(1987)
Produced by Warne Livesey and Midnight Oil
Recorded in Sydney
Engineered by David Nicholas
BLUE SKY MINING |
There'll be food on the table tonight There'll be pay in your pocket tonight My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken My life that is lived is no more than a token Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why? If I yell out at night there's a reply of blue silence The screen is no comfort I can't speak my sentence They blew the lights at heaven's gate and I don't know why But if I work all day on the blue sky mine (There'll be food on the table tonight) Still I walk up and down on the blue sky mine (There'll be pay in your pocket tonight) The candy store paupers lie to the shareholders They're crossing their fingers they pay the truth makers The balance sheet is breaking up the sky So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night And if you blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue If the sugar refining company won't save me Who's gonna save me? But if I work all day on the blue sky mine (There'll be food on the table tonight) And if I walk up and down on the blue sky mine (There'll be pay in your pocket tonight) And some have sailed from a distant shore And the company takes what the company wants And nothing's as precious As a hole in the ground Who's gonna save me? I pray that sense and reason brings us in Who's gonna save me? We've got nothing to fear In the end the rain comes down Washes clean the streets of a blue sky mine
STARS OF WARBURTON |
(Moginie/Garrett) I was I was shaken down in a toy town He He's out there You know it's Kennedy's shadow From White Cross to Michigan ATMs in the air Oh yeah machines they are spinning out everywhere The speaker is speaking Can you hear the sound The listener is listening as he hits the ground The medium or the message but there's no-one around I couldn't believe the stars of Warburton Were waiting for me We were dancing We were dancing on the plain Were looking through the window Didn't see any buffalo there We got our pipe dreams They went up in smoke dreams Burn it clean in the climate control Of your hypermart malls Don't want to talk about Elvis Presley Don't want to see his white shoes walkin' around and Around and around and around over here The press baron's acting up the mainframes are down The newspapers crawling around on the ground The medium or the message Still there's no-one around I couldn't believe the stars of Warburton Were waiting for me Over the hills and mountains we go So far so far away For the ring of the axe on the ironbark For the smell of the wallaby stew From the golden reefs to the sandstone cliffs Came the sheep pens of the mallee plain The wind blew the soil to the Orient We'll be shouting to the skies again I couldn't believe the stars of Warburton Were waiting for me I couldn't believe the stars of Warburton Were living in me, raining down on me I couldn't believe the stars of Warburton Were washing down on me
BEDLAM BRIDGE |
(Hirst) In this city with no footpath There's a building with no people There is crime and gun decisions There's a street of heat and hawkers There's a house of hope and drifters There's a gang that shoots then listens There's a place that knows no poverty A town without pollution There's a soul with good intentions There are canyons full of movie stars Churches made of metal There are mountains made of muscle We have leaders who are anxious We have captain not courageous Captains tumbling into madness But there's a man who makes no enemies A body never breathless No ambition ever hopeless Up on bedlam bridge somebody is waiting Up on bedlam bridge I'm shot to heaven Oh Up on bedlam bridge Waiting In these locked and shackled neighborhoods Bridge and tunnel diplomats See the golden ghetto's creeper Crazy flags from history Songs for the White House gangsters Guns for hellgate railway sleepers But there's a man who makes no enemies A body never breathless No ambition ever hopeless So how stands the city on this winter's night? The city on the hill or so they said The now is falling down around the armoury The city's closing in around my head Up on bedlam bridge somebody is waiting Up on bedlam bridge I'm shot to heaven Oh Up on bedlam bridge Waiting Drive Drive the engines harder Drive Drive Won't you turn the engines over Drive
FORGOTTEN YEARS |
(Hirst/Moginie) Few of the sings of the father Are visited upon the son Hearts have been hard Hands have been clenched into fists too long Our sons need never be soldiers Our daughters will never need guns These are the years between These are the years that were hard fought and won Contracts torn at the edges Old signatures stained with tears Seasons of war and grace These should not be forgotten eyras Still it aches like tetanus It reeks of politics How many dreams remain? This is a feeling too strong to contain The hardest years, the darkest years The roarin' years, the fallen years These should not be forgotten years The hardest years the wildest years The desperate and divided years Our shoreline was never invaded Our country was never in flames This is the calm we breathe This is a feeling too strong to contain Still it aches like tetanus It reeks of politics Signatures stained with tears Who can remember, we've got to remember The hardest years, the darkest years... Forsaking aching breaking years The time 'n' tested heartbreak years These should not be forgotten years The blinded years, the binded years The desperate and divided years These should not be forgotten years Remember
MOUNTAINS OF BURMA |
(Hirst) The tucker box is empty now The heart of Kelly's country cleared The gangers on the southern line Like the steam trains have disappeared Pelicans glide Miracles up in the skies We vote for a government With axes in its eyes Mountains of Burma The road to Mandalay In the mountains of Burma Light years away Mountains of Burma Will the sons of Solidarity Still march on May Day Will the sisters of the seventies Still fight for equal pay There's no-one on the Reeperbahn No more blankets handed out for land We feed an economy It's got blood on its hands Mountains of Burma The road to Mandalay Mountains of Burma Light years away In the mountains of Burma The road to Mandalay In the mountains of Burma Hope you're light years away Pack your bags full of guns and ammunition Bills fall due for the industrial revolution Scorch the earth till the earth surrenders Soldiers of armies Storm empty fields In a traveller's trance On the way to the high frontier Sleepwalkers stumble Cable cars run aground Imaginary enemies Form high above the clouds In the Mountains of Burma...
