By Dingoes

Hello there Riff Raffers,

“ My mother said I was an animal for my wild and wicked ways. My father said I was an animal cos I would not wash for days. My girlfriend said I was a dog and I guess she oughta know. A man’s best friend in human form I’m a D-I-N-G-O.” (Ross Wilson)

If you were unsure of the spelling of Canis lupus dingo, Australia’s wild canine, Ross Wilson penned a tune for Aussie seminal band, ‘The Dingoes’ to help you. For the record Dingo is spelt D,I,N,G,O, Ross is correct. Nomenclature spelling can be difficult at the best of times, so Ross’ efforts are appreciated. Even the President of America has issues and also with the linguistic process of correct writing with the necessary letters and diacritics present in a comprehensible, standardised order. He spelt forest with two r’s not once, but twice in the same tweet a week or so ago. The etymology of the name Dingo emanates from the now extinct language of indigenous Australians located near Port Jackson and was recorded by Watkin Tench as the name for the wild Australian dog in his 1789 narrative. A dingo bitch was known by the locals as a Tingo. That’s spelt T,I,N,G,O.

Dingo band member, Kerryn Tolhurst, recently explained to me the origins of the tune: “I ran into Ross (Wilson) one day and he told me he had a song for us. So I went around to his house with my mandolin and we worked on it together, although it was his song. It was suggested we include it on the first album, but we thought it was a bit obvious. We did, however perform it live on stage.” Indeed they did! At the third Sunbury Rock Festival In 1974 Brod went ‘off his chops‘ or as Kerryn proclaimed, “Brod really made a meal of the harp on the recording.” And we are all the better for it and so say all of us. Grab two bob out of the till and get yourself a cigar Brod.

A $3.99 album purchased from ‘Brashs’ entitled, ‘ Highlights Of Sunbury ’74 Part 1’ documents this energetic performance and is, as far as I can tell, the only recording of the song. Brod is blowing an ‘F’ tuned harp in cross position. I have posted the intro with a wee bonus on YouTube hear here, ‘Dingo’. The article pictured above (part thereof from the ‘Tharunka’ Tuesday 4th 0ctober, 1977) of the Dingo pack was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors (see how many you can find). Ross obviously didn’t edit the piece. We can be a little forgiving as it is a student publication of the University of New South Wales.

Ch SD

Postscript: Enjoy Geoff Pryor’s 1981 ‘Dingo’ cartoon below – they had a bad name there for a while. 

R.I.P Chris Wilson, Australia’s Blues Harmonica Legend.

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