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Peter Garrett reflects on Midnight Oil anthem Beds Are Burning as you decide the Best ARIA Song

PETER Garrett reflects on the unforgettable land rights anthem Midnight Oil was ‘born to write’. But is it the best ARIA song of the past 30 years? You decide.

The Oils were inspired to write Beds Are Burning after a tour of indigenous communities. Picture: Supplied
The Oils were inspired to write Beds Are Burning after a tour of indigenous communities. Picture: Supplied

PETER Garrett calls it the song Midnight Oil was “born to write”.

An ARIA Song Of The Year, Beds Are Burning remains a powerful and recognisable Oils anthem three decades after its release.

Perhaps their most iconic musical statement, the song was written by Garrett, Jim Moginie and Rob Hirst after the band’s 1986 Blackfella-Whitefella tour of indigenous communities.

The Oils had always been political but with Beds Are Burning and Diesel and Dust, the album it promoted, they switched their focus from environmental issues, the nuclear threat and corporate greed to local land rights.

Their protest — “it belongs to them, let’s give it back” — put reconciliation front and centre on the domestic agenda as Australia prepared to mark its Bicentenary.

It also resonated globally with politically minded music fans in countries that had colonised lands already inhabited by indigenous people including the US and Canada.

One of the Oils’ unforgettable performances of the song came during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics when the band unveiled black jumpsuits emblazoned with a white ‘Sorry’ painted on the back.

On its release in 1987, the song peaked at No. 1 in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, at No. 6 in Australia and UK and reached the top 20 in America.

The video has been viewed 75 million times and the Oils remain as popular in the digital era as they were when CDs ruled, with the song enjoying more than 26 million plays on Spotify.

Its enduring appeal was also recognised when the Australian Performing Rights Association placed it third — after The Easybeats Friday On My Mind and Daddy Cool’s Eagle Rock — in their Top 30 Australian Songs of all time poll, revealed in 2001 to celebrate the copyright agency’s 75th anniversary.

“In retrospect Beds (Are Burning) was the song we were born to record. It’s got all the bits to make it work; strong rhythms, good melody and the lyrics had some punch, while being very Aussie,” frontman Garrett said.

“It took a while to stick. It’s incredible how much it still gets played around the place.

“Who would have thought an Aboriginal land rights song would travel that far?”

The Oils could be reluctant attendees at awards ceremonies and their manager Gary Morris accepted on their behalf.

“After all this time it’s a good memory, not a short one!” Garrett said of the Song Of The Year award.

The Oils also won Single Of The Year and Best Cover Art for Diesel and Dust at the second ARIA Awards, held at the Sheraton Wentworth Hotel on February 29, 1988.

Their manager Morris, often referred to as the sixth member of the band, copped some flak from fellow presenter Molly Meldrum during the awards when he commented on the casually crushed linen suit worn by special guest Bryan Ferry.

You can vote for your favourite ARIA Song Of The Year winner from the past 30 years of the awards now.

Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head is leading your votes, followed by John Farnham’s You’re The Voice.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/peter-garrett-reflects-on-midnight-oil-anthem-beds-are-burning-as-you-decide-the-best-aria-song/news-story/bba8340130d10a6ca0f7391f08ca1d27