{"id":50469,"date":"2021-11-07T13:01:50","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T12:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=50469"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:25:15","slug":"50-years-of-greenpeace-and-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/50469\/50-years-of-greenpeace-and-music\/","title":{"rendered":"If I can’t dance, I don’t want your revolution! 50 years of Greenpeace and Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Check out this music playlist<\/a> featuring highlights from the history of music in Greenpeace, including collaborations, tributes and performances through the years <\/em><\/p>\n\n

Almost by accident, Marie and Jim Bohlen had come up with a plan for how to protest US government testing of nuclear weapons at Amchitka, a remote island in Alaska. It was 1970, and The Bohlens – part of a small group of Vancouver ecologists and activists called \u2018The Don\u2019t Make a Wave Committee\u2019 – had been discussing what they should do to try and halt the imminent nuclear detonation, when Marie Bohlen made an offhand suggestion: \u201cWe should just sail a boat out there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Later that day, a reporter from the Vancouver Sun called Jim Bohlen to ask whether the group were planning to protest the planned nuclear test. Unsure of what to tell the journalist, Jim blurted out: \u201cWe hope to sail a boat to Amchitka to confront the bomb.\u201d The story was printed the next day, and the plan was set.<\/p>\n\n

\"Dorothy
From left: Dorothy and Irving Stowe, with Bree Drummond, Jim Bohlen, and Rod Marining in 1971.
\u00a9 Photo courtesy of Robert Stowe<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The Don\u2019t Make a Wave Committee was soon renamed \u2018Greenpeace\u2019, and the Bohlen’s plan –  to charter an old fishing boat and sail it up to the site of the planned bomb blast in Alaska – was to become the first ever Greenpeace expedition. <\/p>\n\n

In order to raise the necessary funds to charter the old fishing boat and get to Alaska to prevent the bombs being detonated, another member of the committee, Irving Stowe<\/a>, asked the singer Joan Baez to stage a benefit concert to fund the campaign. Baez could not attend, but introduced Stowe to Joni Mitchell, who agreed to play, and brought with her rising star James Taylor. The event, held In Vancouver in October, 1970 raised $17,000, enough for the boat charter and some basic expenses.<\/p>\n\n

1970: Joni Mitchell and James Taylor perform to raise funds for the first Greenpeace expedition<\/h3>\n\n
\n