Into The Music

Australia is a country of vast distances and wide open spaces. In the first part of the documentary series Wide Open Road, we'll hear how physical and cultural isolation led a generation of Australian musicians to discover their country through music.

By the mid 1970s songwriters started to write as if they lived here, setting their songs in the Australian landscape and exploring our relationship with the vast interiors of the country. Featured artists are The Saints, Go-Betweens, The Birthday Party, Hunters and Collectors, Dave Graney, No Fixed Address, Warumpi Band, and Midnight Oil.

It's all the more ironic that many of these songwriters felt alienated by both the Australian landscape and Australian culture. A generation of songwriters fled the country for far away England and Europe. It was there they discovered an Australia that they could write about. Musicians also began to explore the dark heart of the country in song. And it led them to the indigenous sounds of Aboriginal rock bands who started telling the country what life was really like on the wrong side of the road.

Wide Open Road Four is a four part documentary series to be broadcast on Radio National and triple j about how Australian contemporary music has been shaped by our unique environment. Over four weeks, the series explores the way the landscape and the social and cultural environment has shaped distinctly Australian music. From the desert to the coast, the suburbs to the outback, from punk to hip hop, you'll hear some of our best known songwriters talk about where they're from and why it matters.

The programs are narrated by Richard Kingsmill

Sound Engineer: Mark Don

RN Executive Producer: Robyn Ravlich

Wide Open Road continues online with extended interviews, photos, tracks to stream and a road map of Australian lyrics. Listeners are invited to get involved and submit stories and photos, lyrics about Australia and your favourite memories of gigs, songs and artists. You can find the website at abc.net.au/wideopenroad

Music Details

Wide Open Road
(David McComb)
Mushroom Music Publishing.
(P) 1986 Liberation Music.
The Triffids
From Born Sandy Devotional
Mush32417.2
D: 1:39

Barkly Highway West
Don Walker
(P)Sony ATV/Music
Don Walker
From Cutting Back
Warner 5101137492
D: 1:25

Too Hot To Move
(David McComb)
Mushroom Music Publishing.
The Triffids
From The Black Swan
White Hot D30057 (1989) Mushroom 32422.2
D: 2:10

Hell of a Summer
(David McComb)
Mushroom Music Publishing.
The Triffids
From Treeless Plain
White 19936 (1985)
D: 1:44

Wide Open Road
(David McComb)
Mushroom Music Publishing.
(P) 1986 Liberation Music.
The Triffids
From Born Sandy Devotional
Mush32417.2
D: 2:25

Lonely Stretch
(David McComb)
Mushroom Music Publishing.
(P) 1986 Liberation Music.
The Triffids
From Born Sandy Devotional
Mush32417.2
D: 3:15

Barkly Highway West
Don Walker
(P)Sony ATV/Music
Don Walker
From Cutting Back
Warner 5101137492
D: 2:16

Demolition Girl
(Ed Kuepper/Chris Bailey)
Mushroom Music Pty Ltd.
(P) 1976 EMI Music Australia Pty Limited.
The Saints
From (I'm) Stranded
EMI CDMID166130 (1977); EMI 8319782
D: 0:35

Do the Robot
Mushroom Music Pty Ltd.
(P) 1976 EMI Music Australia Pty Limited.
The Saints - From (I'm) Stranded reissue
EMI=5099950037124(2007)
D: 0:54

(I'm) Stranded
(Ed Kuepper/Chris Bailey)
Mushroom Music Pty Ltd.
(P) 1976 EMI Music Australia Pty Limited.
The Saints - From (I'm) Stranded
EMI CDMID166130 (1977); EMI 8319782
D: 3:10

Cry
(Nick Cave / Rowland Howard / Mick Harvey / Tracy Pew / Phil Calvert).
(P) The Birthday Party Pty. Ltd.
The Birthday Party
Excerpt from "The Peel Sessions"
BBC archive
D: 2:08

Cattle and Cane
(Forster/McLennan)
Mushroom Music Pty Ltd.
The Go-Betweens
From Before Hollywood
Red Eye 847027-2; Silk Sheen SILK003 (1996)
D: 4:00

Darren Hanlon - Manilla, NSW
(Darren Hanlon) Darren Hanlon.
(P) Darren Hanlon.
Darren Hanlon
From Fingertips and Mountaintops
D: 2:15

This Is Not The Way Home
(Tex Perkins, D Rumour)
Universal Music Publishing.
(P) 1992 Polydor Records.
From This Is Not The Way Home
D; 1:43

Runaway
(Dave Graney)
(P)
The Moodists
WMINCD027 (2002)
D: 1:18

That's the Way It's Gonna Be
(Dave Graney)
(P) Lost in Music/Polygram
Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes
From Night of the Wolverine
ID00152(1993)
D: 3:45

42 Wheels
(Hunters & Collectors)
Mushroom Music Publishing.
(P) 1984 Human Frailty
Hunters and Collectors
From The Jaws Of Life
White Label Mushroom 32131.2
D: 3:12

We Have Survived
(Bart Willoughby)
Mushroom Music Publishing.
No Fixed Address
From Wrong Side of the Road
YPBX1985
2:38

Exodus
(Bob Marley)
Bob Marley and the Wailers
From Exodus
Island 314586408-2(2001)
D: 1:44

Black Man's Right
(Bart Willoughby)
Mushroom Music Publishing.
No Fixed Address
From Wrong Side of the Road
YPBX1985
D: 2:13

Waru
(N. Murray/G. Rurrambu)
Warumpi Band
From Big Name, No Blankets
Parole D38935
D: 3:27

The Dead Heart
(Midnight Oil)
Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia.
(P) 1986 Midnight Oil.
Midnight Oil
From Diesel and Dust
Sprint CDCBS4600052
D: 3:24

Producer

Cath Dwyer and Tom Morton