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There's a song near the end of I See Seaweed called 'Laika' about the dog who was shot into space, with no hope of return, in a Soviet experiment in 1957. It follows Laika as she is born a stray on the street, "fired into a canyon of polite applause" and then left drifting in orbit.
For years songwriter Gareth Liddiard has been famous for writing about the Australian experience, but 'Laika' -- like so many of the songs on I See Seaweed -- is more universal than that. His focus has broadened, from colonialism to the human condition:
One day they'll build her statue, put it in the yard
To show all the children and the palace guard
And one day all you children will be white dwarves too
You'll cave under yourselves and become cruel, cruel, cruel.
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