Jeannie Lewis
”Jeannie Lewis is widely acknowledged as one of our most accomplished, versatile and passionate vocal artists, and a performer whose work crosses many musical boundaries. Her successful career spans over 30 years as a singer, recording artist, actor, writer and teacher. She has toured extensively in Australia and Overseas. She has developed her own style of theatre – concert show, blending elements of dance, theatre, visual arts, spoken word and music.”
Listen to Songs By Jeannie Lewis
Red Dust
The song selected for the First Australian Women’s songbook is Red Dust.
Red Dust was part of Jean’s performance For a Dancer at the Adelaide Festival directed by Jim Sharman. Her fellow performer was Robert Gavin and the show was directed by Louis Nowra. (Jean) told me about the origins of the song “Red Dust” in [her] mother’s early life in Broken Hill in far western New South Wales, Australia, where the red dust got everywhere. In the song the dust became a metaphor for ageing. She spoke about her grandfather’s work as a miner to support her mum’s family of five children at a silver lead mine near Cobar, how he got ‘leaded’ and then contracted silicosis in a coalmine near Cessnock. She spoke of one brief, perhaps three week holiday they had. Red Dust originated in an image of Carmen Miranda in the desert (Reconstruction of interview 01/05/2018). The song lyric includes references to prominent twentieth century women: romantic fictional heroine Scarlett O’Hara , Hollywood dancer and actress Ginger Rogers and Polish-German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg
Song Lyrics
1. Girl in a desert not painted by Dali
What dance do you dream? What dream do you dance?
In this world so full of haze of red dust, a maze
From which not even Daedalus could plan an escape;
Red dust! Seeping ‘neath the window pane. Red dust! Creeping through your brain;
Choking your lungs and blocking your veins so the lifeblood can’t get through
Red! It’s the colour of passion, the colour that the bull runs at
Red! Never out of fashion, through it’s often told “Get back!”
The colour of blood, the colour of a rose, the colour of the ball bouncing on a clown’s nose
Red! It’s the colour of life!
2. Girl in a desert not painted by Dali
What dance do you dream? What dream do you dance?
Will you samba and mamba with Carmen Miranda
Waltz with Scarlett O’Hara, who’s gone with the wind?
Or a quick step, a side step, a never face the truth step
With glamorous Ginger as she willingly spins … and spins
Or will you turn your back on those celluloid sisters
For a hard hitting tango with Luxembourg Rose?
Red dust! Seeping ‘neath the window pane. Red dust! Creeping through your brain;
Choking your lungs and blocking your veins so the lifeblood can’t get through
Red! It’s the colour of passion, the colour that the bull runs at
Red! Never out of fashion, through it’s often told “Get back!”
The colour of blood, the colour of a rose, the colour of the ball bouncing on a clown’s nose
Red! It’s the colour of life!
The colour of the flag the workers unfurled, the colour of the dawning of a brave new world,
Red! It’s the colour of life; the colour of life!
From Jeannie’s album So U Want Blood. Recorded and Mixed at Platinum Studios, Melbourne, May, July 1983. Credits :J Lewis, R Gavin. J Cook, P Swain, T Robinson. This sheet music transcription cannot possibly capture the complexity of Jeannie’s full performance. A bass line is included along with the vocal line as a rough indicator of the rhythm driving this song.
“As part of our commitment to capturing and sharing great Australian music stories, the Australian Music Vault asked some of the country’s most influential trailblazers and unsung heroes to open up about their lives in music.” You can see Jeannie Lewis- Australian Music Vault here.
Interview with Jeannie Lewis on The Music Show Sun 21 Nov 2021, 11:05am, includes a fragment of Jeannie’s rendition of Whose Hand by Margaret Kitamura The full playlist from this interview is listed below.
Title: The Stars Turn from Love 200
Composer: Peter Sculthorpe
Artist: Jeannie Lewis, Tully
Album: Live at Sydney Town Hall 1969-70
Label: Chapter Music
Title: Whose Hand?
Composer: Margaret Kitamura
Artist: Jeannie Lewis
Recorded at the University of Sydney in 1967
Title: Fasten Your Wings With Love
Composer: Jamie McKinley/Jeannie Lewis
Artist: Jeannie Lewis
Album: Free Fall Through Featherless Flight
Label: EMI EMC 2505
Title: Pilgrimages
Composer: Jim Cotter/Jeannie Lewis
Artist: Jeannie Lewis
Album: Journeys: Australian Women in Mexico
Title: Motherless Child
Composer: Harry Burleigh
Artist: Jeannie Lewis
Album: Free Fall Through Featherless Flight
Label: EMI EMC 2505