Tin Legs And Tin Mines One of the less mentioned songs off this album, yet also another fantastically well written song. This song has some great dynamics. The verses are mellow with a great chord progression, that lead into the Chorus that picks up and runs with the "Who's running the world today?" refrain. Lyrics I'm gonna wait for the moment to come I'm gonna wait till we all stop from running Boxed in like candles, polar bear pride Turning to terror as the script is read out Unwilling actors, accomplished protractors will shout I'm gonna wait till we reach the sky Tin legs and tin mines, anyone cries Cry in the hope that there'll be tomorrow Waiting around there must be a time Time to start thinking and working it out Come with me now, come with me now, we'll be laughing Who's running the world today? I'm gonna wait till they knock on my door I'm gonna wait till they dig up the floor boards Poland in Disneyland, wet dream control Super computer, the new contraband I'm gonna wait, we must make a stand Come with me now, stand with me now one more time
Somebody's trying to tell me something Starting off with a melange of sound that leads straight into the verse. I think some folks don't love this song due to it being pretty low on lyrics. I think from the bands perspective they had just us a big batch of thoughtful lyrics to digest. This is quite an inventive non-instrumental ... I say that because it feels like an instrumental with some incidental lyrics. Probably the least of the tracks on this album, but certainly not empty filler. Lyrics Breaking me down, lunatic noises Breaking me down, desperate voices Breaking me down, phone is blistering Breaking me down, death by listening Somebody's out there, Somebody's waiting Somebody's trying to tell me something Somebody's trying to talk to me Cracking me up, silence threatening Cracking me up, storm is deafening Cracking me up, pressure brought to bear Cracking me up, now I'm getting there
So that is 10-1, which to me is the jewel in the crown of Midnight Oil's recording history. If you have never heard it before, please give it a couple of listens and let us know what you reckon. If you have heard it before, let us know what you reckon. Cheers
I've given some thoughts already but I'll summarise: One of their best albums; it may be their best but I am undecided, I still lean towards Diesel and Dust. Best tracks on 10-1: Outside World Short memory Scream In Blue (but there are bits of this song I don't like) U.S.Forces Maralinga Tin Legs and tin Mines I have probably heard The Power and the Passion too many times to be objective about it. Worst track: Somebody's trying to tell Me Something - a non-instrumental, as you describe it. Still I am not sure how they should have ended the album. maybe The Power and the Passion would have worked well as a closer. The cover is strange - not bad as such, but rather confusing. there are things there where I find it hard to see the relation with the album subject matter. The best cover gong would probably have to go to Red Sails in the Sunset - though I rather like Redneck Wonderland also.
I love 10-1 but it's third in my list... Diesel and Dust and Blue Sky Mining are my top two. But even so, this is a band that's made a lot of great albums!
with the cover it seems like they probably used some of the then fairly new digital technology to piece together a city falling to pieces. in the foreground it appears to be broken solar panels. it is interesting, but not very focused. Red sails is one of the best and most ominous album covers ever.
Easy album and song guide Midnight Oil - 1978 Midnight Oil - the album thread track 1 Powderworks Midnight Oil - the album thread track 2 Head over heals Midnight Oil - the album thread track 3 Dust Midnight Oil - the album thread track 4 Used and Abused Midnight Oil - the album thread track 5 Surfing with a spoon Midnight Oil - the album thread track 6 Run by night Midnight Oil - the album thread Run by night live 1981 - Midnight Oil - the album thread track 7 Nothing lost ... nothing gained Midnight Oil - the album thread Head Injuries - 1979 Midnight Oil - the album thread track 1 Cold cold change Midnight Oil - the album thread track 2 Section 5 (bus to Bondi) Midnight Oil - the album thread track 3 Naked flame Midnight Oil - the album thread track 4 Back on the borderline Midnight Oil - the album thread track 5 Koala sprint Midnight Oil - the album thread track 6 No reaction Midnight Oil - the album thread track 7 Stand in line Midnight Oil - the album thread Stand in line live 1981 - Midnight Oil - the album thread track 8 Profiteers Midnight Oil - the album thread track 9 Is it now? Midnight Oil - the album thread Bird Noises EP 1980 Midnight Oil - the album thread track 1 No time for games Midnight Oil - the album thread track 2 Knife's edge Midnight Oil - the album thread track 3 Wedding cake island Midnight Oil - the album thread track 4 I'm the cure Midnight Oil - the album thread Live at the Melbourne Show Grounds 1980 - Midnight Oil - the album thread Place Without A Postcard 1981 Midnight Oil - the album thread track 1 Don't wanna be the one Midnight Oil - the album thread don't wanna be the one live - Midnight Oil - the album thread track 2 Brave faces Midnight Oil - the album thread Brave faces live in 1982 - Midnight Oil - the album thread track 3 Armistice day Midnight Oil - the