Joe Dolce

Joe Dolce
Joe Dolce, 2005
Background information
Born	1947 (age 77–78)
Origin	Painesville, Ohio, United States of America
Genres	Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, poet, essayist
Years active	1BC-present
Labels	MCA Records Full Moon/Astor, Hammard, PolyGram
Associated acts	Joe Dolce Music Theatre
Website	joedolce.net
Notable instruments
acoustic and electric guitars, blues harmonica virtuoso, mandolin and ukulele

Joseph "Joe" Dolce (/ˈdoʊltʃeɪ/, originally /ˈdoʊlts/; born 1947 in Painesville, Ohio) is an American-born, Australian singer/songwriter, poet and essayist who achieved international recognition with his multi-million-selling song, "Shaddap You Face", released under the name of his one-man show, Joe Dolce Music Theatre, worldwide, in 1980–1981. The single reached number one in 15 countries, it has sold more than 450,000+ copies in Australia, and has remained the most successful Australian-produced single since, selling an estimated six million copies worldwide. It reached No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for eight weeks from November 1980.

Biography

Dolce was born in 1947, the eldest of three children, to Italian-American parents, in Painesville, Ohio, graduating from Thomas W. Harvey High School in 1965. During his senior year, he played the lead role, of Mascarille, in Molière's "Les Precieuse ridicule" for a production staged by the French Club of Lake Erie Girls College, which was his first time on stage, acting and singing an impromptu song he created from the script. The play was well-received and his performance was noted by director, Jake Rufli, who later invited him to be part of his production of Jean Anouilh's "Eurydice". His co-star in "Les Precieuse ridicule" was a sophomore, on a creative writing scholarship, at Lake Erie, Carol Dunlop, who introduced him to folk music, poetry and the writings of Faulkner and Hemingway. Dunlop later married the Argentine novelist, Julio Cortazar. Dolce attended Ohio University, majoring in Architecture, from 1965–67, before deciding to become a professional musician.

Musical and Theatrical Career

While attending college at Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, he formed various bands including Headstone Circus, with Jonathan Edwards who subsequently went on as a solo artist to have a charting hit song in the US 'Sunshine'. Edwards subsequently recorded five Dolce songs including, "Athens County", "Rollin' Along", "King of Hearts", "The Ballad of Upsy Daisy" and "My Home Ain't in the Hall of Fame", the latter song becoming an alt country classic, also recorded by Robert Earl Keene, Rosalie Sorrels, JD Crowe & the New South, and many others. Dolce relocated to Melbourne, Australia in 1978 and his first single there was "Boat People"—a protest song on the poor treatment of Vietnamese refugees—which was translated into Vietnamese and donated to the fledgling Vietnamese community starting to form in Melbourne. His one-man show, Joe Dolce Music Theatre, performed in cabarets and pubs with various line-ups, including his longtime partner, Lin Van Hek.

In July 1980, he recorded the self-penned "Shaddap You Face", for the Full Moon Records label, at Mike Brady's new studios in West Melbourne. When in Ohio, Dolce would sometimes visit his Italian grandparents and extended family—they supplied the inspiration with "What's the matter, you?" and "Eh, shaddap". He wrote the song about Italians living in Australia and first performed it at Marijuana House, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy in 1979. Dolce paid A$500 for the recording and spent $1000 on the music video clip, which was created by Melbourne filmmaker, Chris Lofven. It became a multi-million-selling hit, peaking at No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for eight weeks from November 1980, in UK from February 1981 for three weeks, also No. 1 in Germany, France, Fiji, Canada, Austria, New Zealand and Switzerland. Dolce received the Advance Australia Award in 1981.

Follow up single, "If You Want to Be Happy" charted in Austria (No. 7) and New Zealand (top 40). Dolce's subsequent singles included "Pizza Pizza", "Christmas in Australia" and "You Toucha My Car I Breaka You Face" and he released two albums during this period, 'Shaddap You Face' and 'The Christmas Album'. With Lin Van Hek, he formed various performance groups including Skin the Wig, La Somnambule (1984) and the ongoing Difficult Women (1993). Van Hek and Dolce co-wrote "Intimacy", for the 1984 film, The Terminator's soundtrack. He was a featured lead actor in the Australian film Blowing Hot and Cold (1988). He has continued to perform solo and with Van Hek as part of their music-literary cabaret Difficult Women. In the past decade, he has been also receiving extensive recognition as a poet and essayist, with works appearing in Best Australian Poems 2014.

Personal life

In 1976, he married Zandie Acton, the sister of fashion icon Prue Acton, in Berkeley, California. They had two children, Ever and Brea, and moved to Australia in 1979, separated and divorced. He met singer-writer-painter, Lin Van Hek, in 1980, in Tiamos Coffee Shop, in Carlton, Victoria. They have remained together for thirty-five years and have six grown children and twelve grandchildren.

Recent

Joe Dolce has achieved further recognition as a serious poet and essayist winning the 25th Launceston Poetry Cup in Tasmania in 2010. He has set over one hundred poems to music, including works by Sappho, Sylvia Plath, Les Murray, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Andrew Lansdown and C.P. Cavafy. He wrote Hill of Death from a poem of Louisa Lawson's that won Best Folk Gospel Song at the Australian Gospel Awards. Cocaine Lil, an eighteenth-century public domain lyric, formed the basis for an up-tempo blues song – both of these poems-set-to-music appeared on his 2007 album The Wind Cries Mary. Cocaine Lil was also included as a featured track in Australian Guitar Player Magazine for Dolce's extraordinary one-take no overdubbed forty-bar guitar break.

