Midnight Oil: Classic or G'dud!

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

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...

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

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.

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

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

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

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

That's great.

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

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.

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.

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

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, March 17, 2003 5:12 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

this is perhaps Miccio's most perceptive post ever.

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!

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

innocent times

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

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

classic. the dead heart should be the national anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTGx59dm3XY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmHco4ie9EE

butts are burning

Watching the Capitol set from the Best of Both Worlds dvd on youtube. So damn good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyqWoq2STjw&list=PL92319EECC1754042

Man, I forget sometimes how insane this band was. That's some nearly-Clash-level shit there.

They don't get their due, at least Stateside. A truly great rock band.

Man, I just got to "Armistice Day" and my god does it rule.

It's a shame that they didn't really break big in the US until their music was on the downswing with D&D, but I can't imagine radio accommodating anything from 10,9,8 or Red Sails. Those records still sound like they're from the future.

Yup. And those early records have aged much better than the crossover trio of Diesel and Dust, Blue Sky Mining and Earth and Sun and Moon. Oddly enough, Breathe sounds better now than it did in 1996.

I love everything up to and including Earth and Sun and Moon. Got no problem with the crossover trio because the songwriting is sooooo sharp, and since 10-1 and Red Sails are so absolutely bonkers, I can't imagine the band had any choice but to reign things in.

Need to relisten to Breathe et al again.

I got off the bus after BSM, one of the most disappointing records I've ever heard. But I was intrigued by the E&S&M singles (as well as their SNL appearance that year). I should probably get caught up.

And the drum sound on Red Sails is one of the most grippingly unique I've ever heard. That whole record's production is so completely spooky.

Diesel remains a good record, but I definitely got off the bus for a while at Blue Sky Mining. Breathe is their best record of the 90s, and then Capricornia was a respectable bow out. BSM, ESM and Redneck Wonderland are all embarrassing.

I like the singles from the three crossover records, but I'm never going to pull them out ahead of the 1980-85 LPs and EPs. Redneck Wonderland is sad, sad stuff. Didn't even have decent singles.

Huh I really like BSM and ESM. What's wrong with them?

I mean, this is great, imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loX2cvuxMFU&feature=kp

Or this, pretty much classic late-period MO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdvhiHryIRA

yup, good singles. Bit of a limp album, though.

What are the bad songs on those albums?

The cardinal sin is the production, but there are duff songs a plenty - off the top of my head, "Bedlam Bridge", "Mountains of Burma" and the "Shakers" song on the second side of Blue Sky Mine, "Renaissance Man", the title track and "Now or Never Land" on Earth and Sun and Moon. I'm sure I'd be able to pick out several more mediocre to bad songs if I skimmed through them.

When you compare this to the pre-US breakthrough years, it's amazing how many unmemorable to bad songs those records contain. From 80-85 there are probably about ten in total, but these two albums have 6-8 I'd rather never hear again.

Yeah, this. I actually didn't like anything off BSM; when I heard the single I thought, "I hope this is the worst song on the record." They'd lost all sense of danger and risk

Yeah, maybe they lost the sense of danger and risk, but I still like the songs. I mean, I think they're nothing on the early stuff, but they're still good records. But then, I listen to Combat Rock as much or more than I listen to most Clash records.

I dunno, I don't even mind the production on those later records, though BSM and ESM are sort of at opposite ends of those extremes, from clinical to this weird ramshackle approach, both so odd given the chaos and invention of the early years . What's super weird is that Nick Launay, who did 10-1 and Red Sails, also did ESM, but it sounds so different from that.

I always thought this was a cool song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LlMGBZCtXI&feature=kp

"antarctica" is one of the keepers, for sure. Total jam.

Blue Sky Mining was a total “oof, you trying to be U2?” getting-off-the-bus move for me. BUT at the secret reunion show at some leagues club in 2005, where I went in happy to not even hear anything post-Species Deceases, totally thought while getting buffetted in the mosh “hey even these Blue Sky Mining songs are fucking killing it”

That's because the songs are good!

I haven't listened to Breathe since it came out, but fwiw it was produced by Lanois-associate Malcolm Burn. That to me was a red flag announcing what the band was after. But I have no recollection of what that album sounds like.

