''The Big Don't Argue'' is the third studio album released by Australian rock band

Weddings Parties Anything Weddings Parties Anything. was an Australian folk rock band formed in 1984 in Melbourne and continuing until 1999. Their name came from The Clash song "Revolution Rock". Musicologist Billy Pinnell described their first album as the best Austral ...

. The album was produced by

Jim Dickinson James Luther Dickinson (November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009) was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Biography Dickinson was born in Li ...

, who had worked with

Big Star Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guitar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). They have been described as the "quintessential American ...

and

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

. "A Tale They Won't Believe" relates to a story from Australia’s colonial past, a macabre account of escaped

convicts A convict is "a person found Guilt (law), guilty of a crime and Sentence (law), sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a commo ...

making their way across

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, resorting to

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...

to survive the long trek in the bush. It was based on a passage in Robert Hughes' ''

The Fatal Shore ''The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding'' is a 1986 book by Robert Hughes. It provides a history of the early years of British colonisation of Australia, and especially the history and social effects of Britain's convict transpor ...

''.

Track listing

All songs written by Mick Thomas, except where notedAPRA database
at the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

website (search each song title) # " Streets of Forbes" (Traditional) # "The Ballad of Peggy and Col" (Mark Wallace, Mick Thomas) # "Knockbacks in Halifax" # "Never Again (Albion Tuesday Night)" (Traditional, Mick Thomas) # "A Tale They Won't Believe" # "House of Ghosts" istakenly omitted from track listing# "Hug My Back" # "The Wind and the Rain" # "Darlin' Please" # "Ticket in Tatts" # "Rossarden" # "Mañana, Mañana"

Personnel

Weddings Party Anything

* Richard Burgman - guitar, vocals * Pete Lawler - bass guitar, vocals * Marcus Schintler - drums, vocals * Mick Thomas - guitar, vocals * Mark Wallace - piano accordion, vocals

Additional musicians

* Hiram Green - pump organ, tack piano * Peter Hyrka - fiddle *

Mojo Nixon Neill Kirby McMillan Jr. (August 2, 1957 – February 7, 2024), known professionally as Mojo Nixon, was an American musician and actor best known for his novelty song "Elvis Is Everywhere", which was an alternative staple on MTV. His style coul ...

- vocals *

Skid Roper Skid Roper (born Richard Banke, October 19, 1954, in National City, California, United States) is an American musician, most active in the 1980s and early 1990s. He has recorded with several groups including the surf band The Evasions but is bes ...

- whistle (Human)

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Don't Argue, The 1989 albums ARIA Award–winning albums Weddings Parties Anything albums