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Locust Lyrics
georgie, i can't stop drinking
seems like every time i try i can't stop thinking
georgie, when i was a boy
i would stand there in the shade
of a wedding cake hotel doorway
watching sister with her liquor in a jar
talk to older boys in cars.
Ether was the town where i was born
they pulled iron from the ground
and knife wounds from the port
they built a prison and it tempered in the sun
it rose up off a plateau like the last tooth in a gum
you went there by train and you would never be the same.
they made the blacks live outside of town
the weekend come they'd tear the whole place down
chinese came without weekends at all
and the whites complained the pay was better
shooting them in the war
home may be where the calm blinds
but i could see that they weren't lying.
my first girls old man was in a later war
he drank like a motherfucker, now i know what for
she took my van, put louie in the jack
left a suicide not and i've got him to thank for that
and he can thank our statesmen hosts
although his chances are remote
georgie, i can't stop drinking
seems like every time i try i can't stop thinking
georgie, when i was a boy
i would stand there in the shade
of a wedding cake hotel doorway
watching sister with her liquor in a jar
talk to older boys in cars.
seems like every time i try i can't stop thinking
georgie, when i was a boy
i would stand there in the shade
of a wedding cake hotel doorway
watching sister with her liquor in a jar
talk to older boys in cars.
they pulled iron from the ground
and knife wounds from the port
they built a prison and it tempered in the sun
it rose up off a plateau like the last tooth in a gum
you went there by train and you would never be the same.
the weekend come they'd tear the whole place down
chinese came without weekends at all
and the whites complained the pay was better
shooting them in the war
home may be where the calm blinds
but i could see that they weren't lying.
he drank like a motherfucker, now i know what for
she took my van, put louie in the jack
left a suicide not and i've got him to thank for that
and he can thank our statesmen hosts
although his chances are remote
seems like every time i try i can't stop thinking
georgie, when i was a boy
i would stand there in the shade
of a wedding cake hotel doorway
watching sister with her liquor in a jar
talk to older boys in cars.
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This is about Gareth liddiards childhood in western australia and primarily about his first girlfriend commiting suicide in his van. The drone are australias best independant band, they won the australian music prize and 25000 dollars last night.
Ether is referenced in another Drones song, 'Scrap Iron Sky' from 'Here Come the Lies'. I read somewhere that Port Hedland (known for it's iron ore mines) is Gareths' hometown, so this makes sense. I guess calling it Ether refers to the dulling of the sense that happens when you're isolated in little country towns (i oughta know!)
The prison is also referenced in 'Scrap Iron Sky'. The bit about blacks living outside of town is pretty (sad but) true for a lot of northern WA mining towns. The next few lines illustrate the xenophobia and stereotyping you tend to encounter in these areas, where even though Australias wars were fought against Japan and Vietnam, all of asia is to blame.
I'm guessing "louie in the jack" refers to shooting up speed.
In all a just a song about living in typical Aussie town...
I love this song, and just watched them play it at the Annandale hotel. A couple of lines confuse me though. "left a suicide note and i've got him to thank for that" When he says 'him' is he referring to Georgie's father - i.e.she committed suicide coz of the way she was treated by her dad? Or is it referring to the previous line "put louie in the jack", meaning it's thanks to drugs that she committed suicide.
And this one: "and he can thank our statesmen hosts although his chances are remote" I love this line. It has such a great ring to it. And always sticks out when you hear it. But what exactly does it mean? Is 'he' meaning her father again? I understand that statesmen means politicians, but what are the remote chances? Maybe it just sounded incredibly poignant and he went with it.
and he can thank our statesmen hosts although his chances are remote
Not really sure what that those lines mean either, but I took it to mean that he could thank the politicians in Australia for contributing to things being the way he describes them in Ether, and the "chances are remote" line being about how the father, presumably a hard-scrabble blue collar type of guy given the town, has a rmote chance of ever meeting the politicians in person.
Just a guess. Their lead singer does tend to put a lot of pretty concrete political stuff in his songs, though (viz. Jezebel).
Knowing nothing about the band's history or who this song is about, the first thing that comes to my mind from the "in a later war", "he can thank our statesmen hosts" and "his chances are remote" is drone warfare - killing via remote.