1. |
Stuck In Neutral
03:33
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STUCK IN NEUTRAL
I’ve got my brain stuck in neutral
Every day seems the same
Efforts to change are somewhat futile
So I play a waiting game
All forward motion has been suspended
And the brakes firmly applied
The old timetable has been amended
No forward movement on this line
I’m driving fast but getting nowhere
Speeding past the same old signs
Rubbing shoulders with the same old faces
And drinking too much of the same cheap wine
Sun comes up sun goes down
A burning wind blows the dust around
I can’t remember the last time it rained
This dry spell has been sustained
I’m driving fast but getting nowhere
Speeding past the same old signs
Rubbing shoulders with the same old faces
And drinking too much of the same cheap wine
Drinking too much of that old cheap wine
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2. |
Five Men In A Car
04:31
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FIVE MEN IN A CAR
Five men in a car not sure where we are
But we’re going somewhere - we’ll get there
It’s 4am on and we’re still hours away
Only trucks and us on this giant highway
Five men in a car
Towns go bye, they’re just names
Refuelling stops on our road to fame
We’ve been here before - maybe now Im not sure
But it looks the same as the place before
Now it’s my turn to drive
The oil light comes on outside Nundroo
If we break down out here not sure what we’ll do
Roadhouse food near Gundagai
Could be Horsham or Hay or Lismore or Yass or Narrabri
Roadhouse food
Roadhouse blues
Five men in a car
Five men in a car
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3. |
Hay Plain Blues
04:05
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I drove all the way to Sydney
In the middle of the night
When I went through Penrith
It started getting light
In that narrow street in Newtown
Outside that front door
It finally got through to me
I couldn’t do this anymore
So I turned around and drove
Back from where I came
Fighting with the sun
On that wide empty plain
With the Hay Plain blues
Just drive on through
Don’t turn around
Don’t turn around
That was years and years ago
I tried not to think about it much
But I just got a call and I’m going back again
This time I’m driving to farewell an old friend
With the Hay Plain Blues
There’s a lot of time to think out there
There’s a lot of sky to see
An eagle drifting way up in the air
Trying to find a tree
With the Hay Plain blues
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4. |
Grand Junction Road
03:51
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It runs alongside the city past all the things they don’t want you to see
And it goes to all the places where you don’t want to be
It’s the home of the hi-vis shirt and the clapped out Commodore
Of smokes hang in’ out the window and one eye out for the law
There’s no prestigious location, no desirable postcode
There’s nothing up and coming on Grand Junction Road
At the IGA near Addison Road
They do their best to keep it clean well stocked and in straight rows
But in the car park there’s a deal going down
Between young men so far gone they’re barely human
And on the corner there’s a girl so stoned she can hardly stand
When just a mile or two down the road she could be kicking heels off in the sand
There’s bottle shops selling to the always pissed
Street girls servicing the never kissed
Late night pokies for the barely missed
Truck loads of crap for the Wingfield tip
It’s the place you go to make a living
It’s not the place you want to live in
You won’t find nothin’ to ease your load
Driving down Grand Junction Road
My father worked in a factory there, just down from the prison
Sometimes six days a week but most often seven
I wonder what he thought about all those years he drove
First thing every morning down Grand Junction Road
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5. |
Surprise Delivery
03:43
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I drove my van through St Kilda streets
To make the same delivery on the same day of the week
I pulled up at the flats of number 5
And I heard a cry I’ll remember all my life
Help me she cried I think my friend has died
I saw him there soaked in sweat
Laying on the bed
Although I’d never seen a body before
I knew that he was dead
Still, I did my best to breath some life
Into his remains
While she looked on and in desperation
Quietly called his name
Help me she cried I think my friend has died
And when the ambulance men arrived some minutes later
They took one look at his arms
One of them looked up at me and said
“Sorry boy but this one is dead”
I went back to those flats a week later
To talk to the caretaker
About the boy who she said
Had gone to meet his maker
She said his brothers came down from the country the other day
To clear all his things away
They put all he owned in the boot of a car
And then they drove away
Help me she cried my friend has died
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6. |
Ride
02:56
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I’m driving over a rise
I sees the road stretched way out to the sky
I don’t know where it goes
Just follow my nose
I’ll find out where it is when I’m there
I’ll find out where I am when I get there
I look up to the sky
I see a ‘plane flying way up high
Maybe to Sydney or to Rome
Could be New York or Cologne
Exactly which city I don’t care
I’d love to be landing over there
Sometimes I get a little restless
Sometimes I get the urge to ride
The grass is always greener
On the other side
Freight train thunders by
