“Advance” is Nicholas Allbrook’s response to Australia’s national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, which Allbrook described as “kind of ignorant and isolationist”:
So few people in Australia even believe in our own national anthem, and that’s why I feel comfortable talking about it, or talking about...
The butcher, the barber, the undertaker
Our land is girt by sea
The looker, the quaker, the cocktail shaker
Something young and free
And for the miner, refiner, the web designer
Dance on golden soil
For the blessed the beach
The pattern they preach
Wealth and something toil
Advance, advance, advance
The doctor, the nun, the bigger the gun
All in history's page
The tidal waves have turned for the boats on the run
And for the average wage
You hear the planes not the birds
The tune or the words
You said I said I don't care
I'll sing for you, I'll dance it too
Advance, advance, advance
The sailor, the whaler, the Norman Mailer[?]
Don't belong in town
Your mother, you failed her, you tail regale her
Let the bastards drown
Only the President, the Queen, burn the greens
Burn them till they're brown
A lightning bolt, a pillar of salt
Sinks without a sound
Advance, advance, advance
Advance, I'll dance, advance
Advance, I'll dance, advance
Advance, advance, advance
Advance was written by Nicholas Allbrook.
Nicholas Allbrook released Advance on Fri Mar 11 2016.