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No birds in the air, no fish in the sea SINGLE

by Nick Wyke

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about

For the learning files to sing with your group, please visit:

nickwykemusic.bandcamp.com/album/no-birds-in-the-air-learning

Inspired by the sea shanty resurgence of early 2021, I decided to write this post-apocalyptic answer... Many shanties revolve around nature and natural products - fishing, cotton, whaling, sugar - and I tried to imagine a shanty written 100 years from now, when none of those natural commodities remain, if we carry on our descent into ecological craziness...
After viewing my TikTok account daily, waiting for someone to duet with my 60-second clip, I got bored and decided to "quartet" with myself. All the percussion in this song is made with human hands, legs and chest, partly because it was recorded late at night and I didn't want to wake the neighbours with drums.
I would say "enjoy", but maybe that's not the right word...
Please get in touch via the Bandcamp comments to let me know what you think, and any ideas for future songs. To send me a message, you can visit my facebook page www.facebook.com/nickwykemusic or visit my website www.nickwykemusic.com to send an email.

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 poison filled up the sea and the air
And the crops in the ground started failing

Chorus x2
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 tat that was almost exactly the same
Over and over and over

Ch. x2
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 now 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

Ch. x3
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

credits

released February 12, 2021
Vocals - Nick Wyke
Body percussion - Nick Wyke
Cover photo by Santiago Manuel De la Colina from Pexels
www.instagram.com/smdelacolina/
Nick's photo by Karolina Andreasova
www.karolinaandreasova.com

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Nick Wyke image

Nick Wyke England, UK

I am a professional musician and digital editor with over 20 years music industry experience. I work in mixed media, to record, produce and edit audio and video

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