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The Church — Under The Milky Way
Album: Starfish
Avg rating:
7.9

Your rating:
Total ratings: 5703









Released: 1988
Length: 4:49
Plays (last 30 days): 3
Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty
Sound of their breath fades with the light
I think about the loveless fascination
Under the Milky Way tonight

Lower the curtain down in Memphis
Lower the curtain down, all right
I got no time for private consultation
Under the Milky Way tonight

Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find

And it's something quite peculiar
Something shimmering and white
It leads you here despite your destination
Under the Milky Way tonight

Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find
Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find

And it's something quite peculiar
Something that's shimmering and white
Leads you here despite your destination
Under the Milky Way tonight

Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find
Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find

Under the Milky Way tonight
Under the Milky Way tonight
Under the Milky Way tonight
Comments (602)add comment
The original lyric was Under a Snickers Bar until one of their girlfriends suggested Milky Way because it's better for people with nut allergies. True story.
 Paul_in_TO wrote:

Always forget there’s that bagpipe solo and how perfect it is. 



Ahhhh... thank you for reminding me to listen for it! :)
This track is about Elvis... I think it's beautiful. Gina Williams from Perth sang this in Melbourne in her own language , 'Noongar'. She is from West Australia. It is so worth the effort to find her on YT and hear and see her sing her stories! 
 danfl75 wrote:
 
 Under the Milky Way  must mean a lot more in the Southern hemisphere.  That and the clouds of Magellan would be the main reason I would ever spend so much Co2 to travel that far. Just to look up at night and be awed. Are natives who return home ever surprised by that beauty? Lovely song and great band/album. Love RP and all it's mixes!



Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty...I think about the loveless fascination...Under the Milky Way Tonight...
danfl75, I often wish I was a native of Oz, but in my three lengthy times in that distant, wonderful, otherworldly land, looking up at the night sky never failed to take my breath away.  There is no North Star, no Big or Little Dipper, no obvious marker for the center of rotation... Looking out the long way through The Milky Way, rather than through the edge of it into intergalactic space, as we are here in the Northern Hemisphere, makes the sky seem more like a stunning, thick, masterfully-crafted Persian carpet than a black screen with white specks on it... There's nothing we grew up looking at for reference... Down there, it's more like looking at an array of infinite tangles of neural synapses or unwinding strands of DNA... As you look along the filaments and tendrils, there are flecks and nuances of every color, and every shade, every degree of contrast is there for you to contemplate as you elevate and enjoy your VeeBee or Cascade... All of Scorpio is visible.  I loved tripping out looking at Antares, the "heart" of the scorpion, and Zubenelgenubi and Zubenelshamali, the stars marking its southern and northern "claws;" they are indeed bright enough to navigate by. I can never forget my first nights in Port Douglas, or even better, up at Cape Trib, and past the Daintree, where you're far from any real kind of light pollution. Blew me away. I get a crick in my neck and feel dizzy just remembering the endless hours spent in rapture... GO, and see it!  The view of the night sky from the observatory atop Mauna Kea will also knock your eyes out, since it's so high, and 6000 miles from any light pollution, but there's nothing like the sky Down Under! and nothing like this magical, soul-soothing song! Immortal, and worthy of worship!
Always forget there’s that bagpipe solo and how perfect it is. 
Love this song! 'Wish I knew what you were looking for' always leaves me thinking of those I hold dearest in my life and feeling sorry for having missed something essential.
Please play something from Seance. So many good songs. 
That's one bitchin' bagpipe solo, right there!
 Proclivities wrote:

That's a synthesized guitar, not bagpipes; I'm not sure if that alleviates it for you.



I know a piper who gets really annoyed at this bit
In China, the Milky Way is known as the "Silver River" (銀河 "Yínhé").

 
every time this one comes up, i try to match the faces on the album cover to those under the bio section to the left and i still can't figure out which belongs to which. each time i think i get it, and then i see something else that changes my mind. 
 ick wrote:


No, not a synth, it was done on a Fender Jazzmaster guitar with a device called an Ebow that allows a note to sustain as long as the player wants it to.  They now have that tech built into the pickup of some guitars available now.


