I wrote, recorded, financed and released a limited edition of this single, 'Boat People,' in 1979, a full year before I recorded 'Shaddap You Face'. Nobody wanted to know about this 'problem' then either. There was one article about this release in one paper. All other doors slammed shut. I decided to donate all 500 singles to the Vietnamese community in Melbourne as gifts. There was one Vietnamese cafe in Richmond, Vai Doi (New Beginning) with ten small tables. The only dish on the menu was Pho at $2 a bowl. Organised by a South Vietnamese Catholic priest, Father Bart, and operated by an doctor-activist named Dr Hung, and his family, who did all the cooking. Vai Doi became my regular lunch haunt. Dr Hung and I became friends, his family inviting me over for dinner. They prepared dozens of Vietnamese dishes for me and only asked that I contribute one dish: pizza, which I would bring the ingredients over and prepare in their kitchen. Afterwards, we sat around and I sang Boat People to them and they sang Vietnamese folk songs, mostly about longing for their country. I performed at the annual Vietnamese Spring Festival before diplomats and even once for Barry Jones. The song was translated into Vietnames and copies of the lyrics passed around to members of committees. It must have been a good translation because after I sang the song there wasn't a dry eye amongst all these seasoned old Vietnamese men. After Shaddap You Face was a hit, I was invited back again to perform Boat People but this time also my hit with a Vietnamese backup band and two dozen Vietnamese kids wearing my signature white fedora. 34 years ago.
  Ten years ago my partner and I became making close friends and business contacts with women in North Vietnam. To my surprise, but logically, they did not relate to my song with any kind of empathy, considering the South Vietnamese who fled the 'American War' unpatriotic. History is written by the winners.

Here are the lyrics in English and Vietnamese translation.
This audio version is home-studio copied off of one of the remaining 45 rpm records I have saved.

BOAT PEOPLE - Joe Dolce

Poem by Elizabeth Bishop, read by Matthew von Baeyer, guitar accompaniment by Joe Dolce. Recorded live on radio mid-70s.

SESTINA

September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It's time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle's small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

~ Elizabeth Bishop ~

Matthew von Baeyer & Joe Dolce - 'Sestina' by Elizabeth Bishop

Poem by William Butler Yeats. 'Live-to-air' radio performance by Matthew von Baeyer & Joe Dolce. Early 70s.

Matthew von Bayer: reading
Joe Dolce: vocals & guitar.

The Stolen Child - performed by Matthew von Baeyer & Joe Dolce

This track is a rare acetate, recorded in the late-60s,  thought lost, but  somehow has turned up on a UK-German vinyl compilation LP titled:  'Lost in the 60s - Garage and Frat Bands.' 

'The FInite Minds' was an early Ohio University campus band that played mostly James Brown, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, and other white R&B covers. As we were together at the onset of the psychedelic 60s band movement,  we also threw in the odd number such as Smokestack Lightning, by The Yardbirds, and a few original songs. This track, 'Say It's Alright' was one of the few originals we performed. It was most likely written by lead singer, Tom Jividen, but there could have been some collaboration with the music and chord progression. The distinctive tom-tom like guitar rhythm which is the signature of the song was my idea.

'The Finite Minds' broke up after about a year, when lead singer, Tom Jividen, chose to pursue college studied full time, and the rest of us merged with another Athens band, 'The St James Doorknob' to become 'The Infinite Doorknob' and later The Headstone Circus. A few lineup changes. Guitarist Gary Gans and I remained from the Finite Minds, and John (Jonathan) Edwards, and Malcolm and Todd McKinney, remained from the 'St James Doorknob'. We added drummer Gonchi Sifre and, later, John Beattie to become 'The Headstone Circus'. 

'The Headstone Circus' was one of the most exciting bands in Southern Ohio during the late 60s-early 70s. The band made a move to Boston in the early 70s, changed its name, yet again, to 'Sugarcreek' and recorded an album in New York, 'Please Tell a Friend,' before breaking up.

Jonathan Edwards continued on as a solo artist with a national hit song, 'Sunshine',  and regular touring in the States, and Joe Dolce moved to Australia,  where he had an international number one hit, 'Shaddap You Face.' He currently is a widely published poet and essayist, and prolific songwriter.

As for the rest of 'The FInite MInds'? Bass player Richard Graves passed away some years ago, guitarist Gary Gans joined a fundamentalist Mennonite community, where he writes religious songs now,  and lead singer Tom Jividen, graduated in English from Ohio U, taught English for awhile, and spent 40 years in professional healthcare before retiring.

Photo: left to right
Richard Graves (bass, vocals), Gary Gans (lead guitar), Tom Jividen (lead singer), Joe Dolce (rhythm/lead guitar and blues harp)

The Finite Minds - 'Say It's Alright'

Libretto,music composition and orchestration: Joe Dolce

Live balcony recording. The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Chorelation Choir, at the Collins Street Baptist Church.

Love Magnificent

The rain has held
back for days and days 
in my arid heart,
that I want thee -
come upon me with a burst of singing.

Rest awhile in love magnificent
and leave the worries and cares
of this world behind.

Rest awhile, O rest awhile 
and let love magnify thee.

JOAN ON FIRE  Overture

Libretto,music composition and orchestration: Joe Dolce

Live balcony recording. The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Chorelation Choir, at the Collins Street Baptist Church.

ARIA

I, Joan am on fire,
With God fever,
In a cell, one moment,
In an oasis, the next.
A chain of flames
Binding me, cutting my ankles
And lifting me up.
The world is reversed,
So reversed to me.

First, the spark,
And then, the flames,
Soon the embers
'Till the ash remains.

I, Joan am on fire.
My flesh decays,
A glorious fire,
A hurricane into thine arms.
Where dost thou lead me?
I hold to thy burning hand
And I shall have faith in thee.
The world is reversed,
So reversed to me.

Is this smouldering 
Flesh heaven?
Am I burning love letters
To thee?

Oh, God is that you?
God, is that you?
Who cares how cold the world,
If thou be inside me?
I am so wet with longing . . . . .

Oh, God is that you?
God, is that you,
Whispering: 'O my love . . ."?
I hear thee, oh my love,
Oh God, is that you?

Sweet tears  . . . .  sweet drops . . . 

Your cool breath upon my sunburnt skin,
Such kisses lead into unconsciousness . . .

First, the spark,
And then, the flames,
Soon the embers
'Till the ash remains.

JOAN ON FIRE  Aria

Libretto,music composition and orchestration: Joe Dolce

Live balcony recording. The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Chorelation Choir, at the Collins Street Baptist Church.

JOAN ON FIRE Prelude

Performed by Joe Dolce.
(Music: by Dolce, Lyrics : by Liv Luva, Clontarf Beach Baptist Church Vacation Bible School.)
Special guest steeple bell solo by Quasimodo, with permission of Inquistion Records.

Star Wars is the shout, hey,
Empire striking back
But without a doubt, hey,
This is what they lack
Jesus Christ has come, now
For the human race,
To die in our place.

Many years ago, hey,
There in Bethlehem,
Jesus Christ was born then
Died and rose again.
If we trust in Him, one
Day we'll see his face
And Heaven's the Place.

Heavens the Place (Baptist version of Shaddap You Face)- Joe Dolce

Words and music by Joe Dolce.
Performed by Lin van Hek & Joe Dolce.
from the Difficult Women CD 'Black Pepper with a Hint of Violets'
(out-of-print) but available on the CD 'Flower: Duets of Lin van Hek and Joe Dolce'
www.joedolce.net

JOE DOLCE & LIN VAN HEK - Lullabye For A Battered Child

 Written by Graham Lowndes.  From my 'Memoirs of a Mouth Organ 'CD. I learned this song from Jeanie Lewis. It contains one of my two favourite recorded guitar breaks. (The other being the 40-bar finale of 'Cocaine Lil'.) 
    The first guitar break in 'House is Burning' is nice, although a bit safe and 'produced', compared to the unexpected end break, which is the explosive way I really love playing 'live' - when all the stops are pulled out. It's short but sweet and memorable and it always reminds me of a clanging'  fire truck arriving.

The House Is Burning

Primary lead vocal and instruments recorded live-to-tape. Totally improvised.
(Lyrics: van Hek, Music: van Hek, Dolce)

Lin van Hek - vocals
Joe Dolce - Bass
Paul Janoskis - guitar

Joe Dolce

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