Midnight Oil: Classic or G'dud!

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Flippin' through the channels this weekend, stumbled upon the ancient clip of "Beds Are Burning" by ye olde Midnight Oil, featuring Peter Garett's jerky histrionics and disco-dancing Aborigines. Though ulimately relegated to the cruel realm of one-hit-wonderdom here in the States, the Oils had a reasonably distinguished career elsewhere. I still remember the vids for "Read About it" and "the Power & the Passion" and thinking they were pretty righteous. Moreover, "Best of Both Worlds" is a fuckin' lost classic, I think.

Whatever became of them.....and what say you?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 17 March 2003 19:41 (10 years ago) Permalink

the same thing that happened to yahoo serious, vegemite, and koala blues.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 March 2003 19:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

last year, i think, they finally called it a day with garrett possibly going onto some sort of leftist politics career (although i haven't seen him involved in anything yet)

ubiquitous down here in late 70s - early 80s and, i suppose, the acceptable face of stadium style rock. i couldn't stand them but, at least, they weren't Inxs.

― phil turnbull (philT), Monday, 17 March 2003 20:06 (10 years ago) Permalink

http://www.midnightoil.com/media.html

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Monday, 17 March 2003 20:28 (10 years ago) Permalink

Classic for being relentlessly political and walking the walk not just talking the talk and setting it to a beat so you could dance to it.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 17 March 2003 20:47 (10 years ago) Permalink

if i told you garrett is a better singer than a politician, and i think his voice sucks...

― gaz (gaz), Monday, 17 March 2003 21:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

He has a FUN voice. "...got mawhr sayee than thuh peeepool, got mawhr sayee than thuh peeepool, yeauhhhh!"
He's got singalongability!

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 17 March 2003 21:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

Damn....that pic vanished. Ah well, here's the Aussie:

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 17 March 2003 21:57 (10 years ago) Permalink

Yep. He got his start as the bad guy in "The Hills Have Eyes."

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 17 March 2003 21:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ahahahahaha..

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

"Hey, matey, you got a reel purdy mouth...why don't you come ovah heer and squeal like a wallaby for me?"

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:06 (10 years ago) Permalink

poor garrett. he seems like a nice bloke. do nice blokes RAWK, though? Plus as the bands mouthpiece, having your lyrics written by the drummer must tell you something.

― gaz (gaz), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:09 (10 years ago) Permalink

They were not one hit wonders in the US. They actually had a string of videos that saw a great deal of rotation on MTV and VH1 back in the day. They got shitloads of play on Dave Kendal era-120 minutes as well.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:11 (10 years ago) Permalink

Dud. I threw on Diesel And Dust the other day and it was basically mediocre "college rock" with some guy obnoxiously yelling vague platitudes or suggesting we give the land back to the aborigines. "Sometimes" worked the best as far as the vague platitudes go. I need to listen to my copies of Blue Sky Mining and Earth Sun And Moon to see if they've aged just as horribly. And every time I see them on VH1 Classic they scare me even more.

I'm glad Garrett's decided to stop talking the talk but keeping walking the walk. Though I don't want to see him do that funny walk ever again.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:12 (10 years ago) Permalink

Peter Garret (along with Sinead, Right Said Fred, Michael Stipe, and the moron who sang for Live) helps prove that bald people are the worst dancers in the world. However, I always kinda liked the melody of "Blue Sky Mine." Also, they were inspired by Angel City*, I think (not by Angel City's GOOD songs, admittedly, but let's not be picky.)

* -- That's "The Angels" to all you marsupials in the land downunder.

― chuck, Monday, 17 March 2003 22:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

Having a video does not equate with having a "hit". Ask John Q. Public on the street to name a Midnight Oil song, and if they can do it, it'll invariably be "Beds Are Burning." Yes, they had other songs (so did Devo), but the only one anyone seems to remember is that one.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:21 (10 years ago) Permalink

I love the live footage where Peter Garrett is howling his lyrics from the top of a marshall stack; he blunders off the stack and falls into the audience; and he blithely gets back up and gets back into the song right on cue.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:21 (10 years ago) Permalink

they were inspired by the angels? "am i ever gonna see your face again (no way, get f**ked, f**k off!)" are you sure chuck?
i guess i can see a similarity between doc neesons's dancing and garretts...

― gaz (gaz), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:22 (10 years ago) Permalink

I think 'Dreamworld' off something of theirs is a CLASSIC(sorry was never truly versed in the 'oil'. Love the simple non obvious bass part in the 'breakdown' bit.

― panico (panico), Monday, 17 March 2003 22:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

Custos, that live footage is from when they played outside Exxon's Manhattan offices shortly after the Valdez disaster.

