THERE'S NO MORE LEFT TO BUY OR SELL
THERE'S NO MORE OIL LEFT IN THE WELL
A GALLON OF GAS CAN'T BE PURCHASED ANYWHERE
FOR ANY AMOUNT OF CASH
YOU CAN'T BUY A GALLON OF GAS
Not sure of the yr it was written but half the US population now wasn't even born in 75 and I would guess the other half were riding in the back seat or in dads levi's "Can't drive 55" might make a come back.
James Taylor: Traffic Jam
(chorus)
Damn this traffic jam
How I hate to be late
It hurts my motor to go so slow
Damn this traffic jam
Time I get home my supperll be cold
Damn this traffic jam
Well I left my job about 5 oclock
It took fifteen minutes go three blocks
Just in time to stand in line
With a freeway looking like a parking lot
- chorus -
Now I almost had a heart attack
Looking in my rear view mirror
I saw myself the next car back
Looking in the rear view mirror
bout to have a heart attack
I said
- chorus -
Now when I die I dont want no coffin
I thought about it all too often
Just strap me in behind the wheel
And bury me with my automobile
- chorus -
Damn...
Now I used to think that I was cool
Running around on fossil fuel
Until I saw what I was doing
Was driving down the road to ruin
James Taylor lyrics
We will effectively have peak oil if the oil supply does not keep up with oil demand and there is no way that it can. You might produce a bit more oil every year, but when demand increases much faster and there is little excess supply, then you have problems.
I believe that this is what we are facing. Many times, whether it is peak oil or global warming, people may be missing the larger and more immediate point. Using lots of fossil fuels is a mistake. We can make things go more smoothly and securely by substituting and transforming our ways of life. We either do it now easily or later more difficulty. It is our choice....let us hope that we choose wisely.
kind of an aside
about a year ago as i was reading the drum i caught my then, 12 y/o grandson reading TOD over my shoulder.as i got onto him he said,' i better hurry up & turn 16 or gasoline will be too high'.
at least he 'got it' partly but the drive [pun -not intended] of the 'rite of passage' is already in him.
Has everyone seen oilycassandra?
http://www.metacafe.co.il/watch/1014783/hot_oily_strip_peak_oil_explained/
"Complications" by Steve Forbert, from Jackrabbit Slim, 1979
Judy finally got that vehicle, the auto of her dreams
It's a flashy supersonic road machine.
When she pulls up to the pumps, there's a sign up out in front
That says I'M SORRY BUT WE'RE OUT OF GASOLINE!
Oh, complications, complications in the air
Complications in your footsteps, Judy,
Complications everywhere.
Lets see, the right wing talking heads already hate Sheryl Crow and demonize her as a hypocritcal liberal nut based on her environmental stance and all the gobs of energy she uses to put on a concert. Having someone like her spreading the peak oil gospel does nothing for this "movement's" credibility.
Maybe we could have Doomerfest with sympathetic musicians.
I was thinking of lyrics for the Beastie Boys (in three voices)
Nitrogen,
Potassium,
and Phosphorus!
When its gone
its gone
and it sucks for us
Guys, we've been attending pnm irp meetings for viz reasons.
And listening to a lot of smart engineers.
Mostly we keep our mouth shut, except to ask infrequent questions.
One question was: "Why doesn't pnm start a program to limit new construction?"
January 2008 flyer included with bill
should start a program on how to shut-off rarely-used space in homes during the heating and cooling seasons.
We'll work on this.
While working on the feds and slfcu, of course.
We suggest to work with others.
It's lots more fun and productive.
Money (rational self interest) is the primary incentivization that our capitalist sociopolitical system gives us. It is arguably our greatest strength, because it allows our system an agility in meeting demands and current circumstances that isn't present in other systems. All you need to do to motivate or provide for a people as rich and powerful as modern day Western civilization, you can do easily with control of certain parts of the economy, understanding of economics, and willpower.
Want people to shut off parts of the house they don't need? Want to have them buy themselves energy efficient appliances? Want them to figure out how best to insulate their own house? Want them to sell off little-used buildings to people who will actually use them? Want them to turn off the lights when not in use, wear sweaters, drive less, buy better cars, stop wasting so much money on high-energy pasttimes....
Double or triple the price of their energy. It's really, really as simple as that. We spend a downright trivial amount on the primary enabling resource of modern civilization. We can either make it as easy as possible to consume energy until it becomes impossible to keep doing so (the energy subsidy model), and face the collapse of the society built on cheap energy, or we can prepare for expensive energy by slowly stepping up prices in a method that will incentivize the saving of energy over the long term, thereby building a society that is much less dependant on cheap energy (the energy tax model).
You can already see how well Congress plays technological prophet in CAFE, Ethanol, Hydrogen, et cetera. We have a marketplace to sort out what works and what is most cost effective. We can not and will not have a comprehensive government bureaucracy that manages to covers all effective bases of conservation - and we currently don't even have that.
If there's concern regarding the expense, revenue-neutral rebates are an easy solution.
There is no policy to curb sprawl in place because it would be considered a draconian restriction on economic demands which are clearly strong, for new buildings which are clearly buildable at current energy prices. Baby wants his bottle, baby doesn't have to do anything for you to give him his bottle, and so baby demands that you stop refusing to give him his bottle. If baby had to climb up on the counter to get it, he might not want it so much.
It's shouldn't be the business of the electric company to beg its customers to buy less electricity. It has the easiest way in the world to accomplish that.
I think the song is important for two reasons.
1st Sheryl Crow is doing it.
2nd and more important, it notes that even if the message of the song is wrong, or misguided, It DOES try to articulate a building angst/anger in the public that is looking for things/people to express it.
But it is an example of how the "Something is Coming" awareness is creeping into people's subconscious and will be expressed in various ways. The reaction will be noble in many cases and barbaric in others.
Paradigm's are changing and art will paint pictures if it along the way.
If the world listened to what musicians have to say we would be in a whole lot better position than we are. Still, we musicians must keep trying.
I think change will only come after the oil is definitely running out and the public have had a good time playing with gallows and guillotines. Now thatś a great investment idea.
I think the message of the song is, the end of oil is coming and we will panic and deal with it very badly. The panic part is something citizens need to start talking about right away. Panic will cost us the last increment of time we need for whatever salvage job we can manage.
Hey Alan...she has a song called "Love is Free" about New Orleans too on the Detours album. Lots of stuff about people surviving and being happy in N.O. post-Katrina. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvo1y2M-iho
"Be Nice or Leave"
"Make Levees, Not War"
I doubt Sheryl Crow's song "Gasoline" will wake up anybody. Remember Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi"? Did that song convince anyone to cease demanding a Paradise-suffocating parking stall at their every destination? Na, they just puffed another joint and drove some more in the VW van and looked out the windshield and commiserated about how the "establishment" was messing up Amerka.
You notice Sheryl didn't tell her adoring fans to dump their wheels - that might hurt concert revenues!
Mr. Music Consumer ain't gonna catch on via megawatts of surround sound and big old TVs overpowering his Cocoa Puff mind. He'll get it when he's out in the cold, out in the dark, a long way to walk yet, his feet hurt, and hunger is eating away in his gut. Then he'll see which species the Man has built Amerka for – and it ain't his'n!
Now I'm no fan of economic high priests, but I have to agree with Milton F. on this:
“Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” – Milton Friedman.
And THAT - scattering ideas around - is what The Oil Drum is all about!
Hans Noeldner