12/03/2011

Streets Of Your Town


It is probably natural, if not logical, to think that the further away you go from home, the stranger and more unfamiliar the places will seem. Hence the Latin phrase, Hic Sunt Dracones (Here be Dragons) written across the east coast of Asia on the Lenox Globe, one of the oldest surviving world globes. By this reckoning Australia, 10,000 miles away, should seem one of the most unfamiliar to British eyes. In many ways, of course, having developed in isolation from the rest of the world, it is a totally different sort of place, with its odd animals found nowhere else. Yet in others, because of the way it was colonised and because of the cultural familiarity of programmes like Neighbours, it often doesn’t seem like the other side of the world, where everything should really be a foreign country. In terms of notions about Australia, the UK has also had the phenomenon of Rolf Harris, a reassuring uncle from overseas figure who has been part of the British landscape now for as long as the Queen (his first British TV appearance was in 1953, the Coronation year).

Through music and films and TV, Britain has had a mixed picture of Australia. Much of it has been of the matey, Crocodile Dundee type of genre, with songs like A Pub With No Beer and the adverts for Castlemaine xxxx Lager. This has been alongside a notion of the outback and a vast and strange landscape that seems about to reclaim its own, seen in children’s TV shows or films like Smiley or Skippy or, at the other end of the spectrum, films like Walkabout and Rabbit-Proof Fence. (Rolf Harris touched on both strands early in his singing career with Tie My Kangaroo Down, Sport and Sun Arise). There has, however, been little from songs about particular cities - Sydney, Melbourne, Perth – to help paint a picture of them in the mind.

When I went to Australia – a short (4 day) trip to Brisbane, via the flight to Singapore that Magna Carta sung so evocatively of in their Airport Song – I had few clear expectations. The experience was an odd one. The initial thought, emerging in searing sunshine 2 days after setting off on a dreary September evening in England, was that I really was on the other side of the world, rather like Alice falling down a very deep rabbit hole. A question that used to be asked at school even came into my head for a fleeting moment.: ‘Why don’t people in Australia walk upside down?’. This feeling, however, didn’t last longer than the ride into Brisbane. Perhaps because it had developed as a series of ‘villages’, I found it difficult to get a sense of the place. There were some pleasant semi-tropical botanic gardens, a lot of glass towers and shopping malls where you might get charged ’10 bucks’ American-style for something, a Chinese quarter, a sense of motorways and endless suburbs. An hour’s drive or so north were views over countryside that could have been England. A short train ride to the south was the Gold Coast, a mixture of Blackpool and Tenerife’s Las Playas de Americas: hot sun, brilliantly blue sea lined by skyscraper hotels, garish neon lights, casinos, the sense of dollar signs floating in the air. Viva Las Vegas might have been a suitable soundtrack.

The choice of song here, then, might seem odd: Streets of Your Town, a hauntingly beautiful song by The Go Betweens, from their 1988 album 16 Lovers Lane. The Go Betweens were a Brisbane group that were as far away from the stereotype of a band from Queensland as possible. They took their name from L.P Hartley’s novel; they did melodic, lyrical songs by founder members Robert Forster and Grant McLennan that had a Byrds jingle-jangly sound at times; they had a female drummer. Many of their songs referenced Queensland and Brisbane and Streets of Your Town is an evocative mood song reflecting Brisbane in the era of the notorious Bjelke-Petersen Queensland government: a sunny upbeat tune with dark lyrics.

It is also a particularly interesting song for two reasons. The first is that it is one of those songs that is misinterpreted by some to be the opposite of what was intended by the authors. Streets of Your Town has been described as ‘a favourite summer song’ and has been used as a jingle by Prime Television and by Brisbane paper, the Courier-Mail, in its ads: I don’t know if the lines about butcher’s knives and battered wives were included. The best known example of songs like this is perhaps Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA being taken up by Reagan’s 1984 election campaign as a patriotic anthem but there have been others. Leonard Cohen’s dark, bitter Hallelujah was taken by many as a Christmas offering a la Mistletoe and Wine when Alexandra Burke’s version was released as a Christmas single after winning the 2008 X Factor. Or there was the 1973 Strawbs’ hit, Part of the Union, taken up by the Trades Union Congress at the time and others since as a union solidarity sing-along, though it had been written as a satirical anti-union whinge by group members Richard Hudson and John Ford aggrieved at having to join a union when doing a holiday job as students.(They re-surfaced later in the 1970’s as part of one-hit wonders The Monks with Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face, which I don’t think was misinterpreted by anyone as an anthem of feminist solidarity). And David Cameron was either being deeply ironical or missing the point of the lyrics when he claimed The Jam’s Eton Rifles as one of his favourite songs. (As Paul Weller put it, "Which part of it doesn't he get? It wasn't intended as a f***ing jolly drinking song for the cadet corps.")

