WEBVTT 00:00:01.359 --> 00:00:04.000 Imagine clocking out of a really grueling day 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.179 job on a Friday afternoon. But instead of going 00:00:07.179 --> 00:00:09.699 home to just crash, you head straight to the 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:12.259 airport. Right. Which sounds exhausting already. 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:14.240 Totally. You fly to another city, you walk right 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.460 onto a stage, and you play this incredibly sweaty, 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:19.260 high -stakes music gig. Yeah. But you don't even 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:22.399 keep the money. Every single cent pays for the 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:25.640 flight you literally just took. Wow. Just breaking 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:28.800 even. Exactly. And then... You lock yourself 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:30.879 in a recording studio, sleeping in these tiny 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:33.299 little snatches before flying back on Sunday 00:00:33.299 --> 00:00:35.380 night just to, you know, clock back in on Monday 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:37.240 morning. Yeah. And you do it all over in the 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:39.259 next weekend. I mean, it sounds like a recipe 00:00:39.259 --> 00:00:41.359 for total burnout. Most people are completely 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:43.399 exhausted just running weekend errands, right? 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:45.880 Oh, for sure. Let alone trying to fund and track 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:48.600 a full studio album in these frantic 48 -hour 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:51.820 bursts. Well, welcome to today's Deep Dive. We 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:53.920 are immersing ourselves in the Wikipedia page 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.780 and the surrounding historical sources for a 00:00:56.780 --> 00:01:00.340 record called Virgin Ground. It's the 1980s sophomore 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:03.140 studio album by the Australian folk band Red 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:05.920 Gum. Yeah, an incredible piece of work. It really 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:08.920 is. And our mission today is to unpack how this 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:12.719 incredibly ambitious 32 -minute and 36 -second 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:15.859 weekend passion project didn't just launch an 00:01:15.859 --> 00:01:19.120 indie band into full -time stardom, but it also 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:22.420 captured this gritty, unflinching time capsule 00:01:22.420 --> 00:01:26.340 of Australian history. And the backdrop to this 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:29.379 entire record really is that frantic, exhausting 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:31.200 schedule you just mentioned. That we can wear 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:33.859 your thing. Exactly. The band members at the 00:01:33.859 --> 00:01:36.159 time, so that's Michael Atkinson, John Schumann, 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:38.760 Verity Truman, and Chris Timms. They were firmly 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:40.840 embedded in the standard workforce. They had 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:43.069 regular nine to five? Yep. They were holding 00:01:43.069 --> 00:01:45.829 down everyday day jobs in Adelaide all while 00:01:45.829 --> 00:01:48.189 trying to build this musical legacy on the side. 00:01:48.409 --> 00:01:50.650 Okay, let's unpack this. Because looking at that 00:01:50.650 --> 00:01:53.109 routine, you know, flying from Adelaide to Melbourne 00:01:53.109 --> 00:01:55.870 on Fridays, gigging to fund the travel, and then 00:01:55.870 --> 00:01:57.569 recording at Richmond Recorders in Melbourne 00:01:57.569 --> 00:02:00.689 and Pepper Studios in Adelaide all weekend, it 00:02:00.689 --> 00:02:02.450 immediately reminds me of something. Oh, yeah. 00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:05.260 What's a modern day startup culture? Oh, that's 00:02:05.260 --> 00:02:07.540 an interesting comparison. Right. Because we 00:02:07.540 --> 00:02:11.000 constantly hear about tech founders