Swanee

George Thorogood, Bonnie Brae, Despain Dizzylilacs, Luna 13, If I Fall

The Magic of Swanee

Interview by Ken Morton

John Swan, best known as Swanee, is an absolute legend in the vast confines of Australia and beyond. His legacy in music spans several decades as a solo artist and within the ranks of The Party Boys. He is also the older brother of singer/songwriter Jimmy Barnes, who is another much revered artist from down under. Recently Swanee partnered up with MR Records, presenting a comprehensive Greatest Hits package, featuring 20 songs spanning a brilliant career in music. Doing an interview with Swanee is a glorious epic in itself. And Highwire Daze is thrilled to present our first of what will be many conversations to discuss the music and magic of Swanee. Read on...

First of all, how did your collaboration with MR Records come about?

Well, my father passed away unfortunately. My dad was a big influence on me. He was a boxer actually, but he was one of these men who was a great singer. He sounded exactly like Nat King Cole – that was his favorite act. When he was training, he’d sing away. And there’s not too many boxers who had that sort of outlook. I’d go to the gym with him, and I’d be sitting there and hear him sing “Unforgettable, that’s what you.” You’d hear that in the gym along with “Bam! Bam! Bam!” It was really cool!

So, I sort of met Peter (from MR Records) back just along the way. The industry is not huge here. You don’t have as many players that are that well known. There are a lot of musicians, but not a lot of guys who get chart success and stuff like that. Peter contacted me and we had some lovely conversations. And I said to him, “One day I’m going to go and do this for my dad. I’m going to get out there and sing those songs.” Because I made an album for him, and I gave it to him just before he passed away. He said, “Oh, that’s not bad…” Very, very typical

Scotsman – he was sort of very gruff. He put the album on the bed next to him and we kept talking, and then apparently when I left the room, he had the nurse in the room with the speakers up and gave it a go – but he wouldn’t do it in front of me. So, it was very, very cool. So, Peter said, “Well, why don’t we do a little show. We’ll fly people into Melbourne and see how it goes.” So, for me, any excuse to sing Nat King Cole, I just went down there. And a guitar player friend of mine turned up – and I was going to use some of the backing tracks I had given to my dad. But this guitar player – he knew every song – and I had worked with him for about 5-10 years, He said what songs are you doing, so I told him. So, he sat down as I was signing autographs as people were coming in, and just wrote up some charts.

We go up there, we had a talk to Peter, I introduced myself to the people who were having a meal and a wine – it was a really nice atmosphere for me because I’m used to big rock concerts. And I loved it – it was a great place – it was an Italian restaurant which is my favorite food. And it was really easy to do. And we filmed it and we were going to release it. But Peter said, “Have you thought about releasing some of the hits that you’ve had?” And I said, “I don’t know if I’d have enough to release” and he said, “Man, you’ve got enough for a double album!” So that’s how it came about – it was just by two people who get along chatting whose passion is music. I was very impressed.

So, the albums come out. It’s one of those things. My success has always been – I’ve only had a few go to number one – I’ve got a couple of platinum albums and a couple of gold albums, but they’re creepers. They’re long term on a playlist for radio stations – which is much better for me – because you stay in amongst all the different generations. I’m not exactly 17 anymore, so it’s kind of nice when you’re all up to do a show, and there’s maybe 10,000 people there. And you walk out and do a show – and they come up afterwards and they’re trying to buy your album and they’re trying to get you to sign it. And they’re looking at you and they say, “How old are you?” And I say “69.” And then they stare at me and go “Jesus Christ, man! Where do you get the energy? How do you do that?” This is what we do. I live for this. I’ve been doing this since I was 13. And that’s really how the album came out. There was no messing about – signing contracts and all that stuff. It was a shake of the hand – and two friends getting together trying to put some music out there to entertain some of the fans that I’ve had over the years.

