A Musical Journey – Part 3 – The Kelly Episode

Part 2 of this journey through an insomniac’s night at the YouTubes concluded with a performance by Katy Steele & Paul Kelly.

Paul Kelly was my first live gig. 1997 at the Wagga Wagga Music Bowl.  Front row, on the dirt, as my brother said, ‘close enough to smell his farts’.  We didn’t.  14 years on, & I now live a stones throw from this very venue (can’t wait for the Carols by candlelight).  I saw this on a DVD a while back.  Very funny stuff.  I like Paul, I like Dan too.  At least watch the first 1:18 of this clip.  This is Paul Kelly with Careless off the Live Apples DVD.

Now you’ve been introduced to Dan Kelly.  Dan is Paul’s nephew and has recorded with PK on his last two studio albums along with Stardust 5, The Ukuladies, Dan Kelly & the Alpha Males and Dan Kelly & His Band.  I think Dan is pretty cool.  He has rock star looks, rock star hair & isn’t bad with the guitar or behind the microphone.  Dan has also been known to commission swimming caps and tea-towels as merchandise.  As evidenced by the last video, Dan doesn’t take himself too seriously.  Actually, the first four videos in this collection show his relaxed attitude and willingness to take risks in making music.  This is Dan Kelly busking.

Here’s another one he wrote this morning.  Give most male musicians a ukulele and ask them to sing a Sinead O’Connor song and they would sound like they were taking the piss.  Not here.

“It’s not appropriate to share our beds
although humankind’s hanging by a thread”

Dan is so laid back & Bindi seems so manic, I’m not sure it’d work out anyway.  So sing along if you see his “hand do a thing”.  Bindi Irwin’s Apocalypse Jam.

I always thought that Paul Kelly was a fairly sensible, friendly, good-humoured but serious sort of character.  Yes, the film clip of “Before Too Long” is a classic piece of Australian comedy (not the album Comedy, it was on Gossip), but Kelly was the serious character that made it funnier.  Dumb Things has a funny clip too, but there is an at times awkward bloke behind the mike.  Even seeing him live, there was no real flair in his presentation.

I first saw the lighter side of Paul Kelly with the next clip.  I’m having some synch issues, but you’ll get the idea.  The action starts at 2:50 and continues to the end.  These are the clips for “Won’t You Come Around” & “Sure Got Me” by Paul Kelly & the Boon Companions.

Little did I realise that 22 years before I discovered this other side of PK, he gave us this classic.  From what I’ve read on the interwebs dear PK has done everything humanly possible to wipe the work of Paul Kelly & the Dots off the face of the earth.  Well here is a gem, “Alive & Well” from 1982.

A few years after “Alive & Well” (long enough for me to be old enough to remember things), a man with a plastic lego man hair piece/style called Ray Martin hosted a show called Midday.  This was in the twilight of decent Australian TV.  Television was the place to promote music, and there were so many places to do it.  ‘Live’ music was performed (and often it was actually performed, not just mimed to a backing track) on shows like ‘Hey Hey! It’s Saturday!’, ‘Recovery’, ‘Steve Vizard Show’, ‘Bert Newton Show’, breakfast shows and of course, Midday with Ray Martin.

Often the significantly sized Midday house band, led by Geoff Harvey (who, according to the gold writing on the side, played the white grand piano at the Narrandera Ex-Servicemen’s Club), would help out & orchestrate for a solo performer.  They did it here for Paul Kelly, with another of my favourite songs, “Most Wanted Man in the World”.

That is it for part 3.  We’ll be back tomorrow with some Barnsey, Ian Moss, James Reyne, Jeff Tweedy, Wilco & to end the adventure, some Irwin Thomas.