The second is that the imagery and mood offered through the song and two accompanying videos for Streets of Your Town is totally at odds with my brief experience of Brisbane. So much, in fact, that the place in the song still exists in a parallel universe somewhere and I think that, maybe one day, I will emerge into the sunshine as from a rabbit hole and find it.



57 comments:

  1. Geoff, I remember the trauma of your looooong flight from an earlier column and was wondering when / if you would write about the destination of that journey!!:)

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  2. I love the idea that the Gold Coast is a mixture of Blackpool and Tenerife’s Las Playas de Americas - what a strange and disasterous pairing!

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  3. I definitely think Americans see Australia differently, presumably because we don't have the same TV shows set there or singers like Rolf Harris. My overriding impression is one of great natural beauty, incredible deserts and rock formations plus the Great Barrier Reef. And I have the impression is it hugely underpopulated. Just vast open spaces, reminiscent of Arizona in the U.S. maybe. But I very much agree that none of this comes from music, and that music hasn't really tried to paint a picture of any of Australia, unusually for the English speaking world or anywhere really!

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  4. Bearing in mind how you describe the idea of a place that is the other side of the world, and should be as different as can be, the opening of The Gobetweens (the novel) seems applicable here - about the idea of "another country" where "they do things differently" (he is talking about the past, but it sort of applies!

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  5. Ah, Rolf Harris! I used to watch his programme where he would start drawing something and then say "can ya see what it is, yet?"

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  6. This is such a great idea, Geoff, the way you end the column - the idea that this song and its videos hold one image of Brisbane, your own experience suggested another, and so there is a parallel universe situation: "So much, in fact, that the place in the song still exists in a parallel universe somewhere and I think that, maybe one day, I will emerge into the sunshine as from a rabbit hole and find it". And also there could be a Alice-through-the-looking-glass idea here, about reality being exactly the same except in reverse (both the relationship between British and Australian culture, and your own experience vs. the song's images).

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  7. Geoff, I didn't know about that TUC moment when the Strawbs's song was transformed from anti-union whinge to union solidarity sing-along - that's a great story!

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  8. It is surely no surprise that Cameron got his wires crossed about The Jam’s Eton Rifles - he is not the sharpest tool in the shed......!

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  9. I went to find out about Rolf Harris, as I hadn't heard about him. This is waht I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS-itkO9ia8

    From the BBC.

    I have to say, there seem to be a higher-than-usual number of eccentrics on TV in England:) I'm not sure who I'm more bemused by, this guy or last week's Jimmy Saville!

    Thanks for the great column Geoff!

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  10. It's hilarious that this has been used as a summery jingle! The lyrics are really dark! It's great to know this is part of a pattern of using songs for their opposite intent!

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  11. Wait, someone really released a song called Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face????

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  12. These are great videos accompanying the song you wrote about Geoff!

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  13. I love Paul Weller - he always calls it how it is!

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  14. You might want to look up his version of Stairway to Heaven, Martha!

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  15. Yes, Eva, someone really did release that song Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfEsmXbjcyg

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  16. I wasn't sure what Geoff meant by "Mistletoe and Wine" but I think I narrowed down the options to be a Cliff Richard song - some kind of classic Christmas cheer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7lKKNrXUJg

    Sort of catchy really!

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  17. Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgsH1pdWJ84

    Best bits are the fact his main instrument is a piece of sheet metal, plus his apparent catchphrase "all together now." I'd love him and Jimmy Saville to get together for a catchphrase shoot-out, where they each screamed "all together now" and "How's about that, then?" until one of them gives in..........

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  18. I always thought it was weird when Reagan borrowed Springsteen's Born in the USA, I didn't realize there was a whole tradition of misappropriation - this is so fascinating!

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  19. Springsteen's song was reappropriated again recently by the right-wing, for the people protesting against a mosque/community center being built in lower Manhattan: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/08/23/born-in-the-u-s-a-mosque-protestors-ironic-anthem/

    So strange!

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  20. Remember when McCain had a *lot* of trouble finding a theme song because nobody really wanted him to use their music (he had to take a chance on ABBA), ha ha.

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  21. Springsteen wasn't happy about Reagan borrowing his song. It was so weird that Reagan's team thought Springsteen was some king of champion of traditional American patriotism - which was a total misrepresentation of his views. Reagan, while campaigning in New Jersey for his reelection, said, "America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what his job of mine is all about." Then kept blasting the song at rallies. Springsteen responded, "I didn't know whether to be embarrassed for me or for the President." Several days later, while onstage, he offered further comment: "The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album." Meaning an album all about working class struggles, no Reagan-like nationalism to be heard!

