JOY MCKEAN I’VE BEEN THERE JOY MCKEAN (and Back Again) AVAILABLE 25 OCTOBER 2011 Standard Edition — Hardcover with Jacket (255 x 235 mm) 224 pages. ISBN 978 07336 2728 6. RRP $39.99 The Limited 1927 Edition — Slipcased Hardback Only 1927 produced. Leatherette hardback (255 x 235 mm) 224 pages. Record sleeve containing a signed Slim Dusty & Joy McKean photo and a limited edition CD containing 25 of Slim Dusty and Joy McKean’s recordings. ISBN 978 07336 2866 5. RRP $100.00 For publicity enquiries please contact Jaki Arthur e: [email protected] For sales and marketing enquiries please contact Matt Hoy e: [email protected] t: (02) 8248 0800 SLIM DUSTY & JOY MCKean’S Level 17, 207 Kent Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 www.hachette.com.au LIFETIME OF TRAVEL, STORIES AND SONGS JOY MCKEAN I’ve been THERE (and Back Again) PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN ELLIOTT Introduction I’ve Been There (and Back Again) CONTENTS Introduction 1 I’ve Been There (and Back Again) 5 Part I SONGS FOR THE AUSSIES: The Early Days 15 The Biggest Disappointment 17 The Wind-Up Gramophone 25 Song For the Aussies 33 Lace-Up Shoes 39 D Towards the Head 41 Yellow Gully 49 Local Mary Magdalene 55 The Valley where the Frangipanis Grow 65 Our Wedding Waltz 79 Bible of the Bush 87 Part II GUMTREES BY THE ROADWAY: People and Places 93 When the Rain Tumbles Down in July 95 Kelly’s Offsider 103 Ringer from the Top End 109 Grandfather Johnson 117 Gumtrees by the Roadway 125 Plains of Peppimenarti 133 Part III WALK A COUNTRY MILE: Performing and Travelling 143 Old Time Country Halls 145 The Front Row 153 Lights on the Hill 159 On the Move 167 Indian Pacific 177 Country Revival 189 Walk a Country Mile 195 Travellin’ Still . Always Will 205 Epilogue by Anne Kirkpatrick 209 About Slim Dusty 213 Acknowledgments 214 Credits 216 Introduction The old portable typewriter at work again for the lyrics of ‘Just Rollin’’. INTRODUCTION n 2010, I travelled to Tamworth for the Country Music Festival and for the Golden Guitar Awards. Slim and I had attended all but two of the awards I nights since they were inaugurated in 1973, and I have usually managed to keep up the tradition since his death in 2003. January 2010 was rather special for me as it marked my eightieth birthday and my daughter, Anne, had organised a birthday concert for me in the Capitol Theatre there during the festival. As well, organisers of the Bush Laureate Awards had paid me the compliment of inviting me to become their patron. The annual awards are to honour the best among the bush poets of the nation, and I was surprised and touched when I was presented with an award in recognition of ‘a lifelong contribution to Australia’s bush verse heritage’. When MC Jim Haynes read out the lyrics of ‘Indian Pacific’, he closed by saying, ‘And if that is not bush poetry, I don’t know what is.’ I thought that was a lovely thing to say; it was a very moving moment for me. That night was the culmination of a feeling among friends and colleagues of mine that I should publish a book of my song lyrics as poetry. The idea of a book of stories behind a collection of songs written by Slim and me, and illustrated by many of the photos from our private collection, grew quickly. Of course, these 1 lyrics were originally meant to be sung, not recited as poetry, and so there are some differences in the way the words are used or placed. Most of the photos in this book have not been seen before, and many of the stories behind the songs are new to most people. I’ve enjoyed writing the stories – the words of each of the songs I wrote bring back so many recollections from my life, and the words of Slim’s songs remind me so vividly of the stories he always told me about his youth when we were driving somewhere, out on the road. He told me so much that, sometimes, I felt as if I had been there with him since Onstage at the ‘Concert for Slim’ his boyhood – and let’s face it, I was with him for at Tamworth, 2004. As a tribute to Slim, his country music friends more than fifty-two years. What you have in front of came together to raise funds you is the result of a lot of work, a lot of laughs and towards building his Centre in his hometown of Kempsey, NSW. more than a lot of memories. Some memories brought laughter, certainly, but some brought sighs as well. When I look at some of the photographs used to illustrate a song or story, I think that, at the time the picture was taken, none of us would have thought so many other people would see it one day. Never would I have believed that my life and Slim’s would produce such richness in friends, family and experiences as it has. We were adventurers in a way . the road had a beckoning feel to it. It’s true that the pair of us could never wait to see what was over the next hill, whether it was a bulldust hole in amongst the corrugations or a boggy stretch of a blacksoil road, or even just a good spot by the side of the road where we could stop and boil the billy, waiting for the others to catch up. Whatever it was, we loved it as we sailed eagerly along our way, grizzling about it, laughing about it and sticking to it regardless of our reservations or complaints. What’s a few whinges between friends and lovers, after all? 2 I’ve BeenBeen There There (and (and Back Back Again) Again) At eighty plus one, I no longer perform onstage six nights a week in small towns and big cities all over the nation. But I wouldn’t have missed the chance of doing it for anything. Looking at the photos I took on our very first tour in 1954, I know that Slim and I had no idea our lives would turn out the way they did. We just wanted to be able to travel and sing, to write about what we saw and how we lived. How could we have even dreamed that technology would one day broadcast Slim’s voice and image to the world as he led Australia in singing ‘Waltzing Matilda’ during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympics, or that he would be the first singer to have his voice beamed to Earth from outer space? I also see the photos of my family in front of me. Anne grew up to be a leader for country women artists in her breakthrough early recordings, a fine singer and songwriter; David went a different way to begin with . an emergency medicine specialist, but still a musician and songwriter at heart. Kate, Anne and Greg’s daughter, is a good writer who can sing and harmonise; James, her brother, is a singer and songwriter involved in music and film work. Daniel, David and Jane’s son, is a medical student at present; Hannah, his sister, is a singer and writer working in the music industry. They were almost all onstage for my birthday concert, and they all came on tour a couple of years ago for the Family Reunion album we recorded together in 2008. How many other eighty-year-olds have such a record of a family that sings with her? I wonder how many other women can say that their family has given them as much love and care as ours has given to Slim and to me? Slim and I have certainly been there, as the saying goes. We’ve also been there and back again, and you know what? We would probably still be doing it if we’d had our own way. Even now, and even on my own, there is nothing better than to head out of town on one of the roads we travelled so often. Yes, been there . and back again. You’re telling me we did! Joy McKean Introduction 3 A familiar sight backstage was Slim and his battered red teapot. I’ve Been There (and Back Again) OLD TIME COUNTRY HALLS Slim Dusty, 1983 As I pick up my guitar to sing another song I hear the walls of this old hall: ‘You’ve done this thing too long; You know you’ve been around for years, I guess you’ve shown us all.’ I talk like this when I reminisce, with an old time country hall. I joined a tent show as a kid with a dream and an old guitar, De Silva’s All-Star Cavalcade and Dante was the star; He taught me lots about the game, today I understand He was a great magician, and he was a fine old man. I’m a howling cattle crooner, I’m an old time dinosaur; Hey, let me sing where the rafters ring, In an old time country hall. I’ve been on the road for forty years and Dante could equal that, You’ll find his faded posters still in some halls way out back; I like to go backstage and dream sometimes and just recall The shows I’ve had, the good and bad, shared with these country halls. I’m a howling cattle crooner, I’m an old time dinosaur; Hey, let me sing where the rafters ring, In an old time country hall.