Chords for Midnight Oil - Peter Garrett interview (1980)
Tempo:
77.65 bpm
Chords used:
G
E
D
A
B
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[Bb] If you're fans of Midnight [B] Oil, you better stick around.
[E] [B]
[A]
[E] [G] [D] [A] [E] [G] [D] [A]
[E] I'm in the [G] bedroom, I'm [D] swimming in the [A] neon
[E] [G] [D] [A] Lighting [E] pictures of a [G] redhead, [D] I think I'll [E] run
[G] [D] [F] And sometimes [G] when that mirror [E] shows, the smile I'll [Am] miss
[F]
Staying sick and [G] just out of [B] nightmares, there's no run [E] by me, [Dbm] yeah
[Gb] [G] [B] I'm back on the borderline
[Em] [A] [Gb] Yes, [B] I'm back on the borderline
[E] [A] [Gb] [A] [E] [D]
[Abm]
[G]
And it just came on from there, that's all it was, just a jamming band.
The blokes in the band, I know the band's gone, but the initial band, the fellas in the group, where did they come from?
What careers were they into at that point?
Students or laboring, I think Martin was laboring and Rob was in with students, [D] just hanging around and [Ab] playing.
So have you always been [Em] playing instruments and thought we will form a band at some time
and then you just come together and hopped up at the antler?
There had to be [G] some point where someone said, hey, why don't we form a group?
Well I think that once we got together, like the five of us, that it was better than playing with other people.
And we'd been doing a little bit of things in garages and stuff and that combination seemed the least painful of all.
And no one could bear the idea of getting up early in the morning and going off to work or any of that sort of stuff, it's hard.
So we [Ab] thought we'd play.
And that's all we've been doing ever since.
And you get up later in the day and you can go at night.
There also seems to be a theory, you've [G] done very little television, in fact I think second time this time.
[Em] That's right.
There's not a great deal of press outside of the Rock magazine.
No.
And radio have been reluctant to play records.
They won't play our records.
We'll talk about that in a tick.
Was that a plan set out by all you guys that, look, we won't go for publicity, we'll do it from a street [G] level point of view?
[N] Not a plan.
I mean I think people have plans and they inevitably fail because they're badly conceived.
All we ever did was play and write the songs that we wanted to do.
And as soon as it became apparent that some of the things that we were doing wouldn't find the appropriate avenues through the media,
people would say to us, look, this isn't going to get played on radio.
And we'd just tell them, f***.
That's alright.
We'd just tell them that we weren't interested in doing it, that the only things that we were doing was this.
And that was the [G] beginning and the end of it.
And we made up our minds from that very early stage that we weren't interested in how successful it was going to be
because that wasn't the idea behind the band.
The idea behind the band was a very simple one, to play and to write and to record and to perform and do that and have a good time.
And ever since then, that's all we've done.
And what we've done hasn't coincided with what people like to put out.
That's what I would like to think should be done right.
But it's worked because you're now one of two of the biggest touring bands on the East Coast of Australia.
We are?
Yes.
Facts and figures.
Those people that come to your gigs are obviously huge fans now and they tell their friends and so it goes on.
What amount of honesty do you think is necessary in a group like yours?
Is that the key?
We've never felt comfortable with the idea of becoming anything more than Midnight Oil.
And we're not interested in doing that and we won't do it.
We refuse to do it and we never will do it.
And I think people have become aware of that fact and they know that there's a lot more people coming now
but it's still just the oils and we just rage and we just have good times and we just
Is that the reason that you will lower the price at a gig?
You know full well you're going to pack out but you'll drop the price, especially for those avid fans.
[Abm] Well, yeah, I think we're really conscious of the fact that there's been a lot of people,
especially in Sydney, who have come along and listened to us.
You know, they're fantastic and we felt that the prices were going up, our costs were going up
but we didn't want to get bogged into this year the prices become X dollars because of thing.
[G] We thought, oh, we'll show everyone else what this is about.
We're going to bring our prices down, you know, which is what we're doing on occasions now.
This is a great thing.
Now, the two albums and one EP all sold well through that fan following that is enormous.
Yeah.
And the only thing that Radio have ever really, other than 2JJ and Triple J as it is today,
have got behind is the Wedding Cake Island song which is an instrumental.
