working class boy book review

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Book review: Working Class Boy by Cold Chisel’s Jimmy Barnes

What a life-story writer has to say about Barnesy’s childhood memoir by Harper Collins

Cold Chisel is part of Aussie-rock folklore .

The band is renowned for furious and high-intensity shows that have become anthems for the working class.

When frontman Jimmy Barnes released his award-winning memoir   Working Class Boy I first heard it talked about in revered tones by other artists.

They said it was a book that steamrolled over and above their own formative memories and autobiography-writing efforts .

It was a juggernaut of a memoir that blew everyone else’s out of the water.

Barnes had recently toured through our region in Queensland when Working Class Boy by Harper Collins  came out in 2016.

Just like that show, I knew his story would be full of power and ferocity.

Jimmy Barnes the boy

Working Class Boy is an 384-page memoir focusing on ‘ Barnesy’s ‘ childhood and the formation of his infamous band .

It tells the story of growing up in Scotland as one of six children to Dot and Jim Swan .

Things are tough for his parents, who like many around them and generations past, are trapped in a cycle of poverty, desperation, drinking, violence and the will to survive .

From the gritty and freezing suburbs of Glasgow, the Swan family make a break for life in Australia .

They dream desperately of a better life in warm Australia and arrive to stifling heat in the summer of 1962 .

After enduring basic conditions in migrant camps, finally the Swans are given a ‘perfect’ home and life in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia .

But as many have discovered, sometimes you can’t outrun your problems and hardships.

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Life of Barnesy

Working Class Boy is a dark book about violence, alcohol abuse and the poverty cycle .

It is about how all these factors combine to pound young Jimmy, his family and many others – day after day, year after year .

Life becomes like a series of set waves pulling him down and smashing him again and again.

Barnsey knows he has to be the change.

He has to escape to literally survive.

And it is music that is his saviour.

But despite this raw main story there are many interesting and lighter points to the book .

There is the lovable, selfless and quirky character Reg Barnes, from whom Jimmy gets his name .

When Reg moves in with the family after Jimmy’s father’s absence, he becomes like a father to Jimmy and the other children.

Reg is dependable, reliable, loving and gives his all to ensure the children have an upbringing that is cherished and full of possibilities .

Another notable part in the book is Barnesy’s growing fascination with music .

About how he ‘borrows’ records from his brother and friends, breaks into pubs to watch gigs, and falls into singing in part to escape the mean streets and brawls.

Working Class Boy also touches on the surprise birth and relationship he has with his son David Campbell – who is a TV presenter, singer and stage performer .

Barnsey  does not go into extensive detail and reserves the right to privacy on this facet of his life.

Working Class Boy

Barnsey  is very upfront at the end of  Working Class Boy about how many attempts it took for him to write this story .

He said he sat down to write a couple of times, pouring thousands of words onto the page, only for the result to be hollow and in once case stolen .

The rocker clearly says this is a book he had to write for the simple fact it made him process his life and actions – the good and the bad – for the past and the future .

It was only when he had worked through these issues on and off the page that he could write truthfully, with heart and meaning.

Writing became a way for Barnsey  to process life.

“The time I have spent writing this book has caused me a lot of pain,” Barnsey  said.

“Sometimes because of what I have remembered about my childhood and sometimes because of what I couldn’t remember. 

“It is funny how your mind blocks things out when those things can hurt you. 

“There are a lot of things I wish I didn’t remember…”

Related article –  Memory recall: Memory retrieval and remembering childhood memories

Working Class Boy is a book for anyone interested in pub rock, growing up in Australia in the 1960-1970s or childhood memoirs .

Barnsey goes into great detail about what went on in his early years but more importantly why and how.

To do this he has been exceptionally brave and honest in his writings .

While Barnsey  he isn’t proud of many of the things that happened in his childhood he should be exceptionally proud he has written such a raw and true account .

Therefore it is for this reason I found the book so compelling and inspiring.

The fact it was written at all gives us all hope that we can write our own stories too .

I can’t wait to read Barnesy’s next book, Working Class Man , which continues his story .

Happy reading and writing!

Want to make a start on your own life story like Barnesy ? Try my FREE training video to map out your key memories and chapter structure.  Sign up here .

What did you think of working class boy  i’d love to hear about it. send me an email . , finally, don’t miss an article, sign up to get instant notifications when new material is published..

