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How can we dance when the beds are burning


Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil

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Songfacts®:

  • This 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 now a thriving little community with a population of about 400.

  • Regarding the line, "From Kintore East to Yuendemu," Yuendemu is an aboriginal community in Central Australia, 250 Kilometers northwest of Alice Springs. >>

    Suggestion credit:
    Dave Malkoff - San Francisco, CA, for above 2

  • Midnight Oil performed this in front of a worldwide audience of billions, (including Prime Minister John Howard, who has claimed it as his favorite Midnight Oil song) at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The whole band were dressed in black, with the words "sorry" printed conspicuously on their clothes. This was a reference to the Prime Minister's refusal to apologize, on behalf of Australia, to the Aboriginal Australians for the way they have been treated over the last 200 years.

  • Diesel and Dust is ranked the #1 Australian album of all time in Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell's book, The 100 Best Australian Albums, which was published in 2010. The runner-up is AC/DC's 1980 classic record Back in Black.

  • In 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association placed this at #3 (behind the Easybeats' "Friday On My Mind" and Daddy Cool's "Eagle Rock") on their list of the Top 30 Australian Songs of the past 75 years. Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett spoke of the tune's enduring power.

    "In retrospect it 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," he explained. "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?"

  • This won Best Single and Best Song at the 1988 ARIA Awards (the album also won Best Cover Art). Gary Morris, the band's manager, accepted the prizes on behalf of the group and got into a tiff with Australian music journalist Molly Meldrum when he declared he didn't like the evening's choice of presenters, particularly Bryan Ferry. Morris made a snide remark about Ferry's stylishly wrinkled suit, causing Meldrum to leap to the Roxy Music leader's defense. Morris later explained the problem was that Ferry was a Brit presenting an Australian award: "I had an attitude about bringing over offshore artists to present at a local awards. "

  • This was featured in the 2007 drama The Kite Runner, starring Khalid Abdalla and Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada. It was also used in the 1988 TV movie Ladykillers, starring Marilu Henner, and the animated comedy American Dad! in the 2013 episode "The Full Cognitive Redaction of Avery Bullock by the Coward Stan Smith."

  • More songs from Midnight Oil
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  • Lyrics to Beds Are Burning
  • Midnight Oil Artistfacts

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BEDS ARE BURNING - Midnight Oil

BEDS ARE BURNING - Midnight Oil - LETRAS.COM

Home Rock'n'Roll Midnight Oil Beds Are Burning

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

The time has come to say fairs fair
to pay the rent, now to pay our share

Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In 45 degrees

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

The time has come to say fair's fair
To pay the rent, now to pay our share
The time has come, a fact's a fact
It belongs to them, let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

    Letras Academy

    Pronunciation dictionary

    • Yuendemu
    • Earth
    • Fairs
    • Where
    • Bloodwood

    See more words

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    View all songs by Midnight Oil
    1. Beds Are Burning
    2. The Dead Heart
    3. Forgotten Years
    4. Blue Sky Mine
    5. Bullroarer
    6. Rising Seas
    7. Truganini
    8. Warakurna
    9. At The Time Of Writing
    10. Put Down That Weapon
    11. Renaissance Man
    12. The Barka-Darling River
    13. Antarctica
    14. Arctic World
    15. Armistice Day
    16. Back On The Borderline
    17. Barest Degree
    18. Basemente Flat
    19. Bedlam Bridge
    20. Been Away Too Long

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    Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning lyrics Lyrics

    Beds Are Burning

    Out where the river broke time has come
    To say fair's fair
    To pay the rent
    To pay our share
    The time has come
    A fact's a fact
    It belongs to them
    Let's give it back

    How can we dance when our earth is turning
    How do we sleep while our beds are burning
    How can we dance when our earth is turning
    How do we sleep while our beds are burning

    The time has come
    To say fair's fair
    To pay the rent, now
    To pay our share

    Four wheels scare the cockatoos
    From Kintore East to Yuendemu
    The western desert lives and breathes
    In forty five degrees

    The time has come
    To say fair's fair
    To pay the rent
    To pay our share
    The time has come
    A fact's a fact
    It belongs to them
    Let's give it back

    How can we dance when our earth is turning
    How do we sleep while our beds are burning
    How can we dance when our earth is turning
    How do we sleep while our beds are burning

    The time has come
    To say fair's fair
    To pay the rent, now
    To pay our share
    The time has come
    A fact's a fact
    It belongs to them
    We're gonna give it back

    How can we dance when our earth is turning
    How do we sleep while our beds are burning

    The beds are smoking

    From where the river broke
    Bloodwood and desert oak
    Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
    Steam at forty-five degrees

    The time has come
    To say fair FAIR
    To pay the rent
    To pay our share
    The time has come
    Fact fact
    He belongs to them
    Let's give it back

    How can we dance When our earth is spinning
    How we sleep while our beds are on fire
    How can we dance When our earth is spinning
    How we sleep while our beds are on fire

    The time has come
    To say fair FAIR
    To pay the rent, now
    To pay your share

    Four wheels scare away the cockatoo
    From Kintore East Yuendemu
    In the western desert life and breathes
    Through forty-five degrees

    The time has come
    To say fair FAIR
    To pay rent
    To pay our share
    The time has come
    Fact fact
    He belongs to them
    Let's give it back

    How can we dance When our earth is turning
    How do we sleep while our beds are burning
    How can we dance When our earth is spinning
    How we sleep while our beds are burning

    The time has come
    To say fair FAIR
    To pay the rent, now
    To pay our share
    The time has come
    Fact fact
    He belongs to them
    We're going to bring him back

    How can we dance When our earth is spinning
    How do we sleep while our beds are burning

    This page contains the translation of the song "Beds Are Burning" by the artist Midnight Oil.

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