Midnight Oil counted down to international success with the studio experimentation and radical politics of this dark and artful tour de force. '10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1' was recorded in London at the Town House studio with producer Nick Launay with Rob Hirst on drums and vocals; Martin Rotsey on guitar; Peter Garrett on lead vocals; Jim Moginie on guitar, keyboards, and vocals, and Peter Gifford on bass.
Hirst considers: "The songwriting process with Midnight Oil is a lot more organic and usually more non-tangential and chaotic than it appears at the end of the day, even though it might appear that we pick up The Age or Sydney Morning Herald and say 'Oh, let's write a Hollingsworth song'. Originally the songs come from Jim and myself and then take on this Midnight Oil process with Pete coming in with extra lyrics. Then they go on this torturous process with Martin and Bonesy stepping back from the songs to get that extra distance and then the songs change and become Midnight Oil songs. And the songs can take on completely different meanings to how they were originally conceived. It's the maturity of quite a torturous process and can be quite difficult, particularly for the writer who had a particular idea about the way it was going and it's become something else. Ultimately that's the strength of a band. You get people coming in who's ideas and talent you respect, unlike a solo artist who has to rely on himself and whoever he's playing it to at home. Everyone's pulling on this idea and it goes through this unspoken tortuous process ending up with a song. Most of the time it's stronger than the original. Sometimes it's not."
Moginie recalls: "In the early days of the band, there was that young man’s sense of 'kicking against the pricks', which sometimes is aimed at no one in particular, or everyone at the same time. Later on, Pete especially became much more about engagement…putting together two opposites at a conference table to hammer out a result, which is more constructive than 'us vs. them'. That’s the politics of adulthood...In terms of trade, Australia has always had an uphill battle because of our distance from the big market places of the world. We used to be part of the EU, but got kicked out of that when the walls went up there. The alliance with the U.S. has become critical to our survival...I think we ended up loving America, but the first times we played there we were kind of blown out of the water by the size of it, the politics of Reagan and the nuclear stuff, and the thirty different types of milk in the supermarket aisle. In Australia, you’d get just one if you were lucky."
Garrett expounds: "The fact is, fashion hasn't had much to do with this either, which would mean that we haven't been that concerned with how we've looked or how we've sounded at any particular time, because we've always existed to complement ourselves and our relationship in the band, just as musicians and performers, and maybe some of the peripheral shit that was going on that tends to influence one, influenced us a little less. We came out of a very acute, particular area and we came through with quite a strange way of doing things. We all just seem to be similar, just sort of drifted together. I don't think that the subject matter that we sing about is particularly unique…. I don't ever find that there is anything we're singing that is out of the ordinary. To me, it's quite normal stuff...Well, I think it's because we're the only ones who are doing songs that have got something to do with those things that have never been addressed to the kids. There wasn't a tradition of student leaders, there wasn't a radical clique. I'm told that in Australia through the Seventies, once Vietnam came and went, Aussie radical bands all disappeared completely...This band can help provide a rallying point for people. Most people find it very difficult to move on their own, make a stand on their own. We see ourselves as a band that goes about writing songs about things that we know other people maybe have a concern about. And we're mirroring that concern. You don't discover that you're horrified of that nuclear round you realize it when you think about it...Music does serve that purpose, and I wish a lot more musicians would write about those things."
'10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1' AKA 'Ten-to-One' spent more than two years on the Australian album chart, peaking at number three. In the US, it charted at number one hundred and seventy-eight and received considerable college airplay. The combination of synthesizers and sound effects with their ferocious live energy makes for their most ambitious sound yet; utilizing acoustic and electric instrumentation in a cutting edge pastiche that is truly unique.
https://www.midnightoil.com/
"Power and the Passion" went to number eight in Australia.
