Talk In Circles - Forgotten Years

On hearing Forgotten Years I am always finding myself thinking about the Second World War. I think this could be due to the mention of the Oils visit to the Somme for the making of the video for this single, but there is something about the lyrics, and even the title. "These should not be forgotten years" makes me think "the war happened, many died, but the last thing we should do is forget it, as we could let it happen all over again."

Forgotten Years is apparently about the First World War (and not the Second). The battle of the Somme was one of the toughest ones on the French Frontline, and the video refers constantly to the fightings in France during this period.
What is strange is that the most traumatising part of this war, for the Australian people, was the Middle East Front and the battle of Gallipoli (which the song "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" - which the Oils seem to have played - refers to). Some Australian volunteers fought - quite well - and died in France anyway.

I'm from Austria, and we were really involved in the cruel things that happened in the time of the Second World War! Many people in Austria begin to forget these things! So that Song expressed my feelings about this better than I could say in any language!

No, the song is about the change in society which was supposed to happen with the end of the Cold War. The CD jacket lists dozens of battlefields of the 20th Century, including some in Korea.

A very optimistic song, but the early '90s were years of optimism.

Keith

I feel it's about war in general. "Our sons need never be soldiers, our daughters will never need guns" to me means it's a time when warfare itself is on the preverbial "block". The war of wars has happened and lets now think before we start a conflict. That nothing really matters - life has to go on.

Andrew Pepper