Review: Jimmy Barnes – For The Working Class Man (40th Anniversary Tour Souvenir Edition)
Jimmy Barnes – For The Working Class Man (40th Anniversary Edition)
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: Mushroom Music
Release: 2025
Text: Martien Koolen
‘For The Working Class Mann’ was the second studio album by former Cold Chisel singer and frontman Jimmy Barnes and now it is released as a 40th anniversary special limited edition, featuring the original album and a bonus disc with live classics from the voice of Down Under!
Barnes’s second album really defined his career as especially the title track turned into an anthem for the Australian working-class spirit indeed. The song Working Class Man has a powerful chorus and features a fantastic enthusiastic vocal performance of Barness. In fact, the entire album features great hard rock, blues, and soul influences, but most of all it is the voice of Barness that does the trick here.
Further highlights, besides the title track, are of course the hit singles I’d Die To Be With You Tonight (a high energy song), Ride The Night Away (composed by Steven Van Zandt) and No Second Prize, which is a Barness composition.
The bonus disc features eight live tracks, of which five were recorded at The Playroom in 1984, two at The Hordern Pavillion in 2019, one from the MAX Sessions and finally a ballad version of Working-Class Man.
Conclusion: only for die-hard Jimmy Barnes fans indeed!
Tracks:
01. I’d Die To Be With You Tonight
02. Ride The Night Away
03. American Heartbeat
04. Working Class Man
05. Without Your Love
06. No Second Prize
07. Vision
08. Promise Me You’ll Call
09. Boys Cry Out For War
10. Daylight
11. Thickskinned
12. Paradise
CD2
01. Working Class Man (Ballad Version)
02. Without Your Love (MAX Sessions)
03. Promise Me You’ll Call (Live at The Playroom ’84)
04. Boys Cry Out For War (Live from The Hordern Pavilion 2019)
05. Vision (Live at The Playroom ’84)
06. Thickskinned (Live at The Playroom ’84)
07. Daylight (Live at The Playroom ’84)
08. No Second Prize (Live from The Hordern Pavilion 2019)
09. Paradise (Live at The Playroom ’84)
Website: https://shop.jimmybarnes.com/