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  22. Geoff, as a humorous parody of Springsteen's song, I though you might enjoy Cheech and Chong's 1985 song "Born in East L.A.".....:)

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  23. I have to confess, this is totally how I imagine Australia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxpxU6H2WYA (A Pub with No Beer) - wild dingos and all!

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  24. The incident about "Part of the Union" is so interesting. Here is the song for anyone who wants it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOCWUgwiWs

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  25. I didn't know the origin of that phrase, Here Be Dragons - which I always thought just meant "here are things we don't know much about and are a bit scared of." I tried to find a visual image of the Lenox Globe: http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID11705/images/dragons.gif

    Wonderful column Geoff!

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  26. It's interesting that the comments under that youtube video of "Part of the Union" are all about standing in solidarity with the unions in Wisconsin - seems like people are still deliberately/accidentally misunderstanding the song!!

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  27. Maybe it doesnt matter now-perhaps the general interpretation has overtaken its origins.

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  28. I think the thing that really struck me when I lived in Australia for 6 months at one point was how totally EMPTY it is! Seriously, you don’t get this from reading the guidebooks: NO ONE is there! There are 22 million people, spread over a landmass exactly the same size as the continental United States (population 280 million), which makes for one empty country.

    Population density # per sq. kilometer in the Continental USA: 36.4

    In Australia: 2.9

    Hong Kong: 6,349

    TOTAL INSANITY!!!!

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  29. Yes, I think you're right Geoff. Maybe there is a whole subcategories of songs that are reinterpreted to the point where their original intent is forgotten, as opposed to attempted reinterpretations (like Reagan's) that fail because the original intent is reasserted by the creator (Springsteen) so firmly.

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  30. That's really interesting Marie. But it makes you wonder, #why does no one live there? Why aren’t there more Australians? Why didn’t Australia have the same kind of westward expansion as America? There is probably no answer to these questions, but it's interesting to thing about!

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  31. I wasn't sure what was notorious about the Bjelke-Petersen Queensland government, so I researched it and am sharing the fruit of my research for others who weren't sure about this (ha ha, Geoff, sometimes I desire footnotes in your columns!): Bjelke-Petersen was an extreme reactionary who was premier of Queensland, Australia from 1968 to 1988, he was against civil rights, the environment, land rights for Aborigines and social welfare, and he was pro big business. In September 1977 he banned political demonstrations--a ban which led to clashes with uranium protesters, unionists, students, liberals, communists, and well-known parliamentarians. He was later tried for corruption and perjury, on issues extending throughout his reign.

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  32. I suppose a similar process has happened with Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm: written as a socialist critique of totalitarianism and taken up by the right at different times to fit a different perspective.

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  33. Re Marie and Simone's comments, I think it because the vast majority of the population live on the coastal strips and very few inland, for climate reasons.

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  34. Yes, Geoff is right - those figures about population density are averages, and obviously in the inhabited areas along the coasts, population density is similar to any UK or US city.

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  35. I lived in Australia for a few months too. And one of the things I really appreciated about Australian culture is its penchant for leisure. Australia is a lot different from America in this way, and it’s the most popular criticism I heard from them about us: Americans work too much, too hard, too competitively and therefore live in a culture of stress. “Who can live like that? I certainly couldn’t!”, “It’s a coronary just waiting to happen!” are a couple of things some Australian friends said to me when describing their experience living abroad in DC. I think my values are pretty in line with that thinking. I have criticisms of my own about America’s Calvinist achievement oriented society. I agree with Australians that we suffer in the quality of life department, and in a bunch of other ways, I guess, that I won’t get into now.

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  36. I didn't know about Orwell's books being taken up by the right - although now I'm thinking of it, I can imagine both being used to critique leftwing governments, the welfare state, etc. (Unfortunately for poor Orwell!)

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  37. Here are the scary, dark lyrics of the song for you all!

    Round and round up and down
    Through the streets of your town
    Everyday I make my way
    Through the streets of your town
    Don't the sun look good today?
    but the rain on its way
    Watch the butcher shine his knives
    And this town is full of battered wives.
    Chorus
    I ride your river under the bridge
    I take your boat out to the reach
    Cos I love that engine roar
    but I still don't know what I'm here for
    Chorus
    they shut it down
    they closed it down
    they shut it down
    they pulled it down
    Chorus

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  38. Re 1984, the publisher Isaac Deutscher said that when he bought a copy of the book in New York shortly after its publication in 1949 the bookseller said to him: ``Have you read this book? You must read it, sir. Then you will know why we must drop the atom bomb on the Bolshies’’

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  39. It is strange to even think about the Strawbs releasing an anti-union song - I associate them so much with the early days, their bluegrass origins, when they would play with Sandy Denny. So they seem to me classic progressive folk. I guess I think of that phase of "Part of the Union" to be the period of time when Ford and Hudson hijacked the band (and the fact that those too soon left and went off to make records like "Nice Legs, Shame about her Face" does suggest they were the troublemakers here!).

