Undertow Track By Track
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Article Text
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Summary Information: Track by
track introduction to Mark Seymour's Undertow album, written by the man
himself.
Author: Mark Seymour; Liberation Records. Date: 4 April 2011.
Original URL:
http://mushroomgroup.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/album-bio-mark-seymour-and-the-undertow-track-by-track/ Article Text
A man spends eighty grand on a palm tree to decorate the home of his
mistress. On the other side of the continent a little wooden boat founders
on the rocks of Christmas Island killing 48 asylum seekers. An Australian
prime minister once said “Life wasn’t meant to be easy” but the rules don’t
seem to apply for some. The older I get the less I know. I hear the outrage
of youth in the voices of my children and I hope they will never be
confounded by the void. “Maintain your rage” I say. Then I hear an old man
softly singing ‘Danny Boy’ to his dying wife in the afternoon sun and I ask,
“What are songs are for?” Maybe one day I’ll know but right now I can only
tell when songs are dead. Where does the mystery go? The mind is a creator
and a slave. Feed it or it dies. When all else fails there is always work,
moving through the country, the hum of wheels and engines, wind off the
southern ocean, the roar of sound, Muddy Waters in the Tarago, open chords,
back beats and long wailing guitars, the sound of a band. We started jamming
at sound check, booked a studio in Hallam.
CASTLEMAINE
Dreaming of Gurus, false gods, cults and peddlers of fear. Some people will
say anything to win friends. The search for comfort, happiness and escape.
I KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT YOU
The Cuckold who goes quietly. A lover’s car seen in someone else’s
driveway.. events are moving beyond his control… humiliation and the courage
to face it
LITTLE BRIDGES
The phone rings downstairs in the kitchen and as he rises to answer it she
bursts through the front door and rushes down the hallway to pick up. She
beats him to it. He stands on the landing at the top of the stairwell,
listening as she speaks of him.. unaware that he’s listening.
SYLVIA’S IN BLACK
Sylvia came to live on the high side of town overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The years unfolded and with the wealth and privilege came routine and
repetition.. She was fond of a drink. She got out.
LEGEND OF THE SNOWMEN
(dedicated to the memory of Tony Medina)
Money will never compensate for the pain and suffering inflicted on
Australian workers who have been exposed to asbestos dust.
“Everything that sustains the wealth creation of our society has been built
on the graves of workers who’ve perished to get us to this point.” -Bob Carr
ELDORADO
Crown Casino. The face of Australia. The multitude clamoring to win, to be
seen, to be showered with the flush of success. Every kind of Australian is
there. Multi-culturalism running wild. Eating, drinking, gambling. Children
crying in the carpark at midnight. Blue bloods dripping with wealth in the
ballroom. The sound of faux bird song broadcast from speakers hidden in the
trees along the boulevarde outside. And faux crowds laughing and cheering
from speakers outside the sports bar at three in the morning.. when there’s
no one around the Indian women come out to sweep the mall.
CRY IN THE RAIN
What is left when vanity is gone?
CLASSROOMS AND KITCHENS
My mother Paula, in the kitchen at Corryong. My earliest memory of her then
and now, in the nursing home in Kew.. intoning Hail Marys, waiting in the
light
THE RED LADY’S GONE
I once owned a ’72 HQ Monaro coupe, vermilion red.. People said I was making
some kind of statement.. I was. I loved the damn thing but she was taken by
some covetous junky from across the river at 10 0’Clock at night while I was
down at the pub. She was parked outside the apartment, kill switch on, but
the thief found the switch while kicking tyres earlier that day.. Said I was
asking too high a price. Decided to take it anyway
GIVE ME ONE MORE RIDE
Desire before the fall… desire after the fall.
THE PATSY
Someone who takes the fall when a plan or conspiracy comes unstuck. He’s the
bloke (or lady) up front who is left hanging in the breeze after the focus
groups have run off like deer in the forest. Was Charles the 1st truly
guilty of treason? Was Lee Harvey Oswald the only shooter? Did Fraser’s
henchmen set up Billy McMahon? Or what about Kristina Kenneally? Now there
was a lamb to the slaughter. Sometimes the patsy is willingly duped..
because he is a greater victim of his own vanity than the frailty of those
who plot around him.
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