This article first appeared on the  website Forever Young Autobiographies.com .

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Working Class Boy review – heartfelt Jimmy Barnes doco mixed blessing for Cold Chisel fans

Lots about the man, little about the band, but this film about Barnesy’s troubled life has a humanistic message at its core

W hen people reflect on a particular time and place important to their lives, they often discuss how it affected their senses – recalling smells, textures, the weather. In the director Martin Scorsese’s excellent 2005 Bob Dylan documentary, No Direction Home, the musician recalls his youth in the bitterly cold American midwest, connecting chilly temperatures with a greater drive towards creative activities.

In Working Class Boy the subject – 62-year-old Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter Jimmy Barnes – remembers the smell of mud and smoke and the texture of soot-coloured buildings in Glasgow, where he spent his earliest years. Returning to woebegone neighbourhoods, the veteran rocker speaks of the unique properties of this city, “one of the only places in the world where you can get your jaw broken and your heart broken at the same time”.

Barnes recalls feeling cold, hungry and afraid. His mother had five children by the time she was 21 and their family lived in a rough-as-guts community ravaged by poverty and alcoholism. Born James Dixon Swan, the subject pledges that the film that follows will be “the story of how I became Jimmy Barnes”.

Adapted from the bestselling memoir and stage show of the same name, the director Mark Joffe is more interested in Barnes’ past than the person he became. Nobody says it directly, but there is a powerful insinuation throughout the film (which opens this week on the largest number of screens of any Australian documentary in history) that the rocker’s difficult life has profoundly infused his music, including that distinctive wall-rattling voice.

Cold Chisel fans may see Working Class Boy as a mixed blessing: lots about the man; little about the band. Joffe (a veteran film-maker who recently directed episodes of Jack Irish season two and has helmed several narrative features including 1996’s Cosi and 2001’s The Man Who Sued God) touches on the pub rock group more than an hour into the running time. There are brief interviews with band members Don Walker and Ian Moss, but you can sense the film-maker’s heart isn’t in it.

Given Working Class Boy is an authorised documentary, perhaps Joffe had limited options, the pre-existing book and stage show providing a clear narrative trajectory. Nevertheless the structure of Working Class Boy reiterates a humanistic message: that bands and other creative projects are part of a person’s life, rather than the other way around.

Barnes belts out several tunes (solo and in duets with daughter Mahalia Barnes and son David Campbell) beginning with The Dark End of the Street – which feels more literal than ever, placed after the subject’s recollections of Glasgow. There are exquisite renditions of Flame Trees and When the War is Over, performed with the singer’s trademark combination of vein-bulging grunt and pathos at Sydney’s State Theatre.

Working Class Boy seems like easy work for Joffe, who could hardly do more to allow his chatty and candid subject to speak for himself. In addition to accompanying Barnes to places significant in his life (including one of the homes he grew up in and the football oval where he lost his virginity) the director captures many situations where the subject is not far from a microphone – singing on stage, talking to the audience, or sitting down for relaxed interviews.

Joffe’s approach isn’t remotely cinematic. The recent and superior documentary Gurrumul , about the life and career of the late Indigenous musician, is visually and atmospherically a much more ambitious and interesting work. Nor is Joffe interested in examining the meaning of Barnes’ songs and the significance of the movement(s) they belong to, unlike another doco out this year exploring high profile Australian musicians: Midnight Oil 1984.

In its own slight way, however, Working Class Boy has something they don’t: a heartfelt message – simple but profound – that people begin their lives in one place and end up in another. The director understands he doesn’t have to do much to evoke sentiment and doesn’t over-egg the story. Implicit throughout the film is an understanding that we are watching and listening to a man who has risen up from the ashes of his past. Barnes’ story is nothing if not inspiring.

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Working Class Boy

• Release date: 2016-09-19
• Publisher: HarperCollins

‘A stunning piece of work’ – The Australian ‘Fascinating’ – Rolling Stone ‘Vivid and brutal, achingly honest’ – Sam Neill

Entirely in his own words and straight from the heart; the rock legend turns out to be a master storyteller.

“The time I have spent writing this book has caused me a lot of pain. Sometimes because of what I have remembered about my childhood and sometimes because of what I couldn’t remember. It is funny how your mind blocks things out when those things can hurt you. There are a lot of things I wish I didn’t remember …”

A household name, an Australian rock icon, the elder statesman of OzPubRock – there isn’t an accolade or cliché that doesn’t apply to Jimmy Barnes. But long before Cold Chisel and ‘Barnesy’, long before the tall tales of success and excess, there was the true story of James Dixon Swan – a working class boy whose family made the journey from Scotland to Australia in search of a better life.