He has had sixty-eight poems and twenty-six new unpublished song-lyrics selected by Queen's Medal for Poetry recipient Les Murray for publication in Quadrant, including two poems in Best of Quadrant Poetry 2001–2010.

Quadrant has also published thirteen of his essays including: Biblical Imagery in the Songwriting of the Creative Infidels: Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Paul Kelly (Jan–Feb 2012), Hey Mr Cowbell Man: Sir Christopher Ricks' Dylan's Visions of Sin (Mar 2012), Anti the Anti (June 2012),Who Is This White Fella Fella? (Oct 2012), In the Op Shop With Percy Grainger (Nov 2012),Father Scapegoat (Jan–Feb 2013), Pen Pencil or Keyboard (March 2013), Elysium in Paraguay (July–Aug 2013),Graham Greene's Lolita (April 2014), Speechless (July–Aug 2014) and "William S. Burroughs: Scientologist" (Apr. 2015).

Quadrant published his first short story, "No Two Snowflakes", about JS Bach and his challenged son, Gottfried, in the July-Aug 2015 issue.

He has had three essays published in Meanjin- The Benefit of Smoking (May 2013),My Craft or Sullen Art: Poetry, Songwriting (May 2014) and "Todesengel and the Seven Dwarfs" (May 2015)

The Monthly published his essay on art censorship, Shaddap You Facebook, in Apr 2013.

In 2014, he was shortlisted for both Newcastle Poetry Prize and the Canberra Vice-Chancellor's Poetry Prize, appearing in both anthologies.

Dolce's poetry, photographs and song-lyrics have been published in Meanjin, Overland, Island magazine, Southerly, Cordite, Eye to the Telescope, Contrappasso, The Canberra Times, Sotto, Stars Like Sand, Australian Love Poems, Carmenta, Journey, Vine Leaves, Best of Vine Leaves, Going Down Swinging, PEN International (in English & Arabic translation), Little Raven, Best of Little Raven, Voltage (USA), Tupelo Press (USA) Not Shut Up (UK) and American Association for Australian Literary Studies (Antipodes) (USA). He released his first book of poems HATBOX in 2010.

He is included in Best Australian Poems 2014, edited by Geoff Page, published by Black Inc.

In May 2015, the Aphids Theatre Company produced a successful contemporary Futurist 'deconstruction' of his life story, called 'A Singular Phenomenon', which ran for three sold-out nights at The Malthouse Theatre. In Melbourne.

Recordings and publications

Albums

• Shaddap You Face (Full Moon, 1981)
• Christmas in Australia (Hammard, 1981)
• Memoirs of a Mouth Organ (1997)
• Difficult Women (1998)
• Steal Away Home (1999)
• FreeLoveDays (2000)
• Flower (2001)
• The Wind Cries Mary (2007)

Singles

• "Boat People" (1979)
• "Shaddap You Face" (Full Moon, 1980)
• "If You Want to Be Happy" (Full Moon, May 1981) AUT No. 7, NZL No. 33
• "Reggae Matilda" (1981)
• "Christmas in Australia" (November 1981)
• "You Toucha My Car I Breaka You Face" (June 1982)
• "Pizza Pizza" (Fable, 1984)
• "Vaffanculo Polka" (February 1989)
• "Dead Cat Bounce" (November 2011)

Books

• HATBOX poetry (2010)

Essays

• Biblical Imagery in the Songwriting of the Creative Infidels: Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Paul Kelly (Quadrant 2012)
• Hey Mr Cowbell Man: Sir Christopher Ricks' Dylan's Visions of Sin (Quadrant 2012)
• Anti the Anti (Quadrant 2012)
• In the Op Shop With Percy Grainger (Quadrant 2012)
• Who Is This White Fella Fella? (Quadrant 2012)
• Pen Pencil or Keyboard (Quadrant 2013)
• Father Scapegoat (Quadrant 2013)
• Shaddap You Facebook (Monthly 2013)
• Elyisum in Paraguay (Quadrant 2013)
• The Benefit of Smoking (Meanjin 2013)
• Wheat from Chaff (Sotto 2013)
• Shadow Boxing With John Ernest Tranter (Red Wolf 2013)
• Jikan. Poet Laureate of Songwriters (Leonard Cohen) (Red Wolf 2013)
• Graham Greene's Lolita (Quadrant 2014)
• Speechless: Free Speech, Fair Speech and the Skokie Case (Quadrant 2014)
• William S. Burroughs: Scientologist (Quadrant 2015)
• Todesengel and the Seven Dwarfs (Meanjin 2015)

Short Stories

• No Two Snowflakes (Quadrant 2015)

Reviews

• A Portrait of the Artist as Place: Bluewren Cantos, by Mark Tredinnick (Rochford Street Review 2015)

Odds & Ends

• Six Lemonricks (Meanjin 1, 2012)

External links

• Official website
• Joe Dolce Countdown biography
• Joe Dolce at the Internet Movie Database