Regum - Virgin Ground

Redgum's second album Virgin Ground released in 1980 was met with
critical acclaim and led to the band members finally giving up their
day jobs. Drummer Tom Stehlik and bassist Dave Flett became
permanent members.Virgin Ground is a fantastic album, with
the addition of thepercussion section they finally left the folk label
for more a folk rock one.
Coupled with the release of the Redgum songbook these guys
songs were heavily played by myself and friends back in those early
80's.Theres 3 songs that are portraits of individuals,
my favorite being the brilliant "Ted", born in 1895 I could see a lot in
Ted that mirrored my own Grandfathers life whom was born in 1899.

"Did his bit in the first world war
Took the shilling to fight the hun
Mud up to his crotch in Flanders field
And the gas eating out His lungs
He said "me best mate died hanging
on the barded wire
And when the attack was through
We shared a fag and a yarn or two
They were the same as me and you
And I asked old Ted what history meant
as he sharped his hedging shears
What a bloody fool question that is my boy
I've lived it for 83 years"

Theres the very funny
"It doesn't matter to me"

"I'm in the RSL I joined the lions club Friday
My support of sport is through of highly
I'm a class 6 clerk in the PCD
and who the hell is Ayattollah Khomeni?"

And "Nuclear Cop"

"The sky is red and the earth is black
Its 1990 and we haven't looked back
Load it on a jumbo send it overseas
We've got a lot of money now
who needs trees"

The title track is about the little known, ill fated
expedition to Paraguay in the 1890's, where almost
the entire union movement in Australia left the country
for the jungles of Paraguay to start New Australia.

"The money's no good" is a fantastic song that
captures the struggle of the unemployed in the
Malcolm Frazer years of the late 70's early 80's

"You get out of bed bout half past 7
Your days are hell so sleeping's heaven
Unfold the paper over yesterday's meal
Good morning Mr Howard how do you feel?
Another batch of figures says every thing's fine
But thats not what they're saying on the dole-form line"

But the best is the brilliant "Long Run", this song
is an Australian classic, a song about coming to terms
with our history and our future as a nation.

"Australia marched out of Vietnam
Out on the streets against uncle Sam
We won the fight it was a long one
Uranium demo the other day
One of my mates got dragged away
As they slammed the door
I heard her say
It'll be all right, It'll be all right
It'll be all right in the long run.

Italian bloke who works with me
We swap laughs and company
And he slapped me on the back
Said "your wrong son
This isn't the land I was told
it would be
Its not so equal and its not so free
But it'll be all right, It'll be all right
It'll be all right in the long run."

John was writing those political masterwork statements
long before "I was only nineteen"


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