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, it figures, you know, I mean I think AM radio in this country is unbelievably bland.
I believe that the majority of the music they play on is rubbish.
You know, it's pap, it's just wallpaper music, it's peripheral, it's of no consequence one way or the other.
You can't even dance to half of it.
And we put on something which for us was very light-hearted.
It was just a fun thing from Midnight Oil and of course they jumped on it.
They thought, oh, beauty, you know, let's go.
Of course, the story [Ab] behind Wedding Cake Island on the Bird Noises EP was that I'd originally put a vocal over on that.
Yeah, which was quite insane.
Yeah, well, I mean, unfortunately it was libelous and [G] obscene and, you know, it basically had no chance.
I think the record wouldn't have even been pressed.
So we pulled most of that out and then they played it.
Good luck to you in the future.
Thanks very much, Donnie.
Thank you ever so much for coming in today.
That's a pleasure, [D] mate.
Maybe next time I'll see you at Dawson or somewhere else around the town to keep up exactly what you're doing.
Come up and rage.
I sure will.
Thank you, Peter.
Thank you.
Peter [E] Garrett, Midnight [D] Oil.
[N]
[E] [B]
[A]
[E] [G] [D] [A] [E] [G] [D] [A]
[E] I'm in the [G] bedroom, I'm [D] swimming in the [A] neon
[E] [G] [D] [A] Lighting [E] pictures of a [G] redhead, [D] I think I'll [E] run
[G] [D] [F] And sometimes [G] when that mirror [E] shows, the smile I'll [Am] miss
[F]
Staying sick and [G] just out of [B] nightmares, there's no run [E] by me, [Dbm] yeah
[Gb] [G] [B] I'm back on the borderline
[Em] [A] [Gb] Yes, [B] I'm back on the borderline
[E] [A] [Gb] [A] [E] [D]
[Abm]
[G]
And it just came on from there, that's all it was, just a jamming band.
The blokes in the band, I know the band's gone, but the initial band, the fellas in the group, where did they come from?
What careers were they into at that point?
Students or laboring, I think Martin was laboring and Rob was in with students, [D] just hanging around and [Ab] playing.
So have you always been [Em] playing instruments and thought we will form a band at some time
and then you just come together and hopped up at the antler?
There had to be [G] some point where someone said, hey, why don't we form a group?
Well I think that once we got together, like the five of us, that it was better than playing with other people.
And we'd been doing a little bit of things in garages and stuff and that combination seemed the least painful of all.
And no one could bear the idea of getting up early in the morning and going off to work or any of that sort of stuff, it's hard.
So we [Ab] thought we'd play.
And that's all we've been doing ever since.
And you get up later in the day and you can go at night.
There also seems to be a theory, you've [G] done very little television, in fact I think second time this time.
[Em] That's right.
There's not a great deal of press outside of the Rock magazine.
No.
And radio have been reluctant to play records.
They won't play our records.
We'll talk about that in a tick.
Was that a plan set out by all you guys that, look, we won't go for publicity, we'll do it from a street [G] level point of view?
[N] Not a plan.
I mean I think people have plans and they inevitably fail because they're badly conceived.
All we ever did was play and write the songs that we wanted to do.
And as soon as it became apparent that some of the things that we were doing wouldn't find the appropriate avenues through the media,
people would say to us, look, this isn't going to get played on radio.
And we'd just tell them, f***.
That's alright.
We'd just tell them that we weren't interested in doing it, that the only things that we were doing was this.
And that was the [G] beginning and the end of it.
And we made up our minds from that very early stage that we weren't interested in how successful it was going to be
because that wasn't the idea behind the band.
The idea behind the band was a very simple one, to play and to write and to record and to perform and do that and have a good time.
And ever since then, that's all we've done.
And what we've done hasn't coincided with what people like to put out.
That's what I would like to think should be done right.
But it's worked because you're now one of two of the biggest touring bands on the East Coast of Australia.
We are?
Yes.
Facts and figures.
Those people that come to your gigs are obviously huge fans now and they tell their friends and so it goes on.
What amount of honesty do you think is necessary in a group like yours?
Is that the key?
We've never felt comfortable with the idea of becoming anything more than Midnight Oil.
And we're not interested in doing that and we won't do it.
We refuse to do it and we never will do it.
