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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of THE SILVER SEAHORSE, THE WINNER, THE DINNER, CHARITY, Dead Cert, ARTSPRESSO, Cabin Pressure, Stella, and 22 more.
1. |
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BICTON BREEZES
Of course I remember the service station
And the boys who roasted chestnuts
Out the back and told dirty jokes of a Saturday.
No I don't recall the tram to Point Walter
I wasn't born then and by now it's all altered
A band I understand would play by the river
And boys off to war would hold girls who would shiver
Ah, even Bicton suffered
If they hadn't died there never would be
Boys coming home late from football training on the 159
And housewives to contemplate a suicide by the washing line and
Love their children
And their husband
And their car
And their family tree.
Do you recall the FJ
And the trips to school?
Stephen Bizacca always won the loose football
And Sister often read to us
Stories 'bout the saints
I was an altar boy at benediction.
And if there's one thing that I learnt there
It's be always what you ain't
That applies to all beliefs and all convictions.
'Cause what you are is meaningless as things described as quaint
Especially if you're born a kid in Bicton.
Oh we all congregated
At the fish and chip shop
Nicely situated
Just by the 148 stop
While fish were frying we were eyein' each other
Cooked, salted, vinegared, goodbyin’
And your mother was watching
Then a new car was something (Special it seemed)
Adopted our money (Fostered our dreams)
Of tropical isles (but Kouzinas is Greek)
And Mediterranean smiles (but that was last week)
While fish was cookin’ I was lookin’ ahead
Sometimes I missed my bus but then I got my fish and I toured Athens instead.
Oh the Kouzinas Brothers, Jimmy and Don
Had a fish and chip shop
Nicely situated
By the 148 stop.
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2. |
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New Year
Party hats and promenades
Coloured lights and lemonades
Costume jewellery on the players on the stage
Blood red noses under lighted waves
Champagne crisps and beer
Please pass the tray
I think I missed my cue
Forgotten what I had to say
And Auld Lang Syne that never keeps in time
Wobbles on its feet and drinks to keep the beat
Have a great new year did you pass my beer in your travels?
Sausage rolls roll round their sauce
All hold hands and kiss of course
Fall in love marry and you’ll probably divorce
And Auld Lang Syne that never keeps in time
Wobbles on its feet and drinks to keep the beat
Have a great new year did you pass my beer in your travels?
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3. |
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Girls wank and so do the interviewers on GTK
They yank they tug the best years of their lives away
They’re in love with the sound of their own voice
Swamped by a wave of intrigue
And they won’t admit when it comes to throwing shit
They’re still in the little league.
Girls wank and so do the growers of organic food
Trade unions bureaucrats and sun-bathing nudes
Trendy Australian playwrights knock our young executives
But their hand's on their gland cause when you’re a young man
There ain’t much alternative
There ain’t much alternative.
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4. |
Chapter 4: Suburban Boy
15:04
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PHIL
D F#M G D
Where are you goin my singer of sad songs
D F#M G D
Now that the evening has perished into dawn
D F#M C D D G C D
And the airport is only half-awake a handful of followers with open palms to shake
D G F#M
Round to clubs into parties where they get you name all wrong
D G A D
And to them you are nothing more than a singer of some songs
D F#M G D
What are you doing my teller of the truth
D F#M G D
You are the beacon that led us through our youth
D F#M C D D G C D
Brought the harbour’s pleasure to our door yes we were listening to the dipping of the oars
D G F#M
You slipped a toe in the ocean on the far side of the world
D F#M G
And we’re honoured that we met you Phil,
D F#m G
And wish that you were with us still
D G A
And as the hushing hours slowly fall
G F#m
I whisper you were best of all
D F#m G F#M
And no it don’t matter now that they got your name all wrong
D G A D
For you are so much more than a singer of some songs
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5. |
Chapter 5: Pus
20:38
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CLARKE’S BOLERO
Drawn inescapably drawn to you
Glance, tinkling glasses at once renew
Friends pass away in your Max Factor care
While you can only despair.
Love through a tropical goldfish bowl
Drums come give me your classical roll
And I, I would all those virtues extol
If you could touch my soul.
Doesn’t it seem so long ago
It was easier for thoughts to flow?
I should have had your body not your soul
That stays the same though we grow old.
Please come take a ride with me
Down through the country in my Bugatti
But oh, that is not really me that you see
Just me back in history.
Doesn’t it seem so long ago
It was easier for thoughts to flow?
I should have had your body not your soul
That stays the same though we grow old.