Working Class Boy is a powerful reflection on a traumatic and violent childhood, which fuelled the excess and recklessness that would define, but almost destroy, the rock’n’roll legend. This is the story of how James Swan became Jimmy Barnes. It is a memoir burning with the frustration and frenetic energy of teenage sex, drugs, violence and ambition for more than what you have.

Arriving in Australia in the summer of 1962, things went from bad to worse for the Swan family – Dot, Jim and their six kids. The scramble to manage in the tough northern suburbs of Adelaide in the 60s would take its toll on the Swans as dwindling money, too much alcohol, and fraying tempers gave way to violence and despair. This is the story a family’s collapse, but also a young boy’s dream to escape the misery of the suburbs with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join a rock’n’roll band and get out of town for good.

Raw, gritty, compassionate, surprising and darkly funny – Jimmy Barnes’s childhood memoir is at once the story of migrant dreams fulfilled and dashed.

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Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes

Introduction

Long before Cold Chisel, long before 'Barnesy', there was the true story of James Dixon Swan A household name, an Australian rock icon, the elder statesman of Ozrock - there isn't an accolade or cliche that doesn't apply to Jimmy Barnes. But long before Cold Chisel and 'Barnesy', long before the tall tales of success and excess, there was the true story of James Dixon Swan - a working class boy whose family made the journey from Scotland to Australia in search of a better life. Working Class Boy is a powerful reflection on a traumatic and violent childhood, which fuelled the excess and recklessness that would define, but almost destroy, the rock'n'roll legend. This is the story of how James Swan became Jimmy Barnes. It is a memoir burning with the frustration and frenetic energy of teenage sex, drugs, violence and ambition for more than what you have. Raw, gritty, compassionate, surprising and darkly funny, Jimmy Barnes's childhood memoir is at once the story of migrant dreams fulfilled and dashed. After arriving in Australia in the summer of 1962, things went from bad to worse for the Swan family - Dot, Jim and their six kids. The scramble to manage in the tough northern suburbs of Adelaide in the 60s would take its toll on the Swans as dwindling money, too much alcohol and fraying tempers gave way to violence and despair. This is the story of a family's collapse, but also of a young boy's dream to escape the misery of the suburbs with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join a rock'n'roll band and get out of town for good. Nothing will prepare you for the power of Jimmy's memoir. A fierce, graphic, bawdy account of his working class childhood - truly harrowing , and yet often tender and funny. I couldn't put it down because, above all, it is also a story of resilience and bravery. - Sam Neill Visceral, brave, honest: it is like Angela's Ashes meets Trainspotting - only more brutal. A deep, guttural howl of a book, it speaks of the pain and hurt that haunt so many men. And it may just save lives. - Magda Szubanski

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Working Class Man: The No.1 Bestseller Kindle Edition

• Book 2 of 2 Working Class Boy Series
• Print length 505 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher HarperCollins
• Publication date November 1, 2017
• File size 32067 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
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About the author.

Jimmy Barnes is a Scottish-born rock singer-songwriter who grew up in Adelaide. His career, both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist of the legendary band Cold Chisel, has made him one of the most successful and distinctive artists in Australian music history. A prolific songwriter and performer, Jimmy has been a storyteller for more than forty years, sharing his life and passions with Australians of all ages at over ten thousand gigs throughout his adopted homeland. In the process, he has amassed more number one albums in Australia than The Beatles: five with Cold Chisel and thirteen as a solo artist, including the iconic For the Working Class Man . Across his career Jimmy has sold over 12 million albums and he has been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame twice. Jimmy's childhood memoir, Working Class Boy , became a number one bestseller and won the Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for Biography of the Year in 2017. His sequel, Working Class Man , won him a second ABIA for Biography of the Year in 2018. He is the only author to win back-to-back ABIAs for a non-fiction title. Having sold more than 500,000 copies, the books have become Australian classics and established Jimmy as one of our finest storytellers. The Stories & Songs live production, based on the memoirs, sold out more than a hundred shows, attracted unanimous critical acclaim and inspired the documentary film Working Class Boy , which topped the box office in late 2018. Jimmy lives in New South Wales, with his wife, Jane.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B071LQ2FM7
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins (November 1, 2017)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 1, 2017
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 32067 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 505 pages
• #136 in Music History & Criticism (Kindle Store)
• #212 in Rock Music (Kindle Store)
• #391 in Biographies of the Rich & Famous

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It’s not politics fueling the great american divide — it’s elite contempt for working class: author.

