image of person or book cover 7911567916188102368.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
Clinton Walker Clinton Walker i(A20684 works by) (a.k.a. Cee Walker)
Born: Established: 1957 ;
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 y separately published work icon Suburban Songbook : Writing Hits in Post-War/pre-Countdown Australia Clinton Walker , Sydney : Golden Tone , 2021 27763228 2021 multi chapter work criticism

'For some years, iconic Australian music writer Clinton Walker has been working on a book which documents a fundamental part of the history of Australian popular music – the extraordinary songwriting to emerge from the suburbs of Australia's major cities. 

'Suburban Songbook finally tells the previously untold story of the songs and songwriters who created what has become a celebrated feature of popular music around the world – the distinctive Australian song. This is a different view of Australian music history.  Rather than going in search of a Sound, it seeks out the Songs and their writers to find a fresh take on this old story – describing Australian pop’s most elusive leap, from the cover-version cargo cult of the 1950s to a true coming of age in the early 1970s.

'Drawing on extensive knowledge and research, as well as deep personal experience, Clinton plots a course through this crucial epoch that will please trainspotters, scholars and casual readers alike.  Knitted into a background of tumultuous social change, Suburban Songbook gets inside the compositions that helped shape the sound, paying long overdue credit to the often-obscure pioneers who toiled to set the stage for the full maturation of Australian music that followed Countdown into the 1980s.  This new book tells the story of some astonishing successes, from The Easybeats to Daddy Cool, from Johnny Devlin to Jeannie Lewis, but also reminds us about the wealth of unheralded talent which was just as important in forging a songwriting tradition we should all celebrate.' (Publication summary)

1 6 y separately published work icon Deadly Woman Blues Clinton Walker , Sydney : NewSouth Publishing , 2018 12883788 2018 selected work biography graphic novel

'Deadly Woman Bluesstunning, original and brimming with life, is the first of its kind. Part art book, part comic book, part biography and fully deadly, it is a unique graphic history of the black women who made Australian music. Traditional Indigenous music, spirituals, vaudeville, post-war jazz, country, gospel, soul, R&B and hip-hop have been made and re-made by these legendary women, some household names, some forgotten, some totally unknown until now. In this album of portraits, the long-awaited follow-on from Clinton Walker’s classic Buried Country, more than one hundred amazing artists are reborn. It’s as if a long-lost set of bubblegum cards has been found and remade for us, now.

'Starring Georgia Lee, Nellie Small, Candy Devine, Wilma Reading, Sibby Doolan, Ruby Hunter, Marlene Cummins, Tiddas, Carole Fraser, Christine Anu, Jessica Mauboy, Emma Donovan, Shellie Morris, Leah Flanagan, Crystal Mercy and many, many more singers and musicians, Deadly Woman Blues is a story full of tears and joy, always beautiful and heroic. ' (Publication summary)

1 Wild Beats : Australian Rock Pulps Clinton Walker , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats : Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980 2017; (p. 198-203)
1 2 y separately published work icon Wizard of Oz : Speed, Modernism and the Last Ride of Wizard Smith Clinton Walker , Kent Town : Wakefield Press , 2013 Z1912030 2013 single work biography

'In the bitter autumn of 1932, as the world crashed into the Great Depression, Australian motor ace Norman 'Wizard' Smith sat on the remote Ninety Mile Beach in far north New Zealand, waiting for the wind to change; waiting for a chance to drive his streamlined super car the Enterprise to a new world speed record. He would be the fastest man on earth - a golden god! He waited and waited ...

'Norman Smith was an enigma. A contemporary of Bradman, Kingsford Smith and Phar Lap, he was dumpy and shy. But when he got behind the wheel he became the Wizard, his command uncanny, the speeds breathless. In league with engineer Don Harkness, who designed and built the Enterprise, he was pointing Australia toward a brighter future. Until somewhere along the line, things started going wrong.

'What really happened on that lonely beach? Clinton Walker lays bare the tragic fall from grace of Norman 'Wizard' Smith - an ordinary man lost to an extraordinary quest, and, until now, a forgotten figure.' (Publisher's blurb)

1 1 y separately published work icon History Is Made at Night : Live Music Clinton Walker , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2012 27763290 2012 single work criticism

'In 2010, when Melbourne's music venue the Tote Hotel was forced to shut down, it incited a public outcry that Crikey called the year's 'most significant event in cultural policy'. Why does this most popular of the performing arts seem always to be so under siege? Australia's live music circuit has long been celebrated as one of the world's best, but if places like the Tote keep closing down, where will the next Nick Cave, AC/DC or Paul Kelly come from?

'Research shows that the venue-based industry has an annual output of $1.21 billion, creates 15,000 full-time jobs and draws audiences of over 41 million.

'Clinton Walker takes Platform Papers deep into the nether regions of sticky carpet, dodgy house PAs and moshpit etiquette, to defend the cultural vitality being lost and calls for a change to the regulations that stand in the way of restoration. Is it not time, he asks, to bring this most popular form of music in from the cold?' (Publication summary)

1 Planting Seeds Clinton Walker , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cultural Seeds : Essays on the Work of Nick Cave 2009;
1 Before the Big Bang Clinton Walker , 2006 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 65 no. 3 2006; (p. 4-14) Meanjin Anthology 2012; (p. 322-334)
The emergence and development of rock'n'roll music in Australia before the Big Bang of Australian rock'n'roll, namely, the arrival of Johnny O'Keefe on the music scene are discussed. The efforts of several musicians such as Les Welch, Nellie Small and Vic Sabrino and music companies from 1950 to 1958 are traced, when Johnny O'Keefe recorded 'The Wild One', the first hit Australian rock'n'roll record.
1 y separately published work icon Inner City Sound: Punk and Post-Punk in Australia Clinton Walker , Portland : Verse Chorus Press , 2005 25558339 2005 collected work non-fiction

The bands that spearheaded the late 1970s punk scene in Australia ― the Saints, Birthday Party, Radio Birdman, and the Go-Betweens ― are among the most important of their time. 

Inner City Sound is the classic account of the explosive development of that scene. Original articles from fanzines and newspapers, together with almost 300 photographs, vividly portray the creative ferment of the period and the dozens of bands that sprang up in the wake of the pioneers. First published in late 1981, Inner City Sound soon fell out of print. It became a lost classic, so sought after that it has been bootlegged like the rare singles listed in its discography. This new edition contains 32 extra pages of articles, photos, and discographic data, which take the story through to 1985, when Nick Cave, the Go-Betweens, the Triffids, and others began to break through internationally.

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Co-Dependent : A Potted History of Drugs and Australian Music Clinton Walker , 2002 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 61 no. 2 2002; (p. 154-)
The relationship between drugs and popular music in Australia
1 A Walk on the Polite Side Clinton Walker , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 October 2002; (p. 11)

— Review of Lillian Roxon : Mother of Rock Robert Milliken , 2002 single work biography
1 14 y separately published work icon Buried Country : The Story of Aboriginal Country Music Clinton Walker , Sydney : Pluto Press , 2000 Z1439230 2000 single work biography (taught in 1 units)

'To some, black skin and country music may seem unlikely bedfellows. But from early stars like Jimmy Little and Herb Laughton through Dougie and Wilga Williams to Vic Sims, Bob 'Brown Skin baby' Randal, Bobby McLeod, Issac Yama and Roger Knox. Aboriginal country music is a very real phenomenon. A long rich tradition that's still alive today in Troy Cassar-Daley and Archie Roach.' (Source: On-line)

1 y separately published work icon A Football Life Clinton Walker , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 1998 27762965 1998 single work autobiography

'This is a stirring account of the impact of Australian Rules football on the life of the author and his family. Offering a sharp and original perspective on post-war Australian Rules, A Football Life is sometimes moving, sometimes confronting and always passionate.' (Publication summary)

1 Tragedy: The Perfect Designer Drug Clinton Walker , 1997 single work short story humour
— Appears in: Great Australian Bites 1997; (p. 202-207)
1 This I Believe Clinton Walker , 1996 single work prose
— Appears in: This I Believe : Over 100 Eminent Australians Explore Life's Big Question 1996; (p. 324-326)
2 y separately published work icon Stranded Stranded : Australian Independent Music, 1976–1992 Clinton Walker , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 1996 25558426 1996 single work non-fiction

'The definitive book on Australian punk and post-punk music, long unavailable, now reissued in a much-expanded new edition with 175 photos. Stranded offers the inside story of the emergence of the Saints, the Birthday Party, the Laughing Clowns, the Go-Betweens, Nick Cave, the Triffids, the Moodists, the Scientists, and many more great Australian bands, told by a writer who witnessed it all first-hand and is acknowledged as the leading chronicler of the Australian music scene.' 

Source: Publisher's blurb

1 The Dark Stars Clinton Walker , 1995 single work short story
— Appears in: Men Love Sex 1995; (p. 273-291)
1 1 y separately published work icon Highway to Hell : The Life and Times of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott Clinton Walker , Chippendale : Sun Books , 1994 Z1471722 1994 single work biography

'The definitive account of AC/DC's rise to fame, when the ribald lyrics and charismatic stage presence of singer Bon Scott, along with the guitar work of Angus and Malcolm Young, defined a new, highly influential brand of rock and roll. Drawing on many interviews and featuring a gallery of rare photos, Clinton Walker traces the band's career through the life of their original front man, from small-time gigs to international success, up to Scott's shocking death in 1980. AC/DC's undiminished superstar status (they're the fourth-bestselling band of all time), and their indelible influence on a succession of genres from metal to grunge to rap, ensure that Bon Scott's presence continues to be felt strongly. HIGHWAY TO HELL offers the full story of this seminal rock figure.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Next Thing: Contemporary Australian Rock Clinton Walker , Kenthurst : Kangaroo Press , 1984 25558385 1984 collected work non-fiction
1 y separately published work icon Pulp Bruce Milne , Andrew McMillan , Clinton Walker , Melbourne : 1977-1978 26317983 1977 periodical
1 y separately published work icon SSuicide ALLey Andrew McMillan , Clinton Walker , Brisbane : Apr 1977 10738127 1977 periodical

The first and only issue of "SSuicide ALLey" was the DIY creation of music gurus Clinton Walker and Andrew McMillan as part of the emerging punk rock culture.

X