Music byLes GockandSteve Ball

Songs

‘Fighting for Strangers’Written and Recorded by Steeleye SpanCopyright © 1976 Steeleye Span Music Ltd.All rights reserved, Chrysalis Music Ltd.

‘Crosstown’Composed by Paul Kelly’ Published by Mushroom Music Pty. Ltd.Performed by Paul Kelly and the MessengersCourtesy of Mushroom Records Pty. Ltd. and ATN Records Pty. Ltd.

Music and lyrics:

The folk song Irish Eyes are Smiling is whistled over the opening credits as psycho cop Murphy gets dressed, starts his motor bike and heads out on the road to persecute Jack. It being Murphy’s favourite tune, it turns up later in the film.

Meanwhile, as head credits finish and Jack conducts a water pistol feud with Tony while driving across Sydney Harbour Bridge, Paul Kelly’s song Crosstown plays. Lyrics as heard in the film:

Crosstown, under the freeway, late at nightCrosstown, over the river, shining bright

I reach my destination and I find Her arms waiting to hold meHer arms are mine

She lives high on the hillside, ain't no shackShe's got anything she wants, she don't lackDaddy calls her his precious but he would dieIf he knew what his darling daughter did on the sly

When we can't be together I call my imaginationTakes me over the waterCrosstown is around the worldCrosstown is around the world

Now I'm working the night shift every nightAnd I'm doing the day shift none too brightBut I'm keeping my head down, doing time

'Cause I'm working to make her, working to make her mine

But when we can't be together I call my imaginationTakes me over the waterCrosstown is around the worldCrosstown is around the worldCrosstown is around the worldCrosstown is around the world …

(The last few lines run over the transition of Murphy flagging down Jack on the bridge to Ziggy persuading Kathryn to chat up Jack).

Steeleye Span’s song Fighting for Strangers haunts psycho cop Murphy through the film and then turns up over the end credits. Lyrics as they are heard in the film:

What makes you go abroad, fighting for strangersWhen you could be safe at home, free from all dangers?A recruiting sergeant came our wayTo an Inn nearby at the close of dayHe said young Johnny, you're a fine young manWould you like to march along behind a military band,With a scarlet coat, a big cocked hat,And a musket at your shoulder,The shilling he took and he kissed the book,Oh poor Johnny, what will happen to you …to you … to you?Our recruiting sergeant marched awayFrom the Inn nearby at the break of day,Johnny went too, with half a ringHe was off to be a soldier, he'd be fighting for the KingIn a far off war in a far off landTo face a foreign soldier,But how will you fare when there's lead in the air,Oh poor Johnny what will happen to you … to you …to you?What makes you go abroad, fighting for strangersWhen you could be safe at home, free from all dangers?Oh the sun shone high on a barren landAs a thin red line took a military stand,There was sling shot, chain shot, grape shot too,Swords and bayonets thrusting through,Poor Johnny fell but the day was wonAnd the King is grateful to yaBut your soldiering's done, we’re sending you home,Oh poor Johnny what have they done to you?Oh they said he was a hero and not to grieveOver two wooden pegs and the empty sleeves,They carried him home and they set him down

With a military pension and a medal from the crown.You haven't an arm, you haven't a leg,The enemy nearly slew you,You'll have to go out on the streets to beg,Oh poor Johnny what have they done to you … to you … to you?What makes you go abroad, fighting for strangersWhen you could be safe at home … (fades out here at end of credits, in recorded version ends with… free from all dangers?)

Co-composer Steve Ball:

Ball worked with Les Gock at Song Zu, and has a public profile at LinkedIn here, which contained these career details:

