Keith and Jimmy’s common journey
 |
|
Jimmy Barnes has teamed up with a number of artists to celebrate his career. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
EVERYONE has that photo, place or song that reminds them of someone they lost.
For Jimmy Barnes, one of those painful triggers has been the song Good Times.
He hasn’t been able to sing it for 17 years, since the death of his mate Michael Hutchence.
Jimmy Barnes is marking 30 years of his solo career. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
They recorded the Easybeats hit in 1986 and it was used to promote the Australian Made mini-festivals that were headlined by INXS and Barnes with Mental as Anything, Divinyls, Models, The Saints, I’m Talking and The Triffids.
Their cover also found its way on to the soundtrack of the cult Joel Schumacher film The Lost Boys, leading to a top-40 result on the American charts.
“I’ve had a problem playing Good Times live since Michael died. It’s driven me nuts,” Barnes says.
“Everyone loves it, they want me to play it and I didn’t want to play it any f—ing more because it’s not the same without Michael.”
So when it came time to mark the 30th anniversary of his solo career, Barnes decided it was time to lay the Good Times ghost to rest.
As he rounded up his mates to help him revisit his hits for his 30:30 Hindsight record, he hit up Keith Urban to reprise his duet with Hutchence.
“Keith and I have been mates for a long, long time. I loved his voice and the way he plays guitar and his first recordings were down in my house at Mittagong,” Barnes says.
A Facebook shot shows Jimmy Barnes in the studio with Jackie James Barnes and Keith Urban earlier this year.
Source: Supplied
“We have both had our times skating very close to the edge, when we both could have fallen through the ice once or twice.
“There were times when I was really going hard, getting hammered, and I don’t know why but I would get a text out of the blue from Keith in America saying ‘Are you OK, mate?’
“Whether someone he knew had seen me totally f—ing wasted somewhere, I don’t know, but he would touch base. He’s a decent bloke.
“I pick Good Times for us to do to tip our hats to friendship and because we have shared this common journey. As we did with Michael and we lost Michael along the way.”
It was the natural course of music history for Barnes to launch a solo career when Cold Chisel called it quits, the first time, with the Last Stand tour in 1983.
His debut record, Bodyswerve, was released the following year, debuted at No.1 and featured the song he calls his mantra, No Second Prize.
Its 2014 version features a “bogan” choir of about 20 people who happened to be at his Sydney home for dinner one night, including the gardener and the handyman who lives across the road.
The legendary rocker maintained an enviable command of the Australian charts and airwaves throughout the 1980s and ’90s with a succession of original albums and the phenomenally successful Soul Deep covers record.
Working Class Man gets a refresh for the new collection, with Barnes’s fans quick to note he has finally recorded the version of the song he has been singing live for years.
The lyric switches in the second verse from “Midwestern skies” to “Australian skies”.
“I have been singing it live like that for years — I never even thought about it,” he says. “Thought it was about time to make it official.”
The Living End recorded Lay Down Your Guns with Barnes. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
Guests on 30:30 Hindsight include “the people who are close to me, who have really supported me or given me a leg-up on the way.”
The Living End give some added grunt to Lay Down Your Guns as does Shihad on Love and Hate.
E Street Band legend Steve Van Zandt revisits the song he co-wrote, Ride the Night Away, and Journey join him on Going Down Alone.
The Barnes extended family is also featured, with Mahalia, Diesel and David Campbell duetting with Jimmy.
His drummer son Jackie, who also plays on the record, deserves a genius award for suggesting Bernard Fanning to sing on Still On Your Side. That stunning, stirring new version could be a hit all over again if it was released as a single.
Cold Chisel in 1978: Ian Moss, Don Walker, Jimmy Barnes, Steve Prestwich and Phil Small. Picture: News Corp Australia
Source: News Corp Australia
Barnes laughs now at just how terrified he was about launching his solo career.
He measured his songs against those of Chisel’s chief songwriter, the incomparable Don Walker, and felt like a novice at everything from writing to recording, despite his years with the band.
“In Cold Chisel, I drank and sang and that was the measure of my input,” he says.
“I was terrified back then. I knew everyone would compare what I was doing to Cold Chisel and I didn’t know if I could pull it off.”
Barnes was “terrified” about going solo. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
His early collaborators gave him no quarter. Barnes remembers his solo band’s original bassist Bruce Howe, who he had played with in Fraternity, the 1970s rock band that had also hosted Barnes’s brother John Swan and AC/DC frontman Bon Scott in its ranks.
“Bruce was a hard taskmaster. He used to hit me in the back of the head with his bass if I sang flat. He was full on,” Barnes says.
If the songs sound slightly different reimagined on 30:30 Hindsight, the thing that remains the same is his performance of them.
There may be slight nuances in an arrangement here, a note or a scream there, but his gigs continue to be the full-tilt, rock-until-you-drop experiences they have always been, and that is what gives him the greatest source of professional pride.
Barnes can remember only one gig when he walked off stage. And it was a Hell’s Angels concert.
“Most people will be really well behaved but there was one big bikie I kept watching who kept leering at this young girl with her boyfriend,” Barnes recalls.
“He went up and slapped the young fella in the middle of Khe Sanh. I jumped off the stage and hit him over the head with my mic. He was about six foot six and as I smashed him on his head I thought ‘Oh f—, this is a bad idea’.
“As I was getting back on stage I could feel the air move as he was swinging at me, so I told the band we were walking off.
“That was probably the last time I threw a punch. I don’t fight any more.”
Jimmy Barnes with the Baby Animals, who will appear with him on tour, Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
Barnes will stage a national Day on The Green tour featuring The Living End and other 30:30 Hindsight guests, including Baby Animals, Ian Moss, Troy Cassar-Daley and Mahalia Barnes as well as a series of regional gigs.
He will also play special gigs in Sydney and Melbourne at which he will play the Working Class Man and Freight Train Heart albums in full.
After he finishes celebrating his 30th anniversary, it is expected he will rejoin his Chisel mates to complete the much-rumoured new record.
Always the stirrer, he can’t help himself from relaying a piece of trivia shared by Michael Gudinski, the man who has released all his solo records, when asked how many he has sold over 30 years.
“Six or seven million? More than Chisel, put it that way.”
■ Jimmy Barnes will tour Australia from October 1. Full details on his website.