bootstrapping 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:14.020 their companies like coding in a garage until 00:02:14.020 --> 00:02:16.460 3 a .m. just to get an app off the ground. Yes. 00:02:16.539 --> 00:02:19.259 The hustle culture. Exactly. And Red Gum was 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:21.879 essentially doing the 1980 folk music version 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.500 of that. Except instead of buying server space, 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:27.379 they are playing live shows just to afford literal 00:02:27.379 --> 00:02:30.090 flight tickets to get to the studio. The bootstrapping 00:02:30.090 --> 00:02:32.250 analogy works perfectly, actually, because it 00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:34.550 highlights the sheer financial tightrope they 00:02:34.550 --> 00:02:37.729 were walking. I mean, studio time in 1980 was 00:02:37.729 --> 00:02:40.069 astronomically expensive. And tape was not cheap. 00:02:40.169 --> 00:02:42.490 Tape was definitely not cheap. So when you are 00:02:42.490 --> 00:02:44.990 paying for studio hours with the cash you literally 00:02:44.990 --> 00:02:47.969 just made at a pub gig the night before, it entirely 00:02:47.969 --> 00:02:50.090 changes how you record. You can't mess around. 00:02:50.250 --> 00:02:51.969 No, you really can't. You don't have the luxury 00:02:51.969 --> 00:02:54.110 of spending a week experimenting with guitar 00:02:54.110 --> 00:02:57.550 tones or doing 50 vocal takes. You have to go 00:02:57.550 --> 00:03:00.439 in, set up. and just capture the raw energy of 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:02.800 the room. Which means the exhaustion and that 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:06.080 sort of frantic urgency probably seeped right 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:08.400 into the audio tape. I mean, they were recording 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.479 under immense pressure against a ticking clock. 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:13.800 Absolutely. It forces a very specific kind of 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:16.639 discipline. You have to be incredibly well rehearsed 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:18.500 before you ever step foot near a microphone. 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:20.400 You can't be figuring out the chords on the clock. 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:23.280 Exactly. So the urgency you hear on Virgin Ground 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:26.960 isn't some artistic affectation. It is the literal 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:29.520 sound of four people trying to get their ideas 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:31.319 down before they have to catch a flight back 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:33.599 to their day jobs. That's wild to think about. 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:36.479 And the gamble actually paid off. This independent 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:39.759 high stress artistic process was the bridge that 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:42.099 allowed the to finally drop those day jobs. Right. 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:44.099 They became full -time touring musicians after 00:03:44.099 --> 00:03:46.900 this. They did. So they basically willed their 00:03:46.900 --> 00:03:51.219 career into existence through sheer weekend willpower. 00:03:51.539 --> 00:03:53.599 Yeah, that's a good way to put it. But what struck 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.259 me as I was reading through these sources is 00:03:56.259 --> 00:03:59.500 how that very idea that desperation to escape 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:01.960 a current situation to build something new is 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:04.319 baked right into the literal title of the album. 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:07.240 Yes, the title track Virgin Ground, which was 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:09.620 written by Michael Atkinson, is arguably one 00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:12.020 of the most fascinating historical anchors on 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:14.879 the entire record. I have to admit, when I got 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:17.920 to the background of this specific song. it completely 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:20.339 stopped me in my tracks. It's quite the story. 