Published in Overland Issue 207 Winter 2012 · Uncategorized Starvation Box Blues Joe Dolce When I got myself this Starvation Box my daddy told me son you’re bound to lose you ain’t never gonna make no money playing that guitar only give you the Starvation Box blues. Now I’ve stood in that Welfare line I’ve passed the hat and I’ve played for food I hope my luck changes soon I’m sick of these Starvation Box blues. Sometimes I want to smash this Starvation Box build a fire just to warm my feet or bust it into little pieces and use the toothpicks to pick my teeth. My music has got me through some hard times music has made me jump and shout this Starvation Box has been my best friend for so long Lord I just can’t turn it out. Sometimes I wish I had me a regular job and was making steady money just like you instead of living with so much damn uncertainty and all these Starvation Box blues. Joe Dolce Joe Dolce moved to Australia in 1979, becoming a citizen in 2004. He is known internationally for the most successful Australian song in history, ‘Shaddap You Face’, which reached number one on the pop charts in fifteen countries. He has achieved award-winning recognition as a songwriter, serious composer and poet. More by Joe Dolce › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 19 April 2024 · Friday Fiction Stilted J.E “Mahal” Cuya One hour after midnight. Everyone in rooms. Living room – dark. Table look like monsters. Like death. TV on stand. Netflix Logo. No one watching. Residents asleep. They have dementia. 18 April 202418 April 2024 · Education A Jellyfish government in NSW: public education’s privatisation-by-neglect Dan Hogan A private school that receives public money is not a private school: it is a fee-paying public school. The overfunding of private schools using public money is a symptom of a public service that has been rotted for a quarter of century by a political class with no vision beyond producing dubious, misleading statistics to deploy at the next election.