My New Book!

My New Book!
My New Book!

Thursday, February 16, 2023

February 16, 2023: Songs I Love: “The Barka-Darling River”

[For this year’s Valentine’s series, I wanted to share a handful of recent songs I’ve loved. Share recent songs, albums, artists you love for a crowd-sourced weekend post with heart eyes!]

I’ll confess that a year ago at this time I believed my childhood favorite rock band Midnight Oil had released their last new music, so the entirety of their awesome 2021 album Resist took me by very pleasant surprise. I love every one of that album’s 12 excellent songs, but would single out especially the second song, “The Barka-Darling River,” which links lead singer Peter Garrett’s frustrating time serving in the Australian Parliament to the climate crisis and the need for real systemic change. Here are three lines that capture this song’s scope and power:

The angry and impassioned opening verse: “Standing in the house of the founding fathers/It’s a house that’s not been well looked after/Now there’s a fatal flaw in the mighty rafters/There’s a rule of law written by the cotton masters”

The transition to the quietly mournful second half: “Who left the bag of idiots open?/Who drank the bottle of bad ideas?/Who drew the last drop from the bottom?/Good people, good people are forgotten”

And the yearning for something else with which that mourning concludes: “Let’s shake some truth out of the jar/Let’s kick the crooks out of the kitchen/We’ll tell some stories at the bar/Good people, good people are forgotten”

Last song I love tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What songs or artists have you been lovin’ on recently?

No comments:

Post a Comment