Diesel and Dust is the sixth studio album by Australian rock band Midnight Oil, released in August 2, 1987 by SPRINT Music label under Columbia Records. The album 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.
The album has been critically acclaimed since its release. Rolling Stone editors named it the best album of 1988 (the year of its release in the United States), and later ranked it as the thirteenth best album of the 1980s. In October 2010, Diesel and Dust was included at number 1 in the book 100 Best Australian Albums. In December 2021, the album appeared at #5 on Rolling Stone Australia’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
According to Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane, Midnight Oil “reached the peak of their power with the release of the groundbreaking Diesel and Dust…. it is arguably the greatest Australian album 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.
Tracklist:
- Beds Are Burning
- Put Down That Weapon
- Dreamworld
- Arctic World
- Warakurna
- The Dead Heart
- Whoah
- Bullroarer
- Sell My Soul
- Sometimes
Midnight Oil:
Peter Garrett: lead vocals and backing vocals
Peter Gifford: bass and backing vocals
Robert Hirst: drums, drum machine and backing vocals
Jim Moginie: guitars, synthesizers, backing vocals and string arrangements
Martin Rotsey: guitars
Additional musicians:
Glad Reed: trombone
John Ockwell: cello
Jeremy Smith: french horn
Production
Midnight Oil: production
Warne Livesey: production, additional keyboards
Guy Gray: engineering
Greg Henderson: engineering
Gary Morris: management (credited as “facilitator”)
