1. |
Willow Tree
04:08
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Damp water marks down the wall
It makes a real picture for me
And the music and food and the talks that we had
Are the kind that draw five pig faced people together
Still we stayed for a while
So we swing
On the big willow tree
We all glide through the air
On the branches that hang
We all know just where we want to be
Sitting on the roof
Oh the things we could see
The fine clock on the town hall
The tree on the hill
And old Lucy next door
Hosing down her front footpath
God knows why she thought
That it had to be clean
So we swing
On the big willow tree
We all glide through the air
On the branches that hang
We all know just where we want to be
It’s all because of the big willow tree
Oh the memories I have
Of that rambling backyard
Are the ways I wouldn’t mind
These days to be
So we swing through the air
Over Bob’s little garden
The sheds aren’t real upright,
I think they’ll fall down
And four years ago seems like miles from here
The floor boards all leaked
In the best house in town
So we swing
On the big willow tree
We all glide through the air
On the branches that hang
We all know just where we want to be
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2. |
Fishing Trawler
04:01
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Well I can hear the fishing trawlers off the shore
And I can see unshaven men
They smell of fish and yet they’ve hardly begun
The waves wash the cork on the dim lit shore
Yes, I’ve been tumbled and sorted
And I’ve been turned inside out
By all this colour and movement
And everything is how it should be
Well, I can hear the women washing in their tubs
And I can hear them sing their songs
They wipe their sweat and then they splash
The water round and round
Slap each other on the back
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3. |
Wobble
03:48
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4. |
Thomastown
04:07
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On stinking hot days
When the ground burns your feet
You stare at the ceiling
The trains break your sleep
The roads have got pot holes
And your car falls apart
And the milk bar attendant
Would like to sell up
And our neighbours hold on to
The things they know best
They sweep out verandahs
And cry for their kids
The primary school children
On the gravel school yard
They’ve got grins that start one side
And go all around
Happy as they play make-believe games
With themselves for a while
And it’s the older Greek women
Who are the ones dressed in black
Not new wave guitarists
With cows on their backs
And the Thistle Hotel is a dream on its own
And every pool table has blood on the cloth
The motor car workshop has dogs chained
and tied to the fence for the night
and the further you travel the longer it takes
Your car takes a beating, the roads aren’t the best
And I don’t think the Colbys have been out to Thomastown
Somehow I doubt that they will
Somehow I doubt that they will
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5. |
Maroon Rust
04:01
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6. |
Palau
05:34
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Up on Palau they watch their TV shows
A golden fortune spin the game show wheel
The village boys stare at the Rambo man
Deep water harbour brings the warships in
And when I look over the village fields
There’s a caterpillar tractor, there’s an aeroplane shed
Poverty is when I’m sitting next to your place
Saying bless O Lord and these American gifts
And in the damp and in the tropical sun
The summer rains will last a long long, long time
They never told this story years ago
And the giant painted turtle never fought like this
Keep passing baskets up the pyramid line
Pass the baskets up the pyramid line
Pass the baskets up the pyramid line
The summer rain will last a long, long time
The tidal river twists and turns itself
It folds around the mangroves swamp
The shots were heard amongst the copra palms
Bikini Atoll with a different sea
You cannot do much when your house is next
Caterpillar tractors by banana trees
In the savannah by the island reefs
They wash their hair with the buckets from the deep sunk well
Up on Palau they watch their TV sets
Right in the middle of the Sulu sea
Little beads of worry, little beads of sweat
Walking though the puddle gutter,
got their shoes all wet
keep passing baskets up the pyramid line
Pass the baskets up the pyramid line
Pass the baskets up the pyramid line
The summer rain will last a long long time
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7. |
Yellow Earth
04:52
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The daughter works over ploughed hills
Not much grows there
The wind pelts the earth
And the sound
Is the sound of her hopes and her dreams
Tied to the seasons’ heartless rounhds
And her house built into the hill
The millet stone she pushes slowly round in time
Yellow river that she’s walked from hours away
to wash the old man’s feet, sleep and hope for a
change to come
just wait for a change to come
There’re no tears now as she walks over the earth
the man arranged for her to wed the ancient ways a
and she leaves, out there the river is the hardest
thing to cross
when you’re gone
when you try to walk away
just trying to walk away
Peacock flies over the river
River runs over the land
The land it works the village
And makes them tame
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8. |
Sweat
05:47
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9. |
Terra Nullius
04:28
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He travels the long track
He walks two thousand miles of desert sand
A path they wandered down years ago
Years ago
They made their…Terra Nullius
His story is old
As bold and right as the earth he walks
It don’t move, it just bides its time
It always stays
The story was told
Terra Nullius
Shame the legends crack the paint upon his face
His knees at dance and they fly
And they sing
The poet woman has changed her name in shame
Cool river bed it masks the bones
Of those who died before our time
Made their claim before
Terra Nullius
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10. |
Claim
04:55
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Not Drowning, Waving Melbourne, Australia
NDW's music was haunting, evocative, brooding, sensuous and a million other words that excite people who type for a living. In record stores, you could usually find NDW filed under ambient or art-rock, ill-fitting labels if ever there were. Though they were often minimalist, they never made background music. Arty by comparison to other acts of the era, but they knocked out some glorious pop tunes. ... more
Not Drowning, Waving recommends:
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Paid Salvation
by A. Swayze and the Ghosts
Toothy rock & roll from this Australian group that puts a premium on buzzsaw riffs and herky-jerk, Devo-style vocals
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