The Time Being

look homeward angel

2009-11-10T13:59:00.002+11:00

i whipped this up on the way home from perth
hope you like it
coming soon roddy radar interview

sk

looking just like perth

2009-11-09T19:34:00.005+11:00

ricky is in w.a. for a while
hanging out n producing a record
he bumps into richard lane
keyboard player with the stems and sometime promoter
tho promoter is a silly term to apply to richard n fambley
who are total hippies
they drive around in a truck with a portable little cabin on the back
kind n nice and helpful n dreamy people
anyway richard books me 3 gigs in wa
ricky picks a band n rehearses em
n blow me down with a feather
they are tight
they are "on the money" as we showbiz types say
they already know all the songs by the time i get there
they made hardly any mistakes
shaun hoffman on drums is like a controlled explosion
or hes as exact as a drum machine
his hi hat work is great
he locks it down n he doesnt wander
no extra malarkey
hes like a full back in a team
and he doesnt let the timing slip
his son adrian 18 is playing bass for the 1st time
normally that would probably disqualify him for being in my band right there
but i saw adrian sing a song with the triffids
and hes got a lotta soul
his bass playing was
exact tight and almost error free
he was not nervous at all
a very matter of fact guy
someone should study the hoffmans
cos their kids are gifted and kind hearted
thats right
gifted AND kind hearted
i kept waiting to see this kids darkside
cos boy he was pretty good on the old bass
i heard him play guitar
he can sing in tune EVERY time
and i heard him tinker on the piano n it was
pretty good too
now the hoffmen were verily team players
and they did their jobs well
ricky of course was doing exactly the right thing
so we immediately had a good band going
and we acquitted ourselves well
considering we had 1 rehearsal
anyway
freo was a good gig for me
i enjoyed myself thoroughly at the fly by night club
a great venue indeed
easy going
fremantle is very easy going
not really in any rush or anything
anyway
i rarely say nothing went wrong
but nothing went wrong
i now have ricky n the hoffmen as my band when im solo
(when in season)
we got good houses in perth n freo
every single person i met was laid back n nice
no one laid any unpleasantness upon me
and i in my turn was fairly cordial
the freo crowd are really the coolest bunch
no pretenses no bullshit
the kids are all playing music
the airs fresh
the seas blue
the houses are quaint n great
i had me a real good time
ricky did a huge job as MD
the hoffmen were a dream rhythm section
richard was not yer run of the mill promoter
and the audiences were very very nice
maybe the west is the best after all..
how strange....

no free mantle, mister.....

