Ageing 1970s Rockers Resist Attempts To Make Them Relevant In The 2020s

Let’s face it, ScoMo’s ukulele solo on 60 Minutes last night was rather cringeworthy.

Besides which, he and his advisors might not have thought through the common associations most people have with the words ‘ukulele’ and ‘Hawaii’, as in ‘Hawaiian Holiday’, as in ‘Hawaiian Holiday during the January 2020 bushfires’, as in ‘Nero fiddles while Rome burns’.

It does not really matter what song he chose to inflict on his TV audience, although Dragon’s “April Sun in Cuba”, a 45 year old retro classic, might be much better than at least one other of Dragon’s songs (more on that in a moment).

The band Dragon have reached out, partly from beyond the grave, to express their dismay at the Prime Minister’s choice of music for his performance.

The indignation that Dragon have expressed (they were the singular Dragon then too, as well as now, when all of their members were alive, although right now being called Dragon in the singular is probably more apt) seems to be mostly around ScoMo falling to know most of the words to the chorus of the song. They gently remind us that if he had spent more time on that Hawaiian holiday, perhaps he would have learned that chorus properly.

But perhaps we should be grateful that ScoMo chose that song instead of others from the Dragon back catalogue.

The PM is accused of being tone-deaf, and not just in his musical talents. But it could be far worse.

You see, Dragon was, in its time, very into sex, drugs and rock n’roll, to a level that someone so Godly as our Prime Minister would feel uncomfortable about if he thought about it. The other really big song Dragon is known for is the hugely inappropriate 1978 hit “Are you old enough?”, which would, if the PM had played it, have put a lot of kerosene on the current fire Grace Tame is fanning around him.

Perhaps Dragon should be grateful that he did not choose that song, and remind people of the stage performances put on by lead singer Marc Hunter accompanying it. Late 1970s rockers could get away with a lot more than they could in 2022.