“He’s been wondering lately, where did all the good times go?” While this line in the opening song on Jimmy Barnes’ new album is ostensibly about a couple struggling to make ends meet, it’s hard not to think of Barnes lying in a hospital bed, a recurring sight in recent years: recovering from infection, then hip surgery, then bacterial pneumonia, then open heart surgery, then hip surgery again … but eventually “it’s a new day”, as Barnes sings on the second track, a sentiment delivered without a question mark.
If you’re wondering where all the good times are, it seems Barnes’ answer is: wherever the hell I want them to be and, until it all ends, I’m going to be a rock star. Specifically a rock star of the late 80s and early 90s, when he didn’t have to dress down, à la grunge, or gloss up, à la ozone-depleting poodle metal, and instead slipped on a leather jacket and leaned into the camera as a freight train pulled out behind him.