2009-11-07T13:47:00.002+11:00

bussellton, wa

2009-11-05T18:10:00.003+11:00

i am in west australia doing my solo tour
ricky maymi on guitar
shaun hoffman on drums
adrian hoffman on bass
im playing my guild 12
we are playing tonite after rehearsing yesterday
we sound really good too
please come along and cheque us out
the weather is warm n sultry
had a delicious vietnamese last night with ricky
the song tam in fremantle
had a sweet potato n pumpkin roll for lunch
we are staying on the top floor of a freo guesthouse
its really nice
very quiet
perth is 3 hours behind sydney
i got a minor case of jet lag
the flowers next door are magnificent blue pink and red
richard lane the promoter of tour is in the stems
we are playing a couple of david neil numbers
my strings are quite old
we did an interview at 8 am proving rockers can get up early
there are posters on the wall in here
of every old aussie rocker in the book
i fell asleep for a while on the way here
i looked out and imagined triffids songs being enacted out there
a woman at a mall bumped into me accidentally n said sorry
i charged my coffee to my new debit card
i hope i remember the words to all the songs
ricky did a great job teaching the band my songs
i had an anzac cookie in bunbury which i funnily called bumbury ha ha
our van is a hyundai not a kia as i previously thought
im wearing the periodic tables t shirt
a lovely male fan in seattle gave me
i dunno what it all means
but at least im getting a nuff magnesium now
and plenty of zinc alloy
we have our soundcheque in 1 hour n thirty minutes
or 1 and a half hours, if you like
we will roadtest our material
see if it is pure 100 %rocknroll no other rubbish ingredients
because rock must be rock...its carved in stone, isnt it?
so that we may rock.....all so that we may rock
my computer battery is about half empty
im wearing black undies with white piping
ive had 2 cups of coffee n its making me wee a bit
ricky didnt bring his wah wah or his ragini
adrian is playing bass live for the first time
hes very good i must say
at 18 i was useless n you all know thats the truth
shaun uses drumsticks called hotrods
i wonder why coffee makes me wee so much?
i cant play the drums myself but i play the tambourine
which is much harder to spell than drums
thats why i wanted to originally play the cor anglais
(literal translation : a slightly distorted crumphorn)
i like instruments that are difficult to spell
like base guitar because your the base of the pyramid
and lead guitar because you play it on a lead like a dasch hund
and symbols are always more legible
ricky is sitting next to me now
a big blog huh ?he says
the bjm have black undies on their ryder
but what do the black ryder have on their undies??
the bjm have black sox on their rider too
thats to put all their speedballs in so the feds cant bust em up
does anton really work for the reserve bank?
ricky is having a snooze
i want to too but the coffee got me restless
you see im rest-less...english is easy isnt it?
i came top of my english class once
n now im the arguably best lyricist in bussellton wa
arguably
my knee aches a little
i shood do yoga soon
please come n see us
all you thousands of time being readers in bussellton wa
if only one tenth of you would come
we would have at least a pair of shoes here toniote
a little dog just ran in n sniffed my leggy
i made a sound like psssst n it fled
but its owner who runs this pub gave me a stern look
mind you i bet my legs do smell nice
especially to little white dog
or maybe a tapir would enjoy my finest calves
rickys got a little beard
he looks like dylan off the cover of infidels
type type type
people walk thru our dressing room like its a thorough fare
i hope the little doggie does not come back to snifter me
i might upset bc n give it a little kicky next time
imagine if i ran around sniffing strangers knees
its totally unthinkable in a town like bussellton
perhaps the dog was trying to sniff my legend
after all im an old aussie legend now ...
a motion was passed in the senate: TTB = LEG end
must wee wee soon but lavvy is so far away
lucky i is not type of rocker to become disgruntled n wee
in a bottle n leave it hidden in some festering place
until the whole fucken gig has to be demolished
to get rid of the galloping strpto-cocco n strepto-rococco
and the germans in my eppigloppalis
i still got my adenoids though
sometimes they crash into the earth leaving craters
ricky wakes up briefly
someone downstairs says cheque 1 2
over n over in a cartoon aussie accent
with all the hum n ring n feedback
my ears love it
please come n see us if i have tempted you
bussellton wa tonight
live in the showbiz capital punishment of south west west australia
in the south west hemisphere a long way from the north, paul
yeah well
see ya!
sk