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:23.540 It really is. Because the song recounts the establishment 00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:27.779 of the new Australia colony in 1893 and the location 00:04:27.779 --> 00:04:31.399 of this colony. Paraguay? Yep. Wait. An Australian 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:33.800 colony in the middle of the South American jungle 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:36.300 in the 1890s. I know it sounds entirely made 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:37.980 up. It sounds like an alternate history novel. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.100 It really does. But it is a very real, though 00:04:41.100 --> 00:04:44.500 often forgotten, piece of history. In the early 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:48.300 1890s, Australia was going through a severe economic 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:50.420 depression. Right. And there had been a series 00:04:50.420 --> 00:04:53.600 of bitter failed strikes by shearers and maritime 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:56.980 workers. So a journalist and utopian socialist 00:04:56.980 --> 00:04:59.819 named William Lane managed to convince hundreds 00:04:59.850 --> 00:05:02.410 of disillusioned Australian workers that the 00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:04.470 system at home was just completely unfixable. 00:05:04.589 --> 00:05:06.910 So they just decided to leave. Pretty much. He 00:05:06.910 --> 00:05:09.230 secured land in Paraguay from the local government. 00:05:09.410 --> 00:05:11.790 They chartered a ship called the Royal Tar, and 00:05:11.790 --> 00:05:14.730 they set sail to build a classless utopian society 00:05:14.730 --> 00:05:17.370 from scratch. But utopias notoriously never work 00:05:17.370 --> 00:05:20.629 out. Rarely. Yeah. And from what I read, Lane 00:05:20.629 --> 00:05:23.910 instituted incredibly strict rules for this new 00:05:23.910 --> 00:05:27.610 society, including a total ban on alcohol. Yes. 00:05:27.870 --> 00:05:30.870 prohibition in the jungle. Right. Trying to enforce 00:05:30.870 --> 00:05:34.930 prohibition on a camp full of 19th century Australian 00:05:34.930 --> 00:05:37.709 shearers in the sweltering jungle just seems 00:05:37.709 --> 00:05:40.889 doomed from day one. It definitely was. point 00:05:40.889 --> 00:05:43.310 of contention. And predictably it fractured, 00:05:43.410 --> 00:05:45.430 there was infighting, splinter colonies were 00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:47.709 formed, and eventually many of them just had 00:05:47.709 --> 00:05:50.089 to be repatriated back to Australia. It was a 00:05:50.089 --> 00:05:52.389 massive failure. So my question is why would 00:05:52.389 --> 00:05:55.870 a folk band in 1980 look back almost a century 00:05:55.870 --> 00:05:59.290 to a massive obscure failure to name their breakthrough 00:05:59.290 --> 00:06:02.149 album? Well what's fascinating here is the psychological 00:06:02.149 --> 00:06:04.870 parallel rather than the historical success rate. 00:06:04.870 --> 00:06:07.110 If you look at William Lane's followers they 00:06:07.110 --> 00:06:09.790 were exhausted by an economic system that wasn't 00:06:09.709 --> 00:06:12.029 working for them. They decided the only solution 00:06:12.029 --> 00:06:15.149 was to find untouched soil virgin ground and 00:06:15.149 --> 00:06:17.870 just start over. Now look at red gum in 1980. 00:06:18.029 --> 00:06:19.769 Oh, I see where you're going with this. Yeah. 00:06:20.089 --> 00:06:22.910 They are exhausted by the nine to five grind, 00:06:23.310 --> 00:06:25.209 they're frustrated by the limitations of their 00:06:25.209 --> 00:06:27.589 current lives, and they're trying to carve out 00:06:27.589 --> 00:06:31.009 a brand new full -time career in a notoriously 00:06:31.009 --> 00:06:33.350 unforgiving music industry. So they were looking 00:06:33.350 --> 00:06:36.529 for their own virgin ground. Precisely. The historical 00:06:36.529 --> 00:06:39.529 colony serves as this metaphor for the band venturing 00:06:39.529 --> 00:06:42.750 into the unknown, hoping to build a musical utopia 00:06:42.750 --> 00:06:44.610 where they could actually survive on their art. 00:06:44.769 --> 00:06:47.430 That makes so much sense. And while the new Australia 00:06:47.430 --> 00:06:50.019 colony failed, the desire for that that fresh 00:06:50.019 --> 00:06:52.939 start is this universally deeply human feeling. 