Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Midnight Oil 'Song a Day' #35 "Don't Wanna Be the One"



Such a brilliant rock song about Australian life...
Still just as funny to think about the fight breaking out at Newcastle Workers that stopped just before each Security foray into the crowd... where eventually Peter was singing the chorus and pointing at the instigator "I don't wanna be... the one" so he could be collared and removed!!

This far into a list of songs it reminds me I'm not one to have a wish list for upcoming concerts, the "I like their old stuff better than their new stuff" by another name... I'm probably lucky that my absolute favourites will get played between two gigs and I'll be more excited just to be in a space I never expected to experience again... songs about stuff that matters, on the right side of history, creative, poetic, timeless and reminiscent of younger days... I get it, but I'll just be ecstatic it's happening at all. Right back to when Peter left the band [an ending I felt was imminent] when friends asked I said, "no, they're not the farewell tour band" but if some natural disaster of an East Timor Appeal happened, then maybe... even for the Canberra warm ups ahead of the Bushfire Concert it was literally Peter asking out of Parliament House, changing out of the suit and getting into it... on the strength of a jam at his Canberra digs...

Of course I'll have 5 or 6 songs I wanna hear... but I won't be thinking about it in the moment...
I may even finish this list with my dream setlist, but for me, academic only!!! I do think a few new songs will emerge and some gigs will happen next year, maybe in the second half... but hey, enjoy!!!
In terms of standing there listening to a brilliant blistering 2hr set but instead being focused on what's not being played... "I don't wanna be the one..."

"Don't Wanna Be the One"
I'm an innocent victim, I'm just like you
We end up in home units with a brick wall view
I can't believe the perfect families on my colour TV
If I don't make it to the top it'll never bother me
And I don't want to be the one
I don't want to be the one
I'm an innocent bystander caught in the path
Waiting out the back while the corporate attack
Assaults the senses with relentless scenes of passion and delight
I cut up all the options and went running for my life

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