Composer/arranger/programmer, Song Zu,1989-1992, 3 yearsMusician, Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar, 1985-2000, 15 yearsKeyboardist, most live music venues in Sydney,1981-2002, 21 yearsSession musician/arranger, every recording studio in Sydney,1981-2002, 21 yearsSailing instructor, Eastsail,2000-2003, 3 years - Yachting Australia-accredited instructor up to Inshore SkipperComposer, Australian Guild of Screen Composers, 2000-2012, 12 yearsMember/competitor, Balmoral Triathlon Club, 2000-2014, 14 yearsOwner/manager, Notsotall Music, July 1986-present, 30 years 9 months: “I produce all things musical, as well as fiendishly clever cryptic (and other) crossword puzzles. I can also probably fix whatever doesn’t work with your Mac, skipper/crew your yacht and motivate you to to more exercise.”Race Skipper, Eastsail, 1996-present, 21 yearsComposer/arranger/programmer/music editor, Mike Perjanik Productions, 2003-present, 14 yearsEducation:Elizabeth High School, 1966-1970. “I was twice dux of the class, a real teacher’s pet”University of Adelaide, BSc, psychology, maths, physics, chemistry, philosophy, 1971-72: “I lost interest in academia, dropped out and became a rock musician.” Activities and societies: jazz, rock and blues club.La Trobe University: BA, music, philosophy, 1977-1981

(Below: Steve Ball, also listed on Facebook here)

Co-Composer Les Gock:

Les Gock is perhaps best known for being a part of the Australian band Hush, but he diversified later in his career. A short bio online here provided this short summary of his work up to 2003:

Les Gock is a highly successful Australian musician, writer and co-producer, most well-known for being part of the Australian band Hush.

Les Gock studied at the Sydney Technical High School. He joined the Australian band Hush in 1972 as the guitarist, wrter and co-producer. During his stint with Hush, he received 12 gold records. After Hush, Gock worked as a music and sound design director for film and television soundtracks. He founded Song Zu, a music and sound design company, but sold the business in 2001.

At present, he is working with his new business, Les Gock Sound Thinking, which specialises in audio branding, working for leading brands such as Qantas, KFC, TEN and Virgin.

He has been Chairman of the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association (AWARD) and is currently Chairman of the Commercial Music Producers Association (CMPA). As part of is work in music and sound design, he has also earned a Gold Clios, Facks Awards, and New York International Advertising Festival Awards.

Gock’s Sound Thinking site here contained this even shorter summary

In the early 70’s, Les took leave from the despatch department of a major ad agency to become a rock star.

As lead guitarist with HUSH he went on to earn 12 gold records in just 5 wild years. After the band broke up, Les set up the business and offered his musical skills to the ad industry with phenomenal success.

The company grew to become Song Zu, a music and sound design mecca in Sydney and Singapore, that attracted some of the cream of Australasia’s composers and sound engineers.

In 2003 Les sold Song Zu to develop an exciting new direction. Today, Sound Thinking is Australia’s leading audio branding consultancy and plays an integral and vital part in the communication and management of leading Australian brands.

Gock has a relatively short wiki here, with some useful links, while Hush has a wiki here.

Gock featured in a story in The Australian, 7th October 2013 regarding network news themes and perhaps Gock’s best known, if not recognised work, for the Ten

network:

You hear this music almost every day and whenever you do it gets your attention.You could easily hum it now if asked -- but chances are you have never thought to wonder what it's called or who wrote it.Television news themes are integral to making a statement of authority for a network as well as readying viewers for what is to come, but part of the skill of the composers who create them is that we rarely are fully conscious of their effect.Composer Les Gock, who in 1994 composed the Ten Network news theme that is still used today, is philosophical about the fact that almost no one knows who wrote what is probably his most famous piece of music."You are not meant to notice it -- it's meant to be woven into the whole brand," he says. "I'm usually the invisible man -- it's just the nature of what I do."News themes are really interesting, they are very different from other things that you compose. It has to be emotionally neutral. It can't be inherently happy or sad or dramatic."Its first job is to give a sense of urgency: this is news, this is new. The second thing it needs to do is to exude authority. The Ten news theme is a four-note theme that says, we're here, we're solid and you can trust us."You can create something really quite beautiful but if you are seeing people getting murdered in Nairobi, that is not going to work. And threatening and serious is not going to work when Will and Kate have a baby."Gock updates the theme about every five years, with the most recent version out this month as part of the revival of the Ten Eyewitness News brand. Ten is the only main commercial channel to use an original composition.

(Below: Gock second from the left in his Hush days, and below that as in later life as a composer, and with his wife Margaret at the 2008 Screen Music Awards, and finally a story that profiled him in The Age, 16th October 1987, around the time he was working on Belinda).