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:56.360 For sure. The title track uses that romantic, 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:00.279 albeit doomed 1893 dream as a framing device. 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:03.519 But the album does not stay in Paraguay for long. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:05.939 No, it definitely doesn't. It uses that historical 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:08.339 attempt at perfection to sharply contrast with 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:10.980 the deep glaring imperfections of the band's 00:07:10.980 --> 00:07:13.529 modern era. It is a massive pivot. You go from 00:07:13.529 --> 00:07:16.069 this sweeping acoustic ballad about a 19th century 00:07:16.069 --> 00:07:18.769 utopia straight into the dystopian realities 00:07:18.769 --> 00:07:21.230 of 1980s Australia. It's a bit of a whiplash. 00:07:21.490 --> 00:07:23.670 It is. And, you know, we should pause here for 00:07:23.670 --> 00:07:26.230 a second just to remind you, the listener, that 00:07:26.230 --> 00:07:28.750 as we dive into these next tracks, we are looking 00:07:28.750 --> 00:07:31.649 at this purely as a historical artifact. Exactly. 00:07:31.689 --> 00:07:34.310 We are analyzing the thematic content of Red 00:07:34.310 --> 00:07:37.350 Gum's lyrics to understand what the band was 00:07:37.350 --> 00:07:40.329 trying to say about their era. We aren't taking 00:07:40.329 --> 00:07:43.149 sides or endorsing these political or social 00:07:43.149 --> 00:07:46.550 viewpoints. We are simply exploring the landscape 00:07:46.550 --> 00:07:49.170 they painted on this record. And that is an important 00:07:49.170 --> 00:07:51.430 distinction to make because the landscape on 00:07:51.430 --> 00:07:54.449 Virgin Ground is unapologetically bleak and highly 00:07:54.449 --> 00:07:57.410 political. Very political. Yeah. Across the track 00:07:57.410 --> 00:08:00.110 list, which includes songs like Domination Quickstep 00:08:00.110 --> 00:08:03.470 and The Money's No Good, the band tackles some 00:08:03.470 --> 00:08:06.589 incredibly heavy socially conscious themes. What 00:08:06.589 --> 00:08:08.470 kind of themes were they focusing on? They're 00:08:08.470 --> 00:08:11.649 taking aim at chronic unemployment. the specific 00:08:11.649 --> 00:08:14.350 struggles of migrant women, the foreign domination 00:08:14.350 --> 00:08:16.730 of Australian resources, and what they viewed 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:19.329 as the sheer apathy of middle Australia. And 00:08:19.329 --> 00:08:20.990 when we say middle Australia, we're talking about 00:08:20.990 --> 00:08:24.269 that comfortable mainstream suburban demographic. 00:08:24.389 --> 00:08:27.050 The comfortable middle class, yeah. The people. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.899 who, in the band's view, were content to ignore 00:08:30.899 --> 00:08:33.720 these larger structural issues as long as their 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:35.879 own lawns were mowed, basically. That was exactly 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:37.759 their critique. But this brings up a massive 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:40.000 logistical question for me regarding the music 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.720 scene at the time. OK, what is it? Well, 1980 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:46.799 in Australia was the absolute golden era of pub 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:51.590 rock. You had bands like ACDC, cold chisel, the 00:08:51.590 --> 00:08:54.929 angels, playing in these incredibly loud, sweaty, 00:08:55.370 --> 00:08:57.629 beer -soaked venues. Oh yeah, it was a very intense 00:08:57.629 --> 00:09:00.889 scene. So, if the album is filled with such bleak, 00:09:01.009 --> 00:09:04.169 heavy topics, how does an acoustic folk band 00:09:04.169 --> 00:09:06.389 get up in front of that kind of crowd and deliver 00:09:06.389 --> 00:09:08.529 a lecture on foreign quarter domination without 00:09:08.529 --> 00:09:10.309 getting booed off the stage? By not sounding 00:09:10.309 --> 00:09:13.190 like a lecture at all. Oh really? Yeah. That 00:09:13.190 --> 00:09:15.990 is where their specific approach to the folk 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:18.889 genre becomes their secret weapon. If you are 00:09:18.889 --> 00:09:21.720 playing an acoustic guitar in a pub in 1980s 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:24.700 Australia, you cannot stand there and gently 00:09:24.700 --> 00:09:27.019 pluck strings. No, you'd be eaten alive. You'd 00:09:27.019 --> 00:09:29.240 be totally ignored. You have to