Last Ditch Cabaret (cover)

The Single

Released In: [Australia / NZ].

Release Date: April 1997.

Australian Chart Position: #85 (ARIA) / [Did Not Enter] (AMR).

Single Availability: Moderately rare.

Value: A$5-A$24.

Mark Seymour’s first single as a solo artist. Single contains Until They Die (on King Without A Clue anyway), and live acoustic versions of The Ghost Of Vainglory, The Patriot Game and Last Ditch Cabaret.

Versions

Version	Length	Source	Availability
Studio [1]	4:51	Mark Seymour King Without A Clue album.	Moderately common. Available new in digital form.
Studio [2]	4:08	Mark Seymour Last Ditch Cabaret single.	Moderately rare. Not available new.
Live Acoustic	4:27	Mark Seymour Last Ditch Cabaret single.	Moderately rare. Not available new.
Live	6:03	Mark Seymour From Bondi to Bedlam video.	Moderately common. Available new in DVD and digital form.

Recommended Version.

Commentary

Mark wrote “Last Ditch Cabaret” about the people at Silvers Nightclub at the Toorak, Melbourne venue “Tok H”. Some time after it was referred to as being about Club Odean in Melbourne’s Crown Casino.

Mark made some interesting comments relating to this song at the Basement gig in Sydney (2001), that were (sadly?) left off the Basement DVD. They are as follows:

“Anyway we are going to leave you this little song. It’s a sad song like all of my material. This is all about a nightclub I once played in… that I have never returned to since. There was nothing wrong with the club I was just scared s***less. Completely out of my depth. And I was getting paid a pretty substantial amount of money. Which, you know, professionally I was struggling to cope with. Anyway this song was the result. And it was one of the very few times I played with my dear brother Nicholas who has since left the country. [Some guy yells ‘he hates you’]. Now I like that kind of talk – that’s intelligent, you know, it’s really provocative in a very personal way. It reminds me of living in Melbourne. I like to be connected with, I might even come back, you know what I’m saying.”

Lyrics

Chaos is creeping through your pretty pictures
Here in this land of savage dreams
You dare to walk alone through empty streets where
Nothing is ever what it seems

Somebody calls you but you dare not answer
Must be the voice of desperation
Here in these days of joy and instant karma
You hide your stash and keep your station

Just let me paint a rosey picture
Where doom and gloom is not allowed
We’ll go cheek to cheek
As we squeeze into the crowd
Your living death blew me away
In this last ditch cabaret

You heard the laughing shock was being rounded
To try their luck inside the yard
Blue-blooded sportsmen and your ultraviolet ladies
Know hoe to take their drinkin’ hard

Oh brother don’t you wish that you were like them
Their panic never seems to show
Tonight you’re with them in this sexy cabaret
Tonight there’s nowhere else to go

Just let me paint a rosey picture
Where doom and gloom is not allowed
We’ll go cheek to cheek
As we squeeze into the crowd
Your living death blew me away
In this last ditch cabaret

All the bad old days are gone
There’s no one home but the lights are on
I’ll be there before too long
Keep my head down right or wrong

Let me paint a rosey picture
Where doom and gloom is not allowed
We’ll go cheek to cheek
As we squeeze into the crowd
Your living death blew me away
In this last ditch cabaret