Clinton Walker's SUBURBAN SONGBOOK

For some years, iconic Australian music writer Clinton Walker has been working on a book which documents a fundamental part of the history of Australian popular music - the extraordinary songwriting to emerge from the suburbs of Australia's major cities.  Suburban Songbook finally tells the previously untold story of the songs and songwriters who created what has become a celebrated feature of popular music around the world - the distinctive Australian song.  This is a different view of Australian music history.  Rather than going in search of a Sound, it seeks out the Songs and their writers to find a fresh take on this old story - describing Australian pop’s most elusive leap, from the cover-version cargo cult of the 1950s to a true coming of age in the early 1970s.   Drawing on extensive knowledge and research, as well as deep personal experience, Clinton plots a course through this crucial epoch that will please trainspotters, scholars and casual readers alike.  Knitted into a background of tumultuous social change, Suburban Songbook gets inside the compositions that helped shape the sound, paying long overdue credit to the often-obscure pioneers who toiled to set the stage for the full maturation of Australian music that followed Countdown into the 1980s.  This new book tells the story of some astonishing successes, from the Easybeats to Daddy Cool, from Johnny Devlin to Jeannie Lewis, but also reminds us about the wealth of unheralded talent which was just as important in forging a songwriting tradition we should all celebrate.


Clinton Walker has no peer in documenting the psychogeography of Australian popular music.  From chronicling Australia's influential INNER CITY SOUND (1982/2005) to uncovering the rich tradition of indigenous performers in BURIED COUNTRY  (2000/2015), he now turns to documenting Australia’s SUBURBAN SONGBOOK, which launched the genius of Australian songwriting onto the world stage. 

Superbly designed in lavish colour and with a wealth of archival photographs and images as well as Spotify- and YouTube-linked playlists and exhaustive discographies across its 272 pages, this book will (like so many of Clinton’s other books) become the standard reference on the subject for decades to come.


“Clinton Walker is a cultural archaeologist, always on the big dig and usually somewhere no one else has thought of looking – then he makes the discovery, and we all come running.” – Robert Forster

“Thank you Clinton Walker for this long overdue history of Australian song. It will remind you, the reader, why you love songs so much, and why they are so important to us all.” – Broderick Smith



THIS IMPORTANT BOOK IS AVAILABLE
IN A ONCE-ONLY SPECIAL LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION OF JUST 300 COPIES,
EACH PERSONALLY SIGNED BY CLINTON.

ISBN: 978-0-6450504-0-0
HARD COVER   210mm W x 270mm H
272 PAGES, printed four-colour on quality paper
300 SIGNED Copies ONLY

THIS EDITION IS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY TO SPONSORS OF THIS CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN. 

ONCE THESE COPIES ARE FULLY SUBSCRIBED, IT WILL NOT BE REPRINTED.


AND WE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO ALSO THINK OF THIS AS THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN AUSTRALIAN MUSIC.

DON'T MISS OUT ON YOUR OWN COPY, OR A GIFT COPY FOR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES.



Donations of any amount are more than welcome, but to receive a copy of the book, simply donate the following amounts:


All donors who donate $49 or more
will receive one of the 300-copy limited edition hardcovers SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, and available exclusively through this crowdfunding project (the book will be available only in paperback through other retail channels).

All donors who donate $90 or more
will receive the hardback with a UNIQUE WRAP-AROUND COVER designed and signed by the author.  Clinton has designed a dozen unique covers, and your choice of jacket will be printed and signed by him in a colour scheme unique to your copy.  See samples of these covers at the bottom of this page.

We will cover the shipping costs to all donors in Australia.  Overseas donors, please contact us for shipping costs.

Books should be in stock and delivered in OCTOBER this year.


PLEASE SPREAD THE MESSAGE ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION TO FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND ANY INTERESTED PARTIES.


WE REMIND EVERYONE THAT ONCE THIS LIMITED EDITION IS FULLY SUBSCRIBED, IT WILL NOT BE REPRINTED.


And you can start following the playlists for the chapters of the book here:
https://www.facebook.com/SuburbanSongbook/photos/a.117490550531072/117491230531004/?




Below are examples of the individual covers which can be chosen if you donate for the unique exclusive edition of the book
(we will contact you to determine your choice of cover after the donation is made):



See the whole range of these exclusive covers at https://www.clintonwalker.com.au/suburbansongbookdustjacketart.html