Midnight Oil

Aug. 12, 1985

As career-defining songs go, Midnight Oil could’ve done much worse than 1987’s “Beds Are Burning.” The song neatly encapsulates the Australian quartet’s core obsessions: environmental exploitation, native land rights, and the indifference or antipathy of modern society to either. But prior to that stratospheric hit, the band were among many fellow-travelers making modest inroads into the American underground. They appeared on “SNAP!” in August of 1985 to discuss their new album, “Red Sails in the Sunset.”

Midnight Oil
Photo by David Corio/Redferns.