after the heat

2009-11-03T19:22:00.002+11:00

summer lays down 100 degree grand slam in spades
perishing my rubber
making me play a dummy hand
i stand in the orange room with jb and mk
i write 11 new songs in 2 days....because i can
(2 of em arent much good)
i sing n write n sweat n sing some more
always australia everywhere
the heat i groan to love
like on new years long ago eve sitting with my family
out on the lawn
dad in his ever present white singlet drinking his one beer
mum coming out with mince pies or whatever
the neighbours pop by as they go in and out
they smell of cigarettes n aftershave n beer always beer
i have always been surrounded by beer
the stuff scares me i never understand the appeal
but i have lived amongst its smell n customs all my life
the senseless roar n din of the australian pub
as a thousand sloshed diggers promise each other the fucken moon
pissing in each others pockets slapping each other on the back
this is as truly bullshit as the stoned giggles or the junkies whine
i sometimes stood outside of pubs with their sporting pictures
from the fifties
my dads old bosses tom phillips and charlie roberts
slaves to the booze
red faced and merry 24 hours a day
my dad is never drunk
my dad is never out of control
my dad never cries or complains
he sits on his deckchair in the front garden on new years eve
drinking his one beer
'ow ya going, mr kilbey...asks john from next door
his mum n dad n brother n sister are olive skinned black haired
but john is a pale redhead like archie in the comics
he drinks a bit
he gets married n divorced
he drives a restored old holden
he drives me to the swimming pool one day
i float around in the back seat
my dad doesnt like american or australian cars
he doesnt like european cars neither
he likes english cars like morrises and wolseleys and stuff
he only likes certain brands of petrol too
he doesnt like shell
he likes bp better than the others
he spends a lotta time polishing his car n tinkering in the engine
im just advancing the blah blah he says n gets me to rev it
now im just retarding it a bit he says
new years eve up the top of lyneham in 1968 is not a big deal
no fireworks no champagne or much of that
some of the rellies drop in and i very reluctantly kiss some of my aunts
their lipstick n mustaches scared me
their sour breath n harsh words did not make me want to kiss them
there were girls at school i wanted to kiss and actresses on tv
but i did not want to kiss some of my aunts
i played records in my room
yes i liked simon n garfucknuckle ...what of it...?
next year i'd be fifteen
i was torn between the adult life which beckoned on the horizon
and my child-life i hadda leave behind
yeah i told you bout the playboys under my bed
i had a hankering for the erotic
but nothing much would happen to me for a while
i got my hands on some classic dirty books
and my head was filled with perverse ideas from henry miller
and the story of o
and lady chatterlys lover
(now on sale at the post office...then a banned book...)
anyway australian summer was all around
always there
as i gawked at the women on the pages
as i thumbed through the early 20th century erotica
as i got ready for school
listening to the radio
listening to the bee gees and neil diamond and cat stevens
n one hit wonders (like me)
who came n went like ripples in a pool
the black clear hot summer nights of canberra
the swampy damp humidity of sydney
where everyones on permanent holiday
and the weeds push rudely through the cracks
sydney the wild bohemian to canberras "straight"
people at my school married other people from my school
n settled down near that old school
i mean wtf
didnt they wanna see more of the world than that...?
i had to go to london n stockholm n hungary n atlanta
i had to meet all those wonderful characters that burnt through my life
i had to bestride the stages in a million clubs n bars
i had to look in a million backstage mirrors
watching myself get older n older
as the music morphed outwards
n i shed my seven skins
to reveal the current me
as revealed to you here on these very pages
as i allow you to see me
in all my pseudo-honesty
still type type typing away
despite my 11 songs
despite my 2 yoga sessions n my 16 laps
the kids shine on
the moon is white like a white hole
a big horserace finds women with stupid hats at one end
n stupid shoes at the other
a bunch of horses get flogged round a track
more beer
more beer
more beer
who won?
who cares
they all get pissed n flood into bondi
i come home n my wife smiles at me
with the look of love
i'll have my own celebration
on this hot hot night

containing everything

2009-11-01T18:43:00.002+11:00

for years n years
the notice would come in occasionally
steven j kilbey
7 baines place, lyneham
the book you asked for
AIR ACES OF THE EASTERN FRONT 1915 -1917
has come in for you to collect
yours etc
the civic library, canberra

