Dave Guard appeared as a prominent backup musician and vocalist on an undetermined number of Australian recordings in the mid-1960s.  It is reasonably certain that three consecutive 1963-64 EMI-Columbia albums with Lionel Long are the only commercial releases that were published with his name on them.  Then there are those records he made anonymously or under an alias.  This Part lists Dave’s known “official” releases and Part 4 is devoted to the recordings on which he was intentionally not identified.

After the record companies’ scant or non-existent knowledge of Dave Guard’s Australian recording sessions has been exhausted, finding the last group is now a word of mouth or a chance affair.  This has not been an easy task.  The anonymous sessions had to be verified by singers and musicians who performed on them with Dave, as awareness of his presence on a particular record was understandably restricted.  Confirming the identity of “Dynamite” Finkelstein from two independent sources required many letters, e-mails and phone calls over several months to places as far away from Australia as the United States and Denmark.

There is a chance that there are more Australian-produced recordings that feature Dave Guard on some form of instrumental backing but it is unlikely that many others will be located and verified.  Attempts to find the small remaining number of uncontacted performers who released folk-oriented singles from the RCA Sydney studio in 1965-66 have thus far been unsuccessful.  Dave may or may not have been involved anonymously with their recordings, but additions to the list will be made if new information comes to hand.  The mystery becomes more ironic because Dave himself might not have known the final form of all his released Australian work either.  On reflection, the enigmatic ”Dynamite” Finkelstein might have been amused that things turned out this way in the end.

THE BOLD BUSHRANGERS – Songs of Wild Colonial Days – Volume 1

Originally released as a double LP - Columbia SCXO 7693/4 (stereo) 33OSX 7693/4 (mono).  Produced 1963.  Later sold as a separate volume with identical front cover art - Columbia SCXO 7721 (stereo) 33OSX 7721 (mono).  Re-released in separate LP format circa 1968 as Columbia SOEX 9512 (stereo).

Main Artist: Lionel Long, with Patricia Cook, Dave Guard and Don Andrews.  Producer: Ron Wills.

SIDE 1: Michael Howe; Macquarie Harbour Lament*; Cash and Co.; Matt Brady; The Cyprus; Jamie Greene.

SIDE 2: The Bathurst Rebellion*; 300 Lashes; O'Meally's Shanty; Drifting Smoke of the Mountain; Weddin Mountaineer; Moreton Bay.

* Dave Guard on five-string banjo

The Bold Bushrangers was an ambitious concept double album of songs relating to the first 100 years of European habitation of Australia.  Bushrangers (highwaymen) were often present on the roads between settlements in the new colony.  These outlaws operated alone or in small groups and sometimes used names such as "Captain Moonlite", "Thunderbolt", "The Kelly Gang" and "Cash & Co".  The author of many of the songs on the album was Kenneth Cook, who set his lyrics against traditional English, Irish and American tunes of the era after failing to find sufficient songs of local origin to illustrate a series of radio talks on bushranging for the ABC.  Kenneth Cook, who set his lyrics against traditional English, Irish and American tunes of the era after failing to find sufficient songs of local origin to illustrate a series of radio talks on bushranging for the ABC. 

Dave Guard, in his first Australian-produced record appearance, is one of two support musicians on the albums and is heard prominently on four of the 24 tracks, where the sound of the long-necked banjo is reminiscent of his Kingston Trio days.  The other support musician, Don Andrews, is a well-known Australian jazz and classical guitarist.  The songwriter's wife, Patricia Cook, is the sole vocalist on four of the tracks in the series.  From an original 12 songs, The Bold Bushrangers was expanded to include a total of 24.  Interestingly, the melodies for two of Dave’s featured tracks, Macquarie Harbour Lament and Ned Kelly (on volume 2), are similar to the more familiar Haul Away and Tomorrow.

THE BOLD BUSHRANGERS – Songs of Wild Colonial Days – Volume 2

Originally released as a double LP - Columbia SCXO 7693/4 (stereo) 33OSX 7693/4 (mono).  Produced 1963.  Later sold as a separate volume with identical front cover art - Columbia SCXO 7722 (stereo) 33OSX 7722 (mono).  Re-released in separate LP format circa 1968 as Columbia SOEX 9513 (stereo).

Main Artist: Lionel Long, with Patricia Cook, Dave Guard and Don Andrews.  Producer: Ron Wills.

SIDE 1: Captain Moonlite; The Wild Colonial Boy; Go Tell Your Father*; Weddin Mountains Lament; Sir Frederick Pottinger; Ben Hall.

SIDE 2: Jackie and Darkie; Jimmy Grant's Lament; Thunderbolt; Ballad of the Peacock; Glenrowan Farewell; Ned Kelly*.

