Ross Wilson
Interview 30th April 2003
D: Ross Wilson, Daddy
Cool, Mondo Rock, one of the standout legends
of the Australian Music scene for almost 40 years, and responsible for many
of the songs that became essentially the soundtrack to our lives growing
up here in Australia. Ross Wilson is still going strong, and having brought
us over his career such classic songs as Eagle Rock, which was recently voted
number 2 in the best Australian songs of all time, and songs such as ‘Cool
World’, ‘Come said the Boy’ and ‘A Touch of Paradise’, he now completes a
trilogy of recent releases including ‘Go Bongo, Go Wild’, ‘Now Listen, the
best of Ross Wilson’ and his latest release’ Country and Wilson’ which is
basically the album we are going to chat to Ross about today. Welcome very
much to the airwaves here on 88.3 Southern FM Ross.
R: Hi, how ya doin, glad to be on
88.3 again.
D: Yeah well you were
here just a couple of months ago on Greg Neighbour’s
program ‘Choice Cuts’
R: Yeah well it’s easy
for me I just live up the road
D: So your new album
‘Country & Wilson’. It’s really the third for
you in a trilogy of releases where you’ve been exploring some of the roots
of your music.
R: Yeah I guess I grouped
them into 3 categories loosely. The first one Go Bongo was more blues oriented,
some of it was pretty upbeat so you had like bebop to kind of slow torch
songs, and there’s some old time RnB and Doo Wop, all kinds of stuff in there you know…a bit
of harmonica, but yeah bluesy kind of thing. Now Listen was all the things
I’ve been involved in, mainly in group contexts, so you had Daddy Cool and
Mondo Rock and a couple of solo things, and on
the second CD of that set all of my early works from Pink Finks and Party
Machine, groups that were obscure, but that when you hear it all you hear
they were doing pretty good work even back then. And it led to whatever sort
of success I’ve had, so that was the foundation there and then of course
being an Australian it’s pretty hard to avoid country music, growing up in
the fifties, so some of that seeped in as well. But being the guy I am, I
see links between them all and so I’ve attempted to write some songs, and
record some songs by other people as well, that demonstrate how I feel quite
at home in all those styles.
D: Well I guess it
sort of puts it together for all of us really that have grown up in
And in a way you’re
saying it for all of us aren’t you. What I mentioned before is that really
a lot of your music has provided the soundtrack to lots of experiences in
my life, and it’s great to have it there. The album Now Listen with all that
early stuff is fantastic to revisit.
R: Well I was just so
glad that they got a hearing, particularly the stuff from the sixties when
I was first starting out. Most of that material was never played on the radio
and some of it had never been released before, so it was great to be able
to haul them out and go “Hey this stuff stands up’
D: Actually I played
The Pink Finks version of ‘Louis Louis’ before, and I was interested to note
that you didn’t know what the words were either.
R: No I made em up…just
completely the wrong words, and I think that particular version is a testament
to how hard it was to decipher say The ‘Kingsmen’s’
version which was the one that was in currency around that time.
D: I still don’t think
there’s a really definitive version of what the lyrics actually are…
R: Well, there are, if
you get a hold of the original version, by the guy who wrote it, which is
just fantastic. It’s Richard Berry who became one of my biggest, most favouritist people, I just love what he did and all
the things he was connected with, and it was just an amazing story how ‘Louis
Louis’ which was a kind of semi hit around RnB
land in Los Angeles, a few years down the track, garage bands got a hold
of it and it became this staple song and spawned thousands of versions of
which The Pink Finks is but one.
D: I remember there
was an album of versions of ’Louis Louis’ that the Rhino label put out. But
getting back to the most recent album Ross, ‘Country and Wilson’ you mention
that growing up in Australia it’s impossible to avoid having had some influence
from country music and stuff like that but I was wondering really whether
it was just a fantastic title for an album.
R: Well it is, it’s a tremendous title. It works on a couple of
levels I think. It’s sort of how I relate to country and it’s also saying
in a way, there’s Ross Wilson here, and there’s country music. I think I’m
only visiting, I’m not trying to take over the
scene you know. The other thing is of course it’s a statement about our actual
country, such as the song ‘No Soul’ which you played.
D: Some great comments
in that track and you seem to be, I mean most of your songs are not especially
political, but there’s a bit of a message in that one. And recently you have
been involved in work with refugees and that sort of stuff.
