RED SAILS IN THE SUNSET
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WHEN THE GENERALS TALK |
(Hirst/Moginie/Garrett) Up there on the platform He is speaking to the people The people are responding With clapping and a cheering But the meaning of the message Not revealed to those assembled They're taken for a ride Taken in his stride When the generals talk You better listen to him When the generals talk You better do what he say There's a rumour in the ranking Someone talking insurrection So the general has a purge 'Cos he wants to win elections With the certain satisfaction That the people are appeased Long live the revolution The general's very pleased Sitting on the fence both ears to the ground The fat cat's still push the thin cats around
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS |
(Hirst/Moginie) You say times are tough We've got the best of both worlds here Things are rough We've got the best of both worlds here Times are tough We've got the best of both worlds here The real world is not as calm as it appears to be from here The real world is not as calm as it appears to be from here The old world is not as safe with the new world closing in The great south land can be as great as the one it could have been The one it could have been The real world is not as calm as it appears to be from here The small world is not as strong and the testing ground is near The old world is not as safe as the one we could have seen The great south land can be as great as the one it could have been The one it could have been We've got the best of both worlds
MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT |
(Moginie/Garrett) Everybodys say god is a good man Ah, clock on the world Driving a dump truck up to the sun A sigh in the human heart I look at the clock on the wall It says three minutes to midnight Faith is blind when we're so near Phar Lap floating in a jar Seas full of submarines, A.W.A.C's like flies Truth gets harder to define Talking in tongues But the dancer's hand grips the rail And fingers will blister on the 88's Hope drains out the side of the page But ears can't hear What eyes don't see And you can't see me Everybody say god is a good man Everybody say 1,2,3 Set up those gunsights in H.G. Wells backyard I.C.B.M's, S.S. 20's they lie so dormant they got So many Remember your childhood Remember the journey Hope is what you say and do
JIMMY SHARMAN'S BOXERS |
(Hirst/Moginie) From the red dust north of Dalmore Downs Sharman's tents roll into town Twelve will face the auctioneer Sharman's boxers stand their ground Their days are darker than your nights But they won't be the first to fall Children broken from their dreams But they won't be the first to fall Fighting in the spotlight Eyes turn blacker than their skin For Jimmy Sharman's boxers It's no better if you win Standing in the darkness Lined up waiting for the bell The days are wasted drinking At the first and last hotel Why are we fighting for this? Why are you paying for this? You pay to see me fall like shrapnel to the floor What is the reason for this? There is a reason for this? What is the reason they keeping coming back for more? The blows now bring him to his knees But still the crowd calls out for more The drums are burning in his ears The man keeps counting out the score
BAKERMAN |
(Hirst) (INSTRUMENTAL)
WHO CAN STAND IN THE WAY |
(Moginie/Garrett) Well oh well I feel I'm in decay John Laws is on the air again It's heavy traffic, jacardandas, eye in sky and foot on ground I see a million sand speck'd ants in mortal combat hand to hand And I feel that I, yes I feel that I Seem to live this life long distance gaze at the things surround me People rolling in and out those circles and tides confound me And there's just one thing, yes ther's just one thing Who can stand in the way when there's a dollar to be made I was hanging round off Dobroyd Point, when the first fleet chain sailed in Looked into the clearest blue, the scurvy smell, the convicts cry And we just carried on, yes we just carried on Now choppers strafe the supermaket sky and people wonder why chopping down tons of trees got seas of print not a soul can read say Why do I drown you build brick boxes one by one now they block my sun But it's metal on metal it's the dance of T.V. If Christ were here he'd camera check he'd cry so loud the planes would stop He'd cry so loud the earth would shake and men would fall in tinsel town There's just one thing, yes there's just one thing Who can stand in they way when there's a dollar to be made Precious moments precious few It's the joy of forgetting such a joy to forget But we killed our first born and we slashed and we burned And we sold off the paddocks and we raped and we gouged On the wings of a six-pack will we ever learn