looking for heroes in the most strange n lonely places
i trawled thru history looking for a hero to idolize
the red baron
the silver surfer
the black orpheus
the white king
my life unfolded in great jerks
suddenly i was working in the public service
my school days abandoned uselessly behind
i had learnt nothing except bullying n being bullied
no i learnt how to smoke cigarettes
i learnt how to hold that painful dizzying blast in my lungs
i taunted people n i got taunted
things got settled with fists back there at school
now im in the public service, becalmed
i live in a nice house and i drive to work
my job is to update an agricultural mailing list
at night i fuck around with my new 4 track
my girlfriend who lives with me is indifferent to the racket i make
she watches the tv....yes dear...she says as i play her my stuff
i start smoking pot at work
i go down n sit in the car n smoke a joint
i start to jog around lake burley griffin every lunchtime
i go to london for 3 months
i come home n write more n more
i have no friends at this time
no one is listening to what i do
my band has collapsed years ago in ridiculous tatters
my songs were rubbish...maybe one or 2 good ones in the lot
my band got signed to emi
we did a demo n got dropped
the demo was hopeless rubbish
after 3 months in london
canberra was unbearable
hot n empty n feeling like you were nowhere
we moved up to surf city
and bohemian life began
and gee i got some friends at last
and some enemies i guess
and i took some serious drugs
and i tripped and stuff n saw heaven n felt like hell
one day some guy discovered me
i was on telly one day n next day i was a boney fido star
i had lost a loada weight and i was pale n wore makeup
life was a gas although i was still anxious all the time
the other guys in the group didnt like me that much
there were good times n bad times
we made money n went broke
they ended up on the dole a lot
my publishing money cushioned me more
this did not go unnoticed ...why would it...
people were ready to dislike me n i didnt disappoint em
something always went wrong usually tho
nothing was ever what it was cracked up to be
the real glamour was very fucking hard to find
i wanted to get away from myself so bad
but this was bringing it all back on
everyone was focussed on me
i was the hub that made the wheel go round
but i was fickle disinterested n unable to concentrate
i could not read instructions
i could not heed advice
i could not keep my peace or hold my tongue
i wanted to be a hero but i was a villain
i was neither good nor bad
i was drifting along
trying to impress myself
but i was oppressive
i read a lot of books
i alluded to lots of things
i seemed to know but i just thought
my great gift was my cocktail shaker brain
which could see possibilities in everything it came across
unable to understand the jargon in the computer manuals
i however could see the beautiful phrases embedded therein
i could recontexualise words
i could make it seem like something was going on
until suddenly hey presto...!
....there was..!
suddenly i was a songwriter
i won the polls regularly
i said i was the best to see what would happen
i said i was the best but i was the smartest
i was the phoniest and also the most authentic in one go
i was sweet n sour
i was abrasive n greedy n naive n generous
i was sophisticated n a gawking sniggering 10 year old in one
i was so evil n so good
i was so stupid
i turned everybody against me and each other
i was oblivious
i churned out music n words magically
all the people who thought i was stupid
nevertheless to some extent they needed me
this cycle of frustration multiplied to the nth degree
when the white lady waltzed into my already stupid life
and for a little while i turned steve kilbey off in my head
oh the relief it was to get rid of that motherfucker for a while
that double dealing two faced lazy fickle spoilt cruel bastard
yes the white lady soft at first
then a harsh old mistress
she got me down on my knees
the double dealing turned into quadruple dealing
i scammed dough
i borrowed and cheated and got cheated and
credit and debt and pawn shops and liquidizing assets
and rehabs and jail cells and fights and running and hiding
and ducking and weaving
and vomiting and sweating and
cant get to sleep
and disappearing for hours
n not turning up
and turning up all turned off
wow
why am i telling you all this?
whom do i hope to exorcize?
my life is this film ive made
i show you random shots
my luck changes day by day
money comes in
money goes out
they love me
they hate me
theyre angry with me
theyre pleased with me
i come back as this old journeyman
55 not out
still with obsessive little ninnies
writing in with their oh so obvious bile
still people amazed by records i made a quarter of a century ago
i was good then
i was always good by the time the church started
thank god you didnt have to hear baby grande
but then suddenly
it shifted gear
the podgy public servant who couldnt get anyone to listen
begot the angular hero for five minutes
who begot the dopey dope fiend
who begot the ruined junkie
who begot the phoenix from the ashes
