Is MUSIC used as a propaganda/mind-control tool?

[Maat]

I have to top off the Aussie music fest with my personal anthem from Men At Work


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeG-hNXXy6I

This was also played as the theme song on Aussie TV in 1983 when they televised the Royal Perth Yacht Club's Australia II racing New York Yacht Club's Liberty to win the coveted America's Cup — the first successful challenge for the Cup in 132 years.

I was watching the celebration on TV when our PM Bob Hawke said in an interview, "Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum". That's how sports mad Aussies are, especially when they beat Yanks at anything

I respect that you kicked our butts and the fact that you all love sports. My neighbor was from Australia. I remember him talking to his dad on the phone and the long delay. In any case, I mowed his lawn so he could watch Australian football and rugby etc. more or less. He loved his sports. He introduced me to the Kiwi in 1983. He gave me a nice big olive drab bush hat. I still have it. Good for keeping the sun off your face. You can clip up the sides. Believe it or not there was no such thing in Ohio as a kiwi. Great fun he was.

Well I've never been into sports myself, just enjoyed the Olympics (and the full coverage we got of it down under that I was disappointed to find Americans don't get), so you lost me on "the Kiwi" Only 'kiwis" I know are New Zealanders, the bird & the fruit

Are Men At Work at all connected to those Midnight Oil blokes who seem quick to praise military action, in song form?

Nope, Men At Work have no connection to Midnight Oil that I've ever heard of. Actually, Men At Work were never activist or militant about anything at all — I'm sure I would have noticed if they were

But it would be ironic if the Oils came across as pro-military since they were supposedly so militantly anti American military bases etc. — but that's the effect that angry, shouting pseudo activists have isn't it, they just sound war-like themselves

[whatsgoingon]

ha ha. That was not my best writing there. I never tasted a kiwi fruit before.

He brought cans of kiwi back from Australia and gave them to me to eat with my bush hat. I was only 9-10 years old at the time and Men at Work just released "Land Down Under".

[Maat]

Oh, kiwi fruit! Yeah, love 'em. Much better fresh of course (we can get them in supermarkets here in Tennessee), but I do miss having them on Pavlova — the Aussie meringue dessert — with fresh passion fruit, banana, strawberries and whipped cream

[Farcevalue]

Before this Aussie thread unwinds, what about this late Aussie guitar player? Especially for the SC site. Very Brian Setzer, I really enjoy this style of playing.



From what I understand, he was one of the early ones to catch on to the deception, but I recall reading somewhere that he had conflicts with others later. From what I have read of Holmgren's writing it is logically sound. I also listened to an interview with Warren Cuccurullo, guitarist of Duran Duran fame where he exposed the video fakery, as well. Most of my musician friends have a somewhat lower wall of protective denial around their psyche.

The possible deliberate manipulations on the part of some of my favorite musicians has been troubling to me, to say the least. I don't understand why someone of talent, who is perfectly capable of producing a marketable commodity that people enjoy and happily support would willingly sell out to the parasites who can only take from others for their gain.

MK ultra, child trauma disassociation seem to make more sense for the more overt illuminati symbols on the pop scene, but I have my doubts as to how effective those techniques really are. Alas, my former heroes. "Say it ain't so, Joe!"

(Note to the admins: the embed was not appearing in the preview, please help me to correct as needed.)

Only add the code number of the video, not the full url, between the tags (just like Youtube). See it in edit — Maat

[lux]

BTW, the song "Land Down Under" was being performed in Los Angeles night clubs by a local group called Devon around 1980, a year or two before it was released by MAW. And, according to Devon's lead singer, it was supposed to be on their soon-to-be-released first single at around that same time. She would introduce the song by saying it was written by a talented Australian songwriter and that they had signed a deal to record and release it soon. It was the featured tune in their act.

This info is not on their web page -- I know it because I saw Devon perform the song many times but I can't vouch for Devon's version of the back-story as it was just what I heard them say. But, they were preforming that song before anybody else had heard of it so I figure it was probably true and this sort of thing is pretty common.

But after about a year or so of performing the tune she said the label changed their mind at the last minute and decided to go with recording Men At Work doing the song and the rest is, as they say, musical history. Devon (the group) broke up shortly afterward.

[Maat]

Colin Hay & Ron Strykert of Men At Work co-wrote 'Down Under' in 1978. When you own the copyright to something you can grant permission for it be played by others, pending negotiations or better offers before signing anything. It's always up to the songwriter(s) whether to license their rights to anyone else or not, after all.

But if you want to see how petty battles over copyright can get when it's driven by greed, read this about the suit filed against Men At Work over a 2-bar riff added by the flautist, band member Greg Ham, in Down Under:
http://education.theage.com.au/cmspage. ... ersion=299

[lux]

It's always up to the songwriter(s) whether to license their rights to anyone else or not, after all.

If only that were true!

It's up to the rights-holder of the song which is often not the songwriter (if they are not yet established) but rather the song publisher who stole bought it from the songwriter, usually for one dollar and promises of stardom. I have been down this road.

I'm not saying this applied to the early MAW songs -- I have no idea -- but the songwriter does not necessarily have any say in the use of their material if they signed away the rights and this does often happens with new, hungry artists.

