Midnight Oil - Beds are Burning Lyrics


One Hit Wonders

Midnight Oil

Beds are Burning Lyrics
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 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
Writer: GARRETT, PETER / GIFFORD, PETER / HIRST, ROBERT / MOGINIE, JAMES
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Beds are Burning Info:

• This is a protest 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. -Wikipedia

• In 1981, they left to return to their own country and established the Kintore community, which is nestled in the Kintore Ranges. It is a community with a population of about 400.

• This song is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".

Released: 1987


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