R: Yeah more on a musical
level, sometimes I just throw my hat in the ring and say ‘what I do is sing
and write and play’ and I think that any contribution I make is on that level.
So I played at a couple of benefits and contributed that song ‘No Soul’ to
a CD that’s come out of like minded musos called
ASAP “Asylum Seekers Are People”
D: Fantastic to see
you putting that message out and contributing to a project like that. But
I guess another thing with this album, it seems
to me, that it’s given you an opportunity to write songs about issues of
an emotional quality, relationship issues and things like that. Is it that
country music gives you the freedom to explore those kind of issues?
R: Well, it’s almost
the most important part of the genre is the fact it relies so heavily on
the lyric content, as opposed to much of popular music at the moment which
does the opposite with a couple of phrases and a beat. I mean that can work
too, I like a lot of that stuff. But country music, if you want to express
your emotions in a deep way, and tell stories too, that’s the thing you’re
telling stories with a beginning a middle and an end, and a punchline. You can’t really do that with most rock
songs, these days rock music is more dependant on that aggressive emotion,
and the sound of the drums and everything, than any kind of deep emotional
content in the lyric.
D: Although certainly
in your back catalogue, and particularly in the Mondo
Rock material, songs like Come said the Boy are terrific emotional stories.
R: That’s right although
I didn’t write that song, but along the way I’ve learnt a bit better, from
hanging around with Eric McKusker, or other good
writers, to have honed my own skills as well and I’m particularly pleased
that the most recent output of mine, the new songs that are on both ‘Go Bongo
Go Wild’ and this album in particular ‘Country and Wilson’, which is almost
all originals, I think it demonstrates that I have become better at writing
lyrics if you compare it with some of my early work. And it makes me happy
to know that, that I’m actually achieving something here.
D: Well that storytelling
quality comes through, and certainly some great poetry as well, on some of
the more emotionally driven songs.
R: Yeah sometimes I surprise
myself. Like the song ‘Under the Waves and Far Away’ which is a story to
do with my family and my fathers involvement in a very famous wreck, the
Loch Ard, down near the Loch Ard Gorge at Port Campbell, and I guess because I
knew the story it’s very, very descriptive, and the lyric came out unlike
anything I’ve ever done. Because it’s such a great story that already existed
I was just condensing it, and when I finished it I thought ‘oh that’s not
bad’.
D: Fantastic. Your
Dad was involved in the search for that boat wasn’t he?
R: Yeah and he gets a
mention in the third verse, it says ‘Ron Wilson and Peter Allen and George
Batterby , joined the expedition with Sam McPhee’ and they were the main guys down there. Sam
McPhee actually passed away just last year and
there was a few obituaries that sort of told the whole story about it, you
know he was a local hero down there, who found the Loch Ard and considered it was one of the greatest things
he’d ever done. My Dad was a mate of his and just happened to be there on
the day went they went out and had another look and finally found it.
D: Could be a movie
couldn’t it, or at least a very good documentary
R: Well an article came
out in the Victorian Tourism Magazine devoted to the
D: I remember the
first time I heard it my ears really pricked up and I thought gee that’s
a really interesting story, and I had to go and sit down and listen to the
lyrics and it’s a great story. It grabbed me.
D: Okay, so how are
you traveling? You’ve been involved in the music industry in
R: I think I did that
in the 90’s, when I wasn’t around much performance wise, I didn’t go out touring. I did the occasional gig, and
a bunch of stuff that was soul satisfying but I was mainly writing for other
people and producing as a songwriter and publisher, and then I got married
for the second time about 5 years ago, and had a couple of little babies
and of course I needed
to feed and clothe them, so that coincided with a desire to get these albums
out, and I started recording a bit of stuff, and compiled these albums. So
once I started putting them out I hit the road
with a vengeance, and for the last two years I’ve been performing very regularly.
And I do have a plan you know, I mean things like the ‘Long Way to the Top’
took me around the country to a whole lot of places I hadn’t been for quite
a while, playing to big audiences, and it’s all rubbing off on what I do,
and attendances are up and I’m selling records, it’s a beautiful thing…my
plan is working!
D: Do you reckon having
children is a spur to your creativity? Does it give you a kick start along?
R: Well, certainly I
would have never become so knowledgeable about ‘The Wiggles’ as I now am
since the kids came along. And that spurred me on to send them an email and
we ended up cutting Eagle Rock together and now I’m a cartoon character in
their latest DVD. That sort of stuff does inspire you, you know.