play with the 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:32.240 rhythmic intensity of a punk band. Red Gum delivered 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:35.159 these bleak insights with extreme urgency. They 00:09:35.159 --> 00:09:38.179 used a driving tempo, very aggressive acoustic 00:09:38.179 --> 00:09:40.820 strumming, and instruments like the tin whistle 00:09:40.820 --> 00:09:43.659 or flute really cutting through the noise. So 00:09:43.659 --> 00:09:45.980 they were basically matching the energy of the 00:09:45.980 --> 00:09:48.450 pub rock scene, but they were just sw - swapping 00:09:48.450 --> 00:09:51.750 out the electric distortion for aggressive acoustic 00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:54.009 instrumentation. Which completely changes the 00:09:54.009 --> 00:09:56.389 dynamic. You know, folk music has a long tradition 00:09:56.389 --> 00:09:59.110 of giving voice to societal struggles, but it 00:09:59.110 --> 00:10:01.289 works because it relies on communal storytelling. 00:10:01.509 --> 00:10:03.389 Right, getting everyone involved. Exactly. When 00:10:03.389 --> 00:10:06.210 you pair heavy lyrical themes, like the frustration 00:10:06.210 --> 00:10:09.470 of unemployment, with a driving foot stomping 00:10:09.470 --> 00:10:12.929 rhythm, you turn a solitary anxiety into a shared 00:10:12.929 --> 00:10:15.320 experience. Wow, yeah. You aren't just telling 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:17.820 an audience that the economy is bad. You are 00:10:17.820 --> 00:10:21.139 creating this rhythmic collective moment where 00:10:21.139 --> 00:10:23.679 the audience can vent that frustration together. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:25.799 I love that. I mean, you might be singing about 00:10:25.799 --> 00:10:27.779 unemployment, but you're yelling it in a club 00:10:27.779 --> 00:10:29.919 with a hundred other people. Yes. And suddenly 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:32.360 you don't feel quite so isolated in that struggle. 00:10:32.899 --> 00:10:35.299 The music itself becomes the antidote to the 00:10:35.299 --> 00:10:37.539 apathy they were criticizing. It builds solidarity. 00:10:37.720 --> 00:10:39.740 Yeah. And they didn't just stick to the broad 00:10:39.740 --> 00:10:42.299 macroeconomic issues either. No, they got very 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:45.139 specific. They did. While tracks like Domination 00:10:45.139 --> 00:10:47.960 Quickstep handle the big picture politics, Red 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:50.299 Gum was equally interested in the micro level 00:10:50.299 --> 00:10:53.059 realities, which actually leads us to one of 00:10:53.059 --> 00:10:55.779 the most unexpected moments on the entire album. 00:10:55.940 --> 00:10:58.480 Yes. Let's look at track two on Side B. It's 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:01.360 called Women in Change because here is where 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:03.399 it gets really interesting. It's a huge shift 00:11:03.399 --> 00:11:06.940 in tone. It is. You have this album. full of 00:11:06.940 --> 00:11:09.279 sweeping political critiques, and right in the 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:12.200 middle the album zooms intimately in. Yeah. The 00:11:12.200 --> 00:11:14.559 lyrics for this track are credited to band member 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:17.899 Verity Truman and a poet named Lesbia Harford. 00:11:18.940 --> 00:11:21.259 Specifically, the song incorporates the last 00:11:21.259 --> 00:11:25.059 four stanzas from Harford's poem titled Periodicity. 00:11:25.419 --> 00:11:28.039 A poem written decades earlier, mind you, which 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:30.179 explicitly details the physical and emotional 00:11:30.179 --> 00:11:32.720 experience of a woman's menstrual cycle. Think 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:34.879 about the context of that for a second. It is 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:37.740 1980. This is a folk album released on a major 00:11:37.740 --> 00:11:41.159 label imprint, Epic Records. And right alongside 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:43.740 tracks taking on the government and the economy, 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:46.840 you have a deeply intimate song about menstruation. 