Sell My Soul

Album: Diesel and Dust (1987)
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Songfacts®:

  • Midnight Oil's Jim Moginie (guitarist/keyboardist) said this song is about Australia's somewhat uneasy alliance with the US. He told Identity Theory: "In terms of trade, Australia has always had an uphill battle because of our distance from the big market places of the world. We used to be part of the EU, but got kicked out of that when the walls went up there. The alliance with the US has become critical to our survival. The song deals with that. Alison Anderson who worked at Papunya council says, 'Aboriginal people won't sell out for a dollar' in the [documentary] on the DVD, and we could all learn from that."

    He added: "I think we ended up loving America, but the first times we played there we were kind of blown out of the water by the size of it, the politics of Reagan and the nuclear stuff, and the thirty different types of milk in the supermarket aisle. In Australia, you'd get just one if you were lucky."

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