Great Southern Land by Australian rock band Icehouse

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• published: 07 Sep 2010
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Great Southern Land by Australian rock band Icehouse. Icehouse is an Australian rock band, formed as Flowers in 1977 in Sydney. Initially known in Australia for their pub rock style, they later achieved mainstream success playing new wave and synthpop style music and attained Top Ten singles chart success in both Europe and the U.S. The mainstay of both Flowers and Icehouse has been Iva Davies (singer-songwriter, record producer, guitar, bass, keyboards, oboe) supplying additional musicians as required. The name Icehouse, which was adopted in 1981, comes from an old, cold flat Davies lived in and the strange building across the road populated by itinerant people. Davies and Icehouse extended the use of synthesizers particularly the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 ("Love in Motion", 1981), Linn drum machine ("Hey Little Girl", 1982) and Fairlight CMI (Razorback trailer, 1983) in Australian popular music. Their best known singles on the Australian charts were "Great Southern Land", "Hey Little Girl", "Crazy", "Electric Blue" and "My Obsession"; with Top Five albums being Icehouse (1980, as Flowers), Primitive Man (1982) and Man of Colours (1987). Icehouse's iconic status was acknowledged when they were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame on 16 August 2006. ARIA described Icehouse as "one of the most successful Australian bands of the eighties and nineties... With an uncompromising approach to music production they created songs that ranged from pure pop escapism to edgy, lavish synthesised pieces..." Icehouse has produced eight Top Ten albums and twenty Top Forty singles in Australia, multiple top ten hits in Europe and North America and album sales of over 28 times Platinum in Australasia alone. As of 2006, Man of Colours was still the highest selling album in Australia by an Australian band. Lyrics to Great Southern Land: Standing at the limit of an endless ocean stranded like a runaway, lost at sea city on a rainy day down in the harbour watching as the grey clouds shadow the bay looking everywhere 'cause I had to find you this is not the way that i remember it here anyone will tell you its a prisoner island hidden in the summer for a million years Great Southern Land, burned you black so you look into the land and it will tell you a story story 'bout a journey ended long ago if you listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains maybe you can hear them talking like I do ". . they're gonna betray, they're gonna forget you are you gonna let them take you over this way . ." Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land you walk alone like a primitive man and they make it work with sticks and bones see their hungry eyes, its a hungry home I hear the sound of the stranger's voices I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land they burned you black, black against the ground Great Southern Land, in the sleeping sun you walk alone with the ghost of time they burned you black, black against the ground and they make it work with rocks and sand I hear the sound of the stanger's voices I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land you walk alone, like a primitive man you walk alone with the ghost of time and they burned you black yeah, they burned you black Great Southern Land