Dave Warner's Blog, page 3

AUSTRALIAN HEAT

CONTINUING THE CATALOGUE OF EVERY WARNER SONG EVER WRITTEN

This is one of my most well-known and much loved songs is Australian Heat. I wrote the song one hot Perth night in 1976 after seeing the great R’n’B band The Beagle Boys that featured Rob Searls, formerly of Sid Rumpo and later to play with the Suburbs on This Is My Planet in my Zip’n’Blast phase. The BBs steamy brand of rnb covers was echoing in my head as a drove back to Bicton from the Victoria Hotel, Subiaco along the Kwinana Freeway with the windows down (no aircon) but I wanted to convert this very American song style into my own suburban Australian experience.

Bob Searls 1981 – Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs photo shoot

Australian Heat became one of the first songs rehearsed by the 1976 Suburbs, and we recorded it in early 77 for Dave Ellery’s drive show on the ABC. It was also on the flip side of the first Bicton Records and Suburbs release, Summer 78. Johnny Leopard played guitar, Haydn Pickersgill bass, John Dennison piano and Stuart Davies-Slate drums.

We then recorded it for the Free Kicks album live in 1978 with the lineup of Howie Johnstone (drums) Paul Noonan (bass) Leopard, Denno, me and Tony Durant (guitar). Spotify of that version here.

The live performance instituted the `beer kiss’ where I would take a swig of beer and propel it into Leopard’s open mouth, at once disgusting and liberating.

The late filmmaker Brian Beaton asked to do it as a film clip and do a fabulous job on a shoestring budget – the first time the Suburbs were on video.

AUSTRALIAN HEAT (warner)

My phone gave a tingle ’bout a half-past four

I was lying nearly naked on my bathroom floor

A girl’s voice breathing deep says “I been watching you

From my fifth-floor kitchen window got an unobstructed view”

She said “You know Dave, ain’t you a trifle indiscreet?

`What’s you explanation?’

I says “Australian heat.”

And it’ll penetrate your body from your nose down to your feet

There’s just (stop) no escaping this Australian heat

I’m cruising up and down the freeway ’bout 3 a.m.

The beer became a gut ache and the gut ache became phlegm

I’m just cruising in the cool breeze looking for a place to spit

Tried to squeeze it out my window but I knew it wouldn’t fit

A car pulls up beside “Police, what you doing on the street?”

“Me?”

“Yea you Warner?”

“I’m trying to get away from this con-founded heat”

And it’ll penetrate your body from your nose down to your feet

There’s just no escaping this Australian heat

Bright light attracts a moth with a suicidal thud

And Mortein cannot smash that mossie pipeline to my blood

I try to read a Playboy but my eyes are just too sore

I keep thinking ‘bout that Penthouse on the fifth floor

I get up in the middle of the night and I get a bite to eat

I can’t help always thinking ‘bout a rubbing up my meat

And it’ll penetrate your body from your nose down to your feet

There’s just no escaping this Australian heat

THE AUS ROCK INDUSTRY

When I was coming up with songs for my third album ‘Correct Weight’ I had the idea of a folky anthem about the Australian music scene. Tony Durant ‘Correct Weight’ and he was well schooled in British folk-rock hanging with Fairports and Albion Band types. I’ve always been a huge admirer of Dobe Newton and The Bushwackers too, and Dobe and wife Sally were exceptionally kind and generous to us in our early touring days, so there was likely a nod in the direction of the Bushies. Funny this may well be the first time anybody actually referred to the `Australian Rock Industry’ in a way that was etched in stone – before ARIA’s time. Perhaps they should use this as a theme tune? Though the idea of ARIA actually getting behind anything of mine is far-fetched.

