"Wide Open Road" is a single released in 1986 by Australian rock band

The Triffids The Triffids were an Australian alternative rock and pop band, formed in Perth in Western Australia in May 1978 with David McComb as singer-songwriter, guitarist, bass guitarist and keyboardist.McFarlane (1999). Encyclopedia entry fo"The Triff ...

from their album ''

Born Sandy Devotional ''Born Sandy Devotional'' is an album by The Triffids, released in March 1986. The songs were written by David McComb. The album was recorded at Mark Angelo Studios in London in August 1985 with Gil Norton co-producing with the band, and mixed ...

''. It was produced by

Gil Norton Gil Norton (born in Liverpool) is an English record producer known for his work with alternative rock bands such as Pixies, Echo & the Bunnymen, Foo Fighters, Tribe, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Feeder, The Distillers, Maxïmo Par ...

(

Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas arou ...

, Echo & the Bunnymen,

Foo Fighters Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl (lead vocals, guitar) re ...

) and written by

David McComb David Richard McComb (17 February 19622 February 1999) was an Australian musician. He was the singer-songwriter and guitarist of the Australian bands, The Triffids (1976–89) and The Blackeyed Susans (1989–93). He also had a solo career incl ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

. The B-side "Time of Weakness" was recorded live at the Graphic Arts Club, Sydney, November 1985 by Mitch Jones, mixed by Rob Muir (in Perth). "Dear Miss Lonely Hearts" was recorded at Planet Sound Studios, Perth and produced by the Triffids. "Wide Open Road" reached No. 26 on the UK Singles Chart in 1986, and No. 64 on the Australian

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

Singles Chart. In May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "Wide Open Road" as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. In January 2018, as part of

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to th ...

's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Wide Open Road" was ranked number 64.

Background

The Triffids had toured Europe in 1985 and were based in London but they were unable to raise a major record deal and with a lack of finances, their second studio album ''

'' was recorded there in August 1985 with

producing (fresh from working with Echo & the Bunnymen). They released two versions of "Wide Open Road", a 7” version and a 12” version. The B-side, "Time of Weakness", was recorded live at the Graphic Arts Club, Sydney. The album reached No. 27 on the UK charts and the single peaked at No. 26 on the UK charts: while only reaching No. 64 on the Australian

Singles Chart. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until

ARIA In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

created their own

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

in mid-1988. The song was written by David McComb, who described the process: On 10 January 1987 The Triffids performed the track live at their home town, Perth's

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood. Subiaco Oval was the high ...

, as part of the Australian Made Tour by various artists. McComb introduced their performance: "... it's sorta hard to write the set list at the start of the day 'cos we've had so many hits in this country: it's difficult to know which hit to play. Where to start? But this one's been played on ''Countdown'' so I guess that means something..." In July that year a documentary film, '' Australian Made: The Movie'', of the concert series, with The Triffids represented by "Wide Open Road", was released to Australian cinemas and later onto VHS (1988). The song reached No. 68 on

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music listener poll hosted by the publicly-funded, national Australian youth radio station, Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the y ...

for

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

and No. 49 in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

(from 1989 to 1991, voting was not restricted to songs released that year). Its success also resulted in the band's first appearance on Australia's popular weekly musical television show, ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

''.

Reviews

"Hauntingly simple in its sparse use of keyboards, clean, ringing guitars, and just the one, repeated drum fill, it has an epic majesty which is entirely suited to the semi-mythical Australia of The Triffids’ vision; no other song has so perfectly captured the sense of vast, uncharted expanses which characterises the Australia of our collective imagination." "'Wide Open Road' is one of those songs that illustrates the stark reality of Australia’s barren, desolate landscape on many levels, emphasising it's often cruel geography and the realities that come from existing within it." "The band uses silence and space to allow the lyrics and melody to resonate fully with the listener. While the song may be Australian in setting with its evocation of a vast, desert wasteland, it uses the Australian desert as a metaphor for the distance between people and for the sense of loss following a failed relationship."