SLEEP |
(Moginie/Hirst/Garrett) So you got the blues The evening wore out your shoes To a shuffling beat It's a colourful crowd Spray can information Cover the lonely station Checkpoint for the state of the nation On the missionbeat beat The radio drug Wayward destinations Secondhand sensations In the back of the cell The plug and the cord Shoulder dislocation Bruised in isolation In the eye of the storm Writing on walls Cross my heart confusion Looking for a new solution It's the heat of the land Swallowing sweat Say those dreams can shake me Dawn come down and save me Take this heart Break this heart Wrap it up and let me sleep
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KOSCIUSKO |
(Hirst/Moginie) Older than Kosciusko Darwin down to Alice Springs Dealers in the clearinghouse The settlements explode High up in the homelands Miners drive across the land Encounter no resistance When the people block the road Old than Kosciusko Dry white seasons years ago Darkness over Charleville The fires begin to glow No end to the hostility Now they wanna be somehwere else No stranger to brutality Now they'd like to be someone else Older than Kosciusko Driven back to Alice Springs Endless storms and struggle Now the figes begin to rage High up in the homelands Celebration 'cross the land Builds up like a cyclone Now the fires begin to rage Call off the ultimatum No don't turn away Call off the ultimatum until yesterday Call off the ultimatum, no don't turn away Bind up the brokenhearted No don't turn away Call off the ultimatum until yesterday
HELPS ME HELPS YOU |
(Hirst/Moginie) Look at all the toys I got Look at all the things I need Look at all the toys I got Look at all the mouths I feed Have I got a wonderful deal for you What belongs to me belongs to you I understand what you're going through I know the point to push you to My policy helps me helps you Generosity helps me helps you Conspiracy helps me helps you Put your trust in me I'll help you too Look at all the things I've done Look at all the rights I wrong The means will justify the end For you to save and me to spend 'Cos I've got a great idea you see What belongs to me belongs to me I know just what you wanna do I know how I can get there too Hypocrisy helps me helps you Democracy helps me helps you Ideology helps me helps you Put your trust in me I'll help your through
HARRISBURG |
(Moginie/Kevans) The empire burns The umpire's not laughing The president's resented, The ambassadors's a night club You cannot get it out It's stuff you cannot taste or see It's stuff you cannot smell It's stuff that's twenty times as hot As the hottest stuff in hell Harrisburg oh Harrisburg The plant is melting down The people out in Harrisburg Are getting out of town And when this stuff gets in You cannot get it out The company said it would not blow The government said it might Harrisburg oh Harrisburg I wonder who is right Who can leave it behind, the curtains are drawn There's something I must say to you You cannot get it out
BELLS AND HORNS IN THE BACK OF BEYOND |
(Midnight Oil) The Southern Aurora was late again As I waited at central to take you home Winking spinning sparkling lights on our flat earth You talk about the old groundling ways Where the suburbs summer pulse and play in wrinkled sand and never never never neverland I get home I see them drive down I look out and see those lines and lines and lines of swell and smiles Coolangatta, what's the matter? Paradise, it's a surfer's world and flashing lights and real estate With one last wave Ahhh, get up and run 'Cause there's a beach lies quiet near the open sea And a carpark lay streched where the bindis used to be When will I be yours When will I be mine
SHIPYARDS OF NEW ZEALAND |
(Moginie/Garrett) Thought one day I'd make my fortune Like the ancient cavalcades From the shipyards of New Zealand Chasing history I left home Moving west into the sunset Became the sunset of our lives I was factory made and settled Safe from storm and broken earth There's so much to do every day Dreams keep on disappearing We cling to the walls of our heart Keep us from coming undone Now danger lurks behind the spreader And Chalrton Heston casts the first stone User interference birthmarks Clever, not very wise Let the lamplights keep on shining now While those searchlights in skies they are turning We climb to the top of the heap, I wish I could fly I can't get lost I can't get confused Something's misplaced Maybe for good