* Dave Guard on five-string banjo

The unique cover art on The Bold Bushrangers is an impressionist painting of Ned Kelly by Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan, and is one of a series of 27 naïvely-styled enamel on composite paintings from 1946-47 based on the legendary 19^th century Australian outlaw.  These are now housed in the Australian National Gallery and the Nolan Gallery at Canberra. The Bold Bushrangers is an impressionist painting of Ned Kelly by Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan, and is one of a series of 27 naïvely-styled enamel on composite paintings from 1946-47 based on the legendary 19^th century Australian outlaw.  These are now housed in the Australian National Gallery and the Nolan Gallery at Canberra.

The Kelly Gang was the most notorious group of all nineteenth century Australian bushrangers. Its activities began in 1878 and continued until it was cornered at Glenrowan, Victoria, in 1880. Ned Kelly protected himself by wearing a suit of metal armour (hence the square full-face helmet in the painting) and was portrayed in the controversial 1970 film of the same name by Mick Jagger.  Other members of the Kelly Gang were Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne, who were all killed at the battle of Glenrowan. Ned Kelly was captured and ultimately hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol in 1880. Mick Jagger.  Other members of the Kelly Gang were Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne, who were all killed at the battle of Glenrowan. Ned Kelly was captured and ultimately hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol in 1880. 

SONGS OF THE SEA

Columbia SCXO 7727 (stereo) 33OSX 7727 (mono).  Produced 1964.  Later re-released on World Record Club S5032 (pictured at left below) and Fame cassette TC FA157075

Main Artist: Lionel Long, with Dave Guard, Don Andrews, Wally Wickham, Herbie Marks and Enzo Toppano.  Producer: Ron Wills.

SIDE 1: High Barbaree; Goodbye My Lover Goodbye; The Golden Vanity; The Eddystone Light; Captain Kidd**; The Greenland Whale Fishery.

SIDE 2: The Chivalrous Shark; Sloop John B; Johnny Todd**; Botany Bay; The Drunken Sailor; Sally Bolt*; Oh You New York Girls.

* Dave Guard on five-string banjo

** Dave Guard on five-string banjo and harmony vocal

This album sat well with Dave Guard’s affinity for sea songs and is the first of only two known Australian-produced records on which he sang.  Dave appears on banjo on three tracks and shares vocal harmonies with Lionel on two of these, where his distinctive singing voice and instrumental style are easily recognised.  At times it sounds as if the listener is hearing the husky-voiced Dave Guard of three years earlier.  Dave is credited jointly with Lionel Long for the arrangements on two of the tracks.  Dave did a tight harmony vocal on one track of Lionel Long’s next album, where he was not as clearly recognisable as on this one.

This was Lionel Long’s first album to be not devoted exclusively to Australian songs, with only one offering relating to the country’s colonial past.  Like Dave Guard, Lionel had affection for the sea that was reflected in the album liner notes.

The liner notes recount Lionel Long’s memories of deep sea fishing with an old man in the snapper grounds off Port Macquarie, New South Wales, his own attempt as a ten year old to sail in a rubber dinghy 80 miles from Sydney to Newcastle, the boats which he owned up to a 27 foot Thunderbird class yacht and those members of his family who had some connection with the sea, including one who was the first Australian naval man to set foot in Alaska.  Many of Lionel Long’s contemporaries have fond memories of days spent sailing with him.

SONGS OF A SUNBURNT COUNTRY

Columbia SCXO 7733 (stereo) 33OSX 7733 (mono).  Produced 1964.  Later re-released on World Record Club (cat. no. unknown) and Fame cassetteLater re-released on World Record Club (cat. no. unknown) and Fame cassette TC FA157024.

Main Artist: Lionel Long, with Don Andrews, Dave Guard and Wally Wickham.  Producer: Ron Wills.

SIDE 1: The Shearer's Dream; Oh, The Springtime It Brings On the Shearing; The Dying Stockman; The Lime Juice Tub*; Anzac Cove; My Country.

SIDE 2: The Note On the Woolshed Wall**; Van Diemen's Land; Out West***; Bold Jack Donahue; The Man From Snowy River; Waltzing Matilda (Queensland Version)*.

* Dave Guard on five-string banjo

** Dave Guard on 12-string guitar

*** Dave Guard on 12-string guitar and harmony vocal

“I believe colour and imagination are essential when presenting our own songs if you are to bridge the gap between our colonial past and somewhat sophisticated present” said Lionel Long on the liner notes to this, another of his several notable albums of pure Australiana.  The album was the last-released of the three 1963-64 musical collaborations between himself and Dave Guard and has input from Dave on four of its twelve tracks. In keeping with the record’s theme of Australian song and poetry, the cover features a painting by Lionel Long of a stockman and his horse. The album includes two poems, “My Country” and “The Man From Snowy River”, Lionel Long’s first attempt at recording spoken verse, and one of Lionel’s first song compositions “The Note On the Woolshed Wall” on which he is accompanied by Dave on Gibson J200 12-string guitar.

WALTZING MATILDA

Axis CDAX 701574 (stereo).  CD compilation produced 1989.

Main artist: Lionel Long, with Dave Guard, Don Andrews, Wally Wickham, The Noel Gilmour Sextet, The Delltones and Orchestra directed by Geoff Harvey. Tracks with Dave Guard produced 1963, 1964.

