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Book Cover for: Various Artists' Truckload of Sky: The Lost Songs of David McComb Vol. 1, Glenn D'Cruz

Various Artists' Truckload of Sky: The Lost Songs of David McComb Vol. 1

Glenn D'Cruz

As singer-songwriter for The Triffids, David McComb wrote what is now considered one of the greatest Australian albums, Born Sandy Devotional (1986), but after the band's breakup, labored in relative obscurity until his death in 1999.

A Truckload of Sky: The Lost Songs of David McComb, vol. 1 (2020) was written by McComb before his untimely death and later recorded by friends and musical collaborators, including Graham Lee, Rob McComb, Romy Vager, Rob Snarski, Angie Hart, JP Shilo, Alex Gow, Simon Breed, and Lenore Stephens.

This book examines the ways the album echoes McComb's stylistic and thematic obsessions, including that which Glenn D'Cruz classifies as a "hauntological aesthetic," while generating important questions about the relationship between popular music and memory, time and death. Jacques Derrida's concept of hauntology - the revisiting of social and cultural elements of the past - is used to unpack the album's structure and composition. Alongside themes of ghosts, past lives, and haunting, the book discusses what, if any, ethical considerations can and should be made in the curation of the work and legacies of deceased artists.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
  • Publish Date: Sep 4th, 2025
  • Pages: 144
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.75in - 5.00in - 1.00in - 1.00lb
  • EAN: 9798765127452
  • Categories: Individual Composer & MusicianHistory & Criticism - GeneralGenres & Styles - Rock

About the Author

D'Cruz, Glenn: - Glenn D'Cruz is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. His most recent books include Hauntological Dramaturgy (2022) Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis (2018) and Teaching Postdramatic Theatre (2018). His short film, Vanitas, premiered at the Revelation Film Festival in 2022 and will screen on SBS television in 2024.
Stratton, Jon: - Jon Stratton is Adjunct Professor in UniSA Creative at the University of South Australia and a member of the university's Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre. Jon has worked at universities in the UK and Australia and held a Rockefeller Fellowship at the University of Iowa in 1998. His areas of interest include Popular Music, Cultural Studies, Australian Studies, Jewish Cultural Studies and Media Studies. He is the sole author of 12 books and has co-edited four. In 2002 he published Australian Rock: Essays on Popular Music. His most recent books include Black Popular Music in Britain since 1945 (edited with Nabeel Zuberi, 2014), When Music Migrates: Crossing British and European Racial Faultlines 1945-2010 (2014) and An Anthology of Australian Albums: Critical Engagements (edited with Jon Dale and Tony Mitchell, 2020).
Dale, Jon: - Jon Dale is a writer and researcher based in Melbourne, Australia. He teaches across a number of fields (popular music, experimental writing, media studies, criminology, sociology, screen studies) at a number of institutions. He also writes for the English music magazine Uncut, and contributes liner notes and essays to a number of record labels and other publications. He is currently working on several books about DIY and post-punk music, and texts on experimental film and diary film making. He also runs the record labels Tristes Tropiques and Rose Hobart.