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6. |
Chapter 6: Overseas
23:52
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AMSTERDAM (1976 London)
I threw it all back into the wind
On a pier in Amsterdam
But it started long before
As a boy then as a man
It started with the magnet of the stage
And it’ll finish in a dragnet of blind rage
And if I wasn’t such an impotent bastard
It might go away
Blow away
A maiden voyage, voyage maiden
Verging on the insane
For the comfort of a Julie London song
The wind had cut his brow and he was strong
And all the things I’ll never be
Love’s not meant to last
No not for long
When you’re standing on a pier in Amsterdam
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7. |
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IMMIGRANT’S LAMENT
I’m getting near the end of a long road
I’m getting further from the start
But all I’ve got to show’s a sign that says I move too slow
Some broken dreams
And pieces of a token heart
Now I should’ve stayed a rock star
Rock stars don’t crack up
It’s in the contract with the six-pack thrown in for luck
And I should have stayed a lunatic and a faithful lover too
And most of all I think my friends
I should have stayed with you
Cause it’s plain that I was wrong
I should never left the comfort of the place where I belonged
And now I find that I’m behind
The line I started from
And the only thing I’ve proved is that born failures can’t get on.
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8. |
Chapter 8: The Return
23:29
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1930's Depression
Along the sand the champagne man
Prepares his stall today he hopes for trade
He saw a ship way off to sea
Between a wave and then it seemed to fade
And even Colonel Griffiths is tiring of the battle
On the stock exchange.
The beach resort’s deserted
The champagne man still hoping for a throng
While in the streets a call goes out
Phar lap’s arrived he’s bound to be odds on
And please don’t worry mothers
Our government has pledged to bring your children food
But the cup it must go on.
Along the strand there’s no brass band
On Footscray hill there isn’t any room to stand
And starve or die we couldn’t care
We came to watch out champion so there.
Somewhere in the crowd a knife is drawn a scream goes out and
Violence fills the air.
And the cup has just been won.
No food no home no job no pay
All caused by worthless paper in a nation far away.
The champagne man prepares to leave
He packs his bottles so meticulously
Ah – he sighs – things cannot get worse than this.
But he was wrong.
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9. |
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THE SCREAM
It’s all in the scream, It’s all in the scream
It’s all in the scream, It’s all in the scream
The first emotion is fear nothing’s as dear as our preservation
It’s perfectly clear, it’s way above this isolation
And it’s all
It’s all in the scream, It’s all in the scream
It’s all in the scream, It’s all in the scream
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10. |
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OLD STOCK RD
With a thump, thump, thump, in my heart
And a boom, boom, boom in my brain
Ice, ice, ice in my beer
I got a girl, girl, girl in my bed
She got her tongue, tongue, tongue in my mouth
I got my hand, hand, hand on the light-switch
I got a thump, thump, thump, in my heart
Ache, ache, ache in my tooth
I got my hand, hand, hand on her bra clip,
She got her tongue, tongue, tongue in my ear
I got my tongue, tongue, tongue down her mouth
She got her hand, hand, hand down my jocks
I got my body in the car got my head on my body
Got a wheel in the car got my hands on the wheel
Got a car in my hands Got a girl in my hands
Down the Old Stock Rd The Old Stock Rd
I got my body in the car got my head on my body
Got a wheel in the car got my hands on the wheel
Got a car in my hands Got a girl in my hands
Down the Old Stock Rd The Old Stock Rd
With a thump, thump, thump in my heart
And a boom, boom, boom in my brain
I got my hand, hand, hand on her clit
She got her tongue, tongue, tongue in my zip
I got my hand, hand, hand on her thigh
She got my cock, cock, cock in her mouth
I got a girl, girl, girl in my bed
I got a fly, fly, fly in the butter
She got butter, butter, butter on my fly
She got her tongue, tongue, in the butter
I gotta butter, butter, butter on her buttocks
I got my tongue, tongue, tongue in her buttocks
I got my body in the car got my head on my body
Got a wheel in the car got my hands on the wheel
Got a car in my hands Got my life in my hands
Down the Old Stock Rd The Old Stock Rd
I got my body in the car got my head on my body
Got a wheel in the car got my hands on the wheel
Got a car in my hands Got a girl in my hands
Down the Old Stock Rd The Old Stock Rd
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11. |
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SUMMER 78
Hey everybody it’s summer and it’s hot
So put on your Hawaiian shirt and rock
Grab a girl we’re going to the coast
Gonna give school a miss I got wheels that’s what matters most
On these summer days nothin on TV
My folks are both half-crazed my friends all feel like me
Hey everybody there’s a dance at the hall tonight
I’m gonna dance till I drop I’m gonna sweat I’m gonna kiss gonna bite
I’ll be down at the burger shop soon as my folks go out
Oh these hot days get me so I gotta walk I gotta talk I gotta shout
And on these summer nights we’ll wind the windows down
Have a can or two and then we’ll cruise through town
Quarter-to-five I can’t wait till the whistle blows
Get out of these rags and put on my special clothes
Who knows what tonight is going to bring
So many things to do Friday night’s so exciting
On these summer days nothin on TV
My folks are both half-crazed my friends all feel like me
Ah – what are we going to do? There must be so many things to do? X2
Hey everybody it’s summer and it’s hot.
