Wedding Cake Island puts on a wild, howling, gigantic surf show every now and then. Usually in autumn as a southern swell hits and westerly winds howl around the magical Isle off Coogee. There are plenty of legends born in the surf and the sounds of the famous island.
In Greek mythology in Homer’s Odyssey, Sirens were beautiful women who sang so sweetly that sailors passing by their island could not resist their call and were smashed on the rocks or hacked to death by the sometimes-not-so-beautiful Sirens.
Odysseus was warned about them by the witch, Circe, and knew he had to find a way to avoid being seduced by the sweet sounds. Odysseus came up with a clever plan; he had his sailors tie him to the mast of the ship and then plug their ears with beeswax so they would not be tempted to listen to the Sirens’ song. Odysseus was able to hear the Sirens’ singing, but because he was tied to the mast, he could not give in to their call
Mythologically… musically… it’s possible to imagine a cursing, raving Peter Garrett strapped to the mast of his ship passing by Wedding Cake Island taunted yet lured by the melodious but dangerous songs of Jim Moginie’s beautiful synthesiser-created Sirens. Because that is just what Moginie was imagining when he was recording the magical synth melodies – those Sirens from Greek mythology.
Tied firmly to the mast Garrett is raving incomprehensively, but only his fellow Oils men on the crew can hear him. As they finally pass the enchanted island, the storm and howling songs fade and the gentle sounds of the waves breaking on the white-topped reef are all that’s left for the brave members of the crew and their leader to remember.
There’s some truth in this Garrett-tied-to-mast rave too.
Some smart-arse critics say they especially like Midnight Oil’s Wedding Cake Island because, they declare, “Peter Garrett isn’t on it’’. Ha ha!
But hold your funny bone, he is on it! At about the two mins 20 mark there he is — Garrett unmistakeably, ...
