1. OUTSIDE WORLD

There's a wind on the eastern side
Ghost Gums dance in the moonlight night
Mopoke mourns the racketeers

The bosses they can sense you mind
All in place to a hand that rules
They all want to deal you out

I can see the outside world
Everything's inviting in the outside world
Leaving all my problems in the outside world
Leaving all my problems in the outside world

It's the summer of another year
A little world weary a little more to fear
Hold those cards tight to your chest

Maybe some day you could be a man
Living quietly in a caravan
Not the Lismore Road tonight

*****

2. ONLY THE STRONG

When I'm locked in my room
I just want to scream
Now I know what they mean
One more day of eating and sleeping

Speak to me, look at me, I've been broken up and shaken down
Speak to me, speak to me, I'm at the edge of myself, I'm dying to talk
Look at me, won't you look at me, back once more at the point of no return

When I'm locked in my room
I just want to scream
Now I know what they mean
Only the strong

*****

3. SHORT MEMORY

Conquistador of Mexico
The Zulu and the Navaho
The Belgians in the Congo
Plantation in Virginia
The Raj in British India
The deadline in South Africa

The story of El Salvador
The silence of Hiroshima
Destruction of Cambodia

Short memory, must have a short memory

The sight of hotels by the Nile
The designated Hilton style
With running water specially bought

A smallish man Afghanistan
A watch dog in a nervous land
They're only there to lend a hand
The friendly five a dusty smile
Wake up in a sweat at dead of night
And in the tents new rifles, hey, short memory

*****

4. READ ABOUT IT

The rich get richer
The poor get the picture
The bombs never hit you when you're down so low

Some got pollution
Some revolution
There must be some solution but I just don't know

The bosses want decisions
The workers need ambitions
There won't be no collisions whey they move so slow

Nothing ever happens
Nothing ever matters
No one ever tells me so what am I to know

You wouldn't read about it
Read about it
Just another incredible scene
There's no doubt about it

Hammer and sickle
The news is at a trickle
The commisars are fickle but the stockpile grows

Bombers keeping coming
Engines softly humming
The stars and stripes are running for their own big show

Another little flare up
Storm brewed in a tea cup
Imagine any mix up and the lot would go

Nothing ever happens
Nothing ever matters
No one ever tells me so what I am to know

You wouldn't read about it
Read about it
One unjust, ridiculous steal
Ain't no doubt about it
You wouldn't read about it
Read about it
Just another particular deal
There's no doubt about it

*****

5. SCREAM IN BLUE

Come to me now
Be careful what you say
Don't make a sound, there's noise enough in this
Come with me know, let night move into day
Let sheets keep secrets that no-one else could know
I could kill for this one time and not be caught
She said to me this is the one and I know
Come to me now, this is the final hour

*****

6. U.S. FORCES

US forces give the nod
It's a setback for your country
Bombs and trenches all in rows
Bombs and threats still ask for more

Divided world the CIA
Who controls the issue
You leave us with no time to talk
You can write your own assessment

Sing me songs of no denying
Seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing

Will you know it when you see it
High risk children dogs of war
Now market movements call the shots
Business deals in parking lots
Waiting for the meat of tomorrow

Everyone is too stoned to start emission
People too scared to go to prison
We're unable to make decisions
Political party line don't cross that floor
L. Ron Hubbard can't save your life
Superboy takes a plutonium wife
In the shadows of Ban the Bomb we live

Sing me songs of no denying
Seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing

*****

7. POWER & THE PASSION

People, wasting away in paradise
Going backward, once in a while
Moving ahead, falling behind
What do you believe
What do you believe
What do you believe is true

Nothing they say makes a difference this way
'Cos nothing they say will do
Take all the trouble that you can afford
At least you won't have time to be bored

Oh the power and the passion
Oh the temper of the time
Oh the power and the passion
Sometimes you've got to take the hardest line
I see sunburnt faces around
With skin so brown
Smiling zinc cream and crows
Sundays the beach never a cloud
Breathing eucalypt, pushing panelvans, stuff and munch junk food
Laughing at the truth, 'cos Gough was tough till he hit the rough
Uncle Sam and John were quite enough
Too much of sunshine too much of sky
It's enough to make you wanna cry

I see buildings, clothing the sky in paradise
Sydney, where the nights are warm
Daytime telly, blue rinse dawn
Dad's so bad he lives in a pub, underarms and football clubs
Flat chat, Pine Gap in every home a Big Mac
And no one goes back, that's that
You take what you get and get what you please
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees

*****

8. MARALINGA

I come from a land of wide open spaces
Where the world turns around us and we just follow suit
There's heat in the air and peace reigns supreme
Got white flags on the clothes lines and the deals are new

In the wind
The ashes fly
The poison crown
The charcoal ground

And if you can't see the smile in me, that's where I wanna be

There's only God
There's only Christ
Think I'll lie down for just a while

And the grass became granite
And the sky a black sheet
Our bed was a graveyard
We couldn't feel our blistered feet
And the moaning and groaning and sighing of death
And the silence that followed
And the very harsh reality

So watch and check them out and listen as we learn
Throw the pearls before the swine ebb and flow, turning tide
Yes we watch and catch them no matter how they jump
The pigs will have to come to ground, we've got to make it happen
It's really not that new, try and make it happen now
'cos what are we to do, maybe there's a chance for you

All around
An eerie sound
Their dreams a cloud
Their world in shrouds
In the wind
The ashes fly
Not much time
But time to try
And if you can't see the smile in me, that's cos I wanna be
I want to be here at the end. I have to be here at the end

*****

9. TIN-LEGS & TIN MINES

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, 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

*****

10. SOMEBODY'S TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING

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