Midnight Oil: Beds are Burning

'Beds are Burning' by Midnight Oil

'The time has come
To say fair's fair..

The time has come,
A fact's a fact,
It belongs to them,
Let's give it back.

How can we dance
While our earth is turning?
How do we sleep
While our beds are burning?'



'Put Down that Weapon'

Under the waterline
No place to retire
To another time
The eyes of the world now turn

And if we think about it
And if we talk about it
And if the skies go dark with rain
Can you tell me will our freedom remain

Put down that weapon or we'll all be gone
You can't hide nowhere with the torchlight on
And it happens to be an emergency
Some things aren't meant to be
Some things don't come for free

Above the waterline
Point the finger yeah point the bone
It's the harbour towns
That the grey metal ships call home

And if we think about it
And if we talk about it
And if the seas go boiling black
Can you tell me what you'll do about that

Put down that weapon or we'll all be gone
I must know something to know it's so wrong
And it happens to be an emergency
Some things aren't meant to be
Some things don't come for free

They keep talking about it
They keep talking...

Put down that weapon or we'll all be gone
You must be crazy if you think you're strong.'



'Blue Sky Mine'

Hey, hey-hey hey
There'll be food on the table tonight
Hey, hey, hey hey
There'll be pay in your pocket tonight

My gut is wrenched out, it is crunched up and broken;
A life that is led is no more than a token.
Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why?
If I yell out at night there's a reply of bruised silence,
The screen is no comfort I can't speak my sentence.

They blew the lights at heaven's gate and I don't know why.

But if I work all day at the blue sky mine
(There'll be food on the table tonight)
Still I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(There'll be pay in your pocket tonight)
The candy store paupers lie to the share holders,
They're crossing their fingers, they pay the truth makers
The balance sheet is breaking up the sky
So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine,
The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine;
Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night.
And if the blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue,
If the sugar refining company won't save me,
Who's gonna save me?

But if I work all day...

And some have sailed from a distant shore:
And the company takes what the company wants,
And nothing's as precious, as a hole in the ground.

Who's gonna save me?
I pray that sense and reason brings us in.
Who's gonna save me?
We've got nothing to fear.

In the end the rain comes down,
Washes clean, the streets of a blue sky town.