Total amazing song, so many different ideas squeezed in there (nearly 8 minutes, but it still flies by). Some of this info comes from an interview Gareth did in Mess + Noise magazine, some I've interpreted myself. The Strontium 90, Iodine, milk, Jezebel (a cow, apparently) come from when nuclear testing was done in Woomera in outback South Australia. The fallout was carried to populated parts of Aust and "rained down", was absorbed into grass, eaten by cow and then affected a whole generation of kids. Gareth's home town of "Ether" a.k.a. Port Hedland, may have been one of the areas affected by this.
This next few verse switch to talking about war in the middle east. Uranium tips refer to the "depleted" uranium ammunition used by the US which is now suspected to be causing radiation sickness in their own troops. "Night vision, cruise missiles" refers to the footage ithat was seen almost nightly during the first gulf war.
Bethlehem is obviously a biblical reference. The "does my bomb look big in this" line I love, because it seems to reference 2 things, The use of suicide bombers/IEDs and also the westernisation of the middle east (i.e. the vanity of "does my bum look big in this)
Dan Pearl was a US journalist executed in the middle east (try youtube). The camera, effigy line I believe means: I am not a machine, I cannot view this image without emotion and a human cannot be treated as something to be destroyed in order to make a point, political or otherwise.
The next verse is about the "blood for oil" war. New Scar = G.W. Bush? Is Goliath (another biblical reference) the US, riding the middle eastern oil drum through their hurricane Katrina?
Tyrant: Saddam, now gone, but the Iraqis are left with a civil was.
Total amazing song, so many different ideas squeezed in there (nearly 8 minutes, but it still flies by). Some of this info comes from an interview Gareth did in Mess + Noise magazine, some I've interpreted myself. The Strontium 90, Iodine, milk, Jezebel (a cow, apparently) come from when nuclear testing was done in Woomera in outback South Australia. The fallout was carried to populated parts of Aust and "rained down", was absorbed into grass, eaten by cow and then affected a whole generation of kids. Gareth's home town of "Ether" a.k.a. Port Hedland, may have been one of the areas affected by this.
This next few verse switch to talking about war in the middle east. Uranium tips refer to the "depleted" uranium ammunition used by the US which is now suspected to be causing radiation sickness in their own troops. "Night vision, cruise missiles" refers to the footage ithat was seen almost nightly during the first gulf war.
Bethlehem is obviously a biblical reference. The "does my bomb look big in this" line I love, because it seems to reference 2 things, The use of suicide bombers/IEDs and also the westernisation of the middle east (i.e. the vanity of "does my bum look big in this)
Dan Pearl was a US journalist executed in the middle east (try youtube). The camera, effigy line I believe means: I am not a machine, I cannot view this image without emotion and a human cannot be treated as something to be destroyed in order to make a point, political or otherwise.
The next verse is about the "blood for oil" war. New Scar = G.W. Bush? Is Goliath (another biblical reference) the US, riding the middle eastern oil drum through their hurricane Katrina?
Tyrant: Saddam, now gone, but the Iraqis are left with a civil was.