Modern Republican: "WhAt ArE YoU WoKe!!10101"

Wow, good for you. Seriously. You just made a 65 y/o boomer jelly. lol

Wow, I didn't wake up today thinking I'd get a lesson in history, but man, I'm so glad you gave it to me. This song, to me, was always a great song with a great hook. Now, as someone in their 50s, who never knew what this song was about, it means even more. I'm going to go read up on all the info you just gave me. I appreciate your comment greatly.

Aussie Aussie Aussie ❤

The whole Diesel & Dust album is a good listen and focuses on environmental and indigenous issues.

wow - that's a strange guy - but he makes a cool story

That's pretty crazy 😂. We had an EOD tech work with us, never said much just observed everything. One day "The Humpty dance" song came on. The guy broke out some wild 90s pop and lock moves for the rest of the song. 😂 then he was back to quiet and reserved. Thanks for your story reminded me of this dude.

​@JJKillerElite that is so very EOD guy ❤

Well, it is an awesome song!

@laurawalkerJD Haha rightt! Strange individuals, but solid dudes through and through 😂🙏

Not sorry enough to give up being millionaires I guess…. Performative fake leftist BS.

hey i cant i sleep til i know ,was peter garrett minister of the environment while our koalas were burning?

@@chrisross-fd3fo That seems like a question that Google or Wikipedia can answer, doesn't it?

​​@@gryphonvert g.. &...w won't answer the deeper question i was asking.i was asking here because maybe theres a deeper answer to be found than yes or no.especially from the person who wrote about it.wait,wait gryph..ya got me...that looks like it was copied right out of g ...&...w.. gee,it seems like where a lot of people get their (form of leadership) approved talking points..(gotta do it this way as 3 times i was flipped... an A2G should fix that spelling

And when Peter Garrett became a politician he was inept, a failure and a fall guy. His pink batts program killed young Australians.

😎 👍 Yup, you're 100 % Correct, the 80's had A LOT of good/GREAT songs! 🎶 🥁 🎶 🎹 🎶 🎤 🎶 💙🤍❤️. 💙🤍❤️

These are the same guys who The Thamesmen have apparently asked half a dozen times to do Cold Chisel and they’ve refused and the thamesmen said well it’s their loss 😂

This is true, to me it was just a pass by when it first came out, now it really brings tears to my eyes and I love this song.

True. although they maybe could have written a few more lyrics, it kind of repeats the same few lines a lot, I just noticed.

No, not from the heat, but from the weapons testing later done on the land the Australian Government seized from the indigenous people.

@@allengator1914 Nuclear explosion is at at 100m degrees, at which point it is neither living nor breathing. Original interpretation more likely correct

That was my mistake back then. When I first heard the reference to 45 degrees, I thought to myself "well, I guess it gets cold in the desert too." It took several listens and a couple of years to realize the 45 degrees was celsius, not fahrenheit. *Smacks forehead* Yep, me and my Amerocentric thinking. lol

@@simianinc Rob Hirst has said the burning beds line is from an Italian art exhibition about fascist Italy and how the partisans were fighting back against the regime. Search songwritingmagazine and beds are burning for the interview.

Yes, but when the song is emphasizing that, it's talking about how the desert "lives and breathes" at that burning temperature. White people tend to see a place like that as a "wasteland", and that justifies to them the decision to use it for something like weapons testing. I mean, who cares, right? "Nothing" can live there. It's not good for the kinds of crops or livestock that white people want to grow there. But deserts are still living ecosystems, with life that's adapted to living at those temperatures. There's still ecological richness in the desert. The Aboriginal people chose to live there, too. They valued it. (Although obviously, that isn't the ONLY reason it should be given back to them. But it's drawing a contrast between these points of view.)

One hit wonders TBH. Waste of time listening to anything else they did.

⁠@@telstar4772100% disagree. Aside from the fact that MO had many hits which they could care less about, their music is phenomenal and the importance of the content is staggering.

The Dead Heart is excellent! Beds are Burning is probably not even in my top 10 for MO songs. They had amazing music and when I was in college in 1993 fraternity houses would play Earth & Sun & Moon songs every weekend at the big parties. The Oils knew how to have great funky rhythm and basslines, along with the big goofy lovable front man with the bizarre voice!

haha I saw the Zombies once and compared Colin Blunstone dancing to "a man awkwardly trying to hold a fish between his elbow and ribcage" and actually Bryan Ferry is a pretty terrible dancer too. But at least they could each sing!

I do a pretty good Peter Garrett imitation if I do say so myself... Only I'm short and have hair 😊

I always heard he was around 6'10"..

@@charlesstuart8009 That's only when he's wearing a hat. Which, as a bald man in the 45 degree desert heat, he really needs to.

Garret's energy level was insane! I still see them doing concerts this last year and he brings the energy!

Modern Republican: "WhAt ArE YoU WoKe!!10101"

100% this is what it is about. I was going to suggest that they see the official music video. It is powerful.

