Uncut/UK

Three artists: one cause

On October 16, 1970, Greenpeace was launched into the world at a concert at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, with the specific intention of funding a Greenpeace boat to said to Amchitka (in the Aleutians) to stop the H-bomb tests. Phil Ochs, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell rallied to the flag, Ochs a stalwart of the Greenwich Village folk scene, delivers a batch a batch of earnest protest strumalongs including Rhythms of the Revolution. James Taylor, hot on the heels of his second album Sweet Baby James, is typically downbeat and sardonic, scoring high with Fire and Rain but elsewhere lapsing into blandness. But then on comes Joni to blow the opposition away with a set of some of her choicest early songs – My Old Man, Woodstock. And a gorgeous (and very apt For Free). And of course there is Big Yellow Taxi, that rare thing, and ecological song with a sense of humour. -Adam Sweeting