THE WHOPPER SONG sung by John Seed & Dana Lyons ©1986 by Bill Oliver from "At Night They Howl At The Moon- Environmental Songs for Kids"  by John Seed & Dana Lyons (CD or Tape) 2nd Track:  "We Don't Want to Live in the Zoo" More of John's songs may be heard at https://soundcloud.com/johnseed Performed by John Seed & Dana Lyons

Review and Track List

John Seed: " The first rainforest roadshow took place in 1984.Organised by the Earth First! movement, Dave Foreman, Cecelia Ostrow, Mike Roselle and I travelled the length and breadth of the USA in an old VW kombi van loaded with environmental t-shirts, bumper stickers, snake oil and trinkets to sell after our nightly gigs. Out of this roadshow grew the US Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

The second roadshow in 1986 followed the discovery that the main causes of destruction of the Central American rainforests was the big multi-national hamburger companies. By clearing rainforests and planting cattle pasture, they were able to drop a few cents off the price of a hamburger in the US. It turned out that Burger King was the main culprit, so the 1986 roadshow was planned to coincide with the RAN-organised "Whopper-Stopper Month".

Throughout May 1986 the roadshow travelled from city to city with concerts each night and actions outside the local Burger King the following morning before we drove on to the next city. These actions involved a papier mache and cloth cow parading the pavement while we handed out fliers about the issue to patrons and sang this song. Meanwhile the cow would eat rainforest leaves in one end and shit whoppers out onto the sidewalk from the other.

We got LOTS of media. No-one thought it was a great idea cutting rainforests for cheaper hamburgers.

As May wound along, for some reason or other Burger King's share price kept dropping. By the time we got to our last event in Burger King's hometown of St. Paul MN, fully 11% had been lost from the value of their company. Our last action was outside their corporate headquarters skyscraper. As we demonstrated outside singing the Whopper Song, Minnesota Public Radio went upstairs to interview the Burger King executives. When they came back down they announced that Burger King had agreed to use only   domestic beef from that time on.

Which goes to show the power of a good song!"

 

LAY DOWN YOUR WHOPPER BABY

c Bill Oliver

Well they come into the forest with machines with giant teeth
Knock a nickel of every whopper they make with cheap imported beef
So won't you lay down your whopper baby,
Lay down your whopper and your fries
Save the rainforest babyBefore the rainforest dies

Well from coast to Costa Rica, Amazon and Brazil
They maximize their profits with every culture that they kill
So won't you lay down your whopper baby,
Lay down your whopper and your fries
Save the rainforest baby
Before the rainforest dies

Well we've come to make a ruckus, raise our voices and to sing
Protest the policies of the World Bank and Burger King
So won't you lay down your whopper baby,
Lay down your whopper and your fries
Save the rainforest baby
Before the rainforest dies

We've got 6 billion people, we've got 5 billion cows
So move on down the food chain, eat those grains and tofu now
And won't you lay down your whopper baby,
Lay down your whopper and your fries
To save the whole planet baby
I said to save the whole planet mama
Talkin' 'bout the whole planet baby
Before the whole planet dies