July - 2025

How to find a long-lost song

Jul 14
15 min read

Above is an audio reading of the story below, for those who prefer to listen

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 remembered 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 and that 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.

'Living Out On The Street' appealed 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 hardship 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- charity songs to raise money for orphanages in Nigeria[1], and for research into helping the Tasmanian Devil[2]. Festivals for the Aboriginal Housing Company in Sydney[3]; theatre production involving the residents of public housing estates which put money back into local programs[4] 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 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 (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.

In continuing to think of possible directions for find the song, I was sure I was on 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 1986. I thought perhaps this was the song I was after. I hoped 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, as well as international ring-ins like Dire Straits and big-time American producer Joe 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.

With respect to my efforts to track down the music, I looked for a copy to buy and couldn't find it anywhere. I tried the production engineer, Phil Rigger, listed in the details of the song online, and he said he might have a copy stored somewhere. I asked whether, if he could find it, he could just play it down the phone to me, to see if it was the song I was after. Sadly, he couldn't track it down.

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 structures 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 searched 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 recording 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 80s project called 'Big Choir Sing' which did a recording, involving a plethora of Australian performers, in 1984, with the intent of celebrating the spirit of punk and challenging a sense of elitism in Australia's music scene. It set a template for big collaborations and an 'anything is possible' attitude, inspiring and involving many of the same personnel in The Rock Party two years later and, as a supergroup recording, also predating We are The World and Live Aid, which used the same format of people from multiple bands singing together, by a year (1985).

In looking into it, I found a rare copy for sale. There was 'Rock n Roll Damnation' on the track list, and there were 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.

There was a Polly Hester (Not Paul Hester) listed on vocals as well, which came to explain a lot as I made further enquiries.

The initial inspiration for Big Choir Sings, however, goes to Greg Perano, who played drums in the first iteration of Hunters and Collectors.

Paul Janovskis, from 80s Punkabilly outfit Cattletruck, is one of the people I have managed to talk to about being involved in Big Choir Sings.

Paul says: "[Greg] was the banger of the large Metal Cylinder and an important part of their early and unique sound. Greg had a lot of connections in the Sydney entertainment world also. He was definitely the main man behind the Melbourne contingent of singers and 'not-really' singers, and would have been the reason we did that trad Maori song [Big Choir Sings-Pokarekare Ana. The last track on the album] he's a Kiwi).

There was a Sydney contingent developing at the same time and after some practices Greg arranged for the Melb crew to go to Sydney and join up with the Sydney crew and do a few performances up there, which I recall being good fun and well attended.

I think he was also behind getting the big recording session done at the famous Studios 301 up there. I suspect he also arranged for Cameron Allan to produce, and for the eventual record release. I think everyone involved was doing it for love, not money." Now LA-based successful film director Nick Conroy, who was also part of the music scene in Sydney at the time (including Big Choir Sings), also credits Greg, saying: "I always thought at the time that it was quite amazing that Greg had the influence to get loads of people from current bands to participate in The Big Choir. The live events were so different from the record and we did different songs on the night depending on inspiration!

One live performance, Neil Finn sang Tom Jones’ “ It’s Not Unusual “ while the rest of us just cavorted in the background all dressed in pyjamas! So much fun! Other times we all wore black cloaks like a church choir… we did that in Melbourne at a nightclub I’m trying to remember the name of. Either The Underground or Inflation."

Further credit also has to go to Greg for who he drew into the orbit of positivity to support the ideas he set in train. Everything to Live For, built on the foundation of Big Choir Sings, gained massive social and political support, alongside the contribution of musicians. A look at the list of supporters from the inset booklet (included below this piece) show the Federal Health Minister and the heads of St Vincent Hospital celebrating the large funds generated in support of youth health initiatives and doing a check hand-over at a Dire Straits concert.

These photo ops are, of course, always the victorious end result of ground-work and goodwill that has become so compelling that the powers at be can't help but get involved. Good will that, in this case, involved the social voices that understood the community needs that the music sang about- painter and HIV advocate John Brock, and founding members of The NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA), like Julie Bates, among others.

I have been lucky enough, in writing this story, to be able to connect with people like Julie Bates who have expanded the context and significance of recording projects like The Rock Party beyond the music, at it's face, by sharing the context and the story of the organisers who lay behind it and acted as a conduit between the musicians and community.

Julie talked with me about former partner Alan Winchester, who lead the steering committee for Get Real, after I reached out to her with a link to my story. We pieced the puzzle together as to why she was listed on the liner notes. It fell in to place when we read Alan's name. She, touchingly, sent me the eulogy she wrote for Alan, outlining his incredible life and dedication to the vulnerable.

It made sense that Alan and Julie were involved in Get Real, which resulted in Everything to Live For, given they were leading advocates at the time for the people the songs were singing about. Alan and Julie were founding members of the AIDS Drug Information Collective (ADIC) group of activists who laid the groundwork for organisations representing people who use drugs, sex workers, and people living with HIV etc.

Alan helped these groups establish themselves formally, write their constitutions and be structured in a way that made it possible for them to get government funding, like the Australian Prostitutes Collective NSW which secured funding in 1986.

Julie also shared heart-wrenching anecdotes such as the rituals that formed, from the mid-eighties, for the ashes of those who had fallen to AIDS, to be sprinkled on dance-floors around the country, on a weekly basis, as so many were lost. Hearing this hit me in the guts but turned my mind back to the message the songs in question, which call for compassion from the listeners to understand and to help those in need and educate those who have a chance to avoid enduring suffering, with support.

So, I was right, there was a 'Rock n Roll Damnation' cover out there, and while Greg, Neil and Sean led the charge on Big Choir Sings, Neil and Sean oversaw the 1986 'Rock Party' effort with 'Everything To Live For'.

I'd found the Callisto and Io circling the Jupiter of my recollection, but not Ganymede. Yet.

In further chats with Deb Conway she did, later, solve a track list mystery for me as to why Polly Hester, lead vocal on 'Rock n Roll Damnation' did not turn up in any searches I undertook.

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’, singing on both The Big Choir Sings and Rock Party projects, and also being the infamous Just Jeans billboard campaign's mystery 'backside'.

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 later 'Phluphykins the Little Pink Rabbit' and it broadcast from 1-3pm on Saturdays in 1990-2. 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 cassette-player 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 tape 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.[5] There it was, after all the lateral thinking I put into the years of searching for it, through 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 recorded by 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 input into '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 I could upload them, and 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.

It closed a circle of curiosity for me. I knew the song, now, that had stayed with me all these years, but I also now have the music for a whole lot of other songs and projects that are a doorway into the social justice side of Australia's music scene in the 1980s. Andrew and Lissa Barnum- who had the 80s hit 'Boom Box' with their band Vitabeat- are a good example. Andrew came back to me with delight, when I shared a link for 'Everything to Live For' (after I saw the pair acknowledged in the liner notes).

Andrew says: "To be honest, one forgets about these moments in time, Your note sent me scurrying to my record collection to find our copy. Yes we have one! We recorded all our Vitabeats releases at Studio 301 in 1985, hence the invitation for 'Everything to live for' vocals. Our national hit 'Boom box' connected with the same positive messaging at the time. The first line: 'How can you stand there and say it's over yet, we have just begun to try."

Andrew's comments speak to me of what the music in the trio of songs is all about, for the artists involved as well as myself. It is not just the recollections and pride of making such marvellous things happen, but also what it has meant and continues to mean to them, as inspiration for the music they keep making and the lives they have lead since, as it has been for me.