Bicton Breezes – an early one.
Wrote this one in my little room in Brixton in 1975. It encapsulated my whole idea of creating original music that sprang from the mundane features of Australian suburban life, mingling with autobiographical stuff like the Kouzinas Brothers fish and chip shop in Hislop Rd, Attadale. The physical distance and removal from Australia helped clarify and intensify my concept. Tony Durant played on this demo way back then and later came to Australia to join the band.(click on title below to run video).
Of course I remember the service station
And the boys who roasted chestnuts
Out the back and told dirty jokes of a Saturday.
No I don’t recall the tram to Point Walter
I wasn’t born then and by now it’s all altered
A band I understand would play by the river
And boys off to war would hold girls who would shiver
Ah, even Bicton suffered
If they hadn’t died there never would be
Boys coming home late from football training on the 159
And housewives who contemplate a suicide by the washing line and
Love their children
And their husband
And their car
And their family tree.
Do you recall the FJ
And the trips to school?
Stephen Bizacca always won the loose football
And Sister often read to us
Stories ’bout the saints
I was an altar boy at benediction.
And if there’s one thing that I learnt there
It’s be always what you ain’t
That applies to all beliefs and all convictions.
‘Cause what you are is meaningless as things described as quaint
Especially if you’re born a kid in Bicton.
Oh we all congregated
At the fish and chip shop
Nicely situated
Just by the 148 stop
While fish were frying we were eyein’ each other
Cooked, salted, vinegared, goodbyin’
And your mother was watching
Then a new car was something (Special it seemed)
Adopted our money (Fostered our dreams)
Of tropical isles (but Kouzinas is Greek)
And Mediterranean smiles (but that was last week)
While fish was cookin’ I was lookin’ ahead
Sometimes I missed my bus but then I got my fish and I toured Athens instead.
Oh the Kouzinas Brothers, Jimmy and Don
Had a fish and chip shop
Nicely situated
By the 148 stop.
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