If I could I’d hitch a ride
Way out west I’ll get my rest
When it sets me down
I could end up in a sleepy outback town
In the front bar of a pub in a one horse town
Sometimes I get tyne urge to travel
Sometimes I feel I have to move
Doesn’t have to be anywhere special
Just somewhere new
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7. |
Open Road
05:00
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They drove in silence for most of the day
Empty horizon not much to say
Then she said It’s empty he agreed that was true
No phone reception nothing they could do
So many things are closed on the open road
So they sat and waited beside the van
Alone and tiny in this wide empty land
Hoping that someone would help them on their way
But the road ahead was empty and the past too far away
So many things are closed on the open road
A car in the distance but he drove right by
Didn’t even look sideways who knows why
They saw the sticker on his back screen
A map of Australia with love it or leave
So many things are closed on the open road
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8. |
Kensington Road
03:56
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If you keep on driving up Kensington Road
You’ll end up on a hill
You can look out all over the city from there
Where it’s quiet and it’s still
There must be a million people down there
All lined up in straight rows
And you wonder what the plan is
From the end of Kensington Road
And there must be people dying
And people making love
There must be people crying out
For help from their god above
Is it town or is it a city
Depends on who you’re talking to
But for me it’s a place where people are living
And they do what they got to do
You can hear the hum of the traffic
Watch the jet planes come and go
You can see the ships out on the bay
From the end of Kensington Road
Some people down there are living their dream
Some are dreaming their lives away
Some are living for tomorrow
Some just getting through the day
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9. |
My Car Was 32 Years Old
03:31
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My car was 32 years old
And I had enough spares to keep it on the road
For another 15 years or so
But outside forces are telling me that car has got to go
They want to take my car off the road
Just because my car is old
But imagine this scene if you might
A crowded supermarket carpark on a Thursday night
Some car crashes into my fender
I say don’t worry man you can’t bend her
We don’t exchange names or numbers
And as he leaves that man thanks god for my Swedish steel bumper
I was waiting for the lights to turn green
When I was rammed from behind by a gleaming new machine
That car was totally crushed
But he didn’t even manage to knock the scale off my rust
Now I will go to jail if I have to
But I’m never going to drive a Daihatsu
They say it’s all about pollution
But I know the real solution
They want to force me into debt
So I have to go and buy a 16 valve plastic jet
It’s all about economic control
And not because my car is old
I hear a screech the I feel a bang
My car goes up on it’s side
And don’t come down again
Some fellers help push it back over
And when the dust settled I drove her
Home again
But that was the end
My car was 32 years old
And I had enough spares to keep it on the road
For another 15 years or so
But there comes a day when you have to say
That car has got to go
I had to take my car off the road
But not because my car was old
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10. |
Tamworth '03
03:42
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We drove a thousand miles in a heatwave
To the Tamworth Country Music Festival
I saw a thousand dead Kangaroos
Dead sheep dead goats and emus
We rolled in late in the evening
so we lined up for something to eat
Then we lined up for something to drink
And lined up for somewhere to sleep
Then we lined up for somewhere to shit
Then we lined up for somewhere to shower
And we made our way over to Peel street
Smelling like a flower
And they had
Blues bands, folk bands jazz bands and country bands
All playing at the same time
Solo duo trio and family groups
All of them turned up to nine
You know there’s a digital effects rack
That makes you sound like the man in black
I gave two dollars to a kid playing spoons
And I left with my head in ruins
I staggered back to the campground
And rolled out to sleep on the ground
An innocent musician in a living hell
A dreadful cacophony of sound
And even though the road is baking
And home is a long way down the track
That’s the road I’m taking
And I’m never going back
And they had
Blues bands folk bands jazz bands and country bands
All playing at the same time
Solo duo trio and family groups
All of them turned up to nine
They had drunken cowboys pissing themselves
before they got to the bar
And heaven knows how many machines
playing Karioke guitar
Country road take me home
To the place I belong
Country road take me home
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11. |
Nullarbor
03:28
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Don Morrison Adelaide, Australia
“Don Morrison is a larger than life character who is smaller than he should be in terms of fame and success. He could have been Paul Kelly, or John Mellencamp, or Bruce Springsteen, and to some loyal followers he is in the same category as these well known troubadours. Circumstances have prevented Don from achieving similar levels of fame, but he is a local treasure none the less." ... more
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