I wrote this
song after a deck class passage on a Greek ferry between Greece and Haifa. Deck class
was cheap and basic – you slept outside on deck but a meal was included. I
complained about the dreadful meal (don’t remember what it was) but to placate
me they put in the first class lounge. I sat there alone for quite some time
before I was served a meal that wasn’t that much better.
Decades
later I added a verse to highlight the plight of refugees languishing in
Australian off-shore detention centres.
THE UGLY
AUSTRALIAN
(listen HERE)
You put shit food down in front of me and expect me to eat it
You put me
up in the first class lounge with my anger and expect that to placate it
I’m on a foreign
boat in a foreign sea In times foreign to us all
At times like this I'm wonderin' why I’m so far from my native shore
So I’m going
home
I’m tired of
the ever moving round
I’m tired of
the ever changing ground
Australia
will you wait for me with your long and golden shore?
You’re a land
of sun and dreams they tell me
But I wanna
know for sure so I’m coming home
Are you
keeping up with fashion? Or are you keeping down the poor?
Are you looking down the barrel? Or has nothing changed at
all? I’m going home.
You put shit food down in front of me and expect me to eat it
You stick me
out on an offshore island with my pain and expect that to placate it
I’m in a foreign
place in a foreign sea in times foreign to us all
Australia
was what I was looking for - why I left my native shore
Now I can’t go
home
I’m tired of
the never moving round
I’m tired of
the never changing ground
Australia I will wait for you with your long and golden shores
You’re a land
of sun and dreams they tell me
Will I ever
know for sure? I have no home
Are we closing
up the country? Have we locked up all the doors?
Are those in
need no longer welcome? When did we get so mean?
And they can’t
go home
They have no
home
(1982 and 2020)