Above: Dobe and John Dennison North Fitzroy 1978

AUS ROCK INDUSTRY

We’re part of the heart of the record that turns

The dunce in the classroom who never learns

We’re part of the same thing good and bad you and me

We are part of the Aus rock and roll industry

We’re the struggling musician who can’t pay his rent

The part of the weekend where the week’s wages went

We’re the shedders of tears the scourge of our ears

We are part of the Aus rock and roll industry

We are Dylan and Ferry and Presley and Bowie

We’re all of those places our money does go

We’re the lead chasing roadie who’s searched high and low

We are part of the Aus rock and roll industry

We’re the people who pay at the door every night

For the right to get tripped and then picked for a fight

We are bored and adored and ignored by the sweetie

Pulling beers for the Aus rock and roll industry

We’re an unstable lot we’re a nation of sheep

Sheep without stables means shit on your feet

We’re Mark Holden, Molly, Shirley and Angry

We are part of the Aus rock and roll industry

We’re the sense of despair felt like losing a friend

When a good band breaks up, we say it’s happened again

We’re the fans who buy posters the clowns who toss coasters

We are part of the Aus rock and roll industry

We’re the Car-O-Tel’s clientele Devo and Blondie

The flombay at Bombay, The Swap out at Bondi

We’re the dud cheque you got from Evans-Gudinski

We are part of the Aus rock and roll industry

We’re part of the heart of the problem that makes

Most of us poor and the Poms and Yanks “great”

We’re dwindling crowds caused by government greed

We are part of the Aus rock and roll industry

We’re the butt of the jokes of the Poms’ music press

Who write more and more and say less and less

We put hope in the scrote of a barren old B

I refer to the World rock and roll industry

We’re the accident of birth that makes some who deserve

To be wealthy rock heroes play pubs to be heard

O’Keefe Ross Wilson Macainsh are these

They are part of the Aus rock and roll industry

We’re part of the start of our own revolution

It’s up to us now if we follow or lead

We’re the love and the hate the success and the failure

The rock and roll industry of Australia.

IT’S STILL A MUG’S GAME JULY 2023 TOUR DATES

In the suburban barracks we are incredibly excited at the prospect of finally completing some of the tour that was originally planned for 2020. I can’t wait to be rehearsing and playing with these guys who spent so many hours on the road together back in the late 70s. Paul and Howie are an awesome rhythm combination, John and Tony are superb at the way they creatively enhance my music with a web of super powerful riffs and counter-melodies. Of course, nobody can fill the void of Johnny, the greatest showman guitarist since Hendrix but we aim to be as good as we can be, and I know we will still pump like an over-ripe volcano.

We will play every track from Mugs Game plus a selection of other favourites.

The dates and ticket links are below (links embedded in venue name, just click on them).

THU JULY 6 DUKE OF GEORGE (East Fremantle)  

FRI JUL 7 ALBIE’S BAR (Busselton)

SAT JUL 8 CHARLES HOTEL (North Perth)

SAT JUL 15 KUNUNURRA AGRICULTURAL SHOW (Kununurra)

FRI JUL 21 CAMELOT LOUNGE (Marrickville)

SAT JULY 22 HERITAGE HOTEL (Bulli) with Gorgon Soldiers  (our gig may not be listed yet)

SUN JUL 23 BRASS MONKEY (Cronulla) with Martin Cilia as support. This is a Sunday Session timing.

ASSASSIN

Around 1988 after I’d left Perth for Sydney I hooked up with keyboard player Noel Davies who I had recruited for my large revue The Sensational Sixties and Seventies. Noel had gone on to play with (Perth band) Perfect Strangers and when that band had split had left for Sydney.

Noel on keyboard in Bunbury for the Sensatiional 60s

Noel was living in a flat in North Bondi and there we recorded a bunch of songs for the 3XY program Kick To Kick. I’d got a call from my mate Trevor Marmalade to see if I could supply some funny and irreverant sporting songs. No doubt another good pal, Greg Champion, had inspired this idea because he was really the first to come up with the idea of putting footy lyrics to well-known songs. Noel is a terrifically talented keyboard player. I would give him a song to program and it would be ready and waiting when I managed to haul my arse to Bondi from Neutral Bay. I’d do a vocal track live to the backing and Noel would quickly mix it up, put it onto a cassette and we’d bung it in the post for Melbourne. Hectic but fun.

