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A Deer! Caught! In The Headlights!

from A Decade Into Darkness by Shock Octopus

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about

This is the song that started the band really and that got me in front of the microphone – I would have felt very self-conscious asking someone else to sing something this mad.

The song was inspired by watching a documentary series ‘Tribe’ and watching episode after episode of ancient first peoples being appropriated, subjugated or wiped off by ‘progress’ and ‘civilisation’. It was a shocking dose of reality. The episode in Malaysia, where Indigenous people watched their rainforest home being cut down for palm plantations and saying to the camera ‘we’re dying’ haunts me forever. This is what the song is about but on reflection, I feel that the meaning is a little too lost in the metaphor and wilful obscurity.

Nevertheless, the nucleus of the new sound was all here. Eschewing verse, chorus and common sense for fractured, discombobulated mood swings and sudden scene changes. The song is largely a whirlwind inspired by Tom Waits’ ‘Bone Machine Music,’ Throwing Muses’ ‘In A Doghouse’ and, once again, early Hole.

I still remember walking along the river in Pinjarra when the song came together in my head. I still remember practising it over and over again until my hands could actually play the time signature in what would eventually pass as the ‘chorus’. I still remember feeling very sorry for Scott, our new drummer. For all effects and purposes this song should never have worked and yet somehow, this struck a nerve in our live shows and quickly become a signature song and a band favourite.

lyrics

Beyond the sprawl
Beyond the blight the neon lights
Beyond the sea
Under the trees

Our secret garden
We have to go a little further
That they’ll never find us here
Can you hear the chainsaws near

You and me
We need the dirt beneath our feet
Need the green within our reach
To think we’re another race

Darwin drawls
Your darling days are drawing near
Pull the hearse beyond the green
Disillusionment falls here

And when it’s gone
We’ll go up high
And when it’s gone
I hear your cry
And when you’re gone
A kiss goodbye divine

There is nowhere to run

Like a deer…caught…in the headlights a
Deer…caught…in the headlights a
DEER! CAUGHT! IN THE HEADLIGHTS A
DEER! CAUGHT! IN THE HEADLIGHTS!!

Boom time make me wanna holler
Boom time drawn me down to pallor
Boring new holes through my wood
Boom time make we wanna holler
Boom time drawn me down to pallor
Boring new hole through my wood
They’ve found all the holes to your womb

Losing, I’m losing it
Losing, I’m losing you
Losing, I’m losing it
Losing, I’m losing you

(Burn black for him baby
Big black, she burns for him
Burn black for him baby
Big black she burns for him)

Termite people make me holler
Termite people drawn to pallor
They ate all the holes in my wood
Termite people make me holler
Termite people drawn to pallor
They ate all the holes in my wood
Ate through my holes to your womb

Losing, I’m losing it…
(Burn black for him baby..)

My dear, caught in the headlights my
Dear, caught, in the headlights she
Plays, dead, in the floodlights we
Play dead in the floodlights

credits

from A Decade Into Darkness, released May 29, 2021
Music and Lyrics: Michael Bayliss

Scott Andrews: Drums
Michael Bayliss: Vocals, Keyboards
David Blair: Bass, Backing Vocals
David Sayers: Guitar

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Shock Octopus Perth, Australia

Contemplative, Existential, Art Rock.

A collective stream of consciousness and social commentary by Michael Bayliss, David Blair and Scott Andrews.

Ride the waves!

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