Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil is like 6 foot 8, so when he gets in your face to tell you something, you listen. VERY FEW musicians who work on social issues ever ACHIEVE as much as Garrett. His accomplishments are a mile long and a mile deep. He's been elected to the Australian House of Representatives. After three years when his party took power Garrett became Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
Wikipedia tells us (gather round children, Wikipedia is going to speak):
"At the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the group performed before Prime Minister John Howard and a television audience of hundreds of millions, wearing black tracksuits bearing the word "sorry." This referred to the Howard Government's refusal to apologise to Aboriginal Australians for the former policy of removing of Aboriginal children from their families"
In keeping with our political theme tonight here is Midnight Oil with 'Blue Sky Mine"
Lyrics:
Hey, hey-hey hey
Therell be food on the table tonight
Hey, hey, hey hey
Therell be pay in your pocket tonight
My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken
A life that is led is no more than a token
Wholl strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why
If I yell out at night theres a reply of bruised silence
The screen is no comfort I cant speak my sentence
They blew the lights at heavens gate and I dont know why
But if I work all day at the blue sky mine
(therell be food on the table tonight)
Still I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(therell be pay in your pocket tonight)
The candy store paupers lie to the share holders
Theyre crossing their fingers they pay the truth makers
The balance sheet is breaking up the sky
So Im caught at the junction still waiting for medicine
The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine
Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night
And if the blue sky mining company wont come to my rescue
If the sugar refining company wont save me
Whos gonna save me?
But if I work all day...
And some have sailed from a distant shore
And the company takes what the company wants
And nothings as precious, as a hole in the ground
Whos gonna save me?
I pray that sense and reason brings us in
Whos gonna save me?
Weve got nothing to fear
In the end the rain comes down
Washes clean, the streets of a blue sky town
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