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:49.159 It's quite striking. It's like you're reading 00:11:49.159 --> 00:11:52.120 a fiery political manifesto and right in the 00:11:52.120 --> 00:11:55.320 middle, someone has slipped in a hidden, profoundly 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:58.799 personal journal entry. It is a radical inclusion 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:01.980 for 1980, especially within a very male dominated 00:12:01.980 --> 00:12:04.590 music industry. And if we connect this to the 00:12:04.590 --> 00:12:06.769 bigger picture, it tells us a lot about their 00:12:06.769 --> 00:12:09.600 artistic sensibilities. How so? Well, Lesbia 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:12.299 Harford was an Australian poet and social activist 00:12:12.299 --> 00:12:15.100 in the early 20th century. Her poetry was often 00:12:15.100 --> 00:12:17.879 very brief, very rhythmic, and almost hymn -like. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.139 Okay. Taking a spoken word poem from the 1920s 00:12:21.139 --> 00:12:23.919 and turning it into a 1980 folk song requires 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.620 a delicate structural shift. I imagine. You can't 00:12:26.620 --> 00:12:28.600 just read the poem over a guitar chord and call 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:31.000 it a day. Exactly. You have to map the written 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:34.000 meter onto a musical time signature. The band 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.559 likely relied heavily on Verity Truman's vocal 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:39.460 phrasing to give the written words a new musical 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:42.659 breath by using traditional folk instrumentation 00:12:42.659 --> 00:12:45.220 underneath it, perhaps giving the arrangement 00:12:45.220 --> 00:12:48.200 more space and less of that aggressive pub rock 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:51.200 driving rhythm. They allowed the intimacy of 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:54.240 Harford's words to take center stage. It perfectly 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:56.500 aligns with the band's overarching philosophy, 00:12:56.759 --> 00:13:00.019 doesn't it? Giving a platform to marginalized 00:13:00.019 --> 00:13:02.720 or unspoken issues. It really does. I mean, the 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:05.879 menstrual cycle was heavily stigmatized and largely 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:08.759 absent from popular media in the 1980s. Oh, absolutely. 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:10.980 It wasn't talked about. Despite being a fundamental 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:14.019 reality for half the population. So by taking 00:13:14.019 --> 00:13:16.759 Harford's poetry and giving it the exact same 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:19.659 musical weight, platform and production, value 00:13:19.659 --> 00:13:22.320 as a song about national economics, they are 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:24.220 making a massive statement. They are asserting 00:13:24.220 --> 00:13:26.580 that the personal is entirely political. Yes. 00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:28.840 You cannot sing about the liberation of the working 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:31.340 class without also addressing the lived realities 00:13:31.340 --> 00:13:33.700 and bodily experiences of the women within that 00:13:33.700 --> 00:13:35.960 class. So interconnected. It demonstrates that 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:38.299 Red Gum wasn't just interested in churning out 00:13:38.299 --> 00:13:41.870 safe crowd pleasing pub anthems to sell records, 00:13:42.490 --> 00:13:45.470 they were actively pushing boundaries, forcing 00:13:45.470 --> 00:13:47.970 their audience to confront realities from multiple, 00:13:48.330 --> 00:13:51.110 often uncomfortable perspectives. And what's 00:13:51.110 --> 00:13:52.889 wild is that the audience went along with it. 00:13:52.990 --> 00:13:55.529 They did. As we mentioned at the start, this 00:13:55.529 --> 00:13:58.769 grueling boundary pushing weekend project was 00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:00.669 the turning point that allowed them to quit those 00:14:00.669 --> 00:14:03.950 day jobs. The album gained real traction. It 00:14:03.950 --> 00:14:06.700 charted. Yeah, Virgin Ground hit number 53 on 00:14:06.700 --> 00:14:09.539 the Australian Kent Music Report in 1980 and 00:14:09.539 --> 00:14:12.600 1981. And just for context, before the ARIA charts 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:14.860 became the standard in Australia later in the 00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:17.940 decade, the Kent Music Report was the official 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:20.720 definitive weekly record of what the entire country 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:22.980 was buying and listening to. It was the gold 00:14:22.980 --> 00:14:26.080 standard. Exactly. So hitting number 53 on a 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:28.740 national chart for a politically charged independent 00:14:28.740 --> 00:14:31.360 folk record. One that talks about menstruation 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:33.799 in 19th century colonies is a massive achievement. 