"Apeman" by The Kinks - from the album "To The Bone" (With Lyrics) inside. Today we had a chance meeting with another population activist and we got to talking about music and songs about overpopulation. Here is one he reminded us of. We hope to talk about this subject more and introduce more songs. Please write in with your ideas. Music and lyrics are a way of conveying political messages but the mainstream media screens out almost everything except love songs and most of them don't even mention contraception. ;-)
Apeman was first written in 1971, when you could still talk about overpopulation without Mr Soros and his mob shutting down your fair comment. Maybe some young people today will wonder at this idea that the world was suffering from overpopulation in 1971, but yes, we were all very aware of the problem. Since the war the world's population had exploded. People had been told that wealth would be redistributed and everywhere would be 'developed' and then there would be no hunger and no injustice. We still hear this today, but all the problems are much worse. In 1973 the oil producing nations of the Middle East got together and formed OPEC to protect their rights and wealth. Many became republics, after years of colonisation. But today, the west has reacted by destroying the Middle East and OPEC. Now we have ISIS and the biggest population in the world that has ever existed.
When Ray Davies of the Kinks was born in 1944 the world's population was less than 2.5 billion. He was the seventh of eight children! (Britain was the first country to have massive population growth.) When Apeman was written, in 1971 the world's population was 3.4 billion. Today it is over 7 billion. When Ray Davies was born, Britain was a very poor country, recovering from war and the decline of its slave empire. Davies grew up in a country with a huge rich/poor divide, where there were few jobs and many people lived in poor conditions.
For a brief period, coinciding with oil possessions being found in the North Sea in the 1970s and manufacturing, as well as becoming a center of music production, Britain was comparatively wealthy. Today, Britain's population is still growing fast, but the oil has gone and poverty is back. Property is being sold off to the wealthy from all over the world, but ordinary British cannot afford to rent or buy in the large towns. But the property developers and the banks who form the majority of the political class like that situation. And that's the situation in much of the developed world, supposed to be so sophisticated, as the song suggests.
"Apeman" lyrics
I think I'm sophisticated
'Cos I'm living my life like a good homosapien
But all around me everybody's multiplying
Till they're walking round like flies man
So I'm no better than the animals sitting in their cages
In the zoo man
'Cos compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an ape man
I think I'm so educated and I'm so civilized
'Cos I'm a strict vegetarian
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians
I don't feel safe in this world no more
I don't want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an ape man
I'm an ape man, I'm an ape ape man
I'm an ape man I'm a King Kong man I'm ape ape man
I'm an ape man
'Cos compared to the sun that sits in the sky
Compared to the clouds as they roll by
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an ape man
In man's evolution he has created the cities and
The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance
And I'd be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle
'Cos the only time that I feel at ease
Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree
Oh what a life of luxury to be like an ape man
I'm an ape, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man
I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man
I'm an ape man
I look out my window, but I can't see the sky
'Cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes
I want to get out of this city alive
And make like an ape man
Come and love me, be my ape man girl
And we will be so happy in my ape man world
I'm an ape man, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man
I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man
I'm an ape man
I'll be your Tarzan, you'll be my Jane
I'll keep you warm and you'll keep me sane
And we'll sit in the trees and eat bananas all day
Just like an ape man
I'm an ape man, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man
I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man
I'm an ape man.
I don't feel safe in this world no more
I don't want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an ape man.
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