The day the music died

Greg Wood

Peter, the next time you’re looking at yourself in the mirror try singing that other great line you borrowed and made famous in Australia: “it’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”.

“US Forces give the nod” were the very first words I ever heard from Midnight Oil.

It was a seminal moment.

I was a teenager and on the way to the beach in the back of my mate’s HT Holden station-wagon.

I immediately became a huge fan of the Oils, bought and thrashed to death 10-1 and every other Oils album produced before and since.

I saw them live countless times including ‘stop the drop’ concerts and a gig at Glastonbury (England) in 1985 where I raved to all and sundry about their political stance on critical issues relevant then and now.

Based on Peter Garrett’s involvement, I voted for the Nuclear Disarmament Party when I first became eligible to vote and more than two decades later was excited and full of hope when Garrett joined the Federal Labor Party.

Last night I heard Garrett announce, “I unreservedly accept and support” US bases in Australia (ABC News 16/02/07) and sadly (as Don McLean’s famous line goes) “something touched me deep inside …”

US bases in Australia fail to raise the same angst in me as they did 25 years ago but integrity or lack thereof does and this is why I desperately yearn for John Howard’s demise at the next election.

I know politics is the art of compromise but compromise and integrity are not mutually exclusive.

Peter, the next time you’re looking at yourself in the mirror try singing that other great line you borrowed and made famous in Australia: “it’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”.