Album: The Final Wave (1986)

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Songfacts®:

• Lead singer James Reyne is not from Sydney, but on face value, this song is an obvious reference to the morning ferry commute from the northern seaside suburb of Manly across the harbor (Oz "harbour") south to Circular Quay, where watercraft of all shapes and sizes dock. It's adjacent to the city center and business areas.
  
  The subtext of this song deals with Robert Falcon Scott, known as "Scott of the Antarctic," and his tragic expedition, actually reaching the South Pole only to discover that Roald Amundsen had just beaten him and then dying on the return. In a similar vein, Irish/English explorers Burke and Wills were the first to cross Australia from south to north only to starve, too weak to move, a few miles from salvation. They were actually camped by a tree that had buried provisions, but misunderstood the markings on the base camp tree.
  
  Thus, the underlying meaning of this song could be:
  
  He has spent an unspecified time alone ( "So long she's been away...") and is now waiting to meet his girlfriend who is arriving on the Manly ferry. The references to Scott/Antarctic, Burke & Wills, and a Russian sub beneath the Arctic are telling us how alone he felt, presumably during previous nights; dramatizing the feeling of utter isolation. While waiting, he is also warning himself, soliloquizing, not to be reckless or unnecessarily boisterous in front of her when she arrives, because she hates that behavior and may leave him again.
  
  The line, "Throw down your guns" means don't show traits such as recklessness, aggressiveness, or extreme independence popularly associated with cowboys. For many a jilted lover, the song contains a hint of cosmic irony. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Michael - Fullerton, CA

Comments: 7

• Dan from Australiaexactly Xennex.. thats y he's sweaty an pastey looking in the filmclip.. looks dazed n sleepy at times too..
• XennexIt's about heroin. James Rayne mentioned this in an interview (sorry, can't find the source, might have been a magazine). The 'early morning wrestle' refers to addiction. The trip on the ferry is to get a fix in the city.
• Allan from AhistoI think he’s been ‘reckless’ causing her to leave. The difficulty he has in getting her back and making up, is illustrated by Scott of The Antarctic, The Russians in the Sub and Bourke and Wills. None survived.
  Brilliant lyrics!! A sad love song.
• AnonymousWhat a load of crap. If you were a woman, it goes like this.. a guy always has a horn in the morning, and she gets pressured for sex before she’s even half awake... ( miss that morning rumble) she’s sick of his persistance( she don’t like that kind of behaviour).. (sad way to start the day, )hey boys??..and it’s like those explorer dudes, so close, but cut before real joy of ( discovery). Frigid, or just over the morning horn??
  James Reyne wrote right about frustration
• Rick from Brisbane, AustraliaThere was a parody song on the east of eden storyline due to david reyne playing the lead role of the husband who kicks his wife into crocodile infested waters. The main line was "She don't like, that kind of a gator" i think it was played on hey hey it's saturday, but yes everytime the song comes on I keep singing the parody.
• Grant from Port Pirie, AustraliaInteresting ancedote, was listening to Triple J on the way home from work one day (Merrick & Rosso I think), and they played a small part from an Australian Crawl song, and asked if anyone knew what Reyne was saying as some of his words were very hard to interpert, and a caller rang them and said I know what he is saying, and they asked how he knew and the caller replied 'because I'm James Reyne'! .........................very funny.
• Angela from Melbourne, AustraliaThis is killing me...... I have images of crocodiles mauling someone when I hear this song, was this song ever played through any of the series of east of eden or return to eden???

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