[Maat]

It's always up to the songwriter(s) whether to license their rights to anyone else or not, after all.

If only that were true!

It's up to the rights-holder of the song which is often not the songwriter (if they are not yet established) but rather the song publisher who stole bought it from the songwriter, usually for one dollar and promises of stardom. I have been down this road.

I'm not saying this applied to the early MAW songs -- I have no idea -- but the songwriter does not necessarily have any say in the use of their material if they signed away the rights and this does often happens with new, hungry artists.

I was of course talking about the songwriter's rights before they sign it away to anyone, whether conned out of it or whatever, it's still a choice innit?

My husband is a design engineer so I'm very aware how careful one has to be when predators want to acquire your Intellectual Property any way they can.

***************************************************

P.S. For the record:

1980: "Men At Work released an independent 7” single with 'Keypunch Operator' as the AA1-side, and an early version of 'Down Under' as the AA2-side"

1981: "Men at Work signed with CBS Records producer Peter McIan, and they release their debut album 'Business as Usual', with the hit singles 'Who Can It Be Now?', 'Down Under' and 'Be Good Johnny'”. @ http://colinhay.com.br/site/bio

Ref to the official court record of the song recording dates:

Justice Peter Jacobson recently concluded that the 1979 and 1981 recordings by the Australian rock band Men At Work of their international hit Down Under reproduced a ''substantial part'' of a children's folk song, Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree and the group was in breach of copyright. The melody line of the folk song was found in Down Under's flute ''riff'' - a short, distinctive series of notes that forms part of the song's musical accompaniment. ...
http://education.theage.com.au/cmspage. ... ersion=299

[MrSinclair]

The most political band in the USA in the 60's/70's was the MC5.


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQUCpMhLM-4

I saw them open for Led Zepplin and pretty much steal the show.
Many years later I did a gig playing out jazz with their guitarist in the most drug infested times in NYC on the Lowest East Side . How I got out of there intact and with my horn I still don't know...

[lux]

It's always up to the songwriter(s) whether to license their rights to anyone else or not, after all.

If only that were true!

It's up to the rights-holder of the song which is often not the songwriter (if they are not yet established) but rather the song publisher who stole bought it from the songwriter, usually for one dollar and promises of stardom. I have been down this road.

I'm not saying this applied to the early MAW songs -- I have no idea -- but the songwriter does not necessarily have any say in the use of their material if they signed away the rights and this does often happens with new, hungry artists.

I was of course talking about the songwriter's rights before they sign it away to anyone, whether conned out of it or whatever, it's still a choice innit?

My husband is a design engineer so I'm very aware how careful one has to be when predators want to acquire your Intellectual Property any way they can.

***************************************************

P.S. For the record:

1980: "Men At Work released an independent 7” single with 'Keypunch Operator' as the AA1-side, and an early version of 'Down Under' as the AA2-side"

1981: "Men at Work signed with CBS Records producer Peter McIan, and they release their debut album 'Business as Usual', with the hit singles 'Who Can It Be Now?', 'Down Under' and 'Be Good Johnny'”. @ http://colinhay.com.br/site/bio

Ref to the official court record of the song recording dates:

Justice Peter Jacobson recently concluded that the 1979 and 1981 recordings by the Australian rock band Men At Work of their international hit Down Under reproduced a ''substantial part'' of a children's folk song, Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree and the group was in breach of copyright. The melody line of the folk song was found in Down Under's flute ''riff'' - a short, distinctive series of notes that forms part of the song's musical accompaniment. ...
http://education.theage.com.au/cmspage. ... ersion=299

Very good research, Maat, but my intent was to simply state that the song was being played live by a band in LA before the USA version by MAW was released here and that some apparent label shenanigans took place at that time with that band and that song. The date the song was written or first recorded wasn't an issue. I just thought it might be an interesting factoid for USA MAW fans.

[messdup]

Wow ! a great cross section of Aussie music has been presented.
But.. perhaps some of classics that were neglected.

Now, Farnham sux ! but, his work in LRB is worth a listen.

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi79N4_96ik

Sorry, for this one ..but..I love the Tatt's ..and especially this one.

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeTBsQmMEpw

Of course, there are many Chisel tracks to choose from, but, this one is the best.

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcjZrf_g-lQ

[AmongTheThugs]

Messdup, no need to apologize for the Rose Tattoo song. Great rock-n-roll!
Anyway, I think we all can agree that the "music business" is the slimiest business there is.

[Maat]

Yeah, good stuff Messdup! I'd forgotten about Cold Chisel (preferred LRB before Farnham though )

Let's go way back to The Real Thing in 1969


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HImcaPDmfBY
Lyric

And Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs in 1972


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg37g4fePFE

Most People I Know Think That I'm Crazy — yep, that's my theme song!

[AmongTheThugs]

The Saints are probably my favorite Aussie band. I really dig Radio Birdman too.( If I could I would post some songs.)

[messdup]

Maat, great pick with Thorpe, I've been crazy a long time.
But, The Church in a great performance.

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7cJVStGT2Y
A little known act, but, a great song.

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dDRQRFDbu8
Now, this one always spoke volumes to me.

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV_0Mf9YcyA