tdh Opinions Reviews Diesel and Dust

Diesel and Dust

"When it comes to the question of homegrown rock 'n' roll, even the most gregarious Australians have been known to grown uncharacteristically taciturn. What precisely is Australian rock music? Only America could produce Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen, only England The Beatles or The Clash, only Ireland Van Morrison and U2. But what of the land down under? Internationally known Australian acts like the Bee Gees, Men At Work, and INXS have proven largely indistinguishable from Euro-pop bands, while such non-exported local heroes as Jimmy Barnes have ridden frat-circuit covers of Sam & Dave tunes to national stardom. Is this Australian rock - a watered-down, provincial version of Euro-American culture?

Australian rock came into its own with Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust. Fronted by the arresting vocalist Peter Garrett, whose bald pate bespoke a love for competitive surfing and angry words a deep commitment to environmental politics, the band distilled the Australian experience with this musical diary of a rough-shot tour of the Aboriginal outback of the country's Northern Territory. Playing for tribes, the band experienced the disenfranchisement and extreme poverty of the country's first inhabitants, and confronted the dark side of European settlement. The album's key songs, "Beds Are Burning" and "The Dead Heart," celebrated the return of Ayers Rock, a sacred tribal site, to its original owners, while "Warakurna" captured the close, spiritual relationship between the Aborigines and the land.

Together, it was a vision of Australia as a land of ancient and enduring power, both physical and metaphysical - and of how modern Australians have closed their eyes to the innate character of the country in a quest for less enduring goals. Couched in the language of modern rock, it was the voice of Europe discovering the soul of the other: a true diary of the Australian experience."

Fred Goodman - 4/4/96