'Black tears' by Powderfinger censored

Media coverage of the controversy about 'Black Tears'

Powderfinger album checks in at Number One

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Extracts from media coverage on Powderfinger's "Black Tears" controversy:

Dream Days scored some unexpected early publicity when a Queensland journalist wrote a news story about the album track Black Tears and its lyrics relating to the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee at Palm Island in 2004.

Fanning wrote the song originally after a trip to Uluru where, despite “literature and signage asking people not to climb on the rock due to its sacred nature, there were still people scaling it”.

He left the song unfinished until reading that there wasn’t enough evidence to take the Palm Island case to trial, then wrote two verses relating to the case, as well as the line “island watchhouse bed, black man’s lying dead” which is repeated as the song fades out.

However, when a story ran last month it was claimed Fanning’s words may hamper the now-scheduled court case on June 12 with the album out this Saturday.

Lawyers for former police Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, who is facing charges of manslaughter and assault of Mulrunji, planned to lodge a complaint about the lyrics of Black Tears with Queensland Attorney General Kerry Shine.

The band opted to alter the lyrics, issuing a statement that read “whilst we firmly believe that the song would have no bearing upon the legal process, in the interests of removing even the slightest suggestion of any prejudice, we have included an alternative version on our album”.

Fanning is still sketchy about how a journalist got their hands on the lyrics, refuting the notion they would have merely penned them down during a listening session of the album.

“There was stuff that referred more directly to the trial that’s coming up,” Fanning says of the song’s original lyrics. “It’s a weird and frustrating situation. It’s only because of the proximity to the trial that it’s an issue. It’s stuff that’s all been written in the paper. I suppose it’s still alleged to have happened.

“When I wrote the song there was no trial scheduled. I would prefer the original version was what came out. Hopefully at some stage it will be legally permissible so we can release it.”

- Cameron Adams, in Sunday Times, June 02, 2007

'The concert took a sober turn when Fanning performed the controversial Black Tears alone, strumming away at his acoustic.

'The song, which highlights the plight of Aboriginal people, had to be altered after complaints were made that it could hinder the trial of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley. Hurley is awaiting trial charged with the assault and manslaughter of an aboriginal man in custody.

' "The song is about black people's wishes being ignored," Fanning said, and with a cock of the eyebrow he added: "We had to change the lyrics, so this is the alternate version." '

- Jay Hanna, Sunday Times Music Editor