There's a great video on X where some Aboriginals walk up to the front door of a white leftist residence who have a sign on their lawn about giving the land back to the native people. The Aboriginals say "We're here to take our land back. We're starting with this house". The Caucasian leftist woman looks all flustered and has no idea what to say so she says something along the lines of "Not literally here, we didn't mean our house".

Lead singer Peter Garret walked it like he talked it - ran for office got into the House of Representatives was the Minister of several departments such Education and Environment. Punk in the early 80s

Bingo

My guess is that a lot of the listeners who made this song a hit didn't actually pay that close attention to the lyrics. 😞 (There are a *lot* of songs out there that, if you really stop and pay attention to them, you have to wonder how it *ever* became a hit -- and then you realize that most people just don't think about them that deeply, and just groove to the musical hooks. At least one woman of my acquaintance is still convinced, to this day, that Meat Loaf's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" is the greatest love song ever written...)

Saw MO in a small outdoor venue in St. Pete many years ago. This was the only song of theirs getting airplay in the US so we didn't know much about them before the concert. Anyone that saw them live in that era know what a treat a MO concert was. Great players, high energy, and a 6 ft 9in lead singer flailing wildly. Awesome show!

Absolutely. Seen them in their heyday about 3 times. Awesome live band.

Saw them from the 2nd row on the WOMAD tour. Close enough to see the sweat and the spit. So much spit and so very good.

Yep. Incredible live

Just the best - 'Oils on Water' live concert video gives you a little feel of it.

King of the Mountain, and The Dead Heart, are other good ones, for sure.

Sorry, the actual title is "Indian Reservation", not "Cherokee Nation".

Oh yes! I still have the 45 of this song. It was a favorite of mine as a kid🙂

They dont get enough credit. They had some really cool songs.

English colonialism and imperialism. The same ideology which removed the Native Americans. Say it's name 😊

@@penderyn8794 Trail of Tears

They get billions every year and yet only their elites prosper 🤮

You yanks stole the native lands after colonisation, and during independence, the natives were helping British soldiers, etc, cos you colonists wanted to push further and stole more of thier lands, who says the natives actually lived on the east coast where the colony's where originally

Namaste!

Yes, I would love to see a reaction to that.

I love Paul Hardcastle!

Australia's legendary I was Only 19 by Rock Folk legends REDGUM came out at a similar time and rightly was put way ahead of '29' by critics A far better and emotional and lyrically brilliant Vietnam song. Go listen and come back and comment.

19 is a groove. I also like his instrumental called Rainforest

Sorry it is in know way a great song seeing that he pinched the idea off the Aussie Band Redgum with ther classic hit " I was only 19"

And when Peter Garrett became a politician he was inept, a failure and a fall guy. His pink batts program killed young Australians.

Sounds like a good idea, where would you prefer them to test weapons, Sydney Harbour ?

@@telstar4772 i wouldn’t much like it if the government forced me out of my home into a camp and then blew up my home with bombs and missiles, but hey man - you do you.

@@telstar4772 On an actually uninhabited place and not a place that was previously someone's home which was seized by the government for racist reasons.

​@@limeymcfrog1Different times, don't judge yesterday's history with today's morals.

@@interabang What terrible evil could that logic NOT excuse? It was wrong then, it is wrong now. They stole and destroyed land and property because these people were not seen as fully humans. That is a rather timeless evil, if you ask me.

I wouldn't underestimate the number of Americans voting for it too; I did! This song (in particular) made a big splash here, and folks who were around when it came out undoubtedly still remember it fondly. (And still listen to it today; it comes up on my playlists all the time.) It's funny, because like... yeah, it's a song from the 80s, and it's topical to when it came out. But in other ways, it doesn't FEEL to me like a quintessential 80s song; not the way something from Duran Duran or Bon Jovi does, you know? (Although, I appreciate Alex pointing out the machinery-clanging bit from the middle as feeling like it's from that time period.) This song felt different - musically - when it came out, and I feel like it still does. The only reason I might say that it doesn't sound "timeless" is that I struggle to think of other songs from right now that feel quite like this. It is a stand-out, for sure.

@@gryphonvert The Oils did have that Aussie rock sound, though Garrett's singing is unique to himself, which always made an Australian song stand out in contrast to the other 80s bands. Men at Work are another from that era, though I think my favourite Australian rock band are The Saints.

but we weren't like 55yrs ago and still arent..peoples please stop letting the words of these political songs sway you . many times once the limited hangout is cropdusted on us over 30 years you realize once again you were manipulated...there is and never was a song on the radio that record execs and their overlords didnt want on the radio (dont beat me up over instrumentals.).and these 2-3 year eras of anti war,rah rah america ,cops suck,women are powerful,folk protest,,its so beautiful to be in a relationship, anti apartheid,outerspace,the environment..its amazing how they fade ..their cycles were all nearly identical..but the music and the vocals of songs are a huge joy to me...the lyrics eh...hell i just realized from these.guys bernie taupin was referring to marriage not literally his life..same music same vocals completely different song...btw i dont care if he has a thing for TONY DANZA

The version by The Screaming Jets is the best

Love the song, despite the lyrics! “Let’s give it back”, my arse.

@@riiidiculoso8697 I get that.