D: So you’re an honorary
Wiggle?
R: I mean what is it
about The Wiggles that kids love so much, and you look at it and, you go
I think they understand, but they’re just obsessed with it , I mean tiny
babies, you put the Wiggles on and they go uhh,
and they’re looking at it you know.
D: I know, there’s just something that they’ve got. They started
out as a rock’n roll band didn’t they, The Cockroaches?
R: Well the Cockroaches
drummer, they still use him on their recordings, he played on the Eagle Rock
track that we did.
D: You know it’s interesting;
everybody has a story about Ross Wilson…
R: They do?
D: They do, I mean
people that I work with etc, and they say oh I remember this and, one guy
today says, ‘Oh I remember when he played at Oakleigh
Tech’ back in the 70’s and somebody else from England said ‘Oh I think I remember
the Osmonds doing a version of Eagle Rock on The
Andy Williams Show, I don’t know if that’s true or not.
R: Who?
D: The Osmonds.
R: The Osmonds? … now someone told me it was like The Muppets,
so either The Osmonds or Muppets…They’re close,
yeah, so I’ve heard something like that, I don’t know if it’s true or not.
D: So for you, with
this whole process that you’re going through at the moment, you’ve gone back
to your roots in a way and you’ve been ….
R: A bit of both, I’m
moving forward but I’m acknowledging where I’ve been
D: And you’re playing
a lot of festivals, like The Long Way to the Top, but also a lot of the smaller
grass roots festivals around the country as well?
R: Festivals are fun,
a really good scene because some of them, when you put yourself in the context,
like the Port Fairy Folk Festival, which is a very important festival , and
of course I had to adjust what I do, but I still played a lot of well known
songs like Eagle Rock and Come Back Again, I mean they kind of are folk songs
in a way, but I adjusted the line up and we had fiddles, a similar sound
to what’s on the ‘Country and Wilson ‘ album, and it’s great because you
can try out new formats according to what context you put yourself in, it
keeps it interesting. Course when I go on the road and I’m playing more regular
gigs I’ve got a more rockin’ band, really good
musicians, they’re capable of playing anything. We put in material from all
the eras, Daddy Cool, Mondo Rock, and the new
stuff, and quite often new songs that haven’t been recorded, try em out, so I think I’ve successfully integrated all
of those 4 decades, and can make them sound like it’s all me. There are some
songs that I don’t play, there are some songs
from Mondo Rock albums that never sort of got
played much anyway, so I don’t play everything, but all the important stuff.
D: As long as you
are enjoying it too.
R: Yeah, I play the ones
I like.
D: We’ll have to finish
up soon Ross, but just quickly, Nash Chambers produced a few of the tracks
on the album?
R: Well he’s the producer
of one of the most successful albums in recent times ‘Barricades and Bick
Walls’ by Kasey Chambers.
D: It must have been
fun working with Nash. What was he like to work with?
R: Well it’s great. We
already knew each other from my journeys to the Tamworth Country Music Festival,
which I go to every year now, and he would drop in to
D: And you give a
bit of a nod to Slim Dusty with the song ‘Slim Dusty.com’
R: Yeah I’ve met Slim
quite a few times, great guy. I did go and see him way back in the seventies
at the Dallas Brooks Hall, and he was just fantastic. He had his wife Joy
McKean, and he’ wander on and off stage. He had
this brilliant psychology so that when he’s not here you’re going ‘When is
Slim coming back on?’ and I realized he had this
low key but genuine charisma, something that you can’t invent. When I thought
I’d completed the album I realized I’d touché around various forms but I
hadn’t touched on the Australian bush ballad. I thought it would be criminal
if I didn’t do something and I had this song already and we recorded it down
at my friend Eris O’Brien’s place on this little
8 track thing and made it sound like it was done in 1958, around ‘Pub with
no Beer’ time, so it’s a very unprocessed recording, two guys singing and
playing, in the bush ballad style, which incorporates
tall stories and a bit of fun poking. The great thing is that we had a copy
sent to Slim and his family and they sent us a really nice email, saying
we think your whole album is just a beauty and we think ‘Slim Dusty.com’
is a fun song and we love it and all our friends laughed, so to get that
kind of approval was great. I’d have hated for him to be offended you know.
We then talked about
Ross’ website (see link on main page) and forthcoming gigs around