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:35.559 They really made their mark. They got the careers 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:38.440 they wanted. But this brings us to what might 00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:40.860 be the most baffling part of this entire deep 00:14:40.860 --> 00:14:43.720 dive. Yeah, this part is always surprising. Because 00:14:43.720 --> 00:14:46.179 if you go looking for this album today, you're 00:14:46.179 --> 00:14:48.000 going to have a very hard time finding it. The 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:50.379 physical legacy of Virgin Ground is surprisingly 00:14:50.379 --> 00:14:53.000 fragile. So what does this all mean? Look at 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.080 the trajectory. The album is originally released 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:59.940 on vinyl and cassette in 1980. Right. Then, as 00:14:59.940 --> 00:15:03.019 technology shifts, it gets a very brief two -year 00:15:03.019 --> 00:15:07.320 run on CD between 1990 and 1992. A tiny window. 00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:10.779 Right. And since 1992, the album has been completely 00:15:10.779 --> 00:15:13.860 100 % out of print. Just gone. The only exception 00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:15.980 is a handful of isolated tracks that made it 00:15:15.980 --> 00:15:18.179 onto a 2004 compilation album called Against 00:15:18.179 --> 00:15:20.480 the Grain. I mean, I have an utter disbelief. 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:22.549 It is hard to wrap your head around. You're telling 00:15:22.549 --> 00:15:24.929 me the album that literally launched their full 00:15:24.929 --> 00:15:28.250 -time careers, this bold statement about 1980s 00:15:28.250 --> 00:15:30.470 Australian society, is now essentially a lost 00:15:30.470 --> 00:15:33.289 artifact. It presents a profound irony, really. 00:15:33.429 --> 00:15:36.470 Here you have a piece of media that tackled permanent, 00:15:36.710 --> 00:15:39.269 heavy, enduring human issues. Things we still 00:15:39.269 --> 00:15:42.230 deal with. Exactly. The desire for utopian fresh 00:15:42.230 --> 00:15:45.210 starts, the grind of economic survival, the intimately 00:15:45.210 --> 00:15:47.909 personal realities of bodily autonomy. Yeah. 00:15:48.110 --> 00:15:50.330 These are themes that resonate just as strongly 00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:54.870 today as they did in 1893 or 1980. Yet the physical 00:15:54.870 --> 00:15:57.230 object created to carry those permanent messages 00:15:57.230 --> 00:16:00.110 proved to be incredibly temporary. A brief window 00:16:00.110 --> 00:16:03.289 on vinyl, a brief window on cassette, a blink 00:16:03.289 --> 00:16:06.049 and you miss it run on early CDs, and then just 00:16:06.049 --> 00:16:09.629 silence. Oof. It is a stark reminder of how vulnerable 00:16:09.629 --> 00:16:12.789 physical media was before the digital streaming 00:16:12.789 --> 00:16:16.669 age came along to archive everything. An entire 00:16:16.669 --> 00:16:19.980 era of a band's artistic evolution. the literal 00:16:19.980 --> 00:16:22.519 bridge between their day jobs and their stardom 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:24.759 can just vanish from commercial shelves. And 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:27.139 unless you happen to stumble across a dusty, 00:16:27.500 --> 00:16:30.659 well -loved vinyl copy in some secondhand record 00:16:30.659 --> 00:16:32.740 store in Adelaide... Good luck with that. Right, 00:16:32.740 --> 00:16:35.700 or you track down that one 2004 compilation CD, 00:16:35.820 --> 00:16:37.940 the full experience of Virgin Ground -like, the 00:16:37.940 --> 00:16:40.299 way the band specifically sequenced it to be 00:16:40.299 --> 00:16:42.840 heard from start to finish, is just locked away 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:45.220 in the past. It really makes you appreciate the 00:16:45.220 --> 00:16:47.019 frantic dedication it took to make it in the 00:16:47.019 --> 00:16:49.360 first place, knowing how... fleeting its physical 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:52.019 existence would be. Let's just wrap our heads 00:16:52.019 --> 00:16:54.179 around the incredible journey of this album. 