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The Rape Of The World Lyrics
Mother of us all
Place of our birth
How can we stand aside
And watch the rape of the wold
This the beginning of the end
This the most heinous of crimes
This the deadliest of sins
The greatest violation of all time
Mother of us all
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world
You've seen her stripped mined
You've heard of bombs exploded underground
You know the sun shines
Hotter than ever before
Mother of us all
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world
Some claim to have crowned her
A queen
With cities of concrete and steel
But there is no glory no honor
In what results
From the rape of the world
Mother of us all
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world
She has been clear-cut
She has been dumped on
She has been poisoned and beaten up
And we have been witness
To the rape of the world
Mother of us all
Place of our birth
How can we stand aside
And watch the rape of the world
If you look you'll see it with your own eyes
If you listen you will hear her cries
If you care you will stand and testify
And stop the rape of the world
Stop the rape of the world
Mother of us all
Mother of us all
Mother of us all
Mother of us all...
Place of our birth
How can we stand aside
And watch the rape of the wold
This the most heinous of crimes
This the deadliest of sins
The greatest violation of all time
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world
You've heard of bombs exploded underground
You know the sun shines
Hotter than ever before
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world
A queen
With cities of concrete and steel
But there is no glory no honor
In what results
From the rape of the world
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world
She has been dumped on
She has been poisoned and beaten up
And we have been witness
To the rape of the world
Place of our birth
How can we stand aside
And watch the rape of the world
If you listen you will hear her cries
If you care you will stand and testify
And stop the rape of the world
Mother of us all
Mother of us all
Mother of us all
Mother of us all...
Song Info
Submitted by
nelly On Mar 09, 2002
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I cant belive there is only 4 comments for this song. People have turned a blind eye to this song just as they have ot the rape of the world. this song has such meaning and Tracy sings aobut everything that is wrong with the world. We all are witness to the rape of the world and there are only a small group of people who seek the truth. There has to be a time soon when ppl will realise that we are destroying our world but I think it already is too late.
@KTTunstall888 Sixteen years later, but I have not turned a blind eye! I hope you are well.
@KTTunstall888 Sixteen years later, but I have not turned a blind eye! I hope you are well.
Your comment is more relevant than ever.
Your comment is more relevant than ever.
Written in 1995 when the second IPCC report came out explaining causes effect and solutions to Climate Change. 28 years later very little has changed. Corporate greed and consumerism is the reality. Political powr begets money from wealthy poluters who get more money and give some to political powers who get more money and so it goes on. It you do not understand this, stay asleep because you surely can't like looking in the mirror and being woke about the environment or anything else. You have been asleep for the last 28 years, please stay asleep. .
NO COMMENTS?!?! It's the most amazing, emotional and controversial song Tracy Chapman has ever created and not ONE bloody comment! You people suck ;p lol.
This is my favourite Tracy Chapman song. It's more of a worldly song than Micheal Jackson's "Earth Song". It's about how the world turns a blind eye and continues to destroy "mother earth". No one watches the shocking documentaries and the millions of africans dyieng of aids EVERY day, the the graphic images of war and poverty, the rain forests being chopped down and all the animals, all the splendour and beauty of the world torn down for commercial use. And no one even notices. She's saying here how although you or me may not be the ones killing, destroying and degrading our beautiful home, but the worst crime of all is to stand aside and watch as the world falls apart. To do nothing about it. The worst crime is the way that people could infact stop "the rape of the world" (I love that metaphor), if everyone cared, if everyone tried. This song is so sad, how can the world turn their heads to THIS, to all the sadness, the pain, the poverty, how can the world ignore it.
I was reminded again of this song after reading that Las Vegas is going to pilfer scarce central Nevada water aquifers to feed its mindless growth, causing inevitable extinctions of species that depend on groundwater in remote valleys. Just one of many examples. The massive proliferation of gas fracking wells and "green" wind turbines is also scarring the land more and more.
I was reminded again of this song after reading that Las Vegas is going to pilfer scarce central Nevada water aquifers to feed its mindless growth, causing inevitable extinctions of species that depend on groundwater in remote valleys. Just one of many examples. The massive proliferation of gas fracking wells and "green" wind turbines is also scarring the land more and more.
The rape of the world continues unabated, mostly due to human population growth and the "economic growth" that coddles and excuses it. There is no real balance between Man and nature, just more people and less...
