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Recorded in 1999 for the "Where 2 Now?" compilation put together by the National Union of Students and green and Indigenous activists to raise money for environmental and Aboriginal issues. This song is essentially about the Jabiluka Uranium mine, though it could be applied to any very toxic mining operation.

lyrics

Madness, Mines and Mortgages
© Penelope Swales

With my head down and my bum in the air
I'm getting on with my life
While all around me, those profiteers
Are creating more mess and more strife
I know so many good people
And we're all doing the same
Just staying abreast of daily life
While greed and chaos reigns

Way in the North of our Southern land
A handful of sanity fights
To stop a mine that nobody wants
And protect all our obvious rights
Meanwhile down in the cities and towns
No-one gives it a thought
Oh, yeah we all know that it's madness
At least that much we've been taught

It's madness, madness
I tell you, we're all mad
And those little men in those great big companies
I tell you they're all mad
The money and the machinery
The greed of the nuclear industry
You'd have to be both brave and crazy
To pit yourself against that
But the ones that do and the only sane ones
And everyone else is mad

We're selling our souls for the simple things
Like a house and a family
Then we're stuck in a mill of paying the bills
And don't it keep us distracted and busy?
While the young and the wild with no mortgage or child
Are left to save our land and our oceans
Branded as fools with no money or tools
Facing the fight on their own

It's madness, madness
I tell you, we're all mad
And those little men in the Westpac offices
I tell you they're all mad
The money and the machinery
The greed of the nuclear industry
You'd have to be both brave and crazy
To pit yourself against that
But the ones that do and the only sane ones
Everyone else is mad

The intelligent poor who know what the score is
Are trying to wake up our intellect
While the media tells us the Kooris and ferals
Ain't got no facts or respect
Being pushed around, it's tough on the ground
When you don't look like the locals do in the town
But they're the only ones that can see what's coming
And the rest of us are too bogged down

It's madness, madness
I tell you, we're all mad
And that little man on Parliament hill
I tell you he's stone mad
The money and the machinery
The greed of the nuclear industry
You'd have to be deaf dumb and crazy
To pit yourself against that
But the ones that do and the only sane ones
Everyone else is mad

And that's the only explanation
I can find for the crap that goes down in this Nation
Just a few tryin' to find a solution yeah
And everybody else is mad
Being hypnotised by our daily lives
And don't that make me mad!

credits

from 'Archive': Demos, Out​-​takes and One​-​offs 1995​-​2000, released January 7, 2001
Recorded at Soundhouse studios, engineered by Robert Dillon

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Penelope Swales Boolarra, Australia

Penelope Swales has been articulating the human condition with passion and humour for 30+ years. She sings about politics, love, friendship, the unbreakable bond between us and dogs and the impact of the Internet on society. She won the 2019 Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with “Cambridge Analytica”. “The Ides of March in Christchurch" was short-listed for the same award in 2020. ... more

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