And I think people have become aware of that fact and they know that there's a lot more people coming now
but it's still just the oils and we just rage and we just have good times and we just
Is that the reason that you will lower the price at a gig?
You know full well you're going to pack out but you'll drop the price, especially for those avid fans.
[Abm] Well, yeah, I think we're really conscious of the fact that there's been a lot of people,
especially in Sydney, who have come along and listened to us.
You know, they're fantastic and we felt that the prices were going up, our costs were going up
but we didn't want to get bogged into this year the prices become X dollars because of thing.
[G] We thought, oh, we'll show everyone else what this is about.
We're going to bring our prices down, you know, which is what we're doing on occasions now.
This is a great thing.
Now, the two albums and one EP all sold well through that fan following that is enormous.
Yeah.
And the only thing that Radio have ever really, other than 2JJ and Triple J as it is today,
have got behind is the Wedding Cake Island song which is an instrumental.
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, it figures, you know, I mean I think AM radio in this country is unbelievably bland.
I believe that the majority of the music they play on is rubbish.
You know, it's pap, it's just wallpaper music, it's peripheral, it's of no consequence one way or the other.
You can't even dance to half of it.
And we put on something which for us was very light-hearted.
It was just a fun thing from Midnight Oil and of course they jumped on it.
They thought, oh, beauty, you know, let's go.
Of course, the story [Ab] behind Wedding Cake Island on the Bird Noises EP was that I'd originally put a vocal over on that.
Yeah, which was quite insane.
Yeah, well, I mean, unfortunately it was libelous and [G] obscene and, you know, it basically had no chance.
I think the record wouldn't have even been pressed.
So we pulled most of that out and then they played it.
Good luck to you in the future.
Thanks very much, Donnie.
Thank you ever so much for coming in today.
That's a pleasure, [D] mate.
Maybe next time I'll see you at Dawson or somewhere else around the town to keep up exactly what you're doing.
Come up and rage.
I sure will.
Thank you, Peter.
Thank you.
Peter [E] Garrett, Midnight [D] Oil.
[N]
Key:
G
E
D
A
B
G
E
D
[Bb] If you're fans of Midnight [B] Oil, you better stick around.
_ [E] _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
[E] _ [G] _ [D] _ [A] _ [E] _ [G] _ [D] _ [A]
[E] I'm in the [G] bedroom, I'm [D] swimming in the [A] neon
[E] _ [G] _ [D] [A] Lighting [E] pictures of a [G] redhead, [D] I think I'll [E] run
_ [G] _ [D] [F] And sometimes [G] when that mirror [E] shows, the smile I'll [Am] miss
_ [F]
Staying sick and [G] just out of [B] nightmares, there's no run [E] by me, [Dbm] yeah
_ [Gb] _ _ _ [G] [B] I'm back on the borderline
_ [Em] _ _ [A] [Gb] Yes, [B] I'm back on the borderline
[E] _ _ [A] _ [Gb] _ [A] _ [E] _ [D] _
_ _ [Abm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ And it just came on from there, that's all it was, just a jamming band.
The blokes in the band, I know the band's gone, but the initial band, the fellas in the group, where did they come from?
What careers were they into at that point?
Students or laboring, I think Martin was laboring and Rob was in with students, [D] just hanging around and [Ab] playing.
So have you always been [Em] playing instruments and thought we will form a band at some time
and then you just come together and hopped up at the antler?
There had to be [G] some point where someone said, hey, why don't we form a group?
Well I think that once we got together, like the five of us, that it was better than playing with other people.
And we'd been doing a little bit of things in garages and stuff and that combination seemed the least painful of all.
And no one could bear the idea of getting up early in the morning and going off to work or any of that sort of stuff, it's hard.
So we [Ab] thought we'd play.
And that's all we've been doing ever since.
And you get up later in the day and you can go at night.
_ There also seems to be a theory, you've [G] done very little television, in fact I think second time this time.
[Em] That's right.
There's not a great deal of press outside of the Rock magazine.
No.
And radio have been reluctant to play records.
They won't play our records.
We'll talk about that in a tick.
Was that a plan set out by all you guys that, look, we won't go for publicity, we'll do it from a street [G] level point of view?
_ [N] Not a plan.
I mean I think people have plans and they inevitably fail because they're badly conceived.