against all odds i come back slowly but surely
my inexorable quality edging me forward
my rampant ego n silliness hauling me back
but now my silliness is my eccentricity
an eccentric old genius finally a part i can play
but it aint working out
my genius status is not widely recognized...funny about that
things still go wrong
im still in here with myself
my teeth rot
my debts accumulate
i dither and i dawdle
i pop up in 2009
its futuristic alright wow in case youre reading from 1977
youll be pretty disappointed in the music of today tho
most of it is this unbelievable bad tin pan alley manufactured tripe
meaningless dribble with no heart or soul or brilliance
you want the obvious you got the obvious
humanity is mad
we kill our heros
we crucify our stars
we put out our suns
i am mad
everything is corrupt
everyone is confused
the right hand verily does not know what the left hand does
for choice we are given jehovah or evolution
for choice we are given left wing or right wing
for choice we are given alcohol n cigarettes
for choice we are given war and taxes
people they even killed john lennon.....didnt they?
i am in a time where you cant believe nothing
do you believe that book about joe blow you read?
a source close to steve kilbey said...
an insider said...
a report said
university research has shown
boils down to nothing when you die
is there an afterlife?
how the fuck would i know...i'm a pop singer
i'm a jazz smoker
i'm a guy who writes a blog
people flow thru my life like plankton
i dive deep into the sea of human time
55 years deep
further down
i cant believe my life
my good n bad luck
the wild coincidences
the clues hammered up in front of me i never saw
subtle equations i figured out in my heart of hearts
god appears and disappears in my life
convinced unconvinced
yes no i dont know
all of the above
i fluke it
i swing it
i lose it
a losing streak
struggling ducking n weaving
all an illusion
all maya
a sleeping man struggling in his sleep
i make n squander illusory money
money no one ever had disappears up my arm in a stream of poison
in my now empty house i discover krishna hidden in my library
who placed those books on my shelf....?
i worship krishna i shoot smack i eat gulab jamuns
i buy 3 hundred dollars worth of srimad bhagavatam
i devour the mahabharata
and my ego devours me
i look for a hero n boy krishna fits the bill
i wanna walk with my sweet lord under the wishing trees
i wanna stand in the darkening forest hearing his flute in the distance
i wanna gaze on his face the colour of a rain cloud
if god ever appears as a personality why not be krishna
a tricky beautiful funny sexy youthful hero with 16, 000 wives
incarnation of the god vishnu
the main man
the true personality of godhead
we presume if god creates personalities
he must have personalities himself
after all arent we created in his image?
and any way
what exactly am i saying
and am i s'posed to be saying anything anyway?
is that what i do....say things?
most of the things i say come true strangely enough in some perverse way
i have had over 1,250,000 reads
i am up in astronomical figures
millions upon millions hear my little easy song
i live an easy life doing yoga and writing blogs
my detractors carp on ...why are you still here...?..
you love me thats why......
why do you love me?
who knows
who cares
its all gone bad out there
did we walk on the moon?
who did the twin towers?
who starts n ends all these perpetual wars?
who stands behind all this?
what is life?
how did we get here?
how can you predict a horse race?
how can you turn a profit?
how can you get rid of smart n dumb people?
i type type type away
more brilliant than you think
more stupid than you know
against all odds the fraud was genuine..ha ha
say what you like
when your old nothing hurts anymore
i played the game n i blew it mostly
i stand around now wounding my licks
things flow on
the zeitgeist is king
fashion jump to the left
i get good reviews again
after thirty years what a tangled graph i weave
in n out
n up n down
im good im bad im good again
i labour in the wake of the beatles
i started too late to ever be a decent painter
too much i dont know
too ADD to concentrate on numbers
my brain packs it in
nope
i will not read that!
the endless stream of words will not stop
i stand n do yoga looking at the skyline
the lovely weather in mid spring here
the nepalis flowers bloom white pink n red
someday i may have a garden
i am one transaction away from fortune or ruin
i step up yoga to twice a day
i rifle through my kids halloween treats stealing their chocky
(call the vegan police!)
i paint paper black n lay on white
i fiddle with technology n get sucked in
my genius immediately susses it
my idiot wont learn to use it properly
i go round in circles
what i get up to would astonish you
it would horrify you
it would bore you
you would envy me pity me lose interest forever
i'm madder than a march hare
coldly logically clinically sane
inspired desired despised compromised wisely unwise
will the real me please shut up!
not likely, guv'nor
hes lived a thousand lives
and he still dont know nothin'.....