album thread Armistice day live 1982 - Midnight Oil - the album thread track 4 Someone else to blame Midnight Oil - the album thread track 5 Basement Flat Midnight Oil - the album thread track 6 Written in the heart Midnight Oil - the album thread track 7 Burnie Midnight Oil - the album thread track 8 Quinella holiday Midnight Oil - the album thread track 9 Love's on sale Midnight Oil - the album thread track 10 If Ned Kelly was King Midnight Oil - the album thread track 11 Lucky country Midnight Oil - the album thread 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 - 1982 - Midnight Oil - the album thread track 1 Outside world Midnight Oil - the album thread track 2 Only the Strong Midnight Oil - the album thread Only the Strong Live Midnight Oil - the album thread track 3 Short Memory Midnight Oil - the album thread Short Memory live Midnight Oil - the album thread track 4 Read About It Midnight Oil - the album thread Read About It Live Midnight Oil - the album thread track 5 Scream in Blue Midnight Oil - the album thread track 6 U.S. Forces Midnight Oil - the album thread track 7 Power and The Passion Midnight Oil - the album thread track 8 Maralinga Midnight Oil - the album thread track 9 Tin Legs And Tin Mines Midnight Oil - the album thread track 10 Somebody's trying to tell me something Midnight Oil - the album thread
Mark, thanks so much for such a thorough over view. Musical tastes are totally subjective. There is no right or wrong, good or bad. That being said, I love this album. To my ears it was the apogee of their earlier more rocking albums. After Red Sails their style changed and I tend to group those three albums separately.
cheers mate yea me too. i see value in diesel and dust and blue sky mining, but for me 10-1 and to a slightly lesser extent red sails are the bands peak.
What's with all these bumps? This seems to be basically your thread, I think people are just waiting for the next instalment, discussing the next album. I have nothing worth adding at this stage, so I'm not going to post for the sake of posting. Several more albums to go! Same applies to the Cold Chisel thread. You haven't started on the final album yet have you? Unless I missed that.
as the thread disappears to the back pages, people often miss seeing the thread. so when i have nothing to post and the thread is on page 15 or something, i may "bump" it back up to the first page, so that anyone who hasn't seen it, or has forgotten about it, sees it. Chisel thread is done. I have been adding little pieces of information from the book as i'm reading it and perhaps get people who missed it, or hadn't gone through it yet an opportunity to check it out. There are still people looking at it, so it may as well be visible.
Red Sails in the Sunset Studio album by Midnight Oil Released October 1984 Recorded June–August 1984 Victor Aoyama Studio, Tokyo, Japan Genre Post-punk, rock, new wave Length 50:33 Label Sprint, Columbia Producer Nick Launay, Midnight Oil Red Sails in the Sunset is a rock album by Australian group Midnight Oil which was released in October 1984 under the Columbia Records label. It was recorded and produced in Tokyo, Japan and is significant for becoming their first No. 1 album in Australia – it also entered the United States Billboard 200. The cover image, by Japanese artist Tsunehisa Kimura, depicts Sydney Harbour after a hypothetical nuclear strike. Some of its tracks were performed live in January 1985 at a Sydney Harbour Goat Island concert to celebrate radio station Triple J's 10th birthday, which was simulcast on ABC Television and subsequently re-broadcast on their then-Tuesday night music program Rock Arena. In 2004 the film footage later became part of a DVD album, Best of Both Worlds. Red Sails in the Sunset contains the only Midnight Oil tracks with lead vocals provided by their drummer Rob Hirst, "When the Generals Talk" and "Kosciusko". The album spawned two singles, "When the Generals Talk" and "Best of Both Worlds" but neither appeared on the Australian singles chart. The Oils released Red Sails in the Sunset in October 1984. It was recorded in June to August in Japan, and was produced by Nick Launay, who had worked on their breakthrough album, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (1982).[1][2] Columbia asked the band to return to the studio and record a more commercial single that could chart in America, but the band refused. Drummer Rob Hirst said that the band told Columbia to take it or leave it, and Columbia released the album as-is.[3] It peaked at No. 1 for four weeks on the Australian charts,[4] and charted on the Billboard 200.[5] Singles from the album were also released in the United States and United Kingdom but had no chart success.[1] Whilst the album showed an over-reliance on technical wizardry, their lyrical stance was positive.[1] The band continued to expand their sound and explore themes of politics, consumerism, militarism, the threat of nuclear war and environmental issues.[6] The album cover by Japanese artist Tsunehisa Kimura featured a photomontage of Sydney – both city and harbour – cratered and devastated after a hypothetical nuclear attack.[7] Live concert footage of "Short Memory" was used in the Australian independent anti-nuclear war movie One Night Stand.[8] A promotional video for "Best of Both Worlds" received airplay worldwide on cable music TV station MTV.