Dr. Livingston
Neil Finn
Steam ship, sail down the river
Fight the mosquitoes that lie in the swamp
White smoke covers the jungle
See Dr Livingston land with a thump
Down where the sad willows gather
Young women weep for their dying babies
I am a white man in Africa
If I were to stay here
There’d be no one to save me
I hear the drums
I know it’s urgent
I hear survival in his hands
Switch to record
I get the picture
But I will never understand
Mad world, invisible army
Blow up the bridges and come like a storm
Young girl, eyes full of promise
Carry the baby and keeping it warm
Down where the sad willows gather
Young men go down on their knees
I am a white man in Africa
With more than just my God to appease
I hear the drums
I know it’s urgent
I hear survival in his hands
Switch to record
I get the picture
But I will never understand
How there is love in his face
In the midst of all this waste
In the Mozambique sun
Under the gun
I hear the drums
I hear survival in his hands
I hear the drums
There is a curse upon this land
Hear the drums, know it’s urgent
Hear survival in his hands
Hit record, get the picture
I will never understand
Child of the sound and the fury
Left all alone in a war zone
Child of the sound and the fury
Hours later the thought of my bed
Makes me tired and ready for sleep
So tell me about all the places you go
All the lives that you swallow
The people you keep
Deep in a monastery
That's where I want to be
Wrestle my soul
Song appears on:
Crowded House - Afterglow (compilation, 1999)
“Dr Livingston was a song that I wrote after I got back from Mozambique. I went there at the invitation of an aid agency to visit a couple of their refugee camps and came back and did some PR, some publicity for this group. It was a very obviously affecting experience being in Africa, especially in a really ravaged part of Africa, Mozambique at the time, which was in the middle of a civil war. I wrote this song as a result.
It’s a series of images of what I’d seen. I was always really fond of the song and the rhythm track in particular. In the end, I think it didn’t make the record because I wasn’t sure I should be singing songs about those kind of issues. I’ve always tended to keep messages or social commentary out of my songs and prefer the more personal statement. But it’s well deserving of a place on Afterglow. The one reservation I have about it now, in the passage of time, is that I actually think I sang too much on it. There’s a hell of a lot of singing on this song.”
Previously available on singles:
