The Dead Heart

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“The Dead Heart”
Single by Midnight Oil from the album Diesel and Dust
Released	1986
Genre	Rock
Label	Columbia Records
Producer	Midnight Oil

"The Dead Heart" is a song by Australian rock band Midnight Oil. It was first released as a single in Australia in 1986 and in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1988 after it had been included on the 1987 album, Diesel and Dust. It peaked at #4 on the Australian charts and at #11 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks.

The song, like several others by the band, refers to early white settlement in Australia and is sung from the perspective of the Aborigines who had laid claim to the land prior to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. The song's chorus carries a far more empowering message than the verses, featuring the lyrics, "We carry in our hearts the true country / And that cannot be stolen / We follow in the steps of our ancestry / And that cannot be broken".

The song also gives a mention to the industrialisation of Australia with the lyrics "Mining companies, pastoral companies, uranium companies, collected companies / Got more right than people / Got more say than people". This is a sentiment that would be repeated in the 1990 single, "Blue Sky Mine".

[edit] Cover versions

Sydney-based punk rock band, Frenzal Rhomb recorded a significantly up-tempo version of the song for the 2001 album, Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil.