Midnight Oil - Power & The Passion

 

People, wasting away in paradise
Going backward, once in a while
Taking your time, give it a try
What do you believe, what do you believe
What do you believe is true
Nothing they say makes a difference this way
Nothing they say will do

You take all the trouble that you can afford
At least you won't have time to be bored
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

Sunburnt faces around, with skin so brown
Smiling zinc cream and crowds, Sundays the beach never a cloud
Breathing eucalypt, pushing panel vans
Stuff and munch junk food
Laughing at the truth, cos Gough was tough til he hit the rough
Uncle Sam and John were quite enough

Too much of sunshine too much of sky
It's just enough to make you want to cry
It's just enough to make you want to cry

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 buildings, clothing the sky, in paradise
Sydney, nights are warm
Daytime telly, blue rinse dawn
Dad's so bad he lives in the pub, it's a underarms and football clubs
Flat chat, Pine Gap, in every home a Big Mac
And no one goes outback, 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
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees

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 

 

Midnight Oil - Put Down That Weapon

 

Under the waterline
No place to retire
To another time
The eyes of the world now turn

And if we think about it
And if we talk about it
And if the skies go dark with rain
Can you tell me does our freedom remain

Put down that weapon or we'll all be gone
You can't hide nowhere with the torchlight on
And it happens to be an emergency
Some things aren't meant to be
Some things don't come for free

Above the waterline
Point the finger yeah point the bone
It's the harbour towns
That the grey metal ships call home
And if we think about it
And if we talk about it
And if the sea goes boiling black
Can you tell me what you'll do about that

Put down that weapon or we'll all be gone
I must know something to know it's so wrong
And it happens to be an emergency
Some things aren't meant to be
Some things don't come for free
They keep talking about it
They keep talking...

Put down that weapon or we'll all be gone
You must be crazy if you think you're strong

 

Midnight Oil - 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 need never be soldiers, our daughters will never need guns
These are the years between
These are the years 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 years
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 years, the roarin' years, the fallen years
These should not be forgotten years
The hardest years, the wildest years, the desperate and divided years
We will remember, these should not be forgotten years

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 years, the darkest years, the roarin' years, the fallen years
These should not be forgotten years
The hardest years, the wildest years, the desperate and divided years
We will remember, these should not be forgotten years

The hardest years, the darkest years, the roarin' years, the fallen years
These should not be forgotten years
The hardest years, the wildest years, the desperate and divided years
We will remember, these should not be forgotten years

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

 

Midnight Oil - Minutes To Midnight

 

Everybody 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 of the side of the page

But ear's 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 

 

Midnight Oil - Shipyards Of New Zealand

 

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
Keeps us from coming undone

Now danger lurks behind the spreader
And Charlton 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 

 

Midnight Oil - Best Of Both Worlds

 

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

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 strong 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 

 

Midnight Oil - Jimmy Sharmans Boxers

 

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
Eye's 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 keep 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 

 

Midnight Oil - Kosciuszko

 

Older than Kosciuszko
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

Older than Kosciuszko
Dry white seasons years ago
Darkness over Charleville
The fires begin to grow

No end to the hostility
Now they want to be somewhere else
No stranger to brutality
Now they'd like to be someone else

Older than Kosciuszko
Driven back to Alice Springs
Endless storm and struggle
Marks the spirit of the age
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 

 

Midnight Oil - Sleep

 

So you've got the blues
The evening wore out your shoes
To a shuffling beat
It's a colourful crowd
Spraycan information
Cover the lonely station
Checkpoint for the state of the nation

On the missionbeat beat
The radio drug
Wayward destinations
Secondhand sensation
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