Thank you for that - It is amazing how much one can learn in here.  For me, who is very ignorant of the theory of music, appreciation is something very subjective and volatile, depending on my mood at the time. I often wish I had better appreciation of the theory of music and the various instrumentations etc. which I suspect would provide a more technical basis for understanding what I am hearing.
 Alastair wrote:


Nope.  Doesn't need it, especially when I think it is synth, not actual bagpipes.


No, not a synth, it was done on a Fender Jazzmaster guitar with a device called an Ebow that allows a note to sustain as long as the player wants it to.  They now have that tech built into the pickup of some guitars available now.
1988... wow
 GoldenWest wrote:

I saw these guys in a tiny bar at the Grosvenor Hotel in Perth about 20 years ago, awesome night with the girl who is now my wife.




is it safe to assume that you have rated this  at 10?
As old as this great tune is it always hits me in my soul in a way that invokes images and memories of my younger years but it also still has a fresh feeling of my present state. After all , our entire lives are made up of a series moments that carve out our destiny through time. Some of them then and ones we live in now. Personally, this song has a certain spooky vibe that gives a perspective of my entire life as just one single moment that feels a bit sad from missing my youth, but also a pleasant feeling from having accomplished many goals along the way and having a life of giving love and being loved. Uh oh, I've got goosebumps. Better get back my feet back on the ground. 
Whenever I hear this song I stop everything I'm doing and crank it up.
Holds up very well after 35 years.
  Classic, epic tune!
                        Never gets old.  
thanks
never heard of "The Church"
(sheltered child...)
liking very much
Just read that this is from 1988. I bumped it up a notch... 
If there is a song my wife and I would agree is "our song," this is certainly it. #longtimechurchie
 timmus wrote:

wtf is a "loveless fascination"?


Feeling no love, but feeling an intense interest in something. No emotion.
 ZephyrListener wrote:

Again?  Why do you have to play this crappy song so much?



Curious.  What is not crappy for you?
Again?  Why do you have to play this crappy song so much?
wtf is a "loveless fascination"?
One of my old favorites! Happy to see it gets a solid 8 rating. But let's see if I can push that up a bit.. 
Lovely song...  Makes me recall how stunning it was to look up from Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas and gaze into the center of our amazing galaxy -- here in the Northern Hemisphere we are looking out away from it -- and see the Magellanic Clouds, the Southern Cross (very small and easily missed; the great navigational skills of the ancient seafarers should rightly be admired), and lots of intensely bright and colorful stars... I'm also lucky and blessed enough to have seen the cosmos from atop Mauna Kea, too, and that helped put things in proper perspective for contemplation, for sure.
A reason to go to Church...
 SpencerAR wrote:

Am I the only one who wishes the bagpipe (?) solo wasn't there?



Nope.  Doesn't need it, especially when I think it is synth, not actual bagpipes.
Bagpipe lifts it. So.
Am I the only one who wishes the bagpipe (?) solo wasn't there?
Such a wonderful song. Such wonderful memories… Music was absolutely magical, 6 years into my recovery, living the dream of sobriety.
I remember hearing this on the "classic rock" station in 1980s, and thinking how it sounded so much unlike anything of the era.  The actual rock music that was played back then was Van Halen/Fogerty/Hooters type stuff.  I think "Under The Milky Way" might have pioneered some of the mellow 1990s sounds like the Smithereens, and which eventually became the mature 2000s/2010s pub/eclectic/indy styles that we hear a lot of on RP.
This is an era of music I pretty much missed out on back in the 80s.

