Blue Sky Mine

About Blue Sky Mine

"Blue Sky Mine" is a song by Australian rock band Midnight Oil released in 1990 as the first single from their album Blue Sky Mining. It peaked at No. 7 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart, No. 8 on the Australian Singles Chart, No. 47 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on both the Billboard Album Rock and Modern Rock charts. It charted the highest in New Zealand, where it reached No. 2 for two weeks in March 1990. The song was inspired by the experiences of workers at the Wittenoom asbestos mines who contracted various asbestos-related diseases. The "blue" refers to blue asbestos, and the "sugar refining company" refers to the Colonial Sugar Refining Company Ltd (CSR), the owner of the mines. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Blue Sky Mine" was ranked number 39. more »

Year:

2018

4:16

38 Views

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Hey, hey-hey hey
There'll be food on the table tonight
Hey, hey, hey hey
There'll be pay in your pocket tonight

My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken
A life that is led is no more than a token
Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why
If I yell out at night there's a reply of bruised silence
The screen is no comfort I can't speak my sentence
They blew the lights at heaven's gate and I don't know why

But if I work all day at the blue sky mine
(There'll be food on the table tonight)
Still I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(There'll be pay in your pocket tonight)

The candy store paupers lie to the share holders
They're crossing their fingers they pay the truth makers
The balance sheet is breaking up the sky
So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine
The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine
Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night
And if the blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue
If the sugar refining company won't save me
Who's gonna save me?

But if I work all day...

And some have sailed from a distant shore
And the company takes what the company wants
And nothing's as precious, as a hole in the ground

Who's gonna save me?
I pray that sense and reason brings us in
Who's gonna save me?
We've got nothing to fear

In the end the rain comes down
Washes clean, the streets of a blue sky town

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Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil (also known informally as "The Oils" to fans), were an Australian alternative rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie. While vocalist Peter Garrett was studying at Australian National University in Canberra, he answered an advertisement for a spot in Farm, and by 1975 the band was touring the east coast. By late 1976, Garrett moved to Sydney to complete his law degree, and Farm changed its name to Midnight Oil by drawing the name out of a hat. more »

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