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

2009-10-31T18:11:00.002+11:00

***************************************

2009-10-30T20:53:00.002+11:00

holiday brochure

2009-10-30T17:52:00.003+11:00

dear subscribers
please send money!
steve

the time being is on holiday

2009-10-27T22:33:00.001+11:00

the time being is on holiday

utmw

2009-10-24T14:18:00.003+11:00

i am becoming shocked and bemused
at whats happening with my little song
in 1986 i was up at my mothers house at smiths lake, nsw
she had a lovely house on a lake just across from the ocean
there were birds and flowers and snakes and everything
i was up there with my then girlfriend karin jansson
who would later give birth to anna miranda and elektra june
my first set of twin daughters
identical as 2 peas in a pod
but exact opposites of each other in almost every other way
miranda being like karin
and
elektra being like me
anyhow this was 5 years before those twillies showed up
i ate my dinner...i believe my mum had cooked something
so we ate upstairs with her
she had a big deck you could sit on n see the sea
sometimes we had sandwiches n sat outside n ate
the nightsky was much much blacker than the sydney sky
because we were in the country
and the stars were verily a'twinkling
karin missed sweden a bit and was always trying to find certain stars
in the australian sky...tho she mostly couldnt
so obsessed with finding the big or little dippers was she
that some people started calling her k.j. dipper n then
just dipper
anyway
believe it or not
this has nothing to do with the song, really
so after dinner
i probably snuck off to get out of any washing up
and i had a smoke of neils purple heads
or maybe it was richards caterpillars
at any rate
i became
as we druggies say in our vernacular
"stoned"
however unlike a good 95% of people who get stoned
and switch off in front of the telly eating toast
or retreat into headphones world with their fave music
(tho i do that too n heartily approve of course)
some people
like me
n ricky rene maymi
n grant mclennan
n a few others i know n know of
(the beatles fr'instance)
we harness the incredible ability of this plant
to inspire new works of art n music
listen to me n listen fucking hard kids
pot may stunt yer growth
it may send nutty people nuttier
it may give ya cancer of the balls...even if youre a woman
it may promote laziness dirtiness lasciviousness
n a bad attitude towards work n war n phoney baloney bullshit
it makes yer teeth yellow
it makes yer breath stink
it makes you eat toast n watch telly
yes i agree
it is definitely addictive
SO MAKE NO MISTAKE!
but something
no one can argue with
no n.a. no scientist no sensible "straight" or whatever
can bloody well argue with
is
it is extremely condusive to certain types of art
ok
that is my claim
and if you contradict that
then you dont know yer arse from yer elbow
yes this is important to the story
no i am not advocating the use of marijuana to anyone
other than geniuses about to create art
alex grey whom i consider the greatest living artist in the world
says this in his incredible book art psalms
cannabis allows the flowing tongues of bards contact with new modes
of knowing and speaking
(and then)
opening the third eye allows the artist
in everyone access to the divine imagination

amen!
alex cautions to use cannabis as a sacrament....wise words indeed
anyway
i drift to the piano
in the garage/flat out the back
it was an old pianola n slightly out of tune
old childhood toys of my brothers sat on top
the flat was set slightly high up with a little balcony
out onto the lake and the bush
the insects were out there signalling
the nightbirds were singing etc
i sat down at the piano
i played a standard A minor chord with an A bass note one octave down
actually that was probably the way i always approached a piano
just like i always start on a guitar with one of my G chords
anyhow
being stoned
i could hear a world of possibilities in that chord
to most other muggles
they wooda heard an A minor chord
but me
being a pseudo genius n being loaded on that sacrament
i go
a ha
a ha ha ha ha
and out comes a little chord progression
gee the second chord sounds good with the A sus chord
but a ha ha ha
on the bass note is a fucking F#
not anF or a G or a D but an F#
cool
the rest o the chords kinda unfold without much effort
indeed the whole thing may have taken a minute if that
my chord progression fell out of the sky
into my random half stupid half genius lap
and guess what?
oh happy day
the melody was simply the notes in the chords modulating a little
so i start humming away
after a while (about another minute) i'm bored with this
and ive lost interest in my little creation
n just about to start mucking around with something else
when karin comes in n says thats good
i say you mean this
i play the progression again
she says yeah..thats good
we then worked on it a bit
sketched out some words
and later that night
i did a really wonky version of it on my ensoniq keyboard
which had a little sequencer in it
its the sound of most of earthed n hex etc
anyway this version was pretty rinky dink
i shrugged my shoulders
whatever...and didnt think that much about it
after all i wrote 4 or 5 songs a week....it was just one more
sometime later
i re arranged it for guitar n bass on my home 8 track recorder
the bass guitar playing that low F#
against the acoustic guitar A sus 4
is much more emphatic than when it was being done by the piano
it had a strange feeling when it hit that bit..it was unexpected
but after you heard it once
it seemed so obvious
a weird effect n i'm not sure how its done
anyway i just chuck the C and G and A minor in the middle bit
the bit where the bagpipes are...
when i did my demo
( which is very much the same as the final version)
i had left some space for something there
ie i had 16 bars or whatever of just drum machine
after that second double chorus
i was gonna put something really strange in there
this wasnt gonna be a church song after all
because the church wanted to just write together
which was a very good thing
i probably thought this song a candidate
for what would become the slow crack or something..
so i was gonna do something ambient or electronic in there
after having done the guitars n electric guitars n bass n keys n stuff
but i was tired by then
so i stuck in these most obvious of chords
put a bit of e bow on
and wrapped it up
it sat there on a reel for a while
on a shelf
unaware that it was going to be one of the most covered songs ever
to come out of australia
richard ploog heard it one day at my place n was struck with it
he insisted i played it to the group
the other 2 kinda liked it
but our manager heard it n he insisted it went on next record
me..i was kinda like the other 2
i thought it was ok
but richard (who ironically never played on it)
and manager lembo really dug it n thought it was special
the rest is history
arista immediately saw its potential
promising me it would be a mega hit
i scoffed (as did a few others )
but arista were right
now
on you tube
i was on there yesterday
i searched utmw
n blow me down with a feather
but everyone n their grandmas hyaena has done a version
theres some walloping successful acts
theres some humble gooseballs at home
just so they can post themselves on youtube playing an easy song
"its a great song..its hard to get it wrong"
says mr brandon flowers very kindly at the end of the killers live version
and thats why on youtube
there are tons of gooseballs at home strumming it on the geetar
and posting emselves on the net
utmw has become this decades knocking on heavens door
can you believe it
your humble scribe has written a fucking gen-u-ine standard
they get the fucking words wrong
they almost always get the chords wrong
they leave out bits...who fucking cares
ITS THAT KINDA SONG!!
play it how you like it
it doesnt matter
its a standard
instantly recognizable
for any occasion
from a mega-gig
to a bedroom webcam
for weddings funerals parties bar mitzvahs bah humbugs
birthdays celebrations official ceremonies whatever the hell it is
utmw is yer song
easy ambiguous inoffensive yet with that slight sense of intrigue
a bit of ye olde yearning ...or something
check em all out on youtube
some fucking woeful versions there are too
get ready to have a good laugh
i did
i wasnt laughing at them though
i was laughing in delight
that my simple easy song
has gone on to become
an institution in its own right
its an extremely funny thing to watch
coming very soon you will hear more of it
in a big hbo series
and in a big movie just out
hey...its that kinda song
and........

