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Midnight Oil
Diesel and Dust: Legacy Edition
(Columbia/Legacy)
First Appeared in The Music Box, May 2008, Volume 15, #5
Written by John Metzger
Wed May 7, 2008, 07:45 AM CDT
Music knows no borders, and its biggest, most influential champions have
swept their way around the globe, spreading their influence far and wide. These
days, it is not unusual to hear a lot of it coming back, too: The blues of John
Lee Hooker, for example, have been emanating from the countries of Western
Africa, while musicians from India recently reinterpreted the works of Miles
Davis. The give-and-take among cultures, however, wasn’t always quite so
interactive. Although, 40 years ago, The Beatles certainly helped to spur
interest in Ravi Shankar’s work, the game of catch was played most prominently
between North America and Europe. Over the course of the 1970s and early 1980s,
however, the record industry gradually began to take a wider view of the world.
As Bob Marley and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell were putting Jamaica on
the map, Australia was mounting an insurgency of its own. Led by the sonic
assault of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and the mirror-ball shimmer of The Bee
Gees, the continent-nation began to have a huge impact upon popular culture, and
while its artists certainly were well-versed in traditional rock ’n‘ roll
values, their output also was undeniably eclectic. After all, Split Enz was as
different from AC/DC as INXS was from the Bee Gees.
Midnight Oil, however, was perhaps the most intriguing band to emerge from
Australia. Born in 1971 as The Farm, the group initially failed to gain much
attention for its prog rock-leaning work. Nevertheless, its name, its fortune,
and its focus shifted dramatically once front man Peter Garrett joined the
collective in 1975. Garrett was a former law student, and his interest in
raising social and political issues soon weighed heavily upon Midnight Oil’s
output, which helped to fuel its rapid ascent within the Australian music scene.
Influenced by The Clash, Midnight Oil adopted a more streamlined architecture
for its songs, and by 1983, the outfit had set its sights on the American
market.
After the release of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and Red Sails in
the Sunset, Garrett formally made an attempt to enter the political arena by
running for the Australian Senate. Although he lost by a narrow margin, he
gained tremendous insight into the history of his homeland. While he long had
taken stances against American military bases in the region, nuclear
proliferation, and environmental degradation, Garrett now had a new cause to add
to his arsenal: the plight of Aboriginal Australians.
In 1985, Midnight Oil was asked to write a song for a film that the Mitijula
people were making about the return of the Uluru stone, a large, sacred
monolithic monument located in central Australia. The result was The Dead
Heart, which — with its majestic horns and its calls-to-arms on didgeridoo —
was one of the finest tunes that the band ever managed to pen. Midnight Oil
subsequently embarked upon a tour of the oft-neglected locales of its homeland
with the Warumpi Band, and the groups’ experiences were captured in Black
Fella/White Fella Tour. Although the hour-long documentary heavily
emphasizes live performances by both outfits, it also illuminates the historical
mistreatment and outright oppression of Australia’s indigenous people as well as
the extreme poverty and substance abuse issues with which they continued to
struggle. Their tale — which is told via images set to music — is sad,
disturbing, and deeply moving, and over the years, it has become a frustratingly
familiar story that has been played and replayed in far too many cultures around
the globe. Yet, there also is an air of hopeful optimism that springs as much
from the attention that Midnight Oil brought to the cause as it does from the
notion that Australia’s aboriginal settlers never lost their pride, despite the
inhumanities they frequently faced.
While it was touring Australia’s interior, Midnight Oil simultaneously was
writing and debuting the material that became the basis for its third U.S. album
Diesel and Dust. The endeavor brought attention to the tragedies that
Midnight Oil witnessed, and although viewing Black Fella/White Fella Tour
is not necessary for comprehending the statement that the group was trying to
make, the film does provide greater insight and understanding of the its
perspective. Making its commercial debut, the documentary, not surprisingly,
forms the heart and soul of the "Legacy Edition" of Midnight Oil’s breakthrough
Diesel and Dust, which also features the restoration of the outing’s
previously excised final track Gunbarrel Highway.
Regardless, Diesel and Dust itself is the crown jewel of the
collection. Although it dealt primarily with issues that Australia was facing 21
years ago, the album remains strikingly relevant. The details may be different,
but the generalities are the same. Wealthy nations and corporate entities
continue to take advantage of many impoverished, native peoples, and sabers
inevitably rattle as cultures clash. Countless outfits have struggled with the
act of conveying political ideas in their work, but Midnight Oil never suffered
from being inauthentic or unconvincing in its arguments. Garrett’s feverish (and
sometimes manic) vocals combined with the band’s forceful attack to drive home
the overriding message without making it seem like a sermon.
Today, Diesel and Dust musically sounds slightly dated. When it was
created, its arrangements were neatly groomed to fit within the commercial
atmospherics of the 1980s, forming a pastiche of sorts that draws upon the hit
singles of Simple Minds and U2 as well as the production style that Trevor Horn
applied to Yes’ 90125. At the same time, though, the songs retain hints
of Midnight Oil’s early influences — The Clash, the Rolling Stones, and David
Bowie, among them — which are further highlighted by the live performances in Black Fella/White Fella Tour.
Even so, the glitzy, sonic flourishes that suffocated many of its heroes’
works during 1980s couldn’t kill Midnight Oil’s ferocity then, and they hardly
temper it now. Fitted with engaging melodies, its hard-charging anthems with
their big, sing-along choruses — such as Beds are Burning and Sometimes — evoked a mood of insuppressible, recalcitrant determination. The
band’s calls for change were also calls for perseverance in the face of
oppression, and its arena-ready songs climaxed by making the case that there was
strength in unity. With Diesel and Dust, despite the concessions it made
to mainstream radio, Midnight Oil deftly remained as uncompromising as ever,
which allowed the group to become an international success story without losing
its integrity — a feat that many more critically lauded outfits often have
struggled to achieve. 
Of Further Interest...
The Clash - The Clash Live: Revolution Rock
Midnight Oil - Capricornia
The Who - Endless Wire
Diesel and Dust: Legacy Edition is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
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Diesel and Dust: Standard Edition is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2008 The Music Box
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