The Real Thing is a mostly acoustic live album by Midnight Oil, which includes four additional studio recordings, among them a cover version of Russell Morris's classic "The Real Thing". It was initially issued in Australia with a bonus disk of interview material listed as containing 2 tracks ("Interview" and "Track by track") but the CD was divided into 30 tracks, dividing the interview up so that past albums and each track on "The Real Thing" gets a short discussion followed by snippet from the album or song being discussed. Later international releases had a bonus disk with videos of "Cemetery In My Mind" and "Redneck Wonderland".
Like the band's previous live album Scream in Blue, it was not included in the Full Tank box set, but three of the four studio tracks appear on the b-sides disc of the Overflow Tank box set (the fourth is included on Full Tank as part of Capricornia).
