Along the Road to Gundagai: Biography of Jack O’Hagan and Birth of Australian Pop Culture by Jo Gilbert

Description SHORTLISTED – HISTORY PUBLICATION AWARD, VICTORIAN COMMUNITY HISTORY AWARDS 2024 Jack O’Hagan was the father of Australia’s pop music industry. The most famous popular songwriter of his time, he wrote our nation’s most beloved and enduring songs – ‘Along the Road to Gundagai’, ‘Where the Dog Sits on the Tuckerbox’ and ‘Our Don Bradman’ among them. ‘ O’Hagan was a songwriter, pop singer, music publisher, actor, playwright, radio celebrity and advertising ‘mad man’ – a chief influencer at the leading edge during a time of great technological change. His work was recorded by the greats of his era – Peter Dawson, Richard Tauber, Stéphane Grappelli, Liza Minnelli, Vienna Boys Choir, Slim Dusty, and many more – and recognised as a major cultural, historical and aesthetic contribution with an MBE in 1973, the National Film and Sound Archive ‘s online Jack O’Hagan gallery, and a hefty representation in the NFSA Sounds of Australia Collection. O’Hagan was the embodiment of early- to mid- 20th century pop culture through around 200 published popular and dance songs, alongside 300-400 hundred film and theatrical songs, advertising jingles and a national anthem contender – a soundtrack for a nation between two World Wars, through the Jazz Age and Great Depression, from horses to Holdens. Jack wrote of Australian places long before Skyhooks’ Greg Macainsh, distinctly Australian songs before Paul Kelly, footy songs before Mike Brady, advertising jingles before MoJo, and rode the waves created by new technologies. He was arguably our first pop star. His story chronicles the roots of our pop culture and the dawn of contemporary Australia. Hard cover 504p.p., 2024