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“The Democrats have become the party of the over-credentialed college elites. They hate the working class. They have contempt for them. And the working class is noticing,” author Batya Ungar-Sargon told The Post.

Case in point: Joe Biden charging as much as $500,000 for tickets to a so-called “ grassroots fundraiser ” with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at Radio City Music Hall Thursday. (Donald Trump, on the same day, attended the Long Island wake for an NYPD officer killed in the line of duty.)

In her new book, “ Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women ,” out April 2, the Newsweek deputy opinion editor set out to answer important questions: Who are today’s working class — and do they still have a shot at the American dream?

She traveled the country interviewing people of varied political, gender, racial, and religious backgrounds and came away surprised by just how much they have in common.

“Whether they were a Hispanic cleaning lady in a hotel in Las Vegas, or a black sanitation worker in New York, or a white rural worker who works for Amazon, they had very similar views,” Ungar-Sargon told The Post. “They have actually an unbelievable consensus about the important issues, and what they would like to see in government.”

The author self-describes as a left-wing populist and pro-Trump Marxist, and she believes that supposed ideological and demographical divides are misleading.

“We think of this country as having a political divide, but we are actually not divided politically,” she told The Post. “The real divide in this country is along class lines — between an over-credentialed college elite and the working class.”

Though she has a PhD herself and admits to being “100% of the class I critique,” she’s motivated to give a voice to the working class who, she says, have been robbed of a platform by politicians and journalists from the elite echelons of society.

“I simply cannot stand to see the good-hearted working-class people of this country smeared by the left that sold them out,” she said. “We simply have evicted the working class from public view. We just don’t hear from them anymore, even though they represent most Americans.”

Ungar-Sargon’s extensive interviews for “Second Class” reveal a common thread: that working-class Americans, regardless of their personal characteristics or political affiliation, generally agree on which political reforms would improve their lives.

The author realized that working-class Americans largely share the same view on stricter border control and trade tariffs that favor domestic industry.

“The open border hurts them economically in a very real way by driving down their wages — and that’s obvious to people, whether they are Democrats or Republicans,” she explained.

Working-class Americans are also overwhelmingly in favor of promoting vocational training and trade schools as an alternative to higher education — though Ungar-Sargon writes that elite politicians are responsible for the fact that our government invests $150 billion in higher education, compared to just $1 billion in vocational trades .

“Skilled trades are one of the few working-class jobs that really guarantees the American dream, and yet we’ve sort of cut that out of public life,” she said.

Finally, Ungar-Sargon says working-class Americans are generally opposed to zoning laws that restrict housing development for the benefit of NIMBYs: “Getting rid of the laws that allow wealthy liberals to protect their neighborhoods from having duplexes would let us build a million new units a year, and in a decade solve the housing crisis.”

Ungar-Sargon blames both Democrats and Republicans for sometimes not listening to working-class Americans, saying, “Both parties have one piece of the puzzle but then are actively undermining working-class interests on the other side.”

She points to Democrats’ open border policies and Republicans’ lack of action on expanding health care access as points of failure.

But the author says there are politicians who stand out as voices of the working class — namely, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Although they might seem opposite at first blush, Ungar-Sargon believes the two share populist sensibilities, along with Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. 

“Bernie spoke about the struggle of the little guy against the billionaires and the corporations. And Trump does a very similar thing. Even though he doesn’t rail against billionaires, his policies are very much designed to weigh power in favor of the worker in relation to corporations,” she said.

Trump supporters, she added, “are people who feel like the little guy has been left behind.”

Ungar-Sargon’s book couldn’t be more timely ahead of the 2024 election.

More Hispanic voters support Trump than Biden , according to polling, and Trump is reportedly making inroads with black men — trends that Ungar-Sargon predicts will continue.

“Any Republican who thinks that [these voters are] defecting to the GOP is totally wrong. They are defecting to Trump , because they see in him a champion for working-class issues,” the author said.

“I think that’s the number one trend to keep your eye on. That’s really the realignment right there.”

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