24 Apr 10 Aussie Classics For Anzac Day
As we honour or soldiers, the annual Anzac Day march & our rich history tomorrow, as you fire up the BBQ, enjoy a beer or a game of two up or just the Collingwood Vs Essendon game at the MCG here are some Aussie classic songs to make your day run smoother
Spectrum – I’ll Be Gone
An Aussie classic – but the band is actually led by a Kiwi (isn’t that always the way we claim the Kiwis as Aussies – but then this is for ANZAC Day – so no NZ in ANZAC without them) Mike Rudd who moved to Oz in 1966. Check out the clip from Adelaide in 1971
Easybeats – I’ll Make You Happy
Everybody knows Friday on my mind, but I’ll Make You Happy resonates more with me. The Easybeats included Harry Vanda & George Young (of Vanda/Young fame & George’s 2 younger brothers whom you might recognize from a little known Aussie band – AC/DC), plus the magical Stevie Wright. Had some success in UK & Australia before they split up in 1969. Check out the Youtube clip again from 1966.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc3rim4EoYg&feature=fvst
Matt Taylor – I Remember When I Was Young
One Of Australia’s greatest blues performers. Also has & performs with his own band Chain. Taylor has supported major American blues artists like B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon, Albert Collins. Albert Collins even said of him: “You play the blues, but it’s like no other blues I’ve ever heard in my life”. Again check out the Youtube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTvzzgk_jEY
Stevie Wright – Evie Part I, II & III
I know this counts as 3 songs – but it’s my blog you know. And come on now, you know you were going to get this song. I couldn’t leave it off after putting in Stevie’s alma mater the Easybeats. A Vanda/Young classic & in fact one of the 1st 45′s I ever bought (that is a funny small round black thing that spins around and makes sounds when you put a needle on it – explanation for the Ipod generation). Watch all 3 songs here & check out the Cheetah Sisters on background vocals & members of Sherbet as the backing band (soon to become the Sherbs – yes I am showing my age again, but then I did see the Sherbs play at the Lorne Hotel in 1980 & remember a great rendition of Springsteen’s Born To Run!!!!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4wJbATKpEA
Midnight Oil – Beds Are Burning
“Beds Are Burning” is a political song about giving native Australian lands back to the Pintupi, who were among the very last people to come in from the desert. These ‘last contact’ people began moving from the Gibson Desert to settlements and missions in the 1930s. More were forcibly moved during the 1950s and 1960s to the Papunya settlement. In 1981 they left to return to their own country and established the Kintore community which is nestled in the picturesque Kintore Ranges, surrounded by Mulga and Spinifex country. It is now a thriving little community with a population of about 400. (Kintore and the town of Yuendumu are mentioned by name in the lyrics.)
Midnight Oil performed the song in front of a world audience of millions at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The whole band were dressed in black, with the word “Sorry” printed conspicuously on their clothes (Perhaps I can be political too here as well and apologize for Peter Garrett to voters of all persuasions) .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLxOq5SNLIg
You Am I – Berlin Chair
Berlin Chair” is the second single from the album Sound As Ever. It was released in 1994 and reached #23 in that year’s Hottest 100, while in the 1998 Hottest 100 of All Time it came in at #61 and #52 in the 2009 Hottest 100 of All Time. In a phone-in poll in 1999, the song was voted best Australian song of the 90s. The track was featured on the soundtrack to the PC game Quarantine, released in the same year. Tim Rogers named the song after a statue in Canberra, where he lived at the time. Again let’s go to the videotape – this is a nutty video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRc6orRcb8A
Hunters & Collectors – Throw Your Arms Around Me
This is one of my fave all time songs. I first saw the Hunters in the early 1980′s at the Stage Door – Shandon Hotel in Adelaide & my 1st thoughts (as you will see with the following act) was that they were really just a big noise.
The Hunters recorded the first version of “Throw Your Arms Around Me” for a single-only release in 1984. A live version of “Throw Your Arms Around Me” appeared on their 1985 album Way to Go Out. Their breakthrough commercial success in Australia came in 1986, with the release of the album Human Frailty, which featured another version of the single “Throw Your Arms Around Me”, as well as “Say Goodbye” and “Everything’s on Fire”. In 1990 a slower, more acoustically introspective version of the single was recorded and released from their compilation album Collected Works. Mark Seymour described writing for Human Frailty:
I was in a relationship with a woman I was very much in love with and she was the inspiration. I wrote virtually all the lyrics on Human Frailty about my relationship with her […] Throw Your Arms Around Me was the first song I wrote that wasn’t angry. And because it was so out of the square, we didn’t record it particularly well. […] One time, we played it at The Palace, to about 2000 people who just went off. We finally got it right, so we recorded it again. I think we did about four versions of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H2Dl4bfySM
Nick Cave – The Ship Song
Another fave song of mine. Again I saw Nick Cave when he was part of the Birthday Party in 1980 before they left for overseas & thought what rubbish is this. In May 2001 “The Ship Song” was selected by Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.
There have been numerous cover versions of the song performed by artists, including Camille O’Sullivan, Leatherface, Frankie Stubbs, Gene, Swirl, Boo Hewerdine, Concrete Blonde, Denis Walter, Immaculate Fools, A Subtle Plague, Polar and Heather Nova, with live only versions by Crowded House, Ed Kuepper, Pearl Jam, Amanda Palmer, and Martha Wainwright.
The Sydney Opera House, with agency The Monkeys (Creative Agency), achieved the collaboration of Neil Finn, Kev Carmody, Sarah Blasko, John Bell, Martha Wainwright, Katie Noonan, Paul Kelly, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, The Temper Trap, and Daniel Johns, with Opera Australia, the Australian Ballet, Bangarra Dance Theatre, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, to perform and record a reinterpretation of “The Ship Song” over some months in 2010-2011. Titled “The Ship Song Project”, the recording was to promote the Sydney Opera House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ab-VFwg2TA&feature=fvst
Paul Kelly – Every F***ing City
From Dots to Coloured Girls to the Messengers Paul Kelly has done the lot. Did anybody know that Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls were named through a joke based on Lou Reed‘s song “Walk on the Wild Side” ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkXDDBHV1-c
John Butler Trio – Zebra
A man who stays true to his roots & isn’t afraid of change. Writes produces & distributes his own records & plows all the profits back into his music. Check out his Live DC/DVD – Live At Red Rocks