And make a couple of new fans along the way. Like me…

Yeah! Oh wow! Well, I’ve got a couple of more coming up. My brother Jimmy Barnes – he’s huge here – he’s like Number One. There’s nobody bigger. He’s got Joe Bonamassa and all of those guys coming over to his place – Springsteen and those guys stay there. I lived in a surfing town way out in the Coast – and I love it because it’s just the way I like to live. He lives in the fast lane. I’ve been out in the garden all morning – and I love it. I live a simple life now. I used to have a big boat on the harbor and five acres in Sydney and three gardeners and more cars than you can point a stick at. You could only drive one car at a time – you know?

What I decided was – I got rid of all the fancy stuff. I felt like all of this was not necessarily because I want it, but I want people to see that I’m successful. Like look at me! And I find that a lot in rock and roll – there’s a lot of ego involved. And I’m a pretty simple guy. I’m a Glaswegian – we just tell it the way it is, and we get up there and do what we do. And if people enjoy it, that’s wonderful. If they don’t – come back again and I’ll do it better.

In addition to the amazing original songs on the album, you have a few really terrific imaginative covers and I’d like to talk about two of them. You did If I Were A Carpenter by Tim Hardin which is amazing – and then Hold Your Head Up by Argent – which is probably one of the most inspired covers I’ve heard of that song…

Fortunately, they both went Number One in this country, so it was good. The same company Warner Brothers – lovely people – they wanted to me do this other song. You know how record companies have always got writers and they’re not necessarily guys who can go out there and be stars – but they’re writers. And they had this guy, and he was writing good songs – he had these two hits for himself – and they said, “we want you to record this” and I said “no, I want to record this!” And they said “Tim Hardin?” And I explained the story about Tim Hardin – such a

tragic story – I won’t go into it now. He sold the rights to the song straight away and he didn’t get anything for it – very, very sad. A lot of musicians had done it. And I heard (If I Were A Carpenter) done by Bobby Darin and nearly every man and their dog had a hit around the world with it. It’s like the old story – a good song will stand up as long as you sing it well. You don’t even have to be a great singer – you just have to do a good version of it. At the time, I was listening to Leon Russell – because what he did with Mad Dogs and English Men was just fantastic! “What about if I did that with Carpenter?” And everybody went “Nah!” And then I heard Joe Cocker do it and I got to do support for Joe. So, I was out there doing it, and he was just the nicest man. And I went out and did Carpenter the way it was. And because I played it in front of Joe Cocker’s audience – you get such massive exposure – and the song went Number One.

And the same thing happened with Hold Your Head Up – when we had a band called The Party Boys. It was all guys from the best bands in the countries – and they were thrown together. They had a floating rotation – whoever turned up and was sober enough to get onstage played. But when I joined, I said this is what’s going to happen. We’re going to sit down, we’re going to write stuff, we’re going to rehearse, we’re going to do a set, we’re going to get lights, we’re going to do a proper show! And everyone went “Oh! I knew you’d be a wusser!” But the bass player agreed with me – he said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s a great idea! I can’t stand this. This is driving me mad!” Because you don’t know who’s going to turn up that night, so you can’t play Sympathy For The Devil if you’ve rehearsed it and the guitar player doesn’t know it. So, you finish up with Honky Tonk Woman or something like that. And I hated that. I wanted to see a show from these guys who are such talented musicians. The bass player was from Status Quo – Alan Lancaster – he passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was just such a professional. And with me pushing and him having the influence that he had, we got it going.

The last song on the Greatest Hits album is called Here’s To You. It’s such a reflective song and a great way to end the album. Could you give me a little background on that song and what those lyrics mean to you?