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN |
(Hirst/Moginie) Walking through the high dry grass Pushing my way through slow Yellow belly black snake Sleeping on a red rock Waiting for the stranger to go Sugar train stops at the crossing Cane cockies cursing below Bad storm coming Better run to the top of the mountain Mountain in the shadow of light Rain in the valley below Mountain in the shadow of light Rain in the valley Well you can say you're Peter, say you're Paul Don't put me up on your bedroom wall Call me king of the mountain Blacksmith fires up the bellows Cane cutters burning the load Workers of the world Run to the top of the mountain Mountain in the shadow of light... I can't take the hands from my face There are some things we can't replace Mountain... Over liquid tarmac wastelands of cactus and heat Down cobblestone alleyways of washing day sheets Up ghost prairie mountains of sunset and space Across the wilderness Out further than the bush I will follow you
RIVER RUNS RED |
(Hirst/Moginie) So you cut all the tall trees down You poisoned the sky and the sea You've taken what's good from the ground But you left precious little for me You remember the flood and the fall We remember the light on the hill There should be enough for us all But the dollar is driving us still River runs red Black rain falls Dust in my hand River runs red Black rain falls On my bleeding land So we came and conquered and found Richers of commons and kings Who strangled and wrestled the ground But they never put back anything Now I'm trapped like a dog in a cage Wherever the truth is pursued It must be the curse of the age What's taken is never renewed River runs red...
SHAKERS AND MOVERS |
(Moginie/Garrett) Won't you come down the line Away from barren ground The harlot and the autocrat Are they driving you further down The season's rhymes, they anchor me Against the raging tide Take you to the last wild place Skin and the stars they embrace A caveman could a saint become In a hospital ward on the Somme We can dive into distant amoebas Our wings could melt in the sun I can shake I can move But I can't live without your love I can break Over you But I can't live without your love Our poet Henry Lawson he named them The lay'em out brigade Here they come there they go Oh great god of development Don't really know you yet Coastline hosed down washed away Economics, now there's nothing left Tomorrow's child takes concrete footsteps And they'll drink champagne or be damned And the storm is breaking now Yeah the storm is breaking now Yes the storm is crashing down I can shake... Our blood vessels go sailing, galaxies away You know today's bushfire is tomorrow's inferno As rags to riches becomes the public spear Watching out down the street as other people start coming down I can see that they're smiling And that's something to be proud of And they say it's late, but you know it's never too late And they say it's late, but you know it's never too late Never too late Never too late...
ONE COUNTRY |
(Moginie/Garrett) Who'd like to change the world Who wants to shoot the curl Who gets to work for bread Who wants to get ahead Who hands out equal rights who starts and ends that fight And not rant and rave Or end up a slave Who can make hard won gains Fall like the summer rain Now every man must be What his life can be So don't call me the tune, I will walk away Who wants to please everyone Who says it all can be done Still sit up on that fence No-one I've heard of yet Don't call me baby Don't talk in maybes Don't talk like has-beens Sing it like it should be Who laughs at their nagging doubts Lying on a neon shroud, running around Just got to touch someone I want to be So don't call me the tune, I will walk away One country one Country one country Who wants to sit around Turn it up, turn it down Only a man can be What his life can be One vision One people One landmass We are defenceless We have a lifeline One ocean One policy Seabed lies One passion One movement One instant One difference One lifetime One understanding One country One understanding Transgression Redemption One island One placemat One firmament One element One moment One fusion Yes, and one time
ANTARCTICA |
(Moginie/Hirst/Rotsey/Garrett) I'm a snow plough I must now plough on I'm a snow plough I'm a settler's son I'm a storm cloud Rain myself all over the place I'm a storm cloud Wipe that smile right off your face There must be one place left in the world Where the mountains meet the sea There must be one place left in the world Where the water's real and clean I'm a landslide I'm a downhill run I'm a landslide Open season's just begun There must be one place left in the world Where the skin says it can breathe There's gotta be one place left in the world It's a solitude of distance and relief There's gotta be one place left in the world I'm a snow plough There has to be one place left in the world I'm a snow plough One place One place left in the world I'm a short fuse I'm a slow blues I'm a landslide hummin I'm a downhill runnin There must be one place left in this world Where we can be