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All Music Guide to Rock : The Experts' Guide to the Best Rock Recordings in Rock, Pop, Soul, R&B, and Rap (Amg All Music Guide Series)
by Michael Erlewine (Editor), Chris Woodstra (Editor), Stephen thom Erlewine, Vladimir Bogdanov (Editor)
 

Amazon.com Midnight Oil Book Section
 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 

The second edition of All Music's popular rock encyclopedia is a thorough and informed survey of thousands of CD titles currently on the market. While pop, soul, R&B, and rap titles are critiqued, the emphasis here is on rock with a capital "R." Indeed, it's not too hard to stump the book with indie titles and other offbeat recordings. (Try The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock for a fitting underground complement to this more mainstream reference.) That said, the genre's almost 2,000 musicians are placed under the microscope. Recommendations for first and essential purchases as well as biographies and other vital facts flesh out the entries. This isn't the only book you'll need for your pop-music reference library, but it is a key purchase for rabid CD buyers. --Steven Stolder 
Ingram 
Fun-to-read and easy-to-use, this reference, compiled by dozens of noted music critics, lists more than 15,000 recordings by 2,500 rock, pop and soul artists. Performers are profiled, with their top albums listed and rated. Reviews of key recordings discuss the artist's evolutions and significance in the world of rock. Major figures are highlighted with expanded biographies and complete album discographies. 40 charts. 
 

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Blue Sky Mining
Midnight Oil

Amazon.com's Midnight Oil's Products Page

1. Blue Sky Mine
2. Stars Of Warburton
3. Bedlam Bridge
4. Forgotten Years
5. Mountains Of Burma
 6. King Of The Mountain
7. River Runs Red
8. Shakers And Movers
9. One Country
10. Antarctica
 

   Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Oils seem to be such a purposeful band that every album has its own strength and can stand alone. I haven't found a weak one yet and of the five I own, it's hard to pick a favourite. Much of the Oils' work is political in nature and they have never been afraid of screaming blue murder, as it were, about a particularly serious situation. Yet they are also a whimsical band that can play soft and low, and produce some of the most evocative songs of modern Rock. On "Blue Sky Mining," songs like the "Mountains of Burma" and "River Runs Red" have an almost plaintive quality at times, although that inner strength which marches through all their music is never far away. The pleasure I get out of singing songs like "Forgotten Years," which I now find myself singing along with my 10-year-old son, is ridiculous. Who can forget lyrics like, "Still it aches like tetanus," once heard.

It seems the Oils are everything at once. They have rolled history, folklore, aboriginal mythology, social action, environmental consciousness and goodness knows what else into one and made it work. Maybe that's why they are so hard to pin down, and also why they are able to keep going. They are their own mystery and occupy a space in which individual growth is matched by genuine concern for the world they live in. Long life to the Oils.
 

Biography

Formed Sydney, Australia, 1976.

Rob Hirst (drums) and Jim Moginie (guitar/keyboards) -- old schoolmates in Sydney -- had been together as a band called Farm since 1971. With Andrew ‘Bear’ James on bass, they were best known for performing along the coast during summer holidays. Then in 1975 they advertised in a newspaper for a lead vocalist and had just one response -- Peter Garrett, law student and former member of the band Rock Island Line. They signed him up, scratched up Martin Rotsey (guitar) from somewhere, renamed themselves Midnight Oil, and hooked up with local entrepreneur Gary Morris, who became their manager. It was the beginning for one of Australia’s finest bands -- and one of the few groups in the last two decades to combine strong political lyrics with mainstream chart success. 

The early Midnight Oil played sporadically around Sydney’s northern beaches during 1977, expanding their reach after Garrett received his Law degree that summer. By 1978, they were gigging five nights a week and had found support in ‘alternative’ radio station 2JJ. Record companies were less adventurous, and after being turned down by all the major labels in Australia the band formed their own, called Powderworks, recording their debut, MIDNIGHT OIL (1978), in an economic ten days. It was a fine declaration, establishing a rootsy pop sound.

Following its release, the band’s militant, socially active side began to emerge. They played an anti-uranium mining benefit at the Sydney Town Hall, and went on to gig in support of Greenpeace and the Tibet Council. In 1979, they turned their attention to business practices in the local live music circuit. Unhappy with the monopoly operated by local promoters and agents, they formed their own booking agency, blacklisting any venues they felt overcharged the public.
HEAD INJURIES (1979), their second album, went gold in Australia, helped by a national hit single, “Cold Cold Change”. After a personnel change -- James left the band in 1980 due to ill-health, and was replaced by Peter Gifford -- a mini-album, BIRD NOISES, followed, again achieving gold status in Australia. Then came PLACE WITHOUT A POSTCARD (1981), recorded in Britain with producer Glyn Johns, but drawing heavily on Australian history in its lyrics. It went platinum at home and yielded a major chart single, “Armistice Day”.

Armed with a sheaf of politically charged songs, the Oils returned to Britain late in 1982 to record the 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 album. The crowning glory of this trip was a night supporting The Who. However, they turned down their hosts’ offer to support on an upcoming US tour, and headed back home, where the album spent a staggering two years in the Top 40.
Following 1984’s RED SAILS IN THE SUNSET album, Garrett took his political involvement a stage further, announcing that he was going to stand for a seat on the Australian Senate, on a Nuclear Disarmament Party slate. He received 200,000 votes and was only very narrowly defeated. After participating in the Artists United Against Apartheid project in 1985, Garrett focused his attention on racism closer to home, writing a track for a documentary about the Aborigines, and taking the band on the ‘Black Fella White Fella’ tour along with Aboriginal group, the Warumpi Band.

These experiences provided the subject matter for the DIESEL AND DUST (1987) album, which went gold in a day and platinum in three in Australia, and had the largest ship-out in the history of the country’s record industry. Its stand-out track, “Beds Are Burning”, reached the US and UK Top 20, too, drawing attention for a world tour (with New Zealander Dwayne ‘Bones’ Hillman replacing Gifford on bass).
If the Oils ever considered subduing their lyrics for mainstream success abroad, it must have been a fleeting thought. After the world tour, they returned with BLUE SKY MINING (1990), which was as biting as any previous release, its title track written for the thousands of Australians who had contracted cancer while working as blue asbestos miners. The following year, the band was back on the road, rocking out to mass enthusiasm, as evidenced by a great live album, SCREAM IN BLUE (1992).

They returned to the UK and US charts with the 1993 album, EARTH & SUN & MOON, and remain one of the most enjoyable, honest and committed acts around. BREATHE, their tenth album -- recorded in Sydney and New Orleans -- was released in 1996. The following year, the band celebrated their sixteenth anniversary with the release of a compilation titled 20,000 WATT R.S.L., which gave fans, in addition to sixteen of their best old songs, a sneak preview of things to come, with two tracks from their next ‘proper’ album, REDNECK WONDERLAND (1998). They remain as challenging as ever: their latest single “White Skin Black Heart” (featured on REDNECK WONDERLAND) has been dubbed ‘too controversial’ for airplay on Australian radio for its attacks on the government. © Rough Guides
 
 

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