‘It Still Matters’, the third track from Peter Garrett’s forthcoming debut solo album, is available now as an instant grat on pre-order of ‘A Version of Now’ (released this Friday July 15).
The track reminds us of Peter’s stature as a seminal songwriter, as he delivers his inspirational lyrics with an emotive spoken word style, whilst the potency of the musicians joining Garrett on ‘A Version of Now’ is in full swing here.
“’It Still Matters’ was the last song written for the album. It was the bookend I needed to sum up the music we’d already made and to make clear how I felt about the state of play in my world and beyond.”
Peter and his touring band The Alter Egos will share his debut solo album with fans in intimate venues throughout July and August 2016.
Shows in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne have sold out, fans in other cities are advised to get in now to avoid disappointment.
Click here for venue and ticketing information.
Notable Australian musicians spanning several generations will join Peter on his first ever solo tour, some of whom also performed on the album. Martin Rotsey from the Oils on guitar, Mark Wilson from Jet on bass and Peter Luscombe (RocKwiz, Paul Kelly, Black Sorrows) on drums. Rosa Morgan (Red Ghost) will also join on keyboards whilst WA’s Abbe May will complete the live band line-up on guitar.
With ‘Tall Trees’ and ‘Great White Shark’ already rolling around on radio airwaves, the lyrics for ‘It Still Matters’ are shared for the first time here, listen to it here.
It Still Matters (Garrett)
Watching the parade on the news last night
I was one that walked that road before
When everything feels like its crumbling
Like the writing’s on the wall
But dreams are broken, mended and they scatter
Like seeds they fall and then the fruit is gathered
It always was and always will, be a struggle to fulfil
Stay strong and heed the call
It still matters to me
I hope it matters to you
First principles: concrete action reconciliation no more talking fix the system stop keep it strong and give it purpose stop complaining look at nurses, there’s no material privation in the fine open cut nation, blinded by the infant me whose appetite is never filled, whose appetite is never filled till every living thing is killed, whilst the selfish few still fight for more in a planet smashing selfish war.
We all take an escalator to that Woolies in the sky
To reprise Dante’s inferno no longer in disguise
Across a windswept open plain some still go against the grain, against the waste the opulence, subtle, sneaking, creeping up on ya, breaking bread on the riverbank, washing nappies at the water tank, happy clappy days are numbered, tumblr grindr drag you under, mixed emotions cost us dearly, years of self-absorption really, electric cars and white gazebos, gadgets that can’t save our world where one side has an excavator the other has a wooden spoon, self-centred slick celebrities are crowding out the room, it is obvious inglorious self-evident laborious, so tame this monster once and for all, name it shame it rearrange it, so the dream becomes the real and we can feel and we can see
Now in this moment we oppose it, we’ll deplore it, we’ll repose it, reimagine recompose, make it happen now make it close
Because this is dignity, there is hope, there is light at the end of the road, and it still matters to me I hope it matters to you
A documentary about the album’s creation will screen on MAX tomorrow, Tuesday July 12 at 9.30pm.