"Dreamworld" should've been bigger - I'm surprised to see it even charted in the US because I've never heard it in the wild. But it's just hook after hook until that furious ending

sic, thanks for the suggestion.

TAFKAE, I had forgotten about that one. Listening to it now, I remember it from the time. I bet I would recognize some of the other singles from Diesel and Dust or Blue Sky Mining once I listen to them again.

I just played Diesel and Dust for a friend that somehow never had heard it, and he was shocked at how good it all still sounds start to finish. I'm sure I have said it somewhere on this thread, but I think it is one of the best sequenced albums of all time.

I’d Stan 10, 9, 8… and Red Sails as being the Shabooh Shoobahs to Diesel and Dust’s Kick. Both are still topical and vibrant, re: the usual Oil political and social commentary. You can feel what they’re capable of achieving and it’s not a full surprise when they do.

10, 9, 8… and Red Sails

Or maybe their "War"(s) to "The Joshua Tree" (skipping over "Unforgettable Fire" for the sake of the the comparison).

Those are my two favorite Oils albums.

tween me is loving this conversation

Slap on one of their records and current you would enjoy it even more!

In the meantime, re: peace, man's "I've never listened to them beyond that one and Bed Are Burning," check this shit out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RaMvEk55kQ

I had no idea that Rob Hirst has been battling pancreatic cancer for two years. :(

Nor I. :(

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-20/midnight-oil-drummer-rob-hirst-dies/106249816

Aw no. I wasn’t much of an Oils fan overall but their rhythm section was godlike.

RIP ;_;

:(:( RIP

Saw the Oils a couple times in the 80s and he was easily the MVP of the band

RIP

growing up in 1980s oz even if the oils weren’t your main game (they weren’t mine) they were still undeniable - now any time i see any of that full flight mid-80s footage i am just blown away, can’t imagine how good it would have been to see that live

props to Rob Hirst for helping crowbar some pretty decent politics into the skulls of a generation of aussie meatheads

i saw him play in a small club with blues band The Backsliders, it was a good night

otm

They may be a good candidate for that "the vocalist is a significant hurdle" thread for me. But yeah, one can't *not* respect the politics. My (casual) affection for them possibly peaked as late as 2000, with the 'sorry' shirts at the Olympics. :)

One of the best drummers I've ever seen (who also sang, wrote songs and focused the political direction of the band).

Never a bad time for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dV6vbb1YqI

Hirst hit sooooooo haaaaaard they used to nail his set to the stage.

As i said upthread very nearly four years ago, the song this band perpetrates in the video directly above this post, and via the best known studio recording, knocked me on my 14 year old ass upon hearing it 41 years ago… it's notable for its coiled tension, which then releases into a maelstrom not at all common in 1984-85 to major label bands marketed to normie U2 fans, but more in line with Dead Kennedys or the SST roster. And then, I heard "Beds are burning" and "the dead heart," which I really disliked, and thus concluded I was not going to get their records.

I am listening to Essential Oils (uggh, lousy title) and I do not hear any other recordings that sound like they want to rip off your head and shit down your neck. This band is vaunted for their live ferocity, and bands vaunted for their live ferocity are very very often recorded in the studio with a mind to capture that live quality. And except for "the Best of Both Worlds," all I am hearing is carefully recorded, meticulous studio rock that, its sincere beliefs and priorities regarding human rights in their own country and abroad notwithstanding, would sound good on multiple radio formats. And that's swell! But I do find it odd that there's not one single other absolute bastard of a careening punk rock single, like its about to blow off the deck of the ship into the thunderstorm. What am I missing?

Hmm. The albums can be pretty fussy, and also pretty proggy, and never quite capture them as they were live. Like, compare this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktebjojSsYQ

To this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1BpJZ3zY4U

The early, ferocious stuff simply isn’t recorded in a way that “captures that live quality.”

Try either listening to 10-1, Species Deceases, and Red Sails as intentional recordings of groups of songs, or to live recordings earlier than that. (If Redneck Wonderland doesn’t do anything at all for you on that comp, you can totally sit out the post-1985 oeuvre.)