How a musician from south-west Victoria travelled into the heart of Australia, and came back with 'one of the most important songs ever written'.
abc.net.au/news/40-years-of-solid-rock-goanna-indigenous-rights/101375490Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images and names of people who have died.Between late nights touring Victoria relentlessly with his band Goanna and early mornings helping to raise his young family, he'd ended up "physically debilitated".
"… because growing up in south-west Victoria, all we saw around us in those days was the wreckage and the decimation of Aboriginal people from the colonial imposition."The first day at Uluru, Howard wrote some lyrics: "Out here, nothing changes, not in a hurry anyway, you can feel the endlessness with the coming of the light of day."
"And at that moment, where the dancers are dancing in the firelight with the white body paint as the full moon rises over the back of Uluru … it profoundly affected me and changed my life," Howard said.Howard returned to his home in Geelong with the bulk of a song called Solid Rock, which he quickly finished and took to his Goanna band mates.
"That's kind of unheard of for a support act, but I remember in that moment thinking maybe our generation was ready for change."Goanna had previously released an EP through EMI Music but was without a record deal. But it was the first Australian rock song about Indigenous rights and colonisation to hit the Aussie charts and mainstream radio in such a big way.
"Archie Roach told a beautiful story about the first time he saw Goanna on Countdown performing the song, and all these fellas from the Charcoal Lane days going: 'What would these whitefellas know about anything?'" Howard said.
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