- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
When I was a kid DJ, in the early nineties, I used to trawl the 'releases' section of the community radio station I broadcast through. I remember this one song I played with a plaintive and haunting chorus: 'Living out on the street/on only 25 dollars a week/try to make the rough ends meet/you've got to keep your fingers crossed.'
The refrain stayed with me throughout the years but who recorded it was lost to me. I had a recollection of the album cover- it was something like a 'We Are The World' type thing. I recalled there was a big group of singers involved. I recalled Deborah Conway was one of the singers (an image of her name listed on the album sleeve came to mind), and I was pretty sure the same album included a cover-version of 'Rock and Roll Damnation' by AC/DC.
I recall 'Living Out On The Street' appealing to me because of my innate sense of social justice, even as a kid, and a belief in supporting those in need. I related to the description of homeless and poverty also, given my own background of the same. And, I was taken by the beautiful vocal delivery.
Over years, as the song came to mind again, I determined to find it but internet lyric searches never turned up the words. It seemed to have dissipated beyond the annals of collective memory. That's often the case with having a phonographic memory for lyrics and tunes, such as mine- which remembers snatches of songs and music that sit outside the conventional places where such things are catalogued.
Nevertheless, the song sat with me and the chorus came around every now. I would sing it to myself, and it did add to the person I shaped to be.
I put on concerts and public events to raise money for good things- Festivals for the Aboriginal Housing Company in Sydney; theatre production involving the residents of public housing estates which put money back into local programs; charity songs to raise money for research into helping the Tasmanian Devil and so on. I worked with those in need, as a life skills educator, I studied journalism and produced publications the investigated and exposed corruption.
I reached out to those who inspired me, like Gary Clail ( the singer of Something Wrong With Human Nature*, and, Everyone Needs Food, Clothes And Shelter** etc) and supported where I could to encourage people I believed in to reenergise their music careers, by connecting them with producers with enthusiasm and ideas. With Gary, I once tracked down all of his recordings, on CD, when he told me he didn't have copies of them all- as a way of helping bring them home.
And, when the window of opportunity was ajar, I'd look for 'Living Out On The Street' and ask around to see if anyone knew of it. I wasn't giving up on it, I just thought perhaps someone would post about it, at some point, and I would get a chance to hear it again.
Giving time to finding the song again made sense, in terms of my personality- as someone who was prompted to nurture people and see them on their way. Songs that speak of the same struggles, written by people with an outlook on life similar to mine, are important to me. And, like the work they inspired me to do, wanting to bring them in from the cold, when they seem to have been be lost, peaked my motivation. 'Living Out On The Street' was a prime example. I wanted to find it again and share it with others to explain why it was important, and for others to enjoy what a lovely thing it is too.
My girlfriend is a major Deborah Conway fan. 'String of Pearls' is a favourite album of hers and, believing it never hurts to try and make magic happen, I reached out to Deb last year and explained it was my girlfriend's 50th and asked if there was a way I could arrange for her to do a little serenade as a gift. Deb was great and it was just a beautiful thing to make it happen and see the joy and amazement it brought the woman I love. I did take the chance, afterwards, to ask Deb about the song I was searching for, too (being certain she was listed as a contributor) but she had no recollection of it, while also noting the 80's were a bit of a haze. It left a further puzzle for me as to why I recalled her name linked.
Deb did solve one mystery for me though. The lead vocal on Rock n Roll Damnation is attributed to 'Polly Hester' which turned up no other references in the searches I did.
I knew that Paul Hester only had one sister, Carolyn, so it wasn’t her and, as multi-talented as Paul was, I couldn’t see him pulling off a vocal like that under an alias. Turns out it was Deb all along, added under a joke pseudonym Paul gave her, while they were dating at the time. Another string to her bow, or pearl to her string of pearls, being the mysterious voice behind Tracy Mann’s singing character in ‘Sweet and sour’ and the Just Jeans billboard bottom.
In continuing to think of possible directions for find the song, I was sure I was on to a winner when I stumbled across reference to a recording by a group calling itself 'The Rock Party' who had released a song called 'Everything To Live For', in the late 1980s. I thought perhaps this was the song I was after and the lyrics I recalled might be within the song, or maybe be a B-side to it. It certainly seemed to fit the bill, it had an incredible cast of performers: Neil Finn, Nick Barker, Kate Cebrano, Sherrine Aberathne, Sean Kelly among others. A who's who of Australian performers and international ring-ins like Dire Straits and big-time American producer Joie Wissert. There was Deborah Conway’s name on the list of singers too.
It fitted the social justice brief as well. There was reference to it being recorded to combat youth drug abuse.
I looked for a copy to buy and couldn't find it anywhere. I tried the production engineer, listed with details of the song online, and he said he might have a copy stored somewhere. I asked if, he could find it, if he could just play it down the phone to me, to see if it was the song I was after. He couldn't in the end.
I enquired of everyone with some sort of contact. The fellas from Gangajang were connected to it. They were nice, in following up, but said the lyrics didn't ring a bell, but that, then again, the 1980s are a bit of a haze.
A few label operators and band managers of those involved, whom I contacted, wrote back and said they too wanted a copy but couldn't find one, or had scant details. So, no dice in that round.
As luck would have it, a copy of 'Everything To Live For' eventually did turn up online. I was stoked of course. I was putting in a lot of effort to find this song.
I shelled out some decent peas to buy it, played it and listened for the refrain. It's a great song- 'Everything To Live For'- upbeat, well mixed, big singing chorus, all that combined genius of Split Enz, Models, Do Re Mi etc, coming together but, most strongly, the ebullient fingerprints of the Finn Brothers all over it with their melodic structure and instrumentation. I love it, it really is a companion to the song I was looking for, but it wasn't the song.
