diesel and dust

Midnight Oil took the plight of Australia's indigenous tribes to the people of the world with the polished pop of this prickly political powerhouse.  'Diesel and Dust' was recorded after spending months visiting Aboriginal communities in their native Australia.  Lead singer Peter Garrett remembers:   "In '86 the band were invited by tribal groups to tour the townships of the outback, a world away from Australia's normal gigging circuit. In tandem with the part-Aboriginal Warumpi Band, the Oils set off on tile Blackfella/Whitefella Tour, which we planned with the precision, of a National Geographic African safari with four-wheel drives and two-way radios and first-aid kits and snakebite stuff and emergency supplies of water. And we went into very remote areas where you can look into the dimension of the heavens, the nights are so clear, where Aboriginal people have lived for 40,000 years in flint-like, hard, desperate red terrain which has a great beauty that you don't notice at first because you're still getting used to the distances and the heat. And out of that experience, we went into the studio to make 'Diesel And Dust'...There's a point where you can be abstract about things, or you can he heavy handed, or you can be direct, and the idea was to be direct. We weren't trying to colour it, or make pretty poetry around it. Wherever in the world there are indigenous people they must be allowed to live, so that we can understand how the world is meant to be lived in. The Aboriginals are the longest continuing culture of human beings there has ever been. They make the so-called civilizations look like Sunday afternoon bacchanalia of building and destruction that came and went in the blink of an eye. This mob have been out there for eternity, and in that period of time they've developed a way of looking at the world which is far more benign than ours...This land is their mother, and they don't believe they can own it and use it for profit. And because of that they don't have hairdryers and videos, but they have something much deeper, although it's pretty difficult to express in Q Magazine without romanticizing it, and it's difficult to express when you're a whitey that's just been in and come out for a time. Plus they live in great poverty out there, and the material poverty isn't completely compensated for by the spiritual richness because kids are still dying."

The Oils produced the album with Warne Livesey at Albert Studios in Sydney.  The sessions featured Martin Rotsey on guitars; Peter Gifford on bass and vocals; Robert Hirst on drums and vocals; Jim Moginie on guitars and keyboards; and Garrett on vocals.  Hirst says:  "What happened with 'Diesel And Dust' was we'd been very heavily influenced by what we'd seen and heard out in the desert. We'd heard acoustic instrument' the clap-sticks and the dijeridus and acoustic guitars we'd taken out there - and they all sounded fantastic under those expansive skies, around a campfire in the middle of nowhere. And we thought, 'These songs, such as 'Beds Are Burning' and 'The Dead Heart' - which were already written at that stage - sound great in this acoustic environment. If we can just get that down on tape, then those acoustic instruments will inevitably sound better on record than electronic instruments, samplers, drum machines, and all that.' So our job really was to try to recreate some of that atmosphere...From a drumming point of view, I was trying to express in a rhythmical way what it was like to travel hundreds and hundreds of kilometers down dirt tracks, driving through mallee scrub and mulga and basically feeling like that mountain range in the distance isn't getting any closer four hours down the track. And you get this sort of rhythmical thing with the diesels and the motors going at a certain pace; you're charging down the Gunbarrel Highway or one of those in central Australia, and it's a perpetual rhythm thing...We used an Atari computer that was running a Steinberg Pro 24 sequencing package, and all the rhythm tracks were recorded to click tracks generated by that package, so that we could actually sequence things along to the real drums."

Gifford quit the band before the album was released because of the exhaustive promotional tour plans and would eventually form clothing company Wicked Weasel.  He was replaced by Bones Hillman from the Swingers.   'Diesel and Dust' was a success on all fronts.  The band was able to achieve the height of their commercial acclaim without compromising their beliefs or their sound.  The album went to number twenty-one in the US, nineteen in the UK, eleven in the Netherlands, seven in Switzerland, five in Sweden, and spent six weeks at number one in Australia.  'Diesel and Dust' garnered gold awards in Sweden and the UK; and went platinum or multi-platinum in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and the US.    Moginie admits:  "When you think about us singing about dispossessed indigenous people, you wouldn't think that would be a record that anyone would want to hear; but it turned out that they did. There's hope for the world yet.  Musically, I think we managed to make it reasonably palatable and simple in a way that anyone could enjoy it.  It had a good beat, wasn't too messy or complicated or ragged. It's pretty focused."





"Beds Are Burning" (Rob Hirst, James Moginie, Peter Garrett) lit a fire on charts all over the world, going to number seventeen in the US; five in France; six in Australia, the UK, and on the US hot mainstream rock chart; and three in the Netherlands.

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come 
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back






"Put Down That Weapon" (Moginie, Hirst, Garrett) charted at thirty-four in France and thirty-two in Australia.

