The Loner is one of the great lost Australian albums. The fact that it exists at all is a remarkable story in itself, but then there’ the tale of its creator, Vic Simms, which is the story of racism in this country.
A precocious vocal talent, Simms began his career touring and singing with Col Joye, playing with soon to be famous Australians like Peter Allen, and appearing on Johnny O’Keefe’ television show Six O’clock Rock. It’s possible he was the first Aboriginal artist to perform on commercial TV. And this was all as a teenager.
It was through touring rural Australia that Simms first encountered racism and it left its mark. Later Simms fell on hard times, got mixed up with the wrong crowd and found himself serving a seven-year sentence for robbery at Bathurst jail. Swapping a couple of pouches of tobacco for a guitar, he used music to ward off the cold, boredom and repressive wardens. One day a charity group overheard him singing, made a rough cassette recording and gave it to RCA. The next thing Simms knows RCA bring in musicians, set up a studio in the jail and give him one hour to make an album.
The Loner is that album, and it was recorded live in front of an audience of his cellmates – you can hear them clapping at the end of the songs. Given such a limited amount of time the results are nothing short of remarkable. Simms music is imbued with a deep country soul, a light, funky sound that belies the directness and poignancy of his lyrics. Whilst horns were overdubbed later and the production is a little thin, this is essentially a live recording, and what’s missing in the production values is more than made up by the songs themselves.
With titles like Stranger in My Country, and Get Back Into the Shadows, with lyrics like “If you’re brown stick around if your white it’s alright but if you’re black you get back into the shadows,†it’s an album that details Simms experience of racism. There’ a real upbeat funky soul quality to the music, which is initially disconcerting when considering the albums darker messages. Yet Simms voice is silky smooth, and though his lyrics and stories are quite cutting, you don’ get a sense of anger or rage, rather he’ quite matter of fact, “he can’ do the things he wants because his skin is black†(Little Barefoot Urchin).
What’s so fascinating is that following the recording Simms then toured other prisons performing to inmates there, though he quickly saw he was being used as a public relations tool for the prison system, to hide the appalling conditions and treatment the inmates were exposed to. When he refused to participate he was thrown into solitary. After his release Simms began to tour and play in prisons on his own terms, and continues to perform to this day. The Loner however deserves to be heard, an unexpected slab of Aboriginal country soul protest songs that were recorded in some of the unlikeliest circumstances you could possibly imagine.