Legacy

In May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "Wide Open Road" as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. Paul Kelly and The Saints' Chris Bailey performed "Wide Open Road" at the Mushroom 25th Anniversary concert in 1998, to ensure that one of Kelly's favourite songwriters was represented. "Wide Open Road" was re-released as a CD single by

Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival Mu ...

in 1998 as No. 16 in a series of 25 limited edition classic Mushroom singles. It was also re-released as a download only single by Domino Records to coincide with the re-release of ''Born Sandy Devotional'' in July 2006. Cover versions of the song were also recorded by

Weddings Parties Anything Weddings, Parties, Anything. was an Australian folk rock band formed in 1984 in Melbourne and continuing until 1999. Their name came from The Clash song "Revolution Rock". Musicologist Billy Pinnell described their first album as the best Austr ...

on their 1998 compilation album '' Trophy Night'', and The Church on their 2007 acoustic album '' El Momento Siguiente''. It was also covered by fellow Perth outfit

The Panics The Panics are an indie rock band originally from Perth, Western Australia, and currently based in Melbourne, Victoria. History 2000–2006: Band formation and LittleBigMan Records The band started out while Jae Laffer (then known by his actu ...

for

's segment, "

Like a Version ''Like a Version'' is a weekly segment on Australian youth radio station Triple J. It involves Australian and international artists playing two songs live in the Triple J studio, one of their own songs (an "original") and then a cover version, h ...

" in 2007. At the band's induction into the

ARIA Hall of Fame In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

in July 2008,

Steve Kilbey Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954) is an English Australians, English-Australian singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church (band), the Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter. As of 2020, Kilbey h ...

from The Church filled in for David McComb when The Triffids performed "Wide Open Road".

Track listing

All tracks written by

Original release (7")

# "Wide Open Road" - 4:08 # "Time of Weakness" - 3:12

Original release (12")

# "Wide Open Road" - 4:08 # "Time of Weakness" (live) - 3:12 # "Dear Miss Lonely Hearts" # "Native Bride" (live)

1989 Mushroom Records re-release

# "Wide Open Road" # "Time of Weakness"

Personnel

The Triffids members *

Jill Birt Jillian Margaret Birt is an Australian rock musician and architect. Birt was the keyboardist and vocalist of the alternative rock and pop band, The Triffids from 1983 to 1989. In 2008, The Triffids were inducted into the Australian Recording I ...

—

(track 1),

hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

(track 3) *

Martyn P. Casey Martyn Paul Casey (born 10 July 1960) is an English-born Australian Rock music, rock bass guitarist. He has been a member of the Triffids, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. Casey plays either his Fender Precision Bass or Fender Jazz Ba ...

—

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

(all tracks) * Graham Lee —

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

(track 1),

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...

(track 2, 4) *

Alsy MacDonald Alan MacDonald (born 14 August 1961) is an Australian musician and lawyer, best known as the drummer of the 1980s band The Triffids, where he performed under his nickname 'Alsy'. He was born on 14 August 1961 to Prof. Bill MacDonald, a professo ...

—

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(track 1, 3),

hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist o ...

(track 2, 4) *

— vocals (all tracks), guitar (all tracks), keyboards (track 1) *

Robert McComb Robert Harold McComb is an Australian musician who played guitar, violin, organ, and other instruments with Perth-based rock group The Triffids, from 1979 to 1989. He is the older brother of the band's founder and lead singer-songwriter, David M ...

— guitar (all tracks),

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

(track 3) Additional musicians * Adam Peters — piano, keyboards Recording details * Producer —

* Sequencer — MacDonald, (track 1), D McComb (track 1) * Mixer — Rob Muir (track 2) * Recording — Mitch Jones (track 2, live) * Studio — Mark Angelo Studios, London (track 1), The Graphics Art Club, Sydney (track 2) ** Mixing studio — Amazon Studios, Liverpool (track 1) Art work * Photography — Bleddyn Butcher (front cover), MacDonald (back cover), Mark Trengove (Domino 2006)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wide Open Road (Song) 1986 singles APRA Award winners The Triffids songs Mushroom Records singles Domino Recording Company singles 1986 songs Songs written by David McComb Song recordings produced by Gil Norton Songs about cars