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This song is by Kath Tait. Who is awesome. You really should check her out. "Vim Valley" is old New Zealand slang for suburbia - Vim is a powder cleanser. The Moonies were a religious cult who were notorious in the 70's, and Reverend Moon was their leader. "Deprogrammers" were people who were employed by the wealthy to supposedly un-brainwash the children of the rich who had joined religious cults other than Christianity.

lyrics

Poor Dim Sally
© Kath Tait

Poor Dim Sally from old Vim Valley
She was taken in by the Moonies
Her friends said they would rather be dead
Than sucked in by a bunch of loonies
Her mother cried and her father nearly died
To see their Sally being hypnotised
And listening to strange philosophical lies
And giving all her money to the Guru

While dancing to the tune of the Reverend Moon
Sally was benevolent and breezy
But it made her sad to see her mum and her dad
Being hypnotised by the TV
And giving all their money to the politicians
Who wasted it all on their greedy ambitions
And Sally was obsessed with her dubious position
Enlisting more disciples for the Guru

Poor Dim Sally from old Vim Valley
She went knocking on doors
Proclaiming the news and explaining her view
And naming the Moonies’ laws
Until she came upon a mysterious charmer
Who appeared at the door in his pink pyjamas
And talked her into following the Dalai Lama
And that’s how she was rescued from the Moonies

Sally took the ferry to a monastery
Whereupon she shaved her head
Her mother cried and her father said “Why
Is our Sally so easily led?”
The deprogrammers came to unscramble her brain
But their threats and bribes were all in vain
And Sally’s poor mother, she did complain
“Why can’t we all just be nice Presbyterians?”

Poor Dim Sally from old Vim Valley
Was ordered to 11 days fasting
But her need for food was so basic and crude
And she really wasn’t very good at lasting
When they found her hiding behind a tree
With a marmite sandwich and a cup of tea
She said “I wouldn’t be a failure spiritually
If I was the leader of my very own religion…”

So she became the leader of her own fringe sect
She got all of the money and all of the respect
And she made her disciples swear an oath
To eat their way to spiritual growth
Have another sausage roll, have another cream bun
She said as she sat on her big, fat bum
She said “We’ll all be saved from being eternally glum
In Sally’s Own Original Religion!”

credits

from 'Archive': Demos, Out​-​takes and One​-​offs 1995​-​2000, released January 7, 2001
Vocals - Penelope Swales

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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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