Thanks to RP that's no longer true .   
Such a great vibe. 
Living alone in a small Mishima, Japan apartment I had to buy a CD player just to listen to this CD in '88, a red one it was, what a great band and they have a new album coming out! Different line-up yet the vibe is still supreme!
 rseiter wrote:
It appeared on the MTV compilation: Never Mind the Mainstream: The Best of MTV's 120 Minutes, Vol. 1


I wore that CD out! So good!
I'm an Aussie, a star-gazer (reformed astrophysics graduate), and this is everything I love.
 Matt_Maurer wrote:

Greatest Aussie Group Ever 10/10. But handling their success together 2/10 sadly boys. You could have taken yourselves to world wide #1 but your egos killed your vibe ... so sad, to bad - unless of course you reform now ~ pretty please ?? I’m happy to be your manager ?? Come on Gang of RP listeners, subscribers, et al. Get this message to the Church and make this happen?!?!


Wish granted! - they're back together and touring (at least)

https://www.thechurchband.net/
Every time this comes on, I have to stop, turn it up and just listen. 
I give up! <grin> 
9>10
I can't listen to this track without thinking of my younger brother. It was one of the last tracks he told me to listen to before he tragically took his own life in November of 2018. It's a lovely song and the lyrics seem very significant. Thanks for playing it. I love listening to radio paradise. Thanks again.  X
   
 Matt_Maurer wrote:
Greatest Aussie Group Ever 10/10. But handling their success together 2/10 sadly boys. You could have taken yourselves to world wide #1 but your egos killed your vibe ... so sad, to bad - unless of course you reform now ~ pretty please ?? I’m happy to be your manager ?? Come on Gang of RP listeners, subscribers, et al. Get this message to the Church and make this happen?!?!
 
Greatest Aussie group? Hands down-- Little River Band

But I do like this song.
 Proclivities wrote:

That's a synthesized guitar, not bagpipes; I'm not sure if that alleviates it for you.
 

I would have thought bagpipes as well.  Very strange sound.
Hey bill- did you ever hear “street pajama”? Great sounds from early 80s.
Immediately makes me remember the pivotal sequence in Donnie Darko. A beautiful song!
 VH1 wrote:
A fine song.

1988? Geez, those were the days...and great days they were!{#Drunk}{#Cheers}{#Hug} 
 
So very great! I remember the first time I heard this song. At an art school friend's birthday party, in his parent's two car garage, in 1988 and seeing a girl I'd never seen before, looking at me, and thinking, oh boy...
I saw these guys in a tiny bar at the Grosvenor Hotel in Perth about 20 years ago, awesome night with the girl who is now my wife.
Starfish is one of my fave albums of all time
Greatest Aussie Group Ever 10/10. But handling their success together 2/10 sadly boys. You could have taken yourselves to world wide #1 but your egos killed your vibe ... so sad, to bad - unless of course you reform now ~ pretty please ?? I’m happy to be your manager ?? Come on Gang of RP listeners, subscribers, et al. Get this message to the Church and make this happen?!?!
Donnie  D{#Dancingbanana}rko


Love this song!
 robco1 wrote:

Pretty frackin' brilliant; a couple of fillers, but even they are tight and enjoyable. IMHO, of course.

 
Took me a decade, but I finally ordered the CD.
Favorite band ever. This is the song my wife and I consider "our song." It came on in a moment of serendipity on our first date. Long live The Church and RP!
Love that song!  Just melds so well!  The pipes come in...wow... Watched a band, Seven Nations... not nations... anyhow in Houston on a St. Patrick's weekend visit.  Made me lift me kilt!
God Like!
What a great song...evokes such awesome memories 😊💪🏻
this is what i  would call a perfect pop song.  try not to like it .
 danfl75 wrote:
 Flac330 wrote:
Still such an evocative song for an Aussie living abroad.  Its a time machine for me.....  

Just discovered RP - thanks for such an awesome station!
 Under the Milky Way  must mean a lot more in the Southern hemisphere.  That and the clouds of Magellan would be the main reason I would ever spend so much Co2 to travel that far. Just to look up at night and be awed. Are natives who return home ever surprised by that beauty? Lovely song and great band/album. Love RP and all it's mixes!

