Midnight Oil Parody, 1/22/99:  "Righteous Indigination"

 INTRO: Moderate tempo, subdued backing strings and guitars
Backup Singers:
 Duh duh duh duh na na nonny looby-loo
. . .

V.1
 Ya ignorant swine with ya newspaper hat
 You read headlines making deadlines in your basement flat
 Viewin evenin news ya know the press will fill you up with tripe
 Still ya save the news for later on your videotape
[MUSIC PICKS UP IN POWER AND "ROCK" FEEL]
 Yes you calm complacent wretch I hope you won't take no offence
 You can hear in my crackin voice, just what I really meant
 The politicos they play the press and they pick the news you see
 Ya lout, don't listen to the truth makers; just believe in me

CHORUS A1  (after a funky rhythmic modulation, where eighth note triplet = eighth note, anyhow to a faster tempo; like the "I can't take my hands from my face" bridge in "King of the Mountain")

The press is evil evil evil evil ee-ee-hee  -   -ee-hee-vil,
Just so evil evil evil evil evil ee-ee-hee  -   -ee-hee-ville,
man.

 Don't listen to them, they're the bad guys.
 Don't listen to them, they're not tellin the truth, boys.
[SPOKEN WORD: "Interview?  Yeh, just a sec.  See ya"]
 Don't even trust the time of day
     You get from the news-pay-------per.

[RETURNING TO FIRST TEMPO]

V. 2
 Ya uncaring filth, don't you care about the Abos
 You've soaped their story over and now we're drowning in the bubbles
 In case you missed the story tonight well I guess they got here first
 Yeh you took their land to build an op'ra house, that ain't the worst....
 
 I'm so angry and distressed, outraged and flat put out
 Those little tribal chaps deserve much better than they got
 Even know I'm white and tall and their cause is not my own
 It's given me the perfect chance to thunder, shout, and moan.

CHORUS A2 {back to faster tempo}

 They're just so poor poor poor poor po------or
 One day we'll give the sorry bastards what for
 But they deserve some dignity
 They've got a culture, just like you and- - -

BRIDGE THEME from intro before the "duhîs started
 We've just gotta do somethin' about it-- [2 bars instr.]
 We've just gotta do somethin' about it-- [2 bars instr.]
 Yeh, we've just gotta do something about it,
      something about it,
      something aba- ha--ha---[screaming, falling down] Whoops!

MODIFIED MUSIC FOR a false:
V. 3
 Well we do our part, yeh, I dam' well do what's right
 We put moanin' in the left channel, and screamin' in the right
 You can hear us carpin' in the mornin; weepin' all the night
 . . . .
 [different rhythm but same music continues]
 People just so selfish well it makes my blood boil
 We wanna take some action, ës why we burn the Midnight- - -

BRIDGE THEME 2: More syncopated, crunchier
 Kvetchin' and a moanin, outraged and righteous from our soundproofed studio
[SPOKEN WORD: "little more echo please, yes, that's it--]\
 We sound so motivational, dam' shame we don't get more play time on the...radio- - - (oh woe woe woe is us)
 Anyway- - -

BACKUP SINGERS ON SCAT, as in the intro:
 Duh duh duh duh na na na nonnna loo by loo
 Duh duh dun na na na na nonny lo by la loo ...dit-dit-dit

THE REAL V. 3

 Well I tell ya I'm just so bloody outraged mate
 In-dif-fer-rence, missed justice, ignorance and hate
 Politics and priv'leges, pestilence and war
 Mother Nature on welfare, and trash upon my floor

 Well I tell you I'm so doggam angry man
 I just gotta make that difference, I find I'm forced to take my stand
 So I tell you how I'll fight it, gonna (hmm hmm) phone the band
 Make up another protest song, gonna rave and rant
[starting a transition now]
 Then the bostards will see that it's so signif-i-cant. . .

[THE FOLLOWING USES THE "EVIL EVIL EVILî music, singing in the breaks]

 Gotta goad, gotta goad ëem on
[THEN THE "POOR POOR POOR" music with b/u singers going, and the following words in the interval]
 Gonna pour, gonna load it on

[HALF SPOKEN, HALF SUNG, PG continues...]
 Marching songs for an as-yet-unidentified army
 Don't know who they'll be who'll fight off those who'd harm me
 
[THE FOLLOWING TO BE A REALLY ASTOUNDING PERIOD OF NEW INVENTION IN MUSIC. . . . . . ]

FREEFORM VERSICLES

 I really really really hope that someone'll take up the call
 A hundred thousand throats raised in a defiant, devastating bawl
 A shoutin and a singin like the armies of the Lord
 A caterwaulin' battlecry like ya never heard. . .
[SOTTO VOCE]
 And afterwards, we'll clean it up so you can-
[RETURNING TO FULL VOICE]
       -make out ev'ry word!

 They'll shout it
 And bellow
 I'll tell you, my fellow
 The bostards'll quake in their ironclad boots
 When they hear, when they hear, when they hear
  What we've wrote/What they've heard: [Here the singers sing different versions of this line, and then berate each other]

[Transition to coda:  snare drum on military rhythms, strings, gong, chimes, piano, organ, perhaps even bagpipes; this somewhat like the long fadeout of "One Country"]

LAYER ONE: B/U singers  (repeating layer by layer till all sound together)
 Duh duh duh, etc.
LAYER TWO: A solo voice, NOT PG
 Song, complainin' song, etc.
LAYER THREE:PG singing rather like the verse, recorded in two takes so the lines can fade over each other
 Well I tell ya I'm doin all that I can-----
  [overlapping to next line]
 Yeh I tell ya that's how they know that I'm a man---
  [overlapping to next line]
 I bitch and I moan as I sit listenin in on my cans----
  [and again...]
 And perhaps, someone might possibly take some ac-tiaan---

REPEAT WITH YELPING...FADE OUT LAYERS ONE BY ONE TO JUST ACOUSTIC GUITAR AND ORGAN---FALTERING--A T W A N G sound...

PG SPOKEN VOICE
 Damn guitar string!  [MUSIC JUST BREAKS OFF: NO FADE OUT]

This parody was written with great respect for the superlative Australian band Midnight Oil, and with the regretful acceptance of lead singer Peter Garret's decision to leave the band.  Thanks for such exciting and non-complacent music, gentlemen.

Now, if you wish, return to Chris O'Brien's page of Parodies,
or to the home of the Immoral Bard.

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