This is a protest song. I am protesting wasting money on Mars missions!
So first, let me be perfectly clear I LOVE SCIENCE! Facts are always preferably to myths and horseshit!
However, I am not a huge fan of spending enormous amounts of money ($2.7 billion) to send instruments to Mars. I understand the quest for knowledge. I get that. And I understand the thrill of the rockets and that moment when maybe the lander won't land, etc. But people died this week in Texas from simple neglected infrastructure. And people starve every single day. And they die uneccessarily from disease.
And don't start telling me how some day we will need to colonize Mars. BULLSHIT! We have a perfectly good planet right now that could last us billions of years unless we screw it up! And FYI, Mars is already SCREWED UP! No air. No water. Freezing temps. No trees. No animals. Just a fuckton of red sand.
In fact, as my song says, Mars gives us a good look at what Earth will become if we don't get our act together! Why in the world would we be looking to move from paradise to a shithole when we could just work a little harder to stop screwing up paradise?
Let's Go To Mars
February 20, 2021
https://www.johnstaplesmusic.com/FAWM2021/JohnStaples-LetsGoToMars.mp3
On Thursday we went all the way to Mars
cost us almost $3 billion to park our car
We might just learn if life there
ever existed
plus we get to see how Earth will look
if we don't fuckin' fix it
Let's go to Mars
Let's take a car
We'll fill some jars
With that lovely red dead dirt
It's cold and sunny
And that ain't funny
We spent our money
Instead of helping all the people
back down here on planet Earth
The scientists at NASA got excited
Those rockets that they built were well ignited
They planned the trip to Mars,
a complicated nexus
While Earthlings froze to death down here
deep in the heart of Texas
Let's go to Mars
Let's take a car
We'll fill some jars
With that lovely red dead dirt
It's cold and sunny
And that ain't funny
We spent our money
Instead of helping all the people
back down here on planet Earth
Mars is far worse than Earth
Instead let's save the planet of our birth
Open up your eyes and you will see
Mars will never be our plan-et B
Don't go to Mars
Don't take no cars
Don't fill no jars
With that lovely red dead dirt
It's cold and sunny
And that ain't funny
We'll save our money
And instead we'll help all of the people
back down here on planet Earth
yeah instead we'll help all of the people
back down here on planet Earth
I wish we'd all just help all of the people
back down here on Mother Earth
© 2021 John Staples
JohnStaplesMusic.com
@karlsburg25 6 weeks
Firstly everything you said in your linear notes i totally agree with. I am totally into discovery and love the unexplored but somewhere some balance needs to be found. That sort of dosh is ridiculous and is highlighted by all the investment we need down here to develop socially. You have set it to a perfect story telling beat but my absolute joy with this is how you've created such a detailed account in the lyrics and made the song so dam catchy. Massive well done matey
@spazsquatch 7 weeks
I'm firmly in the camp that can't completely get behind the sentiment, but the song is so good that I wish I could.
@sexybass 7 weeks
Cool song and love the lyrics and tune and agree with some of the sentiments but I am an adventurer.
@scottlake 8 weeks
We got velcro from the 60's/70's NASA programs. And Tang. So there's that.....
I'm with you on spending. But even more upset about 'defense' spending.
@trolls2 8 weeks
I'm with you on this and what a cool song let's go to mars! lets take a car! great lines.
@jerrypettit 8 weeks
Hey, I disagree with you on THIS one, buddy (I wanted to be an astronaut back in 4th grade). But you know I'm with you the other 99% of the time! 😀
And, hey--you got a really, really great song out of the sentiment, so...I'll still vote for you if you run for something.
@coolparadiso Feb 22
On your recommendation and somehow i missed this so win win. Yup money is wasted, unfortunately i suspect if they stopped they would waste it on something else! Doesn't make your point any less valid. Its still an indictment on how out of touch our leaders are even the better ones! Super song John
@cynthiawolff Feb 22
Fantastic John...TRUTH!!
BRILLant lyrics..I love it
@stephenwordsmith Feb 22
I enjoyed the tone here - one that wants to be sardonic but is just too fucking furious to keep being clever and ends up beating the authorities over the head with plain English; something I've long wondered how to do well.
'cost us almost $3 billion to park our car' is wry perfection, and I don't imagine there'll ever be a better context for rhyming 'nexus' and 'Texas'.