@@michaelbeasley5783 . I was expecting profanely expressed agreement, or deranged abuse - so I figured you’re not Aussie, & did some minor stalking. Holy schamoley, that’s a helluva voice you’ve got there! With vibrato like that, I bet you could do a ripper rendition of ‘Sweet Sweet Love’ or ‘Wings of an Eagle’ by Russell Morris. ☮️🤘

@@riiidiculoso8697 Thanks. I do lots of gigs and have written and ameteurishly recorded originals. Never had any inclination to do Wings of an Eagle though. More of a Neil Young Tom Petty type appreciator. Last night I went to see Bruce Hornsby. Be well.

@@michaelbeasley5783 I love Neil and Tom! You could definitely pull off some CSNY and Paul Simon, too. I’m glad to hear you’re a fan of the great Midnight Oil. Here’s an acoustic version of Short Memory that I think you’ll appreciate. All the best! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q7aYqKR7u7DJYYU.htmlsi=_KCW6euBRRoKoga9

I can't think of a better social protest band... maybe Rage Against the Machine, but the Oils have been doing it for decades and never broke up.

That is Blue Sky Mine.

Aussies stepped it up in the 80s! INXS, AC/DC, the Oils, Men At Work, and I never knew The Church were Aussies, but that song is epic!

I dunno. Funkadelic is pretty good too.

​@@markghughes nowhere near as talented or as cool as Midnight Oil.

@@ATalkingBadger I hope you're kidding... they're completely different genres and I myself am a rock guy, but George Clinton is a funk and music legend, so are Parliament/Funkadelic. No direspect to Midnight Oil though, great band, too.

​@@markghughesExcellent play on words. Some people don't get the joke and insist on actually comparing the bands.

Protesty. That’s it!

We need to all take heed.

Banger

I always thought it meant "How can we dance and sleep while these atrocities are going on?". Meaning that it's addressed to white people.

@@SpaceCattttt That's what most people think, including me back in the '80s. Then I heard or saw it discussed in an interview. It's been several decades, but as I recall the band members had been impressed to see aboriginals dancing and having fun while surrounded by desert squalor. I think they were asked to write the song after the Australian government returned some desert land to them. The burning beds were like aboriginals' property, not white peoples' beds. The fact it was also a celebration of life always stuck with me.

Wow. Never thought of it that way...

@@bjs301 I know that story and I've seen the interview, but I can't recall in detail what they were discussing. Still, I'd say that the intention was for white Australians to sit up and listen, you know? So in that sense, even if it's a misreading of the lyrics, it still gets the intended message across.

@@SpaceCattttt I think it's both.

Uh... Sorry, but "Power & The Passion" was *not* a hit here in the USA. The album it came from (10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1) peaked at #178 on the US charts, and the singles from it didn't chart at all. Midnight Oil didn't achieve any chart success in the USA until the "Diesel & Dust" album with "The Dead Heart" (#11 on the US Mainstream Rock chart) and "Beds Are Burning" (#17 on the "Hot 100", #6 on the Mainstream Rock chart), with the album itself peaking at #21. (The next album, "Blue Sky Mining", also did well, peaking at #20, and spawning three top-20 singles on the Mainstream Rock chart -- Blue Sky Mine (#1), "Forgotten Years" (#11), and "King of the Mountain" (#20). After that, they kind of fell off the US radar again, at least as far as radio play was concerned. :( )

@@ballyastrocade5672 I wasn't talking about charts. The songs were very popular in the circles I moved in and got a lot of airplay where I was at. IMO that makes it a hit. From Wikipedia: "Hit song - Wikipedia A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known."

@@jamesjohnston9225 Unfortunately, that's just too subjective a standard to be meaningful. *You* may think the song was well-known based on your own particular circle -- but the plural of "anecdote" is not "data". :-P The only objective data we have to work with is sales and radio-chart performance figures, and by those measures, sorry, it was not a hit. (Which is not to say it *wasn't* a good song; I rather like it as well. But it wasn't well known in the US at a national level in the way that "Beds Are Burning" or "Blue Sky Mining" were.)

@@ballyastrocade5672 We can certainly agree to disagree. If we all liked and thought the same things, Baskin-Robbins would only have one flavor.

Are you serious? you laughed hard at the song, then you were crying ? you need to a visit to the doctors.

Huey Lewis and the News also had a great song called "Jacob's Ladder" in the 80s!

YES!!!

Excellent answer to the protest song question. I have been suggesting that song in general for quite some time.

That is a great protest song. He also has another tremendous one “ They Call it Democracy

@@scottmoreland1775 Without question! One of my faves.

Good one!

Saw them in Sacramento about that same time. I'm not a concert guy but I enjoyed that one.

I think that's the tour I saw in Vancouver with the horn section standing on the rusted out flatbed truck (stage right)

Okay, now that you mention it, I'm just now realizing there's a certain similarity between "Beds are Burning" and "Blood and Roses". They don't sound the SAME. But they create a really deep, underlying groove that you can feel in your chest.

Ya they should do an entire album review for Diesel and Dust.

Those first 5 albums amongst the best produced in Australia.