 
Not much CO2 required as you can see the Milky Way from anywhere on earth if you can get out to the countryside and away from light pollution.
Dang I totally missed this great pop tune from the UK in 1988.
Billboard Number 1 hit in the US from March 1988?
Rick Astley, Never Going To Give You Up. 
Trigger Happy TV!
Mesmerizing and memorable.
This was a good counterpoint to GNR's "Appetite  for
Destruction" and Def Leppard during the long hot summer of 88...
Wonderful!
 Proclivities wrote:

That's a synthesized guitar, not bagpipes; I'm not sure if that alleviates it for you.
 

E-bow in fact.  A monophonic handheld electromagnetic string driver. Nothing to see up the kilt.

Brilliant Aussie band. Great lyrics, rhythm, beat & talent - excellent!!!
Yep. I still adore this.
Wanted to see them in The Hague, is a pitty that they had to cancel , greetings from Rotterdam
 Screature wrote:


 
I love bagpipes, every time.
 Proclivities wrote:

That's a synthesized guitar, not bagpipes.  I'm not sure if that alleviates it for you.
 

Your guitarist was so preoccupied with whether or not he could, he didn’t stop to think if he should. 

J/K I love this song, weird bagpipe-guitar solo and all.
 Screature wrote:
I think if it was real bagpipes and it sounded like that I would like the song even more! People who don't like the bagpipes have never head truly creative use of their unique sound. They are just used to the stereotypical use of them

 

 Proclivities wrote:

That's a synthesized guitar, not bagpipes.  I'm not sure if that alleviates it for you.
 

Love this song. Still takes me back!
 Flac330 wrote:
Still such an evocative song for an Aussie living abroad.  Its a time machine for me.....  

Just discovered RP - thanks for such an awesome station!
 Under the Milky Way  must mean a lot more in the Southern hemisphere.  That and the clouds of Magellan would be the main reason I would ever spend so much Co2 to travel that far. Just to look up at night and be awed. Are natives who return home ever surprised by that beauty? Lovely song and great band/album. Love RP and all it's mixes!

I learned this song from Grant Lee Phillips. Gotta say I prefer his cover. 
Such a great song from the 80's.  Saw their 30th Anniversary tour of this album. Great! 
I've changed 9 to 10. Couldn't help it... One of the first songs I heard here.
love love this. it just novel gets old!
 GeorgeMWoods wrote:
Reminds me of Al Stewart. That’s not a good thing. 

 
Wrong. Al Stewart is great!
Wailin' Jennys to this.  Lovely segue.
Beautiful song! Makes me appreciate life just hearing it.
 walter_sintenie wrote:
Memories....   80's :  The Church performing in Paradiso Amsterdam (former Church-building) Fantastic Performance
 
oh yes, memories of 80's, not really Paradiso but radio and cassettes and home gatherings :)
Memories....   80's :  The Church performing in Paradiso Amsterdam (former Church-building) Fantastic Performance
 Proclivities wrote:

That's a synthesized guitar, not bagpipes, but I'm not sure if that alleviates it for you.

 
Wow! That had not occurred to me. I had always been thinking how unusual it was to use bagpipes in a pop song...
I can imagine what a loveless fascination might reference, but "curtain down in Memphis"...?  What is this song about...Elvis?
{#Crashcomp}
Reminds me of Al Stewart. That’s not a good thing. 
All these years later. Buying all these originally on vinyl, when vinyl was it. Alexander Graham Bell defining out method all this time later. This song still works for me.
Just saw this band last Thursday at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Still sounding great, and of course they played this song.
 inbagt wrote:
I think it's great up until the bagpipe...solo.
 
That's a synthesized guitar, not bagpipes; I'm not sure if that alleviates it for you.
The Church
What a name for a band!   

 Cigarettes after Sex suits better to life

but this song is amazing!
 