Noel Davies (right) with Johnny Leopard, Kardomah Cafe circa 1990.

Around the same time Mark Kennedy the ABC radio producer for Roy and HG’s The Sporting Life Saturday arvo program, had offered to record me in downtime at the JJ studio. A chord progression jumped into my head with the hookline `When you love your own assassin.’ I was drawn to the idea of a song that characterised a doomed relationship where the very person who would destroy you is the one you can’t keep away from. The song was ominous in tone. Like a French noire gangster film we know exactly how this must end. Hence ‘Assassin’.

Noel came up with a really great keyboard intro and we part recorded it along with a few other songs (Beer/Was It Any Better Ten/Right Lawyer) before something went wrong at the ABC and the plug was effectively pulled.

When I teamed up with Martin Cilia to record the album ‘Surplus and Dearth‘, one of the tracks I was really keen on was `Assassin’. However, we didn’t have the copy of the early demo and so we kind of reconstructed it. The song goes down a storm live. It’s a real favourite of mine.

ASSASSIN

It follows and it haunts you

The thought the creeps and taunts

You dunno where to hide

All you know is that you ache inside

The days seem awful long

The nights go on and on

The fan is always broken

The leaking fridge is always open

When you love your own assassin

Late at night you wake up sweating

It’s a very lethal passion

When you love your own assassin

You try to run but your heart calls out

You try to cling to any shadow of a doubt

You won’t admit you’re beaten

You try to mess with reason

You think you’ll dodge the bullet

You think you’ll spot the poison pellet

And if it’s gas you think you’ll smell it

When you love your own assassin

Late at night you wake up sweating

It’s a very lethal passion

When you love your own assassin

You try to run but your heart calls out

You try to cling to any shadow of a doubt

Break 8 bars

You try to run but your heart calls out

You try to cling to any shadow of a doubt

When you love your own assassin

Late at night you wake up sweating

It’s a very lethal passion

When you love your own assassin

Dave Warner Crime Novels

Whenever somebody grabs one of my crime books for a read – whether buying at a shop, on-line, loaning from a library or friend, or even in a second-hand bin, I am grateful. I thought this quick little history and guide to my efforts might be of interest.

Where It Began – Snowy Lane

SNOWY LANE was my first detective, appearing in 1996 in City of Light. This long, intricately plotted novel was inspired by the works of those great Los Angeles writers Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy. I chose that style because I felt that Perth (where C.O.L. is set) in the 1970s was probably a little like L.A. in the 1940s. I loved Ellroy’s technique of using real iconic crimes and building a fiction around them, and so applied this to Perth using iconic local crimes as touchstones: like serial killer Eric Edgar Cook, the Shirley Finn murder, and murderous couple the Birnies. Twenty years passed before I was ready to bring Snowy Lane back. I did so by teaming him with Detective Dan Clement in my 2018 Clear To The Horizon. This book used the Claremont Serial Killings in the same way; the book is not about that case but uses the template. I was inspired to write it after a visit to my home in Sydney by two WA cold case crime detectives who asked if they could interview me after a number of people nominated me as a suspect! Both books are available in print or as ebooks. There are also audiobooks of the titles.

Ray Shearer & John Gordon – Bloody 1960s

In 1999 my second crime novel Big Bad Blood was published. This hard-boiled, complex crime novel is set in 1965 in Sydney and features two detectives, the experienced Ray Shearer and newby John Gordon. A very detailed plot it was I think ahead of its time on a number of fronts. I love the book and had to wait twenty years before I evolved a story worthy of bringing back Ray and John. Summer Of Blood will be out in October and I am extremley excited by it. The book will be available in print and online, Big Bad Blood is currently only available as an ebook but easy to find on Amazon Kindle.