Above the waterline
Point the finger yeah point the bone
It's the harbour towns
That the grey battleships call home
And if we think about it
And if we talk about it
And if the sea goes boiling black
Can you tell me what we'll do about that
Put down that weapon or we'll all be gone
I must know something to know it's so wrong
And it happens to be an emergency
Some things aren't meant to be
Some things don't come for free






"Dreamworld" (Moginie, Garrett, Hirst) hit fifty-four in Switzerland, thirty-seven on the US hot mainstream rock chart, thirty in Australia, and sixteen on the US hot modern rock tracks chart.  

So shut that buckle and turn that key again 
Take me to a place they say the dreaming never ends 
Open wide drive that mystery road 
Walk through eden's garden and then wonder as you go 






The lyrics to Moginie's "Warakurna" give the album its title. Moginie says: "Warakurna was a blast. It’s close to the WA border and we drove there after a gig at Docker River. The first thing you see coming in to the town is a piece of space satellite junk that had fallen to earth like something out of Star Wars. Then a hand-painted sign saying ‘Strict Rules’. Then a mountain of derelict car bodies. All set against the most beautiful ochre/purple colored hills you could imagine that felt so weathered and ancient. It was the second gig of the tour, and was scheduled just the day before. Most of the people had left town for a football match in Yuendumu but we played anyway on the school verandah. A camel stormed the stage. We camped on a riverbed, and heard stories about how the people there had been handed bread with poison on them by the white fellas. We were getting to know the guys in the Warumpi Band. It was the first time I had heard the term ‘Europeans’ used to describe white people, of which I was one. And I believed it. Because out on that land, with their deep culture and history, it really felt like a country within another country, but somehow swept under the carpet." 

Warakurna, cars will roll
Don't drink by the water hole
Court fines on the shopfront wall
Beat the grog and save your soul
Some people laugh, some never learn
This land must change or land must burn
Some people sleep, some people yearn
This land must change or land must burn
Diesel and dust is what we breathe
This land don't change and we don't leave
Some people live, some never die
This land don't change this land must lie
Some people leave, always return
This land must change or land must burn






"The Dead Heart" (Hirst, Moginie, Garrett) went to number sixty-two in the UK; fifty-three in the US; forty in the Netherlands; nineteen in France; eleven on the US hot mainstream rock chart; and six in Australia. Garrett considers:  "Lyrics are very much what people make of them and different people are going to make different things of your lyrics. Someone can take a lyric and think that it's all about the end of the world and someone else can take the same lyric and think it's about the beginning of their love life. And I think that even though The Oils political and social content is something that has distinguished the band, at times it was really over emphasized when what we had done was marry words and music. Sometimes, I've had a sense of something but I haven't been able to get it into words and the other guys have been able to put it into words really well. But it would mean nothing unless we had stuff that was working underneath it musically. And other times, we haven't been looking for anything that is political or biting. At least three quarters of the current music makers that have access to the charts are fairly brain dead and conscious dead. And most of what they are on about is a convolution of motional masturbation for a very small circle and a very small frame of reference. I think our frame of reference is basically just a lot broader than most peoples. Certainly most bands. And we are prepared to have a go at it even if it seems appearing very grandiose and profound and didactic and whatever. I think it's just something that we've been prepared to have a go at. When you get it right and it coincides with what other people are feeling, then, yes, you do have a really strong record. But when you don't, then everyone looks at you like you've come from another planet."

We don't serve your country
We don't serve your king
Know your custom don't speak your tongue
White man came took everyone
We don't need protection
Don't need your hand
Keep your promise on where we stand
We will listen we'll understand
We carry in our hearts the true country
And that cannot be stolen
We follow in the steps of our ancestry
And that cannot be broken






"Sometimes" (Moginie, Garrett, Hirst)   Garrett says:  "Bigness is not really the issue for us. I think the issue is if you are making the connections. We enjoyed to a limited extent being able to go out and play to the large numbers and find a bigger audience there. In some ways, that's what people dream about. But I think at the same time, the artificiality of the lifestyle, not only the touring end of the lifestyle but also the business end of the lifestyle, where all the middle people between you and the audience in a country like America become expanded to an infinite number to what we as Australians have a limited capacity to deal with. We wanted to do it on our own terms and I think we did it on our own terms. That part of it for us was very successful and we count it as an achievement we can notch up the belt."


I know that the sunset empire shudders and shakes
I know there's a floodgate and a raging river
I say the silence of the ribbons of iron and steel
I say hear the punch drunk huddle drive hammer and steel
Sometimes you're beaten to the call
Sometimes you're taken to the wall
But you don't give in
I know that the cannibals wear smart suits and ties
I know they arm wrestle on the altar
I say don't leave your heart in a hard place
Sometimes you're shaken to the core
Sometimes the face is gonna fall
But you don't give in