Today I was trying to think of a different bit of music to share with you and I remembered On the Punt by The Aerial Maps. This song is poetry.
Songwriter and singer Adam Gibson sings about his memories of his race loving father and his travels with him. Old Valiants, hot car seats that burned his legs, pies from the pie shop, bags of hot chips and phone TAB. It is full of Aussie-isms.
I don’t come from a punting family, but whenever I hear race-calling like the start of this song I am immediately whisked back to Aunty A___’s kitchen. The table is covered in delicious treats and we are all settling down for a family lunch. A black transistor radio is playing the horse races constantly in the background. A particular race would start and she would go over and stand by it listening, hoping for a win.
The first time I heard this song we were on holiday. I was making breakfast and listening to Macca* on our little wind-up radio. We were in the campground of the Marla Roadhouse in outback South Australia, on our way home from Alice Springs, the perfect environment to listen to this very Aussie song.
I wish this clip was done with crackly old film in an old car driving those non-specific coastal roads. Unfortunately it is only a photo montage of the band, sorry, it was the only one I could find!
You’ll just have to shut your eyes and pretend you are that kid with a custard tart in an old car, listening to the radio with your dad. ;)
*Macca does a talkback radio show on the ABC on Sunday mornings called Australia All Over. He talks to (and remembers) everyone. The characters who call up the studio or drop in to his show when he is on the road are amazing, farmers, old bushies, CWA ladies, you just never know what gems he will come up with.
its been awhile since Ive heard MAcca, oh, prob since I moved out of home. And you’re right, he does remember everyone,from when he travels to obscure people who ring up. I used to enjoy it, but it lost its appeal somewhere when I tuned back in…. great post.
Thanks :) I mostly listen to Macca when we are away, I love my sleep-ins too much in normal life! His radio show is a bit like an oral history of Australia, even though it is not something I listen to very much it makes me happy that it is being shared and recorded.
i never thought of it like that, but yes, an oral history. How good would it be in 50+ years to listen to it again and see what has changed. :)
I have contemplated downloading some episodes just to save them for myself for listening to in the distant future.
I remember one day an old drover had called up. He was very elderly but as sharp as a tack. He was telling all the tales of a drovers life and I just couldn’t stop listening, Macca clearly didn’t want him to go either! To him he was recounting a normal days work but to most of us it was a different world. Unless these things are recorded, sadly, they will just disappear and we wouldn’t even know they were gone.
Growing up we never had a car but I remember being taken on long drives by a school friend’s Dad. Windows down, heat and dust coming in, loving every moment of it. Thanks Metan :)
Remember those vinyl seats and a hot summers day, OUCH! I’m happy it bought back some memories for you even if they might have been painful :)
lol – not that painful!
I remember scalding seats, metal belt clips that had been lying out in the sun for hours and little legs clad only in shorts… I’m surprised that we weren’t scarred for life! ;)
Hey! That’s what my car was like until I finally had the carport built ;)
Bless the inventor of air conditioning for cars :) No carport here!
I’ll second that – I do remember what it was like driving in summer with no air-conditioning. For me the carport was a long delayed but real necessity as my car would be too hot to touch /before/ I could even get in to start the air-con!
Obviously this is very Australian and not something I’ve heard of in the UK but still it evokes memories of the old cars we used to have and going out for a day with my dad driving.( No smart-ass comments about horse and carts when I was young- yes, you know who I mean) The hot seats ( yes, we had sun in those days) the lemonade bottles, custard tarts, it’s all there except for the horseracing. It’s strange when you think of the distance between us, just how much we shared. I remember the £5 Aussies which was when that was the fare to emigrate during the fifties and sixties. We so nearly went. So many people must have brought over so many things common to us both now. If the Americans are known as the Cousins perhaps you’re much more Sisters and Brothers to us.
In which case what’s the chance of a loan till payday?
Hugs to all.
Horse and cart? What on earth do you mean? We would never be so cruel! My sisters and I always tell dad we know that he had dinosaurs pulling his cart when he was a child…
It is funny that even though we are on opposite sides of the planet we still share similar kinds of memories. I love you calling those emigrants five pound Aussies, we call them ten pound Poms! Damn exchange rate!! :)
My mum and her family came over as ten pound Poms in the fifties, much of my childhood was spent in the back of my very English grandparents car on weekend road trips. I get the feeling that the UK and Australia have more in common than they sometimes realize.
Thanks for a peek at something completely new to me.
I hope you enjoyed it. If vinyl seats on a hot day are something you didn’t experience as a child you are VERY lucky! ;)