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My Gen X Playlist: Forgotten Years – Midnight Oil

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We passed by a gas station and shocked to see gas at $6.50 per gallon. WTF? Thankfully we gas up at Costco where the prices are cheaper. The last time I gassed up it was under six. It’s crazy thinking anything sub $6 sounds like a good deal.

Southern California is pretty spread out and public transportation doesn’t work for most. Thank goodness I work from home 99% of the time, otherwise I’d be paying a pretty penny commuting. It’s times like this that I miss the train system in Japan.

The other day I mentioned to someone that I remember when gas prices were under a buck. They just looked at me and must have thought I’m old as f*ck. As I replay that conversation in my head, they’re right. I am.

Gasoline made me think about Midnight Oil. I initially could recall only a few songs until I dug a little deeper and was reminded of far more music from their catalogue. Forgotten Years was one of those songs that completely slipped my mind.

Midnight Oil vocalist Peter Garrett told The Washington Post this anthem about the painful consequences of war “credits those who served, remembering that at times it was folly, as in Vietnam, and that at times it was survival, which is what World War II was.”

Songfacts

Painful consequences of war. A topic so apropos right now.

The only somewhat good thing about these gas prices is it reminded me about Midnight Oil’s music. I’ll take any silver lining no matter how thin…

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Few of the sins of the father are visited upon the son
Hearts have been hard our hands have been clenched in a fist too long
Our sons will never be soldiers our daughters will never need guns
These are the years between
These are the years that were hard fought and won
Contracts torn at the edges old signatures stained with tears
Seasons of war and grace these should not be forgotten years
Still it aches like tetanus it reeks of politics
How many dreams remain? This is a feeling too strong to contain

The hardest years the darkest years the roarin' years the fallen years
These should not be forgotten years

The hardest years the wildest years the desperate and divided years
We will remember these should not be forgotten years

Our shoreline was never invaded our country was never in flames
This is the calm we breathe this is a feeling too strong to contain

Still it aches like tetanus it reeks of politics
Signatures stained with tears who can remember
We've got to remember

The hardest years the darkest years..
Forsaking aching breaking years the time and tested heartbreak years
These should not be forgotten years
The blinded years the binded years the desperate and divided years
These should not be forgotten years remember

29 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: Forgotten Years – Midnight Oil”

  3. Yes, I vividly remember when gas spiked to $1.00 per gallon, and my parents were up in arms! This morning, I filled up paying $4.99 per gallon. I thought that was ridiculous, but compared to $6.50, it sounds like I got a bargain.

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  4. There was a thing at work my last year or two that honored a buncha retirees. I got talking with one guy about commuting and he said back in the ‘70s, during the Arab oil embargo with sky-high prices and long lines, there was a thing called “reverse carpooling.” It addressed the #1 reason why people didn’t want to carpool… being stuck at work all day with no car. Here’s how it works…

    Fred, Debby and Sam live kinda close. On Monday am, they all drive to work in their own car. Monday pm, Fred drives Debby and Sam to their house and drops them off. He picks them up Tuesday am and takes them to work.

    Tuesday pm, Debby drives Fred and Sam home, picks them up Wednesday am…and so on. Friday pm, they all drive home. Everybody has their car on site all week.

    Thought that was pretty cool. But not as cool as rolling out of bed at 8:55, getting your coffee, and logging on at 9:00 😂 ☕️ 🕰️

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    1. That’s pretty interesting! What a concept. I think I’d be good with that for awhile until I needed my car after I got home from work!

      I’m getting too used to logging in from home. I’m thankful for those days when there aren’t any video calls!

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  5. With $6.59 USD = $9.15 CAD, and 1 gallon = 3.78 litres, that equates to paying $2.42 CAD per litre which is out of this world; I’ve never seen anything like that. Yesterday, gas hit a high of $1.74 here, down to $1.67 today. Wow. Good thing you ‘telecommute.’

    Hard to go wrong with Midnight Oil, but it’s too bad the ones in power aren’t taking in their music and philosophy. So much for the promised ‘golden years.’ This song passed me by, too. It is great!

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      2. I picked up a portable tire inflator. It’s the best. So much better than trying to find a decent air pump at the local gas station. And so easy to inflate your tires in your garage.

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      1. Yes me too. I know I have the Diesel and Dust CD and also the following one, can’t remember the name right now, but the cover is blue with a flash. I think Blue Sky Mine. Somewhere in a shelve of CDs. Probably even converted somewhere in an old iTunes Library… 😉

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  9. I guess I shouldn’t complain about prices being $4.29 here in DC.

    I DO remember gassing up my first car, a 1973 Chevy Nova, for .35/gallon. Also, when I moved to GA for a short period of time in 1998, gas was .79/gallon as opposed to around a buck in FL where I came from. The reason was, they hit hard on excise taxes in GA (I think I paid over $300.00 to register my 86 Monte Carlo SS) when you register a car, rather than taxing the crap out of gas. Six of one, half a dozen of the other….

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  11. Great f’in song. Saw MO in concert about a million years ago. I recently found out a MO crew member suggested the name INXS to the band formerly known as The Farris Brothers.

    Peter Garrett!

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