Redgum Brown Rice And Kerosene Lyrics

Julie did three years' trade school
I served my apprenticeship time
We made a modest living
But we were upstaged
'cause computers don't strike
Or need holidays
Our parents ate bread and dripping
Stole wood from the park to keep warm
We're eating by the heater
In threadbare jeans
Brown rice and kerosine

Life wasn't meant to be impossible
Spare us the indignity
Two cheers for progress
Reason denied
Whitewash and platitudes
Are all I can find

Our parents ate bread and dripping
Stole wood from the park to keep warm The cupboard's bare
All we can share
Brown rice and kerosine

Sometimes I think about cocktails
Update Molotov's recipe
Forget the gravel ballast
And stink of benzine
Use rice and kerosene
A major change of scene
Like 1917 - with people before machines.

I was noodling with ragtime chord progressions and this
tune fell out. My only experience of relative poverty
was living away from home with my girlfriend on a
student allowance, so details of that had to do. Verity
graciously consented to sing it. -MA