TRACKS: Waltzing Matilda; Wallaby Stew; Reedy Lagoon; The Old Bullock Dray; Moreton Bay; The Drover's Dream; The Wild Colonial Boy; The Stockman's Last Bed; Ned Kelly*; Namatjira; The Black Velvet Band; Click Go the Shears; The Wild Rover; Botany Bay; Rush Away; Ring a Ling; Ballad of Cobb and Co; Waltzing Matilda (Queensland Version)*.

* Dave Guard on five-string banjo

This is a 1989 CD re-release of the full 1960 Columbia LP Waltzing Matilda (SCXO 7506/33OSX 7506) with six additional tracks from later Lionel Long albums put together by EMI Australia’s Bill Robertson (now retired). The compilation is again all Australiana. The popular original album was recorded and released two years before Dave Guard moved to Australia and was released also in the US on the Capitol label. The two tracks on which Dave appears were taken from The Bold Bushrangers Vol.2 (1963) and Songs of a Sunburnt Country (1964).  There is an error in the liner notes in which Dave Guard is erroneously credited as present on the track The Wild Colonial Boy.  The album was again re-released on the EMI label in November 2000 at a budget price with the same tracks, different cover art and the same crediting error (see cover picture of the latest version below).

Lionel Long’s background was on the land, in painting and in writing. His commercial singing career began in the late 1950's after he was “discovered” while a student at Hawkesbury Agricultural College and he subsequently recorded for both EMI (Australia and England) and RCA.  During the early 1960s he was Australia’s most popular exponent of traditional Australian bush songs, but by the mid 1960s he had begun singing a broad range of popular international songs of the era with less success.  Lionel developed an affinity for the work of Mason Williams and recorded such songs as Them Poems, The Dancing Distance and Life Song, as well as devoting an entire side of one album to Williams’ Amberwren.  In the 1970s he joined RCA and returned to his earlier more successful musical genre.  His last new recording was in the early 1980s.

Lionel Long’s competent and unaffected performing style was evident through the following series of original albums: Waltzing Matilda; The Wild Colonial Boy; The Bold Bushrangers; Songs of the Sea; Songs of a Sunburnt Country; Long Ago - Folk Songs of the British Isles (aka Troubadour); "Amberwren" and Other Folk Songs; Close Up; Walkabout; Lionel Long Today; High, Wild and Handsome; Brandied Plums and Australia! Australia!  None of these albums is currently in print, except for Waltzing Matilda.  In 1964, Lionel and Graham Jenkin co-authored a book, “Favourite Australian Bush Songs”, which is held by most major libraries in Australia and at many located overseas.

Lionel Long’s big television opportunity followed the 1964 illness of legendary Australian rocker Johnny O'Keefe.  Long replaced O’Keefe as host of a popular national weekend musical TV show on the Seven Network, Sing Sing Sing.  In the late 1970's he had a role as a detective in more than 60 of the 510 episodes of the perennial 12 year-long Australian TV police drama series Homicide, again with the Seven Network.  He was killed-off from the series by having a rock dropped on his head in a mine accident. 

One of Lionel Long’s last major engagements was on a show at the Sydney Opera House in 1987.  In 1992, he stayed at Nashville for several months working on publishing deals.  In January 1993 the Australian Government invested Lionel and record producer Ron Wills with the OAM (Order of Australia Medal).

Lionel Long died in the Sacred Heart Hospital at Darlinghurst, Sydney, on January 1, 1998.  He was cremated in a small service at the Eastern Memorial Park at Matraville, Sydney.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Researcher of Dave Guard’s Australian musical work, Ken Bradshaw, prepared this original article between July, 2000 and March, 2001 from personal knowledge, library research and contact with people who knew and worked with Dave Guard in Australia.  Very special thanks is due to Les Miller, Malcolm Turnbull, Doug Ashdown, Chris Bonett, John McMillan, Andy Sundstrom, Ron Wills, Jim Maguire, Gary Shearston and Gretchen Ballard Guard for their help.  Appreciation is expressed also to Dave Baxter and Bill Robertson (formerly of EMI Australia), Australian Broadcasting Corporation Archives and Screensound Australia. 

The recordings that Dave Guard made in Australia in the 1960s which are listed on this page are preserved in the National Screen and Sound Archive (Screensound) http://www.screensound.gov.au/index.html at Canberra Dave Guard made in Australia in the 1960s which are listed on this page are preserved in the National Screen and Sound Archive (Screensound) http://www.screensound.gov.au/index.html at Canberra.  Arrangements can usually be made with Screensound to audition the recordings it holds either at Canberra or through access centres at most Australian State capital cities.

The text is the property of Ken Bradshaw and excerpts may be used only for non-commercial purposes with appropriate acknowledgment of the source. Ken Bradshaw and excerpts may be used only for non-commercial purposes with appropriate acknowledgment of the source.

Copyright ownership of the record jacket images in the article lies with the respective companies.   The image of the Harbor Singers is the property of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is subject to ABC copyright conditions.