Hi there,
I wrote and recorded this song in 2015 for the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli. It garnered much attention. What has become clear in the last 3 years is that the issue of PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder) in the military in Australia and most countries, is an open wound,, an unresolved issue,, a blind spot that our governments and many people do not truly understand – nor offer enough resources and options to help.. We do not treat our veterans well..
It is clearly time for some new approaches.
For example I point you to this recent program on PTSD featuring Major Steve McDonald, on The Project (Channel 10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk_jRAwILAo (from 2.20 into the clip in particular)
Lest we forget – it is time to treat those who suffered greatly in 'defence' of our country with much more consciousness and to embrace new ideas that may indeed offer profound and lasting solutions.
Nyck Jeanes
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This is a new ANZAC song that Australians will love to hear. A powerful and moving ballad written by a son for his father, one of Australia’s most decorated ANZAC soldiers. Opening with a dramatic military drumbeat, the sound of the flugelhorn and Nyck Jeanes remembering his father, Lt Col M. R. Jeanes commander of the 2/43rd Battalion marching in the ANZAC day parade. Streets of Adelaide (Old Soldier Going Home) captures the heart and imagination and takes you on a poignant voyage of appreciation of all soldiers who must find their way back home from the trauma of war.
An honest tribute, Streets of Adelaide is a celebration of the ANZACS, acknowledging their suffering and sacrifice and their final march home to victory. It appeals to all Australians who feel a special pride about our ANZACS – the fallen ones, and those who returned and continued with their lives carrying unspoken burdens while celebrating victory.
Featuring singer-songwriter Nyck Jeanes; backing vocals by Indigenous artist Marcelle Townshend-Cross, and featuring young breakthrough artist Claire Taylor, Streets of Adelaide is a song that has inspired support and collaboration, produced by Murray Burns of MI-SEX and mastered by Paul Gomersall (Kate Bush, Sinead O’Connor, Phil Collins),
As a pacifist I find all wars reprehensible – to me truer nature of the human spirit. However for those who fought, especially in earlier wars where the evolution of people perhaps simply didn't allow for deeper understanding and questioning of why war was happening, why they were going to battle – what was left over after the fighting were far too many cases of unacknowledged and untreated PTSD. My father being one.
So this song is in no way a celebration of war, but a lament and reflection on damaged familial relationships, and the longing for connection that never happened.
Lest we forget.