{"id":872,"date":"2018-10-27T02:34:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T02:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=872"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:36:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:36:54","slug":"earth-day-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=872","title":{"rendered":"Earth Day 1990"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Featuring 10,000 Maniacs, Billy Bragg, Indigo Girls, Ziggy Marley, Crack The Sky, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jungle Brothers, Bruce Hornsby and The Range, Michelle Shocked, <\/strong>April 1990, Merriweather Post Pavilion, <\/strong>Columbia, Md.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was listening to a podcast the other day about the boxes used in the packaging of CDs in the late 1980s, early 1990s and how one album \u2014 R.E.M.\u2019s Out of Time<\/em> \u2014 helped bring an end to the wasteful boxes. Artists on the whole abhorred the boxes and demanded they not be used anymore, and R.E.M.\u2019s stance and subsequent use of the boxes for the Voter-Motor bill helped to bring about several political changes leading to the boxes\u2019 demise.<\/p>\n

In April 1990 I got a press pass to attend the Earth Day concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion, a concert featuring several artists I admired and the rumored promise of band members from a certain Athens, Georgia band. As a sometime music writer for my college paper at the University of Maryland, I took the opportunity to get passes when they were offered. I wasn\u2019t missing this one.<\/p>\n

An all-day affair at the Columbia amphitheater, it featured a news conference in the morning with several artists talking about the importance of environmentalism on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. Billy Bragg, one of my favorite solo artists, went on a hilarious and furious rant about the box. Pulling out one of his CDs in the box, he used a small knife to rip apart the packaging, took the CD out of the jewel box, and asked why any of it was needed. With the CD surrounded by the booklet cover, he asked \u201cIsn\u2019t this all you need?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ziggy Marley came about, and in his perfect Jamaican accent, said \u201cThe Earth is our mother, shouldn\u2019t we protect our mother?\u201d Amy Ray, whose band Indigo Girls was finding more and more success, joined the voices in making a change in how we approach the environment. Nearly 25 years later we\u2019re still talking about the same thing, the world should have been listening and paying attention just as intently then.<\/p>\n

Musically, here is what I remember most:<\/p>\n