What I had been doing for those ten years – every day I would get up and I’d go into a hospital with my acoustic guitar and I would play to the patients – like in a burn injury unit or a cancer unit. I was the Vietnam Vets Ambassador here and I would go in and play to the Vets. And I went into Poets Of Care because I suddenly started realizing how many people were in such great pain – and I was having such a great life playing rock and roll – and rock and roll’s been great to me. So, I wanted to play to them – and there’s no money in it – none whatsoever. Never made a cent out of it – but the whole point was I got more out of that than I did anything. I met this guy – Todd, he was a pilot and he was in Poets Of Care, and he had the drip in it which was slowing down the respiratory system getting ready to pass away. And he’s got six kids under the tent – he met this girl – she’s got three kids and he’s got three kids – and they fell in love. I went in and he was sitting there, and he had no hair, and he was looking so gaunt. His wife was such a beautiful girl. And she said, “He’s such a massive fan of yours. Would you come in and have a coffee with him?” So, I went in and looked at the guy and he was on the drip to die – and I drunk his coffee. It was a moment where something happened in my life – I’m not a religious man – I believe God is love and the universe and nature and all beautiful things. And this guy, he said “I used to play guitar.” And I said “Really?” And he said, “Yeah, can I have a go?” And trying to get him up to hold a guitar was kind of a massive, massive effort. And he played Better Be Home Soon by Crowded House. And I sung it. And after I sung it, I said “Look, I gotta go because I’ve got be over at the burn ward to do songs during their lunch time because it’s the only time that they can get.” So, he said, “Yeah, yeah, thank you for coming.” And I said, “What’s your favorite song?” And he said, “When My Guitar Gently Weeps.” And I said, “I’ll learn it tonight and I’ll play it for you tomorrow.” And he said, “No, I won’t be here tomorrow.” The actual process of dying had taken place and I said, “Man, you’ll be here! Don’t give up. Don’t you dare give up on me. You’ve got those kids – you’ve got everything to go for you.” And he said, “Yeah, but sometimes we don’t control what happens to us in life.” And I said, “Okay, very wise. I get it. Have some faith.” And I left.

And his wife runs into me and says “Swanee, what the fuck did you do to him?” I had never heard this woman

swear before in my life – she was related to Bon Scott and that’s how she knew me – and her husband being a fan, that was natural to do it. She said, “He wants his guitars!” And I said, “So, take the frigging things in. What are you worried about?” She said, “You don’t understand. He’s not supposed to make it through the night. And now he’s got his good guitars in there and he doesn’t want the rubbish ones and he wants somebody to get the other ones strung.” And I was like, “You know, maybe he’s not ready to go.” So, I went in that night and sat there playing with him – not to him – with him – and we played When My Guitar Gently Weeps. He started crying and he said “This is magic. I’ve always wanted to do this.” And I said, “Really?” Anyway, they pulled out the drip from the stuff they put into you to slow down the respiratory system and it basically keeps you out of pain from cancer. He pulled the drips out and he said, “I’m coming with you.” So, the next day, he checked himself out. So, I was playing a Repat Hospital and his wife brought him out there – and he walked in with his guitar, and I just about fell over. So, I sat down and played, and he joined me. And I went home and wrote Here’s To You because of everything that guy had done. If you listen to the lyrics of it, you will understand. The whole story will make sense to you because it was about celebrating his life – and raising a glass like the Irish do at a wake. Here’s To You and all the things you used to do. You make a difference. Three months later, he rung me and said, “Are you coming over?” I went over and he grabbed ahold of me and sort of gave me a kiss and he was cuddling me really hard. And I said, “What’s wrong now?” And he said “I can’t do it anymore. I’ve had enough. But it’s okay. I want to thank you. You gave me the best three months of my life. I would have been dead three months ago because they kept pumping the drugs into me. And I got to spend three months more with those children under ten, and they understand why dad is going away now.” And I was just in tears.

So, the next week she rung me and said, “Would you come to sing at his funeral?” And I said “Yeah.” And she asked, “Would you carry his casket?” And I said “Yeah. I would do anything.” So, the next time you listen to that song, you will find a story of a musician who had everything in his life – in the old days I made forty grand a night – and that’s a lot of money. And this guy has money – he’s a pilot by the way. But he had no health. I had somehow after all of my drug addictions and alcoholism didn’t have any of the problems that he had. And it touched me so deeply. I do think there’s a magic to music that inspires people…