The Jimmy Barnes Memoir ‘Highways & Byways’ Tells A Tale of a Life Lived Hard
‘The Jimmy Barnes Memoir ‘Highways & Byways’ Tells A Tale of a Life Lived Hard’ is John Moyle’s review of memoir ‘Highways and Byways’ by Jimmy Barnes.
Recently I saw Cold Chisel in concert.
An awesome aural and visual spectacle, with 68 year-old frontman Jimmy Barnes expending more energy in one song than many singers do over a lifetime.
One month later Barnes is back in the headlines with the release of his sixth book, Highway and Byways.
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An account and reflections of his life so far, covering the physical distance from Glasgow to the Adelaide new-town of Elizabeth with family that is broken, the hard slog of his band’s journey from playing covers to filling areas with fans who have come to listen to a set packed wth anthems, but, most of all, it is about his family.
My first thought was how can the frontman I saw only a month before modulate his energy from the stage to the page where there is only an audience of one?
Never fear, as the second chapter is an account of him buying a Mercedes 450 and finding that his lead foot can quickly push this thing to do 250kph, the only problem being a fan who is also a highway patrol cop.
Throughout Highways and Byways, Jimmy Barnes fleshes out many chapters with a listing of soundtracks, which in this case includes Ray Charles’ ‘Hit the Road Jack’ and AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’.
Not all of the chapters are as straight forward as many would expect, such as Shirley Knott about a drag queen named Stephen from the country who tries to make her way in the city despite fierce persecution from the local yobs who regularly invade Oxford Street for a spot of poofter bashing.
This surprising and tenderly written piece sees Barnes writing with an insight and compassion concerning even the most marginalised of society, and as often occurs throughout the book, the thoughts of his distant father permeates the story.
Not all is grounded in reality, such as Learning to Love the Old Girl, a right of passage story centred on learning the art of fishing on the muddy Port River, or The Swarm, which details how a retiring office worker deals with a problem way beyond his life experience.
One of the most surprising chapters is Crystal Radio, which is firmly rooted in Stephen King territory and shows just how far Barnes’ imagination can roam.
Across the twenty-odd chapters Barnes returns to his family and the need for love to nurture it, something that was missing in spades in his early life.
There on the page are tributes to his sisters and brother John Swan, but in particular to wife Jane and his many children, some of whom work for him.
One of the pleasures a slightly slower life and wealth have afforded Barnes is the rediscovery of Scotland, a place where he feels equally at home as he does in the Southern Highlands.
Barnes has led a tumultuous life and one that would have killed many others, but Highways and Byways give a hint that he is enjoying dropping down a gear from taking risks, and at times as in Staph Party, realises that even he is mortal and if it wasn’t for the care of others and his desire to be around for his family he may not be here.
After almost three hundred pages you get the sense that story telling is at Barnes’ heart and soul, and with over 600,000 books sold to date it seems that Australians agree with him.
Maybe it’s time that we thought of Jimmy Barnes as a writer whose other job is singing.
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