THE WHITLAMS - 400 MILES FROM DARWIN lyrics

rate me

We pay to shed a sombre tear in the darkness together here

One among the hundreds, crying for the millions

And when the house lights break the trance

Only then unclasp our hands

Compose ourselves and fix our hair

"We would have all been Schindler there"

Drive in silence slowly home

Now horror's more than skin and bone

And can you see in twenty years

We'll pay to shed the same cheap tears

In a film about an island, watch our hero take a stand

Pay our money gladly to wash our hands

Watching the movie we'll ask how the people might have known

Let it happen there without a fight

Kept driving on quietly home

Left the Timorese alone - 400 miles from Darwin

The two-minute hate is now the three-hour love

With any action left to up above

Those people then could turn their heads

Now all the same we sleep instead

While 400 miles from Darwin

East Timor is dying

Watching the movie we'll ask how the people might have known

Let it happen there without a fight

Kept driving on quietly home

Left the Timorese alone - 400 miles from Darwin

Words and music by Tim Freedman

Produced and engineered by Daniel Denholm

Mixed by Rob Taylor

Vocal, backing vocals, piano - Tim Freedman

Kacapi zither, saron, rebana - Margaret Bradley

Bass - Jackie Orszaczky

Drums - Terepai Richmond

Gretsch guitar, strings arranged and conducted by Daniel Denholm