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Human Frailty Pty Ltd |
Hear No Evil
"Hear No Evil" is a brilliant atmospheric track similar in nature to "True Tears Of Joy" and "Edge Of Nowhere", also from the excellent "Cut" album. "Hear No Evil" may be one of the best lyrical pieces Mark Seymour had ever done. I have always interpreted "Hear No Evil" to be about religious violence - a song taken from shifting perspectives of a person blindly following a religion and a 'bigger picture' perspective that comes through later in the song. The first two verses look into time moving, violence, and conclude with grinding the infidel (person of different religious belief) into the dust. Connotations may include how time changes but people still kill over pointless thing such as religious differences. The blindness of the 'kill the infidel' mentality means that they can kill for their religion believing they are doing completely the right thing - they can kill but they hear no evil. The third verse has some very interesting things to say. The religious trade off of total control for salvation. The nature of every one's religion being right and convinced that are totally and completely correct. "And when I get to heaven, trace the poison to it's source" appeals to me as a note that through people's interpretation and silly fighting over their religions, the religion does in effect turn into a type of poison. The more you take the deadlier it becomes. I do not think that the song is slamming religion as a whole, I think it's about the general stupidity of religious violence. I still have this picture of some people deciding Hunters and Collectors are evil for the 'poison' line though! Originally being released on the "Head Above Water" CD singles, "Hear No Evil" did get some radio airplay at the time of release.
Comments from the "Natural Selection" liner notes (by Mark Seymour): Right in the middle of another great war, there is an earthquake under Hollywood. It couldn't come at worse time for the film industry. California begins to fall into the sea. Airborne camera men take breathtaking footage of multi-million dollar homes burning in the hills. There is nothing but bad news for the good people at home in their lounge rooms on the other side of the world. Glaciers melt and the sea level begins to rise. Real estate values on the Mornington Peninsula are no longer worth sneezing at. Flights to New Zealand are booked out weeks in advance.
From far across the ocean you can
hear the sound of thunder It's nothing at all, nothing I can't
handle Everything I trust I hang onto for a
while It's nothing at all, nothing I can't
handle No need to worry, there's no
information Oh, it's nothing at all, nothing I
can't handle I hear no evil Nothing's wrong... I can't count the
cost I hear
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