Icehouse - great southern land - analyse PDF

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Summary

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Description

Structure: 

General facts

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Song listening

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Summary & historical background

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Interpretation with reference to the stylistic devices

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Conclusion // why I chose this song

General facts: 

The single was released by the Australian rock band Icehouse with the front singer Ivan Davis in august 1982, before the album Primitive Man, where it is featured.

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It was also featured in the 1988 film Young Einstein, which lead to a worldwide attention

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In November 2014 the song was selected for inclusion on the Australian National Film & Sound Archive's "Sounds of Australia" list.

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The song is also used as the walk out tune for the Australian cricket team for their home matches during the Australian summer.

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Historical background:

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The singer and songwriter Davis said the white Australia’s fraught history with Aboriginals was forefront in his mind, so the lyrics takes reference until the 17th century, when the European colonization starts with the English explorer James Cook, who claimed the eastern coast for the British Crown and the “first fleet” lead the first penal colony at Sydney Cove.

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Moreover, the in the 19th century still present thinking of white superiority and black inferiority, which gets extra articulately in the Stolen Generations from the years 19101970, which are later mentioned in the interpretation, is a main aspect.

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Content:

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Summarizing, the lyrics paint a picture of a nation still coming to terms with its identity.

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On account of this they are describing the landscapes and atmosphere, but also the conflict between the Indigenous and the white Australians.

Formal aspects: 

The song consists of 9 stanzas, including a repetition of the 1st, 4th and 5th one.

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Except of one rhetorical question there are just enjambments to show that it is not only a song, but also a story- telling.

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There is no rhyme sheme to avoid creating a harmony, because it´s a serious topic, which shows up the strife of the country.

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Furthermore, the lyrics should fit in no system to underline the spirit of freedom and the mental independence of the Aboriginal culture from the white one.

Stanza 1: 

The Antithesis of limit and endless

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in connection with natural references like sea, harbor, rainy day, gray clouds and most important the “endless ocean” aka the Indian and Pacific Ocean plus the barrier reef, it emphasizes, that the continent is only surrounded by water, which is as a part of the nature of the country as well, consequently nobody sets bounds to the lands spirit of freedom.

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the consequential isolation of the continent from traditional centers of white civilization is underlined by the simile “Stranded like a runaway, lost at sea” one more time

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Furthermore, the Anaphora in verse 1 and 2 underlines by highlighting the two verbs the created distance, in the first verse from all the other countries, and in the second verse from the white culture, more and more prevalent

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the explicit lyrical me want to find “you”, which is probably a paraphrase for the Aboriginal spirit in conjunction with their cultural identity

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this whole proposition faces the thereto antithesis “Anyone will tell you it´s a prisoner island”, which reminding the recipient of the cultural isolation that many felt during the 1970/80. In this context the Stolen Generations between 1910- 1970 are to emphasize, which denote the forcible removal of Ingenious children from their families. Thus Aboriginals should die out through the force of adopting the white culture, especially for the kids abuse and neglect were in common.

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The ellipsis in verse 8 masterminds the focus on the contained hyperbola “million years”, which highlights that the summer, which stands with his positive associations

for the “heyday” of the Aboriginals, is “hidden” and gone since the day of the European colonization in the 17th century.

Stanza 2: 

The capture of the title is an euphemism for the continent Australia and shows national proud

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The repetition of the title together with the periphrase burned you black” speaks directly to the country aka the Australian bushes itself.

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Thus, it refers to the destruction of bushfires, which are caused by high temperatures and strong wind conditions, e.g the Black Tuesday Bushfires (Tasmania 1967) or the Ash Wednesday Bushfires (South Australia & Victoria 1983) because of firestorm conditions. Bushfires are almost a regular occurrence during the hotter months due to Australia’s unforgiving hot, dry climate. Fires have claimed many lives, ravaged the land, destroyed properties and made many homeless

Stanza 3 

the landscape itself is personified: “you can hear them talking” or “it will tell you a story”, that we can ‘read’ or understand by opening our minds for the aboriginal spiritual worldview, rested on the Dreamtime Story, which is based on the belief that Ancestor spirits came to earth in human form and after creating the whole country and world, they changed into trees, stars, rocks and watering holes.

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The repetition of the word “story” in addition with the anaphora underlines that the nature itself tells us how things came to be.

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The metaphor “a journey ended long ago” represents once again the European colonization with the following westernization, which leads to a wide ignorance due to post- materialistic wealth of the land.

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The further natural references and the “mountains” could suggest on the “Uluru”, whose many caves and fissures are thought to be evidence for the existence of the ancestral spirits.

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The parallelism “They´re gonna betray you, they´re gonna forget you” emphasizes both this aspect and the circle of life of transcience in common.

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The rhetorical question “Are you gonna let them take you over that way?” speaks directly to the listener and urges him to not forget about the cultural mindset and heritage, which in fact defines Australia.

Stanza 4:

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The de novo repetition of “Great Southern Land” introduces a further appellation to the land itself, accordingly the simile “You walk alone like a primitive man” emphasizes the isolation of the decreasingly lesser number of Indigenous people. As the representatives of the lands history they had to deal with despite, prejudices and the excluding from the now mainly white society, which gives them the image of “primitive man”.

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The pronoun “they” stands for the white people and underlines the distance between both sides

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The “sticks and bones” are a metaphor for the violent encroachments since the colonisation. To point out just a few, the Europeans took possession of land, water resources and purged Indigenious food like kangeroos plus they entitled the Aboriginals to vote until the year 1967. Aboriginal women were raped and forced to prostitution while men need to work as stockmen on sheep and cattle stations for low wages.

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The personification of “eyes” and “home” highlights with the verb “hungry” this cupidity of land, money and power against every kind of morality.

Stanza 5: 

The metaphoric statement “the stranger´s voice” emphasizes the fact, that the ancestors of the white Australians were intruders with no intention of integration or at least respecting the Australian culture.

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Instead of “burned you black” in stanza 2 there is talk of “they burned you black”, which changes the reference to the nature to the social oppression, accordingly the white Australians treated with such a injustice, that many get mentally unstable, so they escape into alcohol and drug abuse. Figuratively speaking, they burned their spirits.

Stanza 6 -> repetition of stanza 1

Stanza 7 

The personification “in the sleeping sun” underlines one more time the atmosphere of the nature and hints probably at the capability of the huge Aboriginal knowledge, which is “sleeping” because nobody tries to understand the deeper meanings of the traditions and legends

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The metaphor “with the ghost of the time” emphasizes this aspect of ignorance and not passing on the knowledge, which is invisible and not valuable for the largest part of the society that only see what they want to see, because they don´t want to open their minds for the mistakes of history according to the injustice of this two- class society.

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Stanza 8 -> repetition of stanza 4 and 5

Conclusion: 

Great Southern Land could be an anthem for Australia on so many levels. Besides painting pictures which have coincident multiple meanings, it seeks not to preach about the nation’s problems, but rather to tell a story that encompasses all the disparate branches of the Australian history as it informs the present. It's a song that pokes at the part of the Australian psyche that is quietly proud of who they are, including their place in the world and obviously their cultural heritage.

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I personally chose this song for my presentation, because the lyrics seems to speak from the land´s soul and focus on a spiritual and mental value, without reverting to over- worked clichés....