parresia

midnight oil

Lyrics of War and Peace

One of my favorite albums of all time happens to be a very political album. Midnight Oil's Blue Sky Mining is virtually a wartime anthem, even if in somewhat of a subversive vein. Consider two selections.

Forgotten Years

Few of the sins of the father, are visited upon the son Hearts have been hard, our hands have been clenched in a fist too long
Our sons will never be soldiers, our daughters will never need guns
These are the yrs between
These are the yrs that were hard fought and won
Contracts torn at the edges, old signatures stained with tears
Seasons of war and peace, these should not be forgotten yaers
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 yrs, the roarin' yrs, the fallen yrs
These should not be forgotten yrs
The hardest yrs, the wildest yrs, the desperate and divided yrs
We will remember, these should not be forgotten yrs

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...
Forsaking aching breaking yrs, the time and tested heartbreak yrs
These should not be forgotten yrs
The blinded yrs, the binded yrs, the desperate and divided yrs
These should not be forgotten yrs, remember

(Hirst/Moginie) Midnight Oil

One Country

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 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 want's 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 the nagging doubt, lying on a neon shroud
Just gotta touch someone, I want to be

So don't...
(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
Transgression, redemption, one island, our placemat, one firmament
One element, one moment, one fusion, yes and one time

(Moginie/Garrett) Midnight Oil

If you'd like to read more (or better yet hear more) Blue Sky Mining would be a great introduction to Midnight Oil's music.

Posted by jeremy stock at March 29, 2003 01:50 PM