All we ever did was play and write the songs that we wanted to do.
And as soon as it became apparent that some of the things that we were doing wouldn't find the appropriate avenues through the media,
people would say to us, look, this isn't going to get played on radio.
And we'd just tell them, f***.
That's alright.
We'd just tell them that we weren't interested in doing it, that the only things that we were doing was this.
And that was the [G] beginning and the end of it.
And we made up our minds from that very early stage that we weren't interested in how successful it was going to be
because that wasn't the idea behind the band.
The idea behind the band was a very simple one, to play and to write and to record and to perform and do that and have a good time.
And ever since then, that's all we've done.
And what we've done hasn't coincided with what people like to put out.
That's what I would like to think should be done right.
But it's worked because you're now one of two of the biggest touring bands on the East Coast of Australia.
We are?
Yes.
Facts and figures.
Those people that come to your gigs are obviously huge fans now and they tell their friends and so it goes on.
What amount of honesty do you think is necessary in a group like yours?
Is that the key?
We've never felt comfortable with the idea of becoming anything more than Midnight Oil.
And we're not interested in doing that and we won't do it.
We refuse to do it and we never will do it.
And I think people have become aware of that fact and they know that there's a lot more people coming now
but it's still just the oils and we just rage and we just have good times and we just_
Is that the reason that you will lower the price at a gig?
You know full well you're going to pack out but you'll drop the price, especially for those avid fans.
[Abm] Well, yeah, I think we're really conscious of the fact that there's been a lot of people,
especially in Sydney, who have come along and listened to us.
You know, they're fantastic and we felt that the prices were going up, our costs were going up
but we didn't want to get bogged into this year the prices become X dollars because of thing.
[G] We thought, oh, we'll show everyone else what this is about.
We're going to bring our prices down, you know, which is what we're doing on occasions now.
This is a great thing.
Now, the two albums and one EP all sold well through that fan following that is enormous.
Yeah.
And the only thing that Radio have ever really, other than 2JJ and Triple J as it is today,
have got behind is the Wedding Cake Island song which is an instrumental.
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, it figures, you know, I mean I think AM radio in this country is unbelievably bland.
I believe that the majority of the music they play on is rubbish.
You know, it's pap, it's just wallpaper music, it's peripheral, it's of no consequence one way or the other.
You can't even dance to half of it.
And we put on something which for us was very light-hearted.
It was just a fun thing from Midnight Oil and of course they jumped on it.
They thought, oh, beauty, you know, let's go.
Of course, the story [Ab] behind Wedding Cake Island on the Bird Noises EP was that I'd originally put a vocal over on that.
Yeah, which was quite insane.
Yeah, well, I mean, unfortunately it was libelous and [G] obscene and, you know, it basically had no chance.
I think the record wouldn't have even been pressed.
So we pulled most of that out and then they played it.
Good luck to you in the future.
Thanks very much, Donnie.
Thank you ever so much for coming in today.
That's a pleasure, [D] mate.
Maybe next time I'll see you at Dawson or somewhere else around the town to keep up exactly what you're doing.
Come up and rage.
I sure will.
Thank you, Peter.
Thank you.
Peter [E] Garrett, Midnight [D] Oil.
[N] _ _
_ [E] _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
[E] _ [G] _ [D] _ [A] _ [E] _ [G] _ [D] _ [A]
[E] I'm in the [G] bedroom, I'm [D] swimming in the [A] neon
[E] _ [G] _ [D] [A] Lighting [E] pictures of a [G] redhead, [D] I think I'll [E] run
_ [G] _ [D] [F] And sometimes [G] when that mirror [E] shows, the smile I'll [Am] miss
_ [F]
Staying sick and [G] just out of [B] nightmares, there's no run [E] by me, [Dbm] yeah
_ [Gb] _ _ _ [G] [B] I'm back on the borderline
_ [Em] _ _ [A] [Gb] Yes, [B] I'm back on the borderline
[E] _ _ [A] _ [Gb] _ [A] _ [E] _ [D] _
_ _ [Abm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ And it just came on from there, that's all it was, just a jamming band.
The blokes in the band, I know the band's gone, but the initial band, the fellas in the group, where did they come from?
What careers were they into at that point?