Lizard Zirk Whodunnit Series

After these very tough and complex crime novels I sought a change of pace with a whodunnit series featuring prematurely retired rock legend Lizard Zirk, in company with his practical chauffeur Fleur. Zirk I saw as a modern day Sherlock Holmes who wielded a Fender rather than a violin. Fleur was a little smarter and a lot sexier than Watson. The three books in this Agatha Christie realm orignally published by Macmillan (Murder In The Groove, Murder In The Frame, Murder In The Off Season) had been lying dormant until the Untapped initiative revived them last year (2022) first as e-books and now just recently as print editions via Booktopia. I’m very grateful that this series is out there again. These are much lighter crime reads than most of mine, and the sort of book you can read over a weekend with hopefully a smile on your face, while your brain works on the puzzle. Given the success of the re-published books I am contemplating a brand new Lizard adventure.

Criminal Capers

Probably loved by reviewers more than any other book I’ve written (except possibly my most recent After The Flood) Exxxpresso was my foray into the satircal-but-human crime fiction area carved out by the wonderful Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen. Rick Boski the book’s hero is a likeable loser. Inspired by Leonard, Hiaasen and going wayback P.G. Wodehouse, I wove four or five intersecting strands into the storyline, and gave it some humour and a bit of sexy romance to boot. Exxxpresso began life as a feature film idea and I would still dearly love to see it made. It is available as an e-book and in print through Amazon Kindle. Boski and his off-sider Goose are reprised in Artspresso a story in my recent short story collection Briefly. Artspresso is also available as an audiobook short story. I am currently plotting a full-length novel returning this cast of crazy characters.

Dan Clement Series – Kimberley Crime The Original Outback Noir

After this flurry of books (between 1995 and 2002 I had 6 adult novels, 3 children’s novels and 5 non fiction books published) I took a break from writing books in favour of film and TV. However I continued to develop ideas. In 2003 I came up with a feature film script that brought back Victorian-era Sherlock Holmes into the present day and paired him with Watson, a female scientist in NYC. Regretably the film has not been made but my 2020 book Over My Dead Body is that story. Around 2006 I started to develop the idea of a book set in Australia where the location was almost the main character. I settled on the Kimberley. It is so unique. Though I didn’t start writing the book until 2012, I let the ideas soak into my brain. The result was Before It Breaks, which was one of the first books heralding the new era of `outback noir.’ Published in 2015 it introduced Inspector Dan Clement working out of Broome in Western Australia, It went on to win the Ned Kelly Award for Best Australian Crime Fiction, an award given by Australian crime writers. It also reunited me with my first publisher Fremantle Press, and partnered me with my fabulous editor Georgia Richter. As mentioned earlier Breaks was followed by Clear To The Horizon in 2018, and then last year 2022 After The Flood. I am working on a new Dan Clement novel at the moment that I hope might be out there in 2024.

60s Surf Noir and The Return Of Sherlock

Between Clear To The Horizon and After The Flood, I published two standalone novels. River Of Salt is a favourite of mine. It features a young hit man from Philadelphia who winds up in northern New South Wales in 1961, trading his gun for a surfboard and guitar … until he needs his old skills once more. It was very satisfying and I also wrote a song with Martin Cilia, No Good Can Come From This, inspired by a scene in the book. I followed River Of Salt with Over My Dead Body mentioned earlier. Yes I finally got to do my long planned idea of Sherlock Holmes revived from the ice and back in NYC in the modern day. I reprised those characters in a short story Goulash, in my short story volume Briefly. I love the dynamic between Sherlock and his modern day Watson, Georgette, and may do another novel with them down the track.

That’s my current crime list but plenty of ideas are in the pipeline!

ARTIST

Still working my way through the `A’ songs on the complete Warner songlist. Here is ‘Artist’ a very early one – 1972/3 around there.