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  40. Hey there. Interesting blog. In answer to the people who find it strange that The Strawbs did "Part of the Union" - as an anti-union song - it was definitely more Hud than anything. My buddy Hud is definitely a staunch conservative. He performed at the Conservative party conference a few years ago, in 2002, with Terry Cassidy as his "High Society" band (although the papers said The Strawbs peformed, which wasn't accurate). Also, I don’t live in England anymore, but the main thing over there before all the anti-war stuff started happening was the Euro-Pound debate, and Hud wrote a song about it called “Just Say No.” He sent me this song and said, ‘What do you think of this,’ and I said, ‘pretty catchy,’ and it was. He made his own recording of it over in England and when I went over to do the Strawbs tour, which was in June, we played it on the tour as an acoustic opening thing. Whether it convinced anyone to keep the Pound, I don’t know. But anyway, the rest of us Strawbs were/are pretty apolitical. And as for "Nice Legs," remember that the end of the song turns it around on the guy:

    "She looked me up and down and really put me in my place
    She said nice legs shame about your face
    Nice legs shame about your face"

    so I actually think, Geoff, that you COULD reinterpret the song as an "anthem of feminist solidarity."

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  41. That's a great story about the bookseller in New York!

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  42. Thanks for that background info, John -the song as it was presented at the time never seemed to fit with the rest of the Strawbs stuff. I think you and Richard Hudson first appeared as part of Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera and the Flame song that was on the Rock Machine sampler.

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  43. I really like your writing. Thank you for writing about us. I'll keep reading your column now - and if you're interested, I write one too, for The Monthly. Here is a recent one I wrote about Australian music of the 1960s: http://www.themonthly.com.au/arts-letters-robert-forster-scream-glory-and-madness-being-60s-and-70s-australian-pop-singer-2919

    You may also want to read my column on Grant, after he died in 2006: http://www.themonthly.com.au/remembering-grant-mclennan-true-hipster-robert-forster-246

    And fairly recently I did an evening called "15 Songs About Brisbane" - http://www.collapseboard.com/robert-forster-15-songs-about-brisbane

    Sorry you didn't like Brisbane much (my home town). If you do ever come back, shoot me a line through The Monthly and I'll show you a better version of the city!
    Robert

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  44. Yes we were full time band members of Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera. It was right before we joined Strawbs instead. Me on bass, Hud on drums. First we were The Five Proud Walkers though (before we changed our named to Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera). And before all of that I was with Jaymes Fenda and the Vulcans too.

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  45. Hi there (and hi Robert!). I was the female drummer you refer too. I drum in The Rainy Season now - check us out! http://www.myspace.com/therainyseasonband

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  46. You may enjoy our song "Just the Way You Are" which samples "Streets of Your Town"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZAAlqnJWbA

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  47. Hey, two members of the Go-Betweens! What a truly wonderful group. Thanks for the links to The Monthly.

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  48. Apparently earlier this week Obama received an ipod from Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, during her visit, and it included "Streets of Your Town" - it was an ipod full of Australian music. Here is the full list of songs she gave him! - http://www.messandnoise.com/news/4211691

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  49. It's probably because I'm British, but the thing about Australia that I notice both Brits and Americans doing is finding city equivalents: Melbourne is to Brooklyn what Sydney is to Los Angeles; Sydney is Glasgow, Melbourne is Edinburgh. It's like Australian cities are never themselves, always version of UK or US ones!

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  50. Hi - maybe you'll enjoy my cover of the song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL-LgoVoPtM

    I think the video for the song is really good.

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  51. Yes, although it's maybe less random than it appears - Robert's my life partner so he forwarded me your column link!

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  52. I love the Go-Betweens - best Indie band from Australia EVER!

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  53. 16 Lovers Lane is simply breathtaking as an album; it is a deeply moving, aurally sensual collection of songs about relationships and the broken side of love that never lapses into cheap sentimentality or cynicism. It's a hugely literate, magnificently written, performed, and produced piece of pop classicism. THANK YOU for this album, Go-Betweens!

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  54. Amazing band. "Cattle And Cane" from Before Hollywood is one of the finest songs ever.

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  55. I love "Dive For Your Memory" from that album.

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  56. If only the powers that be would reissue '16 Lovers Lane' in the U.S. ..

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  57. Hey there Geoff, you might enjoy my book about music: http://books.google.com/books?id=nw2uOAMCZC4C

    Dick

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