Students or laboring, I think Martin was laboring and Rob was in with students, [D] just hanging around and [Ab] playing.
So have you always been [Em] playing instruments and thought we will form a band at some time
and then you just come together and hopped up at the antler?
There had to be [G] some point where someone said, hey, why don't we form a group?
Well I think that once we got together, like the five of us, that it was better than playing with other people.
And we'd been doing a little bit of things in garages and stuff and that combination seemed the least painful of all.
And no one could bear the idea of getting up early in the morning and going off to work or any of that sort of stuff, it's hard.
So we [Ab] thought we'd play.
And that's all we've been doing ever since.
And you get up later in the day and you can go at night.
_ There also seems to be a theory, you've [G] done very little television, in fact I think second time this time.
[Em] That's right.
There's not a great deal of press outside of the Rock magazine.
No.
And radio have been reluctant to play records.
They won't play our records.
We'll talk about that in a tick.
Was that a plan set out by all you guys that, look, we won't go for publicity, we'll do it from a street [G] level point of view?
_ [N] Not a plan.
I mean I think people have plans and they inevitably fail because they're badly conceived.
All we ever did was play and write the songs that we wanted to do.
And as soon as it became apparent that some of the things that we were doing wouldn't find the appropriate avenues through the media,
people would say to us, look, this isn't going to get played on radio.
And we'd just tell them, f***.
That's alright.
We'd just tell them that we weren't interested in doing it, that the only things that we were doing was this.
And that was the [G] beginning and the end of it.
And we made up our minds from that very early stage that we weren't interested in how successful it was going to be
because that wasn't the idea behind the band.
The idea behind the band was a very simple one, to play and to write and to record and to perform and do that and have a good time.
And ever since then, that's all we've done.
And what we've done hasn't coincided with what people like to put out.
That's what I would like to think should be done right.
But it's worked because you're now one of two of the biggest touring bands on the East Coast of Australia.
We are?
Yes.
Facts and figures.
Those people that come to your gigs are obviously huge fans now and they tell their friends and so it goes on.
What amount of honesty do you think is necessary in a group like yours?
Is that the key?
We've never felt comfortable with the idea of becoming anything more than Midnight Oil.
And we're not interested in doing that and we won't do it.
We refuse to do it and we never will do it.
And I think people have become aware of that fact and they know that there's a lot more people coming now
but it's still just the oils and we just rage and we just have good times and we just_
Is that the reason that you will lower the price at a gig?
You know full well you're going to pack out but you'll drop the price, especially for those avid fans.
[Abm] Well, yeah, I think we're really conscious of the fact that there's been a lot of people,
especially in Sydney, who have come along and listened to us.
You know, they're fantastic and we felt that the prices were going up, our costs were going up
but we didn't want to get bogged into this year the prices become X dollars because of thing.
[G] We thought, oh, we'll show everyone else what this is about.
We're going to bring our prices down, you know, which is what we're doing on occasions now.
This is a great thing.
Now, the two albums and one EP all sold well through that fan following that is enormous.
Yeah.
And the only thing that Radio have ever really, other than 2JJ and Triple J as it is today,
have got behind is the Wedding Cake Island song which is an instrumental.
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, it figures, you know, I mean I think AM radio in this country is unbelievably bland.
I believe that the majority of the music they play on is rubbish.
You know, it's pap, it's just wallpaper music, it's peripheral, it's of no consequence one way or the other.
You can't even dance to half of it.
And we put on something which for us was very light-hearted.
It was just a fun thing from Midnight Oil and of course they jumped on it.
They thought, oh, beauty, you know, let's go.
Of course, the story [Ab] behind Wedding Cake Island on the Bird Noises EP was that I'd originally put a vocal over on that.
Yeah, which was quite insane.
Yeah, well, I mean, unfortunately it was libelous and [G] obscene and, you know, it basically had no chance.
I think the record wouldn't have even been pressed.
So we pulled most of that out and then they played it.
Good luck to you in the future.
Thanks very much, Donnie.
Thank you ever so much for coming in today.
That's a pleasure, [D] mate.
Maybe next time I'll see you at Dawson or somewhere else around the town to keep up exactly what you're doing.
Come up and rage.
I sure will.
Thank you, Peter.
Thank you.
Peter [E] Garrett, Midnight [D] Oil.
[N] _ _