ARTIST CHORDS

D                                          G

Hey artist I want you to paint me very much

                      D                                            A                

Use my skin as your canvas and your lips as the brush

D                                                                 G

Lay your palate open put your easel at ease

            C                                                              EM      BM

And get my rich round tongue  in all its sensuality

D                                                 G  

Hey artist I want you to paint me in black and white

                D                                       A

No colours to disguise no disguises to highlight

D                                                G

Just a simple blemish the hint of a smile

C                                                        EM                     BM

Better catch it quick though or my tears will wash it

D – EM X 2

       G                                                                   F#M                           

And a picture’s worth a thousand words that will never be heard

G                                        GM

So come on honey paint this funny

 F#M                BM                    Em

Feeling that is stealing over me

D  EM X3  THEN C

Hey artist I want you to paint me in black and white

No colours to disguise no disguises to highlight

Just a simple blemish the hint of a smile

Better catch it quick though or my tears will wash it

AROUND THESE PARTS

One of the first songs I recorded at Cambridge Recorders in 1976 was ‘Around These Parts’. I’m not sure now if I’d written this just before I left for my overseas jaunt (at the same time as ‘Desert’), I think so, but regardless I recorded it in the sessions with Tony Durant, Mick Gregory and Michael Feeney.

This version here is that demo version of the song which is available on the double vinyl album and on Mugs Game:A Suburban Odyssey, the audiobook.  It remains a personal favourite.

I really loved starting with that Major 7 chord, and then how it comes back into each verse with that floating feel, as if the narrator of the song is suspended high above everyday life. It begins talking of an imagined, not real location, a desert shack in somewhere like Arizona, probably inspired by movies.  Then it moves to London. It is possible I did write this verse while living there, but equally I may have written it before I left Perth, and the sentiment of following life’s path wherever it takes you feels like something I would have written with the trip looming. The third verse reflects on the conceit of myself as an `artist’ to create something lasting and important. It contains a couple of my favourite lines `Who am I, to think that I could ever come to something more than this? The browning stains on urinals where dead men used to piss’

The song showcases Tony’s lovely guitar work. We hardly knew one another when we recorded this track yet his guitar lines are just so right. And MJ Feeney does well on bass alongside the erstwhile `Greg’.  

AROUND THESE PARTS

Around these parts

There’s nothing but cowboys’ graves

And burnt out Chevrolets

Both tell the story

Of broken men who played their days away.

Wheels turning, wheels turning in the clay

Hope spurning, all is gone and drift away

River Thames, now coloured purple from the blood

Of King and Cromwell’s men

Suppose they chose to go wherever flows

Regardless of the end?

Wheels turning, wheels turning in the clay

Hope spurning, all is gone and drift away

Who am I

To think that ever I could come to something more than this?

The browning stains

On urinals where dead men used to piss.

Wheels turning, wheels turning in the clay

Hope spurning, all is gone and drift away.

ADELAIDE & ASHLEY McINTOSH

Running on with a footy theme in the complete Dave Warner songwriting list and today it’s another double banger of co-writes with Martin Cilia. ‘Adelaide Adelaide’ is a little dance number we came up with for the AFL-Sony project back around 2005 that saw us do CDs for every team in the comp, with each CD containing various songs, including the club theme song.  ‘Ashley McIntosh – Soldier of the Road’ uses our country rock track Soldier of the Road and replaces the lyrics.

If you enjoy these footy songs and would like to check out the full list head to the Dave and the Scoring Flank YouTube page or downod the Ballburster album. (Bandcamp)

