Midnight Oil "Song a Day" Number 3 "Redneck Wonderland"

   In the excitement of now waiting for the Oils to return home and start an inspirational run of shows, my next song choice is "Redneck Wonderland" from the album of that name...

"Redneck Wonderland"
I don't want to run I don't want to stay
Cos everything that's near and dear is old
And in the way
Emergency has gone, apathy rolling on
Time to take a stand
Redneck wonderland

Got you in my sights, spotlit by the fence
If it's love you're faking it's just common sense
Brick and tile for miles, rolling in the aisles
Rifle in my hand
Redneck wonderland

Well the streets are clean, nothing gets away
I can see the beauty treatment draining from
Your face
It is vision free, It's poor bugger me
Something less than grand
Redneck wonderland

   It's a great song from a powerful album that sensed the spirit of the age as one lacking generosity and apportioning blame for why people are 'missing out' and over blowing issues to whip themselves into a fearful state.

   I still have the framed graphic artist mock up of the album artwork, bought as a gift from the Triple J East Timor Auction!!

Midnight Oil clip a day, day two... 

"Only the Strong" from th album 10,9,8... which I first listened to about 3-4 years after it's release and loved it!! This is again a clip from the legendary Capitol Saturday Night concert in 1982. 

At Selina's at Coogee many years later the whole crowd, jammed in, swayed back and forth to this song and you could just about lift your feet off the floor and not fall... just the raw power of the Oils guitars and drums is enough to lift this track, then comes PG's unique singing. Sometimes it would be a second track in a concert, other times it'd be right smack bang in the middle of the driving part of the set... great song!!

"Only the Strong"
When I'm locked in my room
I just want to scream
And I know what they mean
(One more day of eating and sleeping)
Speak to me, speak to me
I'm not spoken for, I'm ready to talk
Look at me, look at me
I've been broken up and shaken down
Speak to me, speak to me
I'm at the edge of myself I'm dying to talk
Look at me, won't you look at me
Back once more at the point of no return
When I'm locked in my room
I just want to scream
And I know what they mean
Only the strong

Midnight Oil "Song a Day" 1 "Lucky Country"

OK, let's see if I can keep up the pace, from today, through holidays in a few weeks and on into the local homecoming leg of "The Great Circle Tour" for Midnight Oil!!! "Song a Day" to drive my friends crazier than normal.

This offering is from the legendary Capitol Theatre gig [1982] which I know from many friends and stories must have been a mind-blowing night... This song is "Lucky Country" It's not quite national anthem material but it's pretty close. Warning, it's not just best but should ONLY be played up loud!

"Lucky Country"
Speed, and this
There's a feeling I get when I look to the sun
Love, it's so tough
Cause it raises your hopes and then it makes you run
We're all looking for a shorter day
We're all looking for an easy way
Even when the debts are dead and gone
Down, the stairs
And an eight mile drive waits for you to turn on
Hear, the time clocks sing
And the smoke in the distance reaches the eye line
We're all working on a shorter day...
No conversation as you go
There's so much space the heat moves you
Terracotta homes, backyard barbeque and eucalyptus smell
It's fine on the clothes line
It's fast food and slow life and red roof
My silence, comic interruptions
Surely there's some relief from atomic art
And the fragile state of world events
With clowns who love the kings and power and the mutant media babes
Wanking on dreams and fashions and toilet paper flowers
Don't talk to me in this backyard - it's clandestine, it's nuclear
Smell of space and now forever I want to go
Straight down the exit eight mile attraction
you-turn is up and the time clock sings lets go
Lucky country
Where the geckos are paid to live in the sun
On and on there's a ribbon of road and a mile to spare
Lucky country .......

Songwriters: Moginie/Rotsey /Garrett/Gifford /Hirst

Trump-o-meter

Unbelievable...
Not only has President Trump stretched the friendship with his weekends in Florida BUT it seems he's on a seventeen day vacation... the one he said he'd never take as POTUS!! Here's the thing, everyone," even the leader of the free world" needs to take a break, this shouldn't be big news. I also think not taking holidays is a stupid short term thing to try and do. It's just that the promise not to was another one of Trump's specifically ridiculous incessant shots at President Obama during his two terms. It also adds to the general sense that Trump will say or do whatever works for him at the time, perhaps not even as well crafted as Tony Abbott's 'scripted' and 'unscripted' remarks idea. Again, the holiday isn't the big deal, the rubbish he says is... OK, back to the 'not being baited into a weekly Trump rant' zone!!

"Kingdom" Dan Sultan

Dan Sultan's music sneaks up on you for how great it is... and this song is ideally suited to this Sunday's story of loaves and fishes as a story exemplifying a compassionate God as seen through Jesus story... It just doesn't fit my context, so I leave to here for others!!