The rape of the world continues unabated, mostly due to human population growth and the "economic growth" that coddles and excuses it. There is no real balance between Man and nature, just more people and less nature, almost every day. It gets called "balance" to assuage the semi-apathetic. Leave a few trees standing after you bulldoze another hillside for homes, and pretend nature somehow won a victory.
This is like the ultimate environmental anthem, in my opinion. It's so haunting, the way she repeats "Mother of us all."
beautiful. touching. painful and honest.
Once again Tracy Chapman speaks a truth. This song brings the focus to where it should be. It is both haunting and lyrically one of the best written about the environment, from the title "Rape Of The World" to the deeply touching phrase, hauntingly delivered, Mother of us all. Listening to this takes me right back to her song "Paper And Ink".
This song seriously strikes something in me..and being a person that feels for our earth..and being a person that sees the earth itself as something divine and special..it's really touching..and painful.
Chapman's lyrics are strong on the surface, but I think her message is too vague and politically correct. Indirect blame will never solve the root problem of human carrying-capacity overload. Also, many people who claim to be oppressed have the highest birthrates, so they're not mere victims of "the system."
I'd like to see a song that covers the main drivers of planet-rape, namely overpopulation, economic growthism and globalization, which chases shrinking resources around the world and treats them as local. Peak Oil is making that fantasy more difficult to perpetuate, though. Cheap global transportation is no longer a given.
Of course, there are many people (like the G.O.P.) who will never really respect nature. They think it's mainly something to be pillaged for money. They're convinced that a supernatural deity keeps them alive, so conservation isn't necessary. The word "conserv"ative doesn't apply to them anymore, if it ever did.
@Nick_C Hi Nick, I like your comment and I wanted to share ideas about her not being direct enough, especially when it is about about something so fundamental as life, in the planet.
@Nick_C Hi Nick, I like your comment and I wanted to share ideas about her not being direct enough, especially when it is about about something so fundamental as life, in the planet.
I believe Tracy's style is to 'point at things', without asking questions directly, proposing or blaming directly. I am sure she could do that with no difficulties; however, helping people become aware and then make their decisions and opinions is what she usually does with most of her stories. I do think there are exception, like 'Broken', if you listen to that one she is speaking...
I believe Tracy's style is to 'point at things', without asking questions directly, proposing or blaming directly. I am sure she could do that with no difficulties; however, helping people become aware and then make their decisions and opinions is what she usually does with most of her stories. I do think there are exception, like 'Broken', if you listen to that one she is speaking looking to the listener right in the eye. Whenever I listen to that on I do wonder why she was different with this one as opposed to most of her songs. I feel like she is perplexed at how we live in the present and still are able to be ok with ourselves.... my perceived positions of hers shocking to me exactly because she tries to avoid that... ok thanks and the best to you
Great song. A lot of meaning in it.
The title of this song stuck out at me like a sore thumb. As Cartman would say, this song is a bunch of Hippie bulls**t.
Nature keeps you ALIVE, you G.O.P. parrot. It's not just a warehouse to fatten your bank account. Show it some respect. True environmentalism is common sense, not a hippie cause. Read about the history of why the EPA was created. Pollution is anti-life, not patriotic.
Nature keeps you ALIVE, you G.O.P. parrot. It's not just a warehouse to fatten your bank account. Show it some respect. True environmentalism is common sense, not a hippie cause. Read about the history of why the EPA was created. Pollution is anti-life, not patriotic.
It's ironic how you folks claim to be "pro life" but only in the context of cranking out human babies. You ignore the effects of human overpopulation; arguably the biggest environmental problem of all. This finite planet can't keep absorbing ~80 MILLION more people each year. It's an obscene number, amplified by technological...
It's ironic how you folks claim to be "pro life" but only in the context of cranking out human babies. You ignore the effects of human overpopulation; arguably the biggest environmental problem of all. This finite planet can't keep absorbing ~80 MILLION more people each year. It's an obscene number, amplified by technological impacts.
Creationists assert that Man can't really harm nature ("cuz Gawd wouldn't let us") but they refuse to understand how nature actually functions. Republicans' beloved money is not a natural resource, nor is it sustainable in its current debt-based form. Much of that debt is ecological, not just monetary, and those two forms of debt are ultimately the same.