00:16:54.379 --> 00:16:57.039 You start with these exhausted weekend warriors 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:00.000 flying back and forth across the country, playing 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:03.220 live pub gigs just to generate the cash to keep 00:17:03.220 --> 00:17:05.299 the studio tape rolling before Monday morning 00:17:05.299 --> 00:17:07.980 hits. They channel all of that exhaustion and 00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:11.400 urgency into a 32 -minute record that chronicles 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:14.900 everything from a failed 19th century Australian 00:17:14.900 --> 00:17:18.599 utopia in the jungles of Paraguay to the grim 00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:21.599 economic realities of their own era. And they 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:23.339 managed to cut through the noise of the loud 00:17:23.339 --> 00:17:26.119 mailed on dominated pub rock scene by playing 00:17:26.119 --> 00:17:29.359 folk music with punk -like aggression. Yes. They 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:31.279 push the absolute boundaries of their genre, 00:17:31.660 --> 00:17:34.339 throwing in an avant -garde adaptation of a 1920s 00:17:34.339 --> 00:17:36.799 poem about menstruation, right alongside critiques 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:38.480 of middle class happening. They worked. They 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:40.200 break through. They chart nationally. They get 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:42.920 the full -time career they dreamed of. And then 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:45.299 the artifact itself just fades into obscurity, 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:47.640 becoming a rare out -of -print treasure. It is 00:17:47.640 --> 00:17:49.960 the ultimate paradox of success. It really is. 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.660 The album functioned perfectly as a launching 00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:55.269 pad. It achieved its goal of getting them to 00:17:55.269 --> 00:17:57.589 their own Virgin Ground in the music industry, 00:17:58.190 --> 00:18:00.210 but the physical record itself was ultimately 00:18:00.210 --> 00:18:02.809 left behind. It really leaves you wondering about 00:18:02.809 --> 00:18:06.029 the life cycle of art and how we assign value 00:18:06.029 --> 00:18:08.769 to it. So I want to leave you with a final thought 00:18:08.769 --> 00:18:12.470 to mull over today. OK. When a culturally significant, 00:18:12.849 --> 00:18:15.230 boundary pushing piece of art like Virgin Ground 00:18:15.230 --> 00:18:18.450 goes entirely out of print and becomes this rare, 00:18:18.809 --> 00:18:22.720 hard to find artifact. Does that scarcity actually 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:25.619 make its message more valuable and profound to 00:18:25.619 --> 00:18:28.019 the few people who managed to hunt it down and 00:18:28.019 --> 00:18:30.460 hear it? That's a great question. Or does the 00:18:30.460 --> 00:18:33.079 lack of accessibility simply silence the very 00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:35.740 history the band worked so grueling a weekend 00:18:35.740 --> 00:18:39.180 to preserve? It is a complicated question because, 00:18:39.319 --> 00:18:41.400 you know, the value of art often changes when 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:44.000 you have to actively work to uncover it. Rather 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:45.559 than just having it handed to you on an algorithm. 00:18:45.740 --> 00:18:47.180 Exactly. It changes the relationship you have 00:18:47.180 --> 00:18:49.619 with the music. It becomes a rewarding treasure 00:18:49.619 --> 00:18:52.930 hunt. for anyone willing to dig through the crates. 00:18:53.450 --> 00:18:55.150 Well, next time you're clocking out on a Friday, 00:18:55.430 --> 00:18:57.150 just be glad you don't have to catch a flight 00:18:57.150 --> 00:18:59.910 to Melbourne to fund a studio session. Seriously? 00:19:00.130 --> 00:19:02.430 Keep digging, keep listening, and we'll catch 00:19:02.430 --> 00:19:03.130 you on the next one.