Review Summary: Australia's version of Bob Dylan
Paul Kelly is an icon in Australia, though unfortunately fairly unknown throughout the rest of the world. For someone who writes so many top notch songs, Kelly shouldn't be as unknown as he is, but for decades he has been producing albums with some of the most binding and touching songs that his lyrics have become part of the final year’s English study in Victoria. Aptly titled,
Songs From The South is a 20 track dip into Paul Kelly’s greatest work from 1987 to 1997, which barley touches the surface on the amount of great songs he has written.
Great singer-songwriters are poets: enticing words, capturing times and places, and conjure a sense of what it's like to be involved in their world. Kelly does that as well as anyone does, and perhaps better than most. You always feel as though he wears his heart on his sleeve and as you track through this retrospective album, you get a sense of the passages of his life.
Songs From The South first three songs, ‘ From St Kilda to Kings Cross,’ ‘Leaps and Bounds’ and ‘Before Too Long’ remind you why Kelly is such a timeless act since he can weave so many emotions into just three songs and have the ability to work his token lyrical beauty in to such amazing music. After these spectacular tracks close we are given ‘Dumb Things’ and ‘To Her Door.’ Two of Kelly’s more well know songs, but both completely different in composition. ‘Dumb Things’ is a more rock based tune while ‘To Her Door’ is classic ballad about a family falling apart and the husband trying to keep them together. ‘To Her Door’ is a great example of Kelly’s lyrical conviction, and leaves so much unsaid but fills you with hope.
They got married early, never had no money
Then when he got laid off they really hit the skids
He started up his drinking, then they started fighting
He took it pretty badly, she took both the kids...
... He came in on a Sunday, every muscle aching
Walking in slow motion like he'd just been hit
Did they have a future? Would he know his children?
Could he make a picture and get them all to fit?
He was shaking in his seat riding through the streets
In a silvertop to her door
Throughout the album Kelly discusses many different cultural aspects, be it sport or law. ‘Bradman’ is an upbeat and happy tale of the great Australian cricketer and how so many people looked up to him, but then the album hits one of the more sadder points with ‘Everything is Turning To White.’ A sorrowful ballad about a molestation and murder of girl and how three men on a fishing trip came across her body and have to deal with the consequences and their conscience. The line
There is so much more water, so close to home is the title to Raymond Carver's short story which Kelly gained his idea for the song from.
Eventually we come to the historic, ‘From Little Big Things Grow.’ A story about the Australian indigenous people and how in the 1960s, Aboriginal stockmen went on strike at the NT Wave Hill station. Led by Gurindji man Vincent Lingiari, they walked off the job and set up a camp at a place called Wattie Creek. The dispute over wages and conditions turned into a demand for land rights. It dragged on for years before eventually being resolved by the Whitlam government. This was a pivotal moment in Australian history, since it was the beginning of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, and basic Aboriginal Rights. Kelly’s song weaves through this story with extraordinarily clever lyrics:
That was the story of Vincent Lingairri
But this is the story of something much more
How power and privilege can not move a people
Who know where they stand and stand in the law
From little things big things grow
As we wind into the final tracks of
Songs From The South we come across me two favourite Paul Kelly songs, being ‘Deeper Water’ and ‘How To Make Gravy.’ ‘Deeper Water’ is once again Kelly at his story telling best, giving an example of how life comes the full circle and encompasses some of Kelly’s best lyrics to date, with fantastic lines like,
Death doesn’t care who it destroys and
Now the man meets a woman unlike all the rest / He doesn't know it yet but he's out of his depth. While ‘Deeper Water’ is one of my favourite songs, ‘How To Make Gravy’ would be probably every other Australians favourite. ‘...Gravy’ is the essential Australian Christmas carol. It is a letter written by a man to his brother at Christmas time and how he going to miss all the festivities and all the traditional family fun that it has. It is one of the most touching songs on the album and definitely a very fitting song to end such a spectacular album.
Songs From The South is the back catalogue of one of the greatest singer songwriters, and one of the most essential albums for any folk rock fan. While they may be Australian tales it doesn’t mean people from across the world can’t enjoy this masterful gem of an album, conveying so many different amazing stories that will make you want to listen to it over and over again.
Recommended Tracks:
Deeper Water
How To Make Gravy
To Her Door
Dumb Things
From Little Things Big Things Grow
From St Kilda to Kings cross
