Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Minutes to Midnight -- great discussion

Beth Curran bcurran at columbus.rr.com
Mon Apr 12 15:58:05 MDT 2004


This is getting good!  I see something different:  the dancer isn't a
real dancer, but a politician who's dancing around the issue of WMDs,
gripping the rail to prevent forcible removal from his position, while
the fingers blister on The Button, and the ineffective treaties bleed
words "out of the side of the page."

I was just listening to Red Sails on the way home, wondering if they'd
have to take JSB down a third to perform it these days.... - Beth
 
-----Original Message-----
From: powderworks-bounces at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu
[mailto:powderworks-bounces at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of
tfrommer at mindspring.com
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 11:11 AM
To: powderworks at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu
Subject: [Powderworks] Minutes to Midnight -- great discussion

I initially wrote:

>> I think "88" has to be piano -- 88 keys on a standard. 

Phil replied: 

>i always thought it was connected to ICBM's, SS-20's etc... the AGM-88 
>was officially put into production in 1983, 1 year before Red Sails.. I

>know this was also discussed a few years back, but i dont have anything

>archived.... will have to check elsewhere for that....
>

Wow, very interesting take and something I never knew about (AGM-88).
That verse ends "the dancer's hand grips the rail/and fingers will
blister on the 88s/Hope drains out of the side of the page" I always
took 88s as a piano. And the whole lyric as similar to the band playing
on the Titanic as it sank. You just keep fiddling, dancing, playing the
piano and don't mind the missile silos over here.

--Tim 
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