Song Lyric Sunday

The theme of SLS this week is a song that includes either hot, burning, fire or blazing, prompted by Jim and suggested by Nancy. 

My choice is the classic Midnight Oil Song Beds Are Burning a song about Aboriginal land rights. Who’d have thunk that would make a classic tune?

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boilin’ 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 turnin’?
How do we sleep while our beds are burnin’?
How can we dance when our earth is turnin’?
How do we sleep while our beds are burnin’?

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 turnin’?
How do we sleep while our beds are burnin’?
How can we dance when our earth is turnin’?
How do we sleep while our beds are burnin’?

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 turnin’?
How do we sleep while our beds are burnin’?

Written by Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst and Jim Moginie