The strong follow-up single "What Are We Gonna Do?" parodied late-period Beatles pop to cynically skewer the bumper-sticker mentality of all-too-many armchair environmentalists. "I still don't think people get it," notes John Easdale. "Environmental people listen to it and thing "Wow, this guy is really 'Green'!" It disturbs me to think that there are really people that believe that they're 'spokespersons for a generation.'"
Easdale recalls the song's genesis: "We played at the festival celebrating the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. Forget about the last 19 that nobody celebrated; 'It's the 20th anniversary let's have a party!" And they did, at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Linda Gray from Dallas is in our trailer smoking cigarettes and drinking beers, and there's a quarter of a fucking million people in front of us! When everyone left we looked at all the garbage left behind and wondered just what we were celebrating."
From the 18 Big Ones liner notes:
The strong follow-up single "What Are We Gonna Do?" parodied late-period Beatles pop to cynically skewer the bumper-sticker mentality of all-too-many armchair environmentalists. "I still don't think people get it," notes John Easdale. "Environmental people listen to it and thing "Wow, this guy is really 'Green'!" It disturbs me to think that there are really people that believe that they're 'spokespersons for a generation.'" Easdale recalls the song's genesis: "We played at the festival celebrating the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. Forget about the last 19 that nobody celebrated; 'It's the 20th anniversary let's have a party!" And they did, at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Linda Gray from Dallas is in our trailer smoking cigarettes and drinking beers, and there's a quarter of a fucking million people in front of us! When everyone left we looked at all the garbage left behind and wondered just what we were celebrating."