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12. |
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PHANTOM
Deep in the jungle, deep in the jungle, deep in the jungle in the Bay of Bengal.
Ghost Who Walks strength of 10 tigers,
What you gonna do
If the MRPA builds a freeway through your skull cave
Where you gonna screw,
Dianne and Gurun?
Hey, Ghost Who Walks the Wambesi have gone commo,
The Llongo are no longer on your side
So if Charlie Court gets the jungle patrol after you
Where you gonna hide?
'Cause, all the little Pygmy Banda people,
They want to shake your white man's rule,
They're taking tanks from Russia
In exchange for Dianne's jewels
The capitalists are ripping out our jungle
The communists ripping out our brain
You're the only leader left now
Who is immortal and slightly sane.
Ghost Who Walks strength of 10 tigers
Leave your Bay of Bengal
Come to Perth where we've got the Edgleys
And 2 pedestrian malls
Ghost Who Walks strength of 10 tigers
I implore you
Come land a skull mark on Charlie's jaw
Before he progressides you
Ghost Who Walks strength of 10 tigers
Time's running out
The posters are already up in Moscow,
Poor pygmies terrorised by imperialist lout
You see, in the West they want your jungle and
In the East they want your blood
So get out quick while you still can
Before you find your name is mud
And, I know you'll just love Garden City
Though Devil might have to stay outside
Still Hero can become a police horse
Providing you teach him how to take a bribe
The capitalists are ripping out our jungle
The communists ripping out our brain
You're the only leader left now
Who is immortal and slightly sane.
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13. |
Chapter 13: Heading East
15:30
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WHERE DO I GO?
Where do I go when not a soul in hell wants me?
Where can I hide when the loved-by-me come with axes?
What can I say if I change and changing disconcert some people?
How can I be something that I can no longer be?
Who can I trust as the closest axe comes cut me back to dust?
Where can I blow?
My blow torch is out my touch is taut
Life taught me blow by blow
Guess the wind might blow but oh no no no
‘Cause I’ve nowhere to turn
I’ve exhausted all the possibilities
I’ve exhausted me
Where do I go when not a soul in hell wants me?
Where can I hide when I outdate myself and there’s no-one there to listen?
On a swimming pool glide
Sing songs to the whitewashed walls of the Warner mansion
When the anger’s gone and the knives are out because I’m old and tired
Where can I hide?
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14. |
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SUBURBAN BOY
I wake up every morning with no one beside me
I wake up every morning my mother will chide me
I’m just a suburban boy just a suburban boy
Saturday night no subway station
Saturday night just changing TV stations
I’m just a suburban boy just a suburban boy
And I know what it’s like
To be rejected every night
And I’m sure that it must be
Easier for boys from the city.
I go to the football and I cheer for my team
Go to the football to hear myself scream
I’m just a suburban boy just a suburban boy
Sunday session I’m down at the hotel
Staring at girls that I don’t know well
I’m just a suburban boy just a suburban boy
And I know what it’s like
To be rejected every night
And I’m sure that it must be
Easier for boys from the city.
I wake up every morning with no one beside me
I wake up every morning my mother will chide me
I’m just a suburban boy just a suburban boy
Saturday night no subway station
Saturday night just changing TV stations
I’m just a suburban boy just a suburban boy
And I know what it’s like
To be rejected every night
And I’m sure that it must be
Easier for boys from the city.
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Dave Warner Sydney, Australia
Bob Dylan declared Dave Warner his favourite Australian artist. In 1973 Warner formed Pus, Australia’s first punk
band.
He travelled to London in 1975 and developed a concept of original Australian music, `suburban rock’. Warner returned to Perth in 1976 and formed Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs an instant success. Warner continues to write and record music and is author of 20 books.
... more
Dave Warner recommends:
The Best Of The Rest
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Me & Ennui Are Friends, Baby
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The Wisdom Line
by David Bridie
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MATANGO!
by The Kill Devil Hills
Down and dirty blues rock from this Western Australian band makes for a truly visceral listening experience.
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Triple R Breakfasters Live: Volume 1
by 3RRRFM
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