― hstencil, Monday, 17 March 2003 22:41 (10 years ago) Permalink

some of the guitar sounds on their early work are phenomenally good. i don't particularly rate them from Diesel and Dust onwards but prior to that I think they're pretty good..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 17 March 2003 23:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

>>>they were inspired by the angels? "am i ever gonna see your face again (no way, get f**ked, f**k off!)" are you sure chuck?<<

nope, not SURE -- that's why I said "I think." I mean, I've never seen them mention it in an interview. But there's definitely some stuff on those Angels albums that sounds proto-Midnight-Oil to me.

― chuck, Monday, 17 March 2003 23:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

Also inspired by the Angels aka Angel City: Great White, who I believe covered TWO songs by them. Correct me if I'm wrong.

― chuck, Monday, 17 March 2003 23:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

I kinda liked 10, 9, 8 . . . at the time--pretty impressive in terms of ambition, and the production was artful and dubby and had serious rock crunch to spare when it needed it. Still, awfully stiff and serious, and they only got more stiff and more serious (and slick) as they went on. On the classic end of dud?

― Lee G (Lee G), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 00:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

Absolute classic, especially the run of albums from between 1979 and 1985. After that, the edges became a little more polished, and the band's energetic spontaneity came to a grinding halt on 1993's Earth and Sun and Moon. Fortunately, they'd recharged somewhat by the time Breathe came out in 1996 and have kept it up ever since.

Best two albums: Head Injuries (1979) and Place Without a Postcard (1981) -- neither of which saw a US release until 1990, after many people quit caring about the Oils at all.

― paul cox (paul cox), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 01:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

I had no idea the angels were influential at all! they hold a special place in the heart of all us 70's oz suburban kids.

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 01:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

I listened to them a lot during my junior year of high school. My favorite record by them was (and probably still is) Red Sails in the Sunset.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 01:57 (10 years ago) Permalink

On the classic end of dud?

See, that's why I miss your music writing Lee.

― Jesse Fox, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 02:27 (10 years ago) Permalink

Aw shucks.

― Lee G (Lee G), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

Classic. Wonderful guitar work, great melodies, great live shows. Yeah their best stuff was early 80's, but the quality's been pretty consistent throughout. Admittedly the lyrics are heavy-handed at times, but the albums are so positive sounding, and they are the band who made me (at age 11) realise how godawful Bryan Adams was.

― Poppy (poppy), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:34 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'm really only familiar with their late-80's/early-90's work but they're not bad based on that. More on the dud end of classic. Diesel and Dust is a pretty solid album and there are good moments on Blue Sky Mining and E&S&M.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

I saw them after _10 to 1_ came out at Pier something-or-other in NYC in 83 or 84, and they were good, but I really, really loved that record. I haven't heard it in 15 years though, and I specifically haven't bought it again for fear of spoiling it.
They did rawk pretty hard up til that point. I mean, driving 90 mph on the Merritt Parkway to "Bus to Bondi" (Place w/out a Postcard?) was definitive for me. Uh, I remember being disturbed that they seemed vaguely metal-ish on their first album, which was very very bad in my world at the time.

Remember when that Screaming Blue Messiahs dude was around and it seemed like bald people were about to seize control?

― Hunter (Hunter), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 05:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

Actually, they split up after 20 years together a few months ago, Garret now devoting his time to being the head of the Conservation Society of Austalia.

I've never been a fan of them much, but the Guitarist (called 'Bones'), is a family friend of a friend of mine, so I got back stage passes to what turned out to be their last show at The Forum in Melbourne late last year.

Garret gave a big speech at the Feb 14 Anti-War Rally in Melb (200,000), one day before the Feb 15 rallies the world over. So yeeea...

― Rob from Melbourne (Keith McD), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 06:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

25 years, maybe? The first ep came out in '78.

― paul cox (paul cox), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 06:38 (10 years ago) Permalink

i think 10,9, ..1 is classic -- well balanced, not stiff but jerky/quirky, same producer as the better split enz stuff, but i think midnight oil nailed that sound and i have never heard anything like it, the angular thing suggested in split enz is better pilled off by m.o. with better songs (musically, ok ? the lyrics are sometimes melodamatic and over-serious, but i'm told no-one bothers listening to sonic youth lyrics either)

yeah i think this album is the best set of tunes, and heavy only in a very artful way -- the production emphasises the subtle and non-repetetive elements -- i still love it though i know it completley (and the only song that sucks would be called "US Forces")

ok they dumbed down later for all their big arena hits (and when i saw them live there was just one good song guitar solo etc. in the whole show, in the encore, v. dissapointing) but they'd changed for u2 type demographic by then

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 06:56 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

If there was such a thing as Australiophiles (Koalaphiles?) in the U.S. I'm guessing they'd worship these guys the same way vespa kids love the Jam. Lots of strident, serious anthems and geographical references.

― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 13 November 2004 20:12 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

I tend to have a habit of ressurecting old topics but anyways...

CLASSIC!!! I mean, who else dances like Peter Garrett! haha

The Oil's 1979-1985 albums are absolute cult classics down here in OZ. Some of the songs on 'Red Sails...' are like nothing I've ever heard before, like 'When the Generals Talk' and that huge explosion of beautiful sound at the end of 'Kosciuscko'! Brilliant! My favourite Aussie band, bloody legends.

― Miranda Leigh (Miranda Leigh), Thursday, 25 May 2006 03:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

I always liked "Blue Sky Mine" much more than "Beds are Burning" and it used to annoy me that the latter seemed to get played 20x as much as the former.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 25 May 2006 03:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

only outrated by sunn o))) and black dice in the 'loudest band i've ever seen' stakes, oddly enough. it was in the lead-up to the 1998 election and they were ANGRY. rarrrr! the government got back in, but it was still a good gig.

― lil' merzbow wow (haitch), Thursday, 25 May 2006 03:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

Australians will know this already, but for the others who don't... Peter Garrett is now a politician:

http://www.alp.org.au/people/nsw/garrett_peter.php

― cnwb (cnwb), Thursday, 25 May 2006 03:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

i very vaguely remember a magazine interview w/ these guys (i think that it was in spin, though it could've been rolling stone) circa 1990 where one of the band members (i.e., NOT peter garrett) talks about how they were approached by some american fan who LOVED their big hit song about "hot sex." at first the midnight oilers were puzzled ("what song about 'hot sex'?") till they realized that the fan was referring to "beds are burning."

(they did seem to think that the story was funny, so bully for them for having a sense of humor.)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 25 May 2006 05:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts! oh, the power and the passion.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 25 May 2006 05:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

they were the template for radiohead:

10,9,8... = OK Computer
Red Sails = Kid A

fucking classic, until the bottom fell out with that tired-ass-sounding blue sky mining.

― Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Thursday, 25 May 2006 12:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

talks about how they were approached by some american fan who LOVED their big hit song about "hot sex."

That's great.

Similar to Colin Hay's story about someone requesting the "one about the goats".

― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 25 May 2006 15:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

I get the impression that "Beds are Burning" gives the rest of their stuff a bad name...

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Thursday, 25 May 2006 18:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

The Oils are absolutely classic Australian rock.

My favourite track is "no time for games" from the Bird Noises EP.

I think the political stuff and the rock gelled well for them.

The drummer (Rob Hirst?) is phenomenal too, one particular huge solo on Power in the Passion.

― rchinn (rchinn), Thursday, 25 May 2006 21:18 (7 years ago) Permalink

All the musicians in the band are phenomenal and frequently underrated.

I'd have liked Blue Sky Mining to have been recorded with less gloss, but a lot of the songs on there are good and therefore a keeper. The only studio album of theirs I don't care if I ever hear again is Redneck Wonderland... it had no ambition, no direction, no anything. Capricornia was a commendable swan song, though.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 25 May 2006 22:06 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

"Stars Of Warburton" sounded really nice today. BSM has aged a little better these days (and D&D probably hasn't)

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 21 December 2009 02:39 (3 years ago) Permalink

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, March 17, 2003 5:12 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

this is perhaps Miccio's most perceptive post ever.

― How About a Nice Cuppa Shit on a Shingle, Soldier? (Eisbaer), Monday, 21 December 2009 02:41 (3 years ago) Permalink

I'd disagree. D&D really sort of embraces its own timeframe without becoming a victim of it. On the other hand, I hear BSM and all I hear (aside from a few good songs) is 19901990199019901990!

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 21 December 2009 02:44 (3 years ago) Permalink

with garrett possibly going onto some sort of leftist politics career (although i haven't seen him involved in anything yet)

innocent times

― happy christmas your ass (electricsound), Monday, 21 December 2009 02:46 (3 years ago) Permalink

thing the naysayers have to account for is that they sorta rocked, once upon a time.

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Monday, 21 December 2009 03:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

Red Sails is far and away my favorite Oils record (and that guitar solo in "Best of Both Worlds" melts my cerebellum).

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 21 December 2009 03:34 (3 years ago) Permalink

classic. the dead heart should be the national anthem.

― ABSOLUTELY NO SCRUBS WHATSOEVER, Monday, 21 December 2009 12:01 (3 years ago) Permalink

― ABSOLUTELY NO SCRUBS WHATSOEVER, Monday, 21 December 2009 12:04 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

― Three Word Username, Thursday, 7 June 2012 06:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

butts are burning

― Hungry4Ass, Wednesday, 19 September 2012 10:30 (9 months ago) Permalink

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.