@guitarpatz83 Feb 22
Haha well, I can disagree with you on this but still enjoy your song! Great tongue in cheeky lyrics and completely get your frustration at the mess we’ve made of our own planet- though I do personally think space exploration and saving Earth through climate initiatives aren’t mutually exclusive. Thanks for sharing! Great FAWMing 😎
@glasscrow Feb 22
I have nothing constructive to say, but I enjoyed this 😀
@spikedirection Feb 21
".. and whitey's on the moon.."
Its often been a criticism level at space exploration. You ain't wrong and you argue your point well in a great song. But probably I'd cut the armed forces in half and keep the coool space stuff, for my own selfish enjoyment. 😆
@loveonamixtape Feb 21
This is excellently written. Great classic melody and structure, perfectly executed, clever lyrics, well constructed, with the right amount of bite and wit, in the vein of John Prine. I agree with the spirit of the song and a lot of what you say in your liner note, even if I'm not quite as upset about Mars missions. But that's mostly because I think money is fake, especially when talking about things governments spend on at the scale they do. The government never has any trouble making money appear when it comes to war for example (yet paying for M4A is somehow impossible?) But I digress! 😉 And as for trying to actually save our own frickin' planet, I couldn't agree more. Great protest song!
@oldlostjohn Feb 21
You make a lot of good points on this topic and I'm with you all the way. It's well written with the right touch of irony and humour and never gets too preachy. That warm voice of yours and the laid back delivery draws the listener into the song.
@bethdesombre Feb 21
I'm with @sheilerk: great song, not with you on the sentiment. The song is catchy, ironic, and beautifully crafted.
@sheilerk Feb 21
I’m in a quandary about this song because it’s so damn good. But, if we hadn’t gone to the moon we wouldn’t have cell phones, or laptops or so many of the things we take for granted, the technology of which came directly from developing that rocket. Heck, we wouldn’t have Fawm!!
We have no idea yet what will come out of the technology from this one.
But, in principle I agree with you. We need to direct our attention to saving this planet. I’m just not sure that this won’t help us with that in ways we can’t yet imagine.
@kahlo2013 Feb 21
Brilliant. Bravo!
I’m an avid supporter of innovation and discovery but it totally agree that there are more highly prevalent and urgent issues that we need to focus our resources on - from social injustices and climate change to energy and Heath, just to name a few.
@aesthetic72 Feb 21
The atmosphere of earth used to be made of CO2, CO, HS, and H-Cyanide. Sulfur fixing bacteria created the world we know today. Earth doesn't care - it will adjust and it owes us nothing. We owe it everything. And we're going to frickin Mars instead. A diversion at best.
I feel exactly like this. We could have used those brains to explore how to make THIS planet habitable. But we already know. The science has been around for a while. Everyone wants to go on a road trip instead of getting their car serviced, but if we only go on road trips, then we'll eventually lose the means to do so. I mean, this whole rocket obsession, come on people...
Exquisite write, John. Great arrangement and your vox are super on point. really important message. thanks for doing this! it' also feels a like an anti -Marsaritaville type anthem. Makes me love it more! 😀
@billwhite51 Feb 21
i agree with everything you said in the liner notes and with what you say in the song. And its a damn good song. but i think there are far wrse things the government is spending out money on..and dont think things would have been any dfferent in texas had the mars missions been scrapped. and money spent isnt just going to the project iself but to all the people who worked on it. im a little prejudiced toward sace exploration as y dad was onne of the team who put a man on the moon, and i spent several evenings on coca beach n 1966 watching the lunchngs of rockets into space. but les get those shots in th peoples arm, the food on their tables, the money in their bank accounts so they can pay off the debts they owe the banks. i would want to lve in a lava tube any more than you would... but he money assigned to NASA is going to go to NASA desow they decide to spend it...and we have to keep writing protest songs if only to raise the questions in the people's minds. keep it rolling, john you are good person. and in the end, it will be the songs of this era that will be remembered, not the samples of red dirt.
@blindkiwi Feb 21
But but but... there might be something there that can be exploited.
You have nailed this John, there is so much that needs fixing here right now. This needs to hit a wider audience, except the people that really need to hear it won't listen. Excellent protest song, and well sung.