[9] In January 1985, Midnight Oil performed Oils on the Water, a concert on Goat Island in Port Jackson to celebrate Triple J's tenth birthday,[1] before a select audience of fans who had won tickets in a radio competition. The concert was filmed, simulcast on ABC-TV and Triple J, and released on video,[1] which was remastered for their 2004 Best of Both Worlds DVD. AllMusic's William Ruhlmann found that group were "ambitiously taking on a variety of lyrical causes in a variety of musical styles" and the album's "martial rhythms, chanted vocals, and guitar textures, served as a jumping-off place".[10] However Garrett's vocals showed an "unrelentingly judgmental tone ... sung with dead seriousness ... tended to douse the album's potential enjoyment".[10] Rolling Stone's Don Shewey felt their music "combines the postpunk abrasiveness of the Clash and Gang of Four with the Kinks' music-hall variety and the pure pop of groups like Cheap Trick".[11] Shewey wrote that their "references to local politics and history that stud the group's songs and account in large part for its huge appeal down under may seem exotic or puzzling to Americans".[11] Bill Wolfe of Spin wrote, "Midnight Oil is not only the Australian band of the '80s, it may very well be the band of the '80s. Period." I have always enjoyed the Red Sails album, even though it does have a couple of songs that elude me. The album has quite a lot of those disposable eighties sounds on it, but for the most part they don't detract from enjoying the album, but perhaps my familiarity negates those, idk. After this album I will be posting as much of the Goat Island/Oils on Water stuff that I can, as for me it was what turned me onto the band. I had always liked some of their songs, but never bought an album. After seeing the Oils On Water show broadcast live in one of those eighties stereocasts ... Video on the TV, music on the relatively new stereo radio ... I made a point of going out and getting 10-1, because the performance was that convincing. Then a little while after I bought this album.
When The Generals Talk The first single off the album and another departure. Using some of the, then, modern techniques/styles throughout the song, the band uses the popular edited vocal, but I am pretty sure that they actually sung and played it that way, rather than using the editing style that became so popular (and annoying) around this time. Perhaps someone can share the facts of that with us. I really like this song and I also enjoy Rob Hirst's singing. He had always done a lot of backing vocals, supporting and strengthening Garrett's lead vocals, but this was his lead vocal debut. Lyrics Up there on the platform He is speaking to the people The people are responding With clapping and a'cheering But the meaning of the message Not revealed to those assembled They're taken for a ride Taken In his stride When the Generals talk You better listen to him When the Generals talk You better do what he say There's a rumor in the ranking Someone's talking insurrection So the General has a purge Cause he wants to win elections With the certain satisfaction That the people are appeased Long live the revolution The General's very pleased Sitting on the fence both ears to the ground The fat cats still push the thin cats around
Best Of Both Worlds This track comes blasting out like some of the best tracks off earlier albums. This is a very tightly written song that also, in a sense, comes in to reassure fans that they haven't suddenly become a techno band. Much in the same way that Only the Strong had slammed in after outside world, reassuring fans that the band had not become an avant guarde ambient band. Lyrics 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
I love sleep... fantasic song... Production though on the album leaves a lot to be desired... I'm pretty sure the band weren't completely happy either. Also (i maybe wrong here) i think it was tracked to digital..
When this album arrived I was underwhelmed by it. The thing is, the songs they chose for singles were OK songs but listeners would have been forgiven for thinking "Hmmm, more of the same". "When the Generals Talk" is like Power and the Passion part 2; "Best of Both Worlds" is again a decent song but not a lot different from "Read About It" or a number of songs from their earlier albums. It's the "deep cuts" that I think make this album worth having. First among those is "Jimmy Sharman's Boxers", This is nothing to do with underwear; it's about a troupe of aboriginal boxers who toured the outback in an early example of "blacksploitation". A quite long song, it begins with a dark sense of foreboding and ends with a crescendo and the cry I'm sure Mark will have more to say later on about this song. Other stand-outs for me are "Harrisburg" (no prizes for guessing the subject matter) and "Bells and Horns in the back of Beyond", a song that I still don't quite understand and one that I hardly even recognise as Midnight Oil.
I think when the generals talk is a different song ... it kind of surprised me when it came out, but best of both worlds is like read about its brother lol Jimmy Sharman's Boxers is my favourite song on the album and the live version coming up later solidifies that for me
Another great album... I've always felt Jimmy Sharman's Boxers to be one of their most underrated tracks... It's brilliant.