One of my favorite new songs is “Pompeii” by the UK band Bastille. I’m not sure how popular this song is in the USA, but in the UK and also here in South Africa it’s quite popular at the moment. If you haven’t heard the song yet, please take a listen.
The song has a geological theme and makes reference to the famous eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79, which destroyed and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Here are the lyrics:
I was left to my own devices
Many days fell away with nothing to showAnd the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from aboveBut if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You’ve been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?We were caught up and lost in all of our vices
In your pose as the dust settles around usAnd the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from aboveBut if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You’ve been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
If you close your eyesOh where do we begin?
The rubble or our sins?
Oh where do we begin?
The rubble or our sins?And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from aboveBut if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You’ve been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
I really like this song. The music is nice, and I also appreciate the lyrics. I am sure that there is metaphor and that there are many ways to interpret the lyrics, but for me the lyrics of “Pompeii” express what it must feel like to be suddenly caught up in a devastating volcanic eruption– or any sudden natural disaster. The environment around you changes so quickly and so shockingly that you are left in a state of disbelief. Your mind can’t keep up. You feel, almost, that if you closed your eyes and opened them again everything would return to normal.
What do you think of the song? Does anyone else have geology-themed songs they enjoy? Perhaps we can start a geoblogging meme!
Here’s the music video for “Pompeii”:
Georneys 
Ooh, I know a few geology-related songs!
San Andreas Fault by Natalie Merchant
Shasta (Carrie’s Song) by Vienna Teng
Montserrat by Ian Anderson
Mt. St. Helens by Mirah
LikeLike
Rock On
Rocky Mountain Way
LikeLike
LikeLike
I’ve always liked Gravity by John Mayer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VBex8zbDRs
LikeLike
That’s a tough one.
Maybe Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move, Under My Feet”
Or how about, the Icicle Works:
“Walking with a mountain when I’m with you,
Turning stones the downside up, you don’t know what you’ll find”
LikeLike
Can’t get more geological than “I Am a Rock” by Simon & Garfunkel:
LikeLike
If you want explicitly educational geology songs, go to the SingAboutScience.org database (click on “FIND/ADD SONGS”) and search for a term like “magma” or “earthquake” or whatever. There are lots of choices! The albums “Rocks and Water” by Chris Rawlings and “Beth’s Rock Collection” by Beth Cook-Vernon are among my personal favorites.
LikeLike
Heya this is kinda of off topic but I was wanting to
know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding expertise so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
LikeLike
I love this song! Right now i’m travelung to caribe and listening to it !
LikeLike