People, wasting away in paradise
Going backward, once in a while
Moving ahead, falling behind
What do you believe
What do you believe
What do you believe is true
Nothing they say makes a difference this way
'Cos nothing they say will do
Take all the trouble that you can afford
At least you won't have time to be bored
Oh the power and the passion
Oh the temper of the time
Oh the power and the passion
Sometimes you've got to take the hardest line
I see sunburnt faces around
With skin so brown
Smiling zinc cream and crows
Sundays the beach never a cloud
Breathing eucalypt, pushing panelvans, stuff
And munch junk food
Laughing at the truth, 'cos
Gough was tough till he hit the rough
Uncle Sam and John were quite enough
Too much of sunshine too much of sky
It's enough to make you wanna cry
I see buildings, clothing the sky in paradise
Sydney, where the nights are warm
Daytime telly, blue rinse dawn
Dad's so bad he lives in a pub,
Underarms and football clubs
Flat chat, Pin Gap in every home a Big Mac
And no one goes back, that's that
You take what you get and get what you please
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pKPNnk-JhE
"Read About It"
The rich get richer, the poor get the picture
The bombs never hit you when you're down so low
Some got pollution, some revolution
There must be some solution but I just don't know
The bosses want decisions, the workers need ambitions
There won't be no collisions when they move so slow
Nothing ever happens, nothing really matters
No one ever tells me so what am I to know
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
Just another incredible scene, there's no doubt about it
Hammer and the sickle, the news is at a trickle
The commissars are fickle but the stockpile grows
Bombers keep acoming, engines softly humming
The stars and stripes are running for their own big show
Another little flare up, storm brewed in a tea cup
Imagine any mix up and the lot would go
Nothing ever happens...
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
One unjust ridiculous steal, ain't no doubt about it
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
Just another particular deal, there's no doubt about it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QzH4KOf9Bs
"US Forces" hit number twenty on the Australian singles chart.
US forces give the nod
It's a setback for your country
Bombs and trenches all in rows
Bombs and threats still ask for more
Divided world the CIA
Who controls the issue
You leave us with no time to talk
You can write your own assessment
Sing me songs of no denying
Seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing
Will you know it when you see it
High risk children dogs of war
Now market movements call the shots
Business deals in parking lots
Waiting for the meat of tomorrow
Everyone is too stoned to start emission
People too scared to go to prison
We're unable to make decisions
Political party line don't cross that floor
L. Ron Hubbard can't save your life
Superboy takes a plutonium wife
In the shadows of Ban the Bomb we live
Sing me songs of no denying
Seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing
"Short Memory"
Conquistador of Mexico, the Zulu and the Navaho
The Belgians in the Congo short memory
Plantation in Virginia, the Raj in British India
The deadline in South Africa short memory
The story of El Salvador, the silence of Hiroshima
Destruction of Cambodia short memory
Short memory, must have a, short memory
The sight of hotels by the Nile, the designated Hilton style
With running water specially bought short memory
A smallish man Afghanistan, a watch dog in a nervous land
They're only there to lend a hand short memory
The friendly five a dusty smile
Wake up in sweat at dead of night
And in the tents new rifles hey short memory
If you read the history books you'll see the same things happen again and again
Repeat repeat short memory they've all got it
When are we going to play it again
Got a short, got a short, got a short, got a short
They've got a short must have a short they've got a short aah
Short memory, they've got a.
full album:
1. "Outside World" Moginie 4:24
2. "Only the Strong" Hirst, Moginie 4:31
3. "Short Memory" Garrett, Hirst, Moginie 3:52
4. "Read About It" Garrett, Hirst, Moginie 3:52
5. "Scream in Blue" Garrett, Moginie, Rotsey 6:22
6. "US Forces" Garrett, Moginie 4:06
7. "Power and the Passion" Garrett, Hirst, Moginie 5:39
8. "Maralinga" Garrett, Moginie 4:44
9. "Tin Legs and Tin Mines" Garrett, Moginie, Rotsey 4:28
10. "Somebody's Trying to Tell Me Something" Garrett, Gifford, Hirst, Moginie, Rotsey 3:58
No comments:
Post a Comment