No Birds In The Air - No Fish In The Sea
Nick Wycke (2021)

A UK post-apocalyptic vision done in the style of a shanty, but would also be effective done more slowly as a lament, in my view. Can be heard here, but it is hard to pick out the melody from the blend of overdubs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8bkoP-HnCI

LYRICS:

I heard a tale of a son of the sea
He spoke of the way things used to be
Once there was grass and there used to be trees
in the days of the fishing and whaling

And the land was pretty and the land was fair
Before the concrete everywhere
And the poisons filled up the sea and the air
And the crops in the ground started failing

CH: No birds in the air. No fish in the sea.
The flowers won’t grow now we’ve got no bees.
You can’t eat fruit from the money tree.
And plastic covers the ocean.

And as the world began to warm
The seas they rose and the land was torn
Thousands died in the gathering storm
And that should have got us all sober

But we all carried on pretty much the same
Playing the corporation game
Buying crap that was almost exactly the same
Over and over and over

CHORUS (X2)

And as we sit becalmed in the sun
Bodies burned and faces stunned
And wonder what we could have done
I think that we know the solution

The time is now, it’s not too late
Unless we sit around and wait
and can't unsplice our bonds of fate
From the fog of this mental pollution

CHORUS (X2 or 3)