ADELAIDE

Adelaide Adelaide we love Adelaide

Adelaide Adelaide come on the mighty Crows

They’re the team hear me scream baby they’re the cream

Adelaide Adelaide  we have got it made

The pride of South Australia

They will never ever fail ya

They’re strongest and the fastest

And it’s clear they are the masters

ON BANDCAMP

ASHLEY McINTOSH – SOLDIER OF THE ROAD

Every full forward in the league fears his name

‘Cause he’s a master at every facet of the game

He can stand his ground against the pack

Absorb the push and drive it back

He’s a ruthless son of a gun

A warrior who plays it tight

Ashley McIntosh,

Soldier of the Road

He’s a soldier of the Road

With his list of injuries they never thought he’d get this far

But he proved them wrong now he’s a genuine top drawer star

He ain’t got no AK47

But his football skills’ll send you straight to heaven

He’s a ruthless son of a gun

A full-back who reigns supreme

Ashley McIntosh,

Soldier of the Road

Yeah, he’s a soldier of the road

He’s a soldier of the road

He wears the gold and blue

And you better pray that Ashley ain’t playing on you.

Some sporting `A’ songs in the complete Warner song list

Still on the treadmill of `A’ in the complete Warner catalogue I’m bundling three songs together. Okay, only one is totally original, the other two relying on a traditional Aussie folk song. So here we go with Archer Number One David King Number Two, Average Down Arden St Way

and Average Down Kogarah Way. At least something for North Melbourne Kangaroo AFL fans, and St George fans in the NRL.

AVERAGE DOWN KOGARAH WAY

Farewell to the fifties forever

Farewell to those halcyon days

Farewell to Raper and Reg Gasnier

We’re average down Kogarah way

Once upon a time our Dragons ruled

We won eleven straight

Then along came Cronulla and stuffed us up

Now we’re average down Kogarah way

Oh we’ve lost that killer mentality

We stuff up our passes and plays

And we concede too many penalties

We’re average down Kogarah way

Now with Albert we might just get better

We’re youthful we’ve got Steve Linnane

But we’re still a poor shadow of what we were When we were the team of Clive James

Gone are the cheers of yesteryear

Gone are those halcyon days

Now all we’ve got is Jade Hurley

Murdering Frankie’s `My Way’

ARCHER NUMBER ONE KING NUMBER TWO

You ask the coaches who would be first picked

In a team to play the devil for their soul real quick

They’ll tell you that the fellas play in royal blue and white

And then sleep soundly for the whole long night

‘Cause you got no worries when you got these Roos

Glenn Archer number one and David King number two.

Now they might be stars but they’re still team guys

Which is why you want ‘em when the chips are fried

Other teams can drool with envy at those Kangaroos

It’s unfair having one let alone having two

They’re smashing through a pack make it seem like fun

King number two and Archer number one

Glenn Archer number one

David King number two

Those are the guys you want

When your back’s to the wall

And you need that ball

Glenn Archer number one

David King number two

‘Cause you got no worries when you got these Roos

Glenn Archer number one David King number two.

THE ANZAC SONG

Still in `A’ on the Warner songlist and today the song is one of my stage ones. In 1987 I moved from Perth to Sydney and after chatting with Tim McLean (former Elks manager) who was running a cabaret venue in Paddington, I came up with a one-man show `Australian Heroes’. Hardest thing I’ve ever done, by the length of the straight. Many friends helped out: Shane McNamara, Rowan Greaves, Caz Masel.

A mixture of sketches, poems, songs. It gave me the greatest admiration for solo performers. There is no band to fall back on if the audeince is tough, no mates on stage if the audience doesn’t laugh.

The ANZAC SONG one of the songs from the ANZAC section where the hero in question was the ordinary Australian. No recording of it so here’s me unaccompanied.

ANZAC SONG (1987)

Oh I sailed the seas to see my old mate Otto Turk

At Gallipoli, I went and quit my work

Expected it to be just one big Aussie lurk

But reckoned without our old mate Otto Turk

We started out in Cairo they put us up in tents

By the time we got our orders our money was all spent.

The baksheesh sheilas sang out they’d see us back of Bourke

But the only one a-waiting was that bloody Otto Turk

All me special mates were in the same platoon

We thought that we’d be home before the next full moon

But three of those had passed and we hadn’t kept the date

And I was left alone while they were knocking up on heaven’s gate.