Diesel and Dust

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Diesel and Dust is the sixth studio album by Australian rock band Midnight Oil, released in August 1987 by SPRINT Music label under Columbia Records. Diesel and Dust was produced by Warne Livesey and the band. It is a concept album about the struggles of Indigenous Australians and environmental causes, issues important to the band. It drew inspiration from the Blackfella/Whitefella Tour of remote Indigenous communities with the Warumpi Band and Gondwanaland in 1986. The album peaked at No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart for six weeks.

Diesel and Dust has been critically lauded since its release. Rolling Stone editors named it the best album of 1988 (the year of its United States release),<ref>Template:Usurped. Rolling Stone. Archived at Rocklist.net. Retrieved 17 June 2018.</ref> and later ranked it the 13th greatest record of the 1980s.<ref name="RS"/><ref name="McCarthy"/> In October 2010, Diesel and Dust was listed at number 1 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.<ref name="ODonnell"/> In December 2021, the album was listed at no. 5 in Rolling Stone Australia's "200 Greatest Albums of All Time" countdown.<ref>Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone Australia, Rolling Stone Australia, 06 December 2021. Retrieved 06 December 2021.</ref>

BackgroundEdit

Midnight Oil spent several months in mid-1986 on the Blackfella/Whitefella Tour of outback Australia with indigenous music groups Warumpi Band and Gondwanaland, playing to remote Aboriginal communities and seeing first hand the seriousness of the issues in health and living standards.<ref name="McF"/> The tour was criticised by some journalists for being a one-off event instead of a long-term attempt to build bridges between communities.<ref name="Vellutini"/> The band was galvanised by the experiences and made them the basis of their next album, Diesel and Dust, which was released in August 1987 and produced by Warne Livesey and the band.<ref name="ARDb"/> The album focused on the need for recognition by white Australia of past injustices involving the Aboriginal nation and the need for reconciliation. Peter Gifford left the band before the album's release due to extensive touring schedules,<ref name="Howl"/> and was replaced on bass guitar by Bones Hillman, formerly of The Swingers.<ref name="ARDb"/> The track "Gunbarrel Highway" was not included on the United States version of the album, reportedly, because the line "shit falls like rain on a world that is brown" was deemed too offensive for US audiences.<ref name="DeadHeart"/>

Diesel and Dust peaked at No. 1 on the Australian albums charts for six weeks,<ref name="Kent"/> No. 21 on the US Billboard 200 in 1988,<ref name="BillA"/> and No. 19 on the UK Albums Chart.<ref name="UKCharts"/> "Beds Are Burning" was their biggest international hit single, peaking at No. 6 in Australia,<ref name="Kent"/> No. 17 on the US Billboard Hot 100<ref name="BillS"/> and No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart.<ref name="UKCharts"/> "The Dead Heart" peaked at No. 4 in Australia,<ref name="Kent"/> and charted on the Hot 100<ref name="BillS"/> and in the UK.<ref name="UKCharts"/> "Put Down that Weapon" also charted in Australia,<ref name="Kent"/> while "Dreamworld" charted on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and at No. 16 on its Modern Rock Tracks.<ref name="BillS"/>

At the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) 1988 Awards ceremony, Midnight Oil won "Best Cover Art" for Diesel and Dust. The album cover was designed by photographer Ken Duncan (b.1954, Mildura, VIC) and visual artist Wart (also known as Jen Waterhouse) (b.1958, Geelong, VIC). It also won "Best Single" and "Best Song" for "Beds Are Burning".<ref name=arialist/><ref name=aria1988/> A fracas developed between Gary Morris, their manager who was accepting awards for Midnight Oil, and former Countdown compere Ian Meldrum who was presenting: Meldrum objected to Morris making political commentary from the podium.<ref name=aria1988/>

There were concerns about Diesel and Dust and Midnight Oil's attempts to express indigenous issues to white urban audiences – namely, the question "who holds the power to tell whose history?"<ref name="Vellutini"/> The lyrics of "The Dead Heart" tell the story of colonisation from an indigenous point of view, but some critics felt they reinforced the "primitive" stereotype.<ref name="Vellutini"/> Use of the bullroarer was criticised as belonging to sacred rituals, and therefore not appropriate for rock songs.<ref name="Vellutini"/> "The Dead Heart" had been written in response to a request by organisers of the 1985 ceremony to return control of Uluru to its indigenous caretakers; Midnight Oil originally resisted being added to a concert bill that they believed should contain indigenous groups, but the organisers insisted, arguing that the band would reach a wider audience within the predominantly Caucasian urban centres.<ref name="BBCBio"/> Midnight Oil requested that all royalties from the song go to indigenous communities.<ref name="MemTV"/> In addition, two indigenous groups, Warumpi Band and Gondwanaland, toured with them.

Hirst said, "There's been a kind of folky element in Midnight Oil for a very long time. I think you first heard it in songs like "Kosciusko", but it really burst forward when we did Diesel and Dust."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Following the 1988 American tour in support of Diesel and Dust with Australian band Yothu Yindi, Midnight Oil launched the Burning Bridges album with various artists contributing, including Paul Kelly, Scrap Metal, Coloured Stone, Hunters & Collectors, James Reyne, The Saints, Crowded House, and INXS.<ref name="McF"/> All sales proceeds were donated to the National Coalition of Aboriginal Organisations.<ref name="McF"/>

ReceptionEdit

Template:Music ratings According to Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane, Midnight Oil "reached the peak of its powers with the release of the groundbreaking Diesel and Dust... [it] is arguably one of the greatest Australian albums of all time. Powerful, dynamic and passionate songs like 'Beds are Burning', 'Put Down that Weapon', 'Dreamworld', 'The Dead Heart' and 'Sell My Soul' were statements of intent and a call to action backed by the strength of their convictions".<ref name="McF"/> Mark Deming of AllMusic called the record "an artistic success and a triumph for leftist politics" which "makes clear that the bandmembers could apply their intelligence and passion to less aggressive material and still come up with forceful, compelling music".<ref name="allmusic"/>

Track listingEdit

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ChartsEdit

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Weekly chartsEdit

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Chart (1987–1988)	Peak position
Australian Albums Kent Music Report<ref name="Kent 1993">Template:Cite book NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988.</ref>	1

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Year-end chartsEdit

Chart (1987)	Position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name="Kent 1993"/>	11
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	6
Chart (1988)	Position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	88
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	13
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	30