I looked at the B-side and there was a further mix of the song and another called 'Get Real' by the 'Get Real Rappers', but it wasn't 'Living Out On The Street'. No matter, my strongest lesson from studying journalism was the advice given my instructors- 'Ask if there is anyone else you can talk to?'. So, I looked at the track list- the performers, engineers, producers etc and looked for contact details.
I uploaded a copy of the song, attributed the copyright, put a spreadsheet together of those involved and contacted as many people as I could to, firstly, share the song if they didn't have a copy (or didn't recall being part of it- it being in the hazy past and all) and to ask if they remembered a related recording that included the lyrics I remembered?
I chatted with Terry McArthur, song-writer, impresario and producer who, with Deborah White, oversaw the recording of 'Everything To Live For' in support of The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Now the National Drug Strategy).
He gave me great insight into who was there and how the recordings came together- Neil Finn took the lead. Terry recalls him as a visionary whose levels of perfectionism got a good result but created some tension when at odds with most everyone else who rolled up on the day of the recording, in somewhat of a haze, to do their bits with Keith Richards levels of spontaneous enthusiasm and looseness. The particulars of 'Living Out On The Street' eluded Terry though also.
One thing did emerge though, which gave me a lead. Out of my conversation with Terry I became aware of another project around the same time called 'Big Choir Sing' which did a recording, involving a plethora of Australian performers, with the intent of raising support to combat teen mental health issues.
In looking into it I found a rare copy for sale. There was 'Rock n Roll Damnation' on the track list, and there was our partners in social cohesion again- Neil Finn, Sean Kelly, Sherrine Aberathne etc, along with ring-ins from their bands and others we know well like members of Mental as Anything, Paul Kelly, Peter Blakely, Jenny Morris, Molly. This was 1984. This was Australia's answer to Geldof. What a treasure.
So, I was right, there was a 'Rock n Roll Damnation' cover out there, it was a social-justice orientated recording, and Neil and Sean led the charge on both this recording and 'Everything To Live For'. There were Finn fingerprints on this recording too- a version of 'Pōkarekare Ana' that harked back to Tim's 'Big Canoe***' stylings and love of Māori music. There were international ring-ins too, like revered Liverpudlian drummer Pete Tulloch took the lead on a cover of Billy Idol's 'Rebel Yell'.
I had found the Callisto and Io circling the Jupiter of my recollection, but not Ganymede. Yet.
I think a companion to a light-bulb moment going off in your head is a neon sign that flashes the word 'dummy' with off-kilter fizzle. For posterity, I recalled, I did tape those radio shows I had done as a 15-year-old on 3CCC FM. My program had been called 'Hit on This' and it broadcast from 1-3pm on Saturdays in 1990. I even made up a business card, on my electric typewriter, and handed it around at school, much to the scepticism of my school chums until I took a tape-recorded into class and played them the evidence.
As the sign spluttered in my head, and did its best to light up an arrow and the words 'This way' I realised that somewhere in a box of detritus, in the shed, there was every chance I had recorded the shows on which I had played 'Living Out On The Street' and I might still have a cassette with it on it. After some studious fast forwarding and rewarding I heard my 15 year-old self doing a preamble to the song and announcing it as ‘Fingers Crossed’ by Noel’s Cowards. There it was, after all the lateral thinking I put into the years of searching for it in the recollection of others, I had it on tape. That made me rueful if not happy.
Not that I regretted the lines of enquiry that brought me into contact with 'Everything To Live For' and Big Choir Sings. In my mind, many years patiently searching for and, not just rescuing, but bringing together a group of songs that represented the hope and aspiration of good-hearted Australian musicians, in the 1980s, as well as their combined genius in their collaborations, reunited a trio of companions as a necessity.
And 'Fingers Crossed/Living Out On The Street' fitted properly into the group, not just because of it's noble-hearted sentiment, but through its personnel and what they shared with the other songs. It was a Phil Judd and Noel Crombie, of Spilt Enz fame, as Noel's Cowards (a spin-off of their other Split Enz spin-off Schnell Fenster) with its own stars on vocals- Wendy Matthews and Vika Bull.
There was the Spilt Enz connection again, as it was with the Finn Brothers overseeing 'Everything To Live For' and Big Choir sings, along with various members of the band (and future Crowded House members) playing on both. There was a sense of social justice and the perfect delivery by Wendy Matthews to convey the sentiment.
I got myself a 45" of 'Fingers Crossed' and had it and the other songs lovingly digitised so could upload them, hopefully share them with the artists involved, to thank them for adding to the soundscape underpinning the motivation for my art and, if they didn’t have a copy, to bring the songs home to all of us, included them.
Noel’s Cowards: Fingers Crossed
Noel’s Cowards: Tears of Joy
Big Choir Sings- Rock n Roll Damnation:
Big Choir Sings-- War:
Big Choir Sings-- Just a walk closer:
Big Choir Sings-- Oklahoma:
Big Choir Sings-- Rebel Yell:
Big Choir Sings-- Do you wanna touch:
Big Choir Sings-- Pōkarekare Ana:
The Rock Party: Everything to Live for (The Real Mix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQKkqMrseJM
The Rock Party: Everything to Live for (The Unreal Mix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMh-hBPDcpM
The Rock Party: Get Real Rappers
* Something Wrong with Human Nature. Gary Clail:
** Everyone Needs Food, Clothes and Shelter. Gary Clail:
*** Big Canoe. Tim Finn: