JAMES FREUD
29 June 1959 – 4 November 2010
BARBADOS
MODELS
from the 1985 Mushroom Records LP
Out of Mind, Out of Sight
BARBADOS
All I see
Is washed away
I am the voice
Left from drinking
I celebrate
My love for you
Into the calm
Say I believe
That all the bitterness
Will last for hours
Maybe
I would blind the girl
Who is drowning
In the silence
She turns to grey
Into a cold stare
Into a storm
I have to be
Wake up to anger
And mixed emotion
In the sun
I will come
To see Barbados
In the sun
I will come
To see BarbadosIn the sun
I will come
To see BarbadosIn the sun
I will come
To see BarbadosAll I see
Is washed away
I am the voice
Left from drinking
I celebrate
My love for you
Into the calm
Say I believe
That all the bitterness
Will last for hours
In the sun
I will come
To see BarbadosIn the sun
I will come
To see BarbadosTo see Barbados
In the sun
I will come
To see BarbadosTo see Barbados
In the sun
I will come
To see BarbadosWords and music by Models
© 1985 Mushroom Records Pty Ltd Australia
The following is a notebook entry I wrote on 4 November 2010 after learning that James Freud, bassplayer in the popular Australian band Models, had committed suicide at the age of fifty-one. If its tone seems bitter that's because it is. Fifty-one is much too young to die, leaving behind a wife and two sons in their early twenties.
Shocked and saddened to learn that singer/musician James Freud (real name Colin McGlinchey), ex-solo artist & bassist/vocalist in popular 80s band Models, committed suicide in Melbourne today after a long battle with drug & alcohol addiction.Although I haven’t heard his music for many years, I was a fan of JF's back in the 80s. Like so many musicians who can neither live up to nor recapture their early success he became a victim of his own celebrity. A musician needs to go on making music (as any artist needs to go on creating art) even if their work isn’t applauded by the critics &/or valued by the public. The music industry chooses to ignore this. The music & the person who creates/performs it become instantly disposable the minute they/it cease to have an exploitable commercial value. JF is dead because he stopped being a money-earner & probably struggled to accept that his days of stardom were behind him. (Is it a coincidence that one of his closest friends was Paul Hester, ex-drummer of Crowded House, who took his life a few years ago by hanging himself from a tree in a Melbourne park? Doubt it.)JF summed up what had happened to him in a 2002 interview: ‘OK, you were successful once, now you're an old guy, see ya… In the end, I just said, “You win – I've had enough”… For me, the last straw was when we [Models] were taken to court [by former manager Adrian Barker who was suing them for unfair dismissal] and I thought, “I walked out of it with nothing and they want more — more of what I don't even have.” The music industry won and they eventually always do — unless you're very lucky.’ [The Sun-Herald, 27 Aug 2002]. Despite this, when asked if he felt he’d been ‘badly burned’ by the industry, JF replied: ‘No, I don't think so. How stupid is that?’ Saying that took a lot of class, especially after being told by none other than Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum (the least perceptive, most overrated ‘rock guru’ in the world) that he was ‘a fucking has-been’ & should deal with it. Being told that by a talentless prick like Meldrum had to have influenced his decision to take his own life. Had to.Been listening to JF's best (?) song Barbados a lot this morning, remembering how unusual it sounded when first released in 1985, not just stylistically but lyrically as well. The contrast between the upbeat calypso-like melody & melancholy, self-accusing language in the verses makes it clever & intriguing. Requires real talent to pull off & JF had it despite the industry's decision to ignore him.
Use the links below to read about I Am The Voice Left From Drinking, the bestselling memoir by JAMES FREUD published by HarperCollins in 2002 and his second, much darker memoir I Am The Voice Left From Rehab published by Penguin Books in 2011 which describes his descent into chronic alcoholism and ultimately unsuccessful efforts to combat the disease:
Special thanks to everyone who takes the time to upload music to YouTube. Your efforts are appreciated by music lovers everywhere.
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