10
I think it's great up until the bagpipe...solo.
having just missed this, I will now have to go and hear it :)
Wow... Got turned onto these guys maybe a year or two before this album, and when this came out it really sent me; still does, in fact...
 On_The_Beach wrote:

DoublePlusGood, comrade!  ; )

 
But that was "back" in 1984 ;-)


A fine song.

1988? Geez, those were the days...and great days they were!{#Drunk}{#Cheers}{#Hug} 
just pop. good old harmless pop. fairly clever. not at all bad.
 westslope wrote:

It is not only a great transition but I hear some similarities (ex: song structure) with Porcupine Tree's Trains.

Once again, a terrific catch by the DJ.   

 
Bill is magic like that
 jmsmy wrote:
Great transition Bill

 
It is not only a great transition but I hear some similarities (ex: song structure) with Porcupine Tree's Trains.

Once again, a terrific catch by the DJ.   
Love this tune. Easy one for the guitarist.
Great transition Bill
 bill-1956 wrote:
Donnie Darko has an excellent soundtrack.

 
Yeah
The two versions of the movie has slightly different music, but as I recall they are both great somehow.
Theatrical/original vs. Director's cut

The awesome music opening with:
"The Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen (original/theatrical version).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76IkuYLoJkE

or "Never Tear Us Apart " by INXS (director's cut version). 80's epic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyj6YAnaN_M

I love both songs {#Biggrin} and they both fit the movie.
But I think the movie itself was better in the original version, before the director felt he had to "explain" some things to the audience.
Not sure though. Gotta see them both again
I've loved this band since this CD was released. Saw The Church recently in Berkeley, and they were fantastic. 
Reminds me of 'The captain of her heart' by Double. 
 birdiestobehad wrote:
"SHUT THAT BLOODY BOUZOUKI OFF!".............................

 
"Oh, heaven forbid: I am one who delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean muse!"
"SHUT THAT BLOODY BOUZOUKI OFF!".............................
Donnie Darko has an excellent soundtrack.
 
OHMish wrote:
Sooo good.
Having seen the great movie Donnie Darko adds some extra magic to this song.

 

Sooo good.
Having seen the great movie Donnie Darko adds some extra magic to this song.
Oh yeah! This is the Radio Paradise I know! {#Bananajam}
great pic!
melzabutch wrote:
Edeowie Station Under the Milky Way       by  

   

 


 Sloggydog wrote:
Awesome tune.  If you're here enjoying the Church might I suggest another fine tune from the fair land of my birth - Twin Layers of Lightning by the Go Betweens.  You won't regret it.

Over 10 years living abroad and a track like this just brings the bogan flooding back. 

 
Sloggy Dog, they bring out the BOGAN in all of us.  Great band  and still so relevant as when it first came out.  Awesome live as well
 Giselle62 wrote:
this is a great song—-i wanna try singing it

 
just try....our city did at a winter solstice bonfire a few years back, hundreds of voices and a bonfire in the middle....so great!
Love it....his voice does something quite peculiar to me..... Ups! {#Kiss}
Great song from a great band. Memories indeed ...
Their earlier albums in the cutout bin (Seance, Remote Luxury) turned me on to The Church. Loved it when they got better production and took off.
I love The Church and while we are on the subject of Aussie bands Bill, how about some more Ed Kuepper?
Love this song. Brings back memories good and sad
 kcar wrote:

Wouldn't it have been easier to just play some bagpipes?

 
Perhaps not. You can't just through a stick and find a Highlander to play the pipes for you in Australia, especially since the ban went through.
.                                ....a timeless classic - never ages but has a nice patina  {#Hearteyes} {#Hearteyes} {#Hearteyes}
funny, i only know this by grant-lee... didn't even know it was a cover 'til i heard it here. i like GLP's better -it's prettier.  
Played this stunner during jam sets on my Friday RockShow at the CU FM station during the months running up till I left for Shizuoka...
 dingleberry wrote:

Once a bogan..... ?

 
Problem is it applies to other traits too and my bogan clashes with my hippy from time to time