Beds Are Burning
| "Beds Are Burning" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Midnight Oil | ||||||||||
| from the album Diesel and Dust | ||||||||||
| Released | 1987 | |||||||||
| Genre | Alternative rock, New wave[1] | |||||||||
| Length | 4:18 | |||||||||
| Label | Columbia | |||||||||
| Producer | Midnight Oil | |||||||||
| Midnight Oil singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Beds Are Burning" is a 1987 worldwide hit single[2] by Australian rock band Midnight Oil, the first track from their album Diesel and Dust. This song was the second from the album to be released as a single, and is among the band's best-known songs outside Australia.
It reached No. 1 in the New Zealand and South African charts, No. 2 in Canada, No. 3 in the Netherlands Top 40, No. 5 in the France Top 50, No. 6 in the United Kingdom charts, No. 11 in Ireland, No. 17 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, in Sweden and Denmark.
It is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
It was named number 95 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s and number 97 by the Triple J Hottest 100 Of All Time in 2009.
In May 2001, Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) celebrated its 75th anniversary by naming the Best Australian Songs of all time, as decided by a 100 strong industry panel. "Beds Are Burning" was declared third behind the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind" and Daddy Cool's "Eagle Rock".[3]
Meaning
"Beds Are Burning" is a political song about giving native Australian lands back to the Pintupi, who were among the very last people to come in from the desert. These 'last contact' people began moving from the Gibson Desert to settlements and missions in the 1930s. More were forcibly moved during the 1950s and 1960s to the Papunya settlement. In 1981 they left to return to their own country and established the Kintore community which is nestled in the picturesque Kintore Ranges, surrounded by Mulga and Spinifex country. It is a community with a population of about 400. Kintore and the town of Yuendumu are mentioned by name in the lyrics, as are vehicles produced by Holden.[4]
Performances
Midnight Oil performed the song in front of a world audience of millions at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Then Prime Minister John Howard had triggered controversy that year with his refusal to embrace symbolic reconciliation and apologise to Indigenous Australians and members of the stolen generations. But he had also claimed that the reconciliation-themed "Beds Are Burning" was his favorite Midnight Oil song. The band played it dressed in black, with the word "Sorry" printed conspicuously all over their clothes, as a popular apology to indigenous people and to highlight the issue to Howard, who was in the audience as the ranking Olympic host.
Other appearances
- Live at the World Café: Vol. 15 - Handcrafted (2002, World Café)
Cover versions
In 2002, Heaven's Cry covered this song on their "Primal Power Addiction" album.
In 2004, the German Eurodance group Novaspace covered this song. In 2006, Pearl Jam covered the song as a tag to their hit song "Daughter" during the Australian leg of their tour, in the same year the French metalcore band Black Bomb A released their version of it on their album "One Sound Bite to React". In 2008, The Nightwatchman covered the song with Justin Sane and Chris Barker of Anti-Flag at the Sydney and Perth Big Day Out festival, and additionally Billy Bragg at the Adelaide Big Day Out festival in Australia. Gyroscope played the song during the breakdown of their song, "Fast Girl", on their "The Australia Tour" in August-October 2008.
Former Concrete Blonde frontwoman Johnette Napolitano and Rachel Stamp guitarist Will Crewdson posted a version of the song on their mutual MySpace page[5] in 2008. Their version is largely faithful to the original, the greatest differences being that in their version the chorus and bridge are less-densely orchestrated than the verses, and some small changes to the lyrics (for example, Napolitano replaces the line "To say fair's fair" with "to pay our share". She then repeats the line in its original place as well).
On 2 October 2009, 60 musicians and celebrities from around the world released a free reworked version to highlight climate change issues ahead of the United Nations' talks in Copenhagen. Singers included Lily Allen, Klaus Meine of the Scorpions, Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran, Tyson Ritter of The All-American Rejects, and Bob Geldof. The former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and French actress Marion Cotillard also added their voices to the cover version. The song is part of Global Humanitarian Forum tck tck tck time for climate justice campaign and is a part of the greater "TckTckTck" project,[6] which aims to draw attention to the urgency of the global warming crisis, by signing a "musical petition" with each download.
References
- ^ http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_songs-newave.html 61. Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
- ^ MIDNIGHT OIL - BEDS ARE BURNING (CHANSON) lescharts.com (Hung Medien)
- ^ "The final list: APRA'S Ten best Australian Songs". Australasian Performing Rights Association. 28 May 2001. Archived from the original on 8 March 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
- ^ "Beds Are Burning". midnight-oil.info. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
- ^ MySpace[dead link]
- ^ The Global Campaign for Climate Action 2011[dead link]
External links
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