Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] androporosphere

cherni@pipeline.com.au cherni@pipeline.com.au
Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:42:49 +1000 (EST)


Hi all,

This is my first post to this list, so sorry if I ask/say/do anything
obvious/stupid...

I was just looking at the official website, (it looks like its been
updated recently? When did that happen?), specifically the lyrics for
Brave Faces and Burnie.

>From Brave Faces:
"I've known many restless summons the sand dunes I imagine
A place without a postcard"

>From Burnie:
"Brought up in the world of changes, part time cleaner in a holiday feat"

Does anyone else think these are wrong? I hope so, otherwise I've had a
pretty bad case of mis-heard lyrics myself! Especially since that line
from Brave Faces is one of my favorite lines.

I had to go to a different location to pick up PWAP and check. The
"Handwritten" lyrics on the CD sleeve are inconclusive, but
on listening again I think the website is wrong. But now I'm like
20 minutes late for work....

Chris

PS Was reading lyrics for those two because I was going to put them
in my top 5... but I can't pick just 3 more so have given up!


> VERILY the official website sayeth unto the Powderworking cistern and
> brethren with regard to Albums 7:7
>
> Girls are not smiling
> The stars have gone out
> The man with the landslide
> Got his head in the ground
> Like an unopened letter
> Left under the door
> He says I am the answer you're looking for
>
> Whoah - oh
> Don't wanna see you back here again
>
> Above we dream in Andropovosphere
> Who maintains the drunken machinery
> Below we dream of a time
> When those men come from West Point
>
> http://www.midnightoil.com/music/album-diesel.html#whoa
>
> It all comes together if you consider:
>
> The man with the landslide = Ronald Reagan and his friends referred to his
> 1984 victory as a landslide because they won the elections in nearly all
> 50
> states.  The reality was that Reagan was elected by a small plurality of
> half of the eligible voters, but very evenly so across the
> country.  Slightly more than 50% of 50% thus meant nearly 100% of the
> electors.
>
> When those men come from West Point = West Point is the US Military
> Academy
> at West Point, New York. West Point is the source of much of the officer
> corps and all the elite officers in the US Army.  Probably symbolic of
> Reagan's saber-rattling "gunboat diplomacy" based on the projection of US
> military might around the world.  Sound familiar?
>
> Within this context, "Andropovosphere" holds up the Soviet component of
> the
> sort of on-the-brink-of-nuclear-war and escalating arms race madness which
> characterized the early and mid-1980s segment of the cold war era.
>
> This is the background material - the *real* meaning of whole or of the
> rest is up to you *scary* folks to figure out, with electronic brickbats
> if
> necessary.  Anyone know why it is the seventh song of the seventh
> album?  Must be symbolic of something! ;-)
>
> I love this place!
>
> Best,
> Kate
>
>
> At 02:32 PM 9/24/03 -0400, Bruce Robertson wrote:
>>Greetings Scholarly Workers!
>>
>>I guess you do learn something new every day. In a classic case of
>>mis-heard lyrics, I thought this term was 'Anthropodosphere' and read it
>>as a reference to the earth, as a sphere inhabited and dominated by
>>creatures roughly resembling human beings. I'm intrigued by the reference
>>to Andropov, and fear now I have probably misunderstood this song from
>> the
>>get-go. Time to give it another listen.
>>
>>bruce in calgary
>>
>>Kate Parker Adams <kate@dnki.net> wrote:
>>It's "Andropovosphere" and it refers to a Yuri Andropov, very briefly the
>>leader of the Soviet Union in the 1980s prior to the Glasnost of
>> Gorbachev
>>and the collapse of communist rule. As I recall, Andropov was very
>>reclusive and very possibly murdered, given the length of his tenure.
>>
>>At 12:31 PM 9/24/03 -1000, you wrote:
>>
>> >i am loathe to ask, because i know somewhere in the powdies deep dark
>> past
>> >this subject was covered, but does anyone know to what the
>> >"androporosphere" refers?
>> >
>> >cheers,
>> >joffa
>> >http://www.jeack.com.au
>> >_______________________________________________
>> >Powderworks mailing list
>> >Powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
>> >http://www.cs.colorado.edu/mailman/listinfo/powderworks
>>
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Kate Parker Adams
>>kate@dnki.net
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>"She's gonna dream up the world she wants to live in,
>>She's gonna dream out loud" - U2 (Zooropa)
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>go Out Of Mind ... http://www.dnki.net/blog
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Powderworks mailing list
>>Powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
>>http://www.cs.colorado.edu/mailman/listinfo/powderworks
>>
>>
>>
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>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Kate Parker Adams
> kate@dnki.net
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> "She's gonna dream up the world she wants to live in,
> She's gonna dream out loud" - U2 (Zooropa)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> go Out Of Mind ... http://www.dnki.net/blog
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------