happy birthday joyce bennett 81 today and mother of perhaps (arguably) one of the best lyricists(of his type) in the (southern hemisphere) world!!

2009-10-23T13:34:00.004+11:00

my mother joyce is 81 years old today
she was born in london a long time ago
one of 8 kids
her mother n father working class strugglers
she spent much of her childhood vaguely embroiled in ww2
getting bombed and hiding out in the underground or in shelters
her dad was a bit of a leftie
and her mum was puffing on cigs as she made the dinner
the kids 'ad a bath once a week n all shared the bathwater
they all slept in the same bed too except the biggest 2
joyce was third
not a good position to be in i guess
better to be oldest or youngest
my mum was quite a good sort
sometimes i get shocked seeing pictures of her i havent seen before
you can easily imagine why my dad fell for her
she is so thoroughly english
she could live in australia or india or iceland for a hundred years
and she would remain staunchly herself
she would not pick up an accent or change her anglocentric worldview
as opposed to me
who is so changeable and wanting to be whatever i'm not
my mother doesnt change
she bears good fortune and grief stoically
thats what happens when you spend your early days in a war
you toughen up
you dont sweat the small stuff
and you get a bit of a distance too maybe
i tell you this
i never saw my mother gain or lose weight
her hairstyle didnt change much over the years
and the blonde turned to a lovely ash silver almost imperceptibly
she always had a load of energy
and she still does except her dodgy knee has slowed her down
but she still hops around
bombarding you with loads of confusing choices
ie me n the fambley drop in on her
joyce : what do you lot want for lunch.....?
us : oh anything...what you got....?
joyce : but its too late for lunch
us : why cant we have lunch
joyce : well sonny jim, you should have gotten here earlier...
us : well can we have dinner...?
joyce : its too early for dinner son, dont be silly
us : well ok...we wont have anything...
joyce : but you must be hungry...!
us : then lets have lunch.....
joyce : well you should have come earlier then...
etc
now my mum n dad were married for eight years before i arrived
so no one accuse em of a shotgun wedding please (not like aunty X!)
and i dont think they were expecting me to be me
and i think i was a hard child to like
i am still hard to like
despite being vaguely goodlooking n talented
you might assume this makes people like you
but it doesnt
there is an inherent selfishness
an almost cultivated stupidity combined with flashes of brilliance
an embarrassing lack of social skills (asbergers lite perhaps)
i still dont know what to do with people
i didnt know what to do with my parents
and they werent sure what to do with me
you see it was peace time
and we migrated to australia
thus accidentally denying me the chance of being a much bigger rockstar
had i remained in england
where i wouldnt have kicked against so many pricks
and i wouldnt be compared to geezers i preceded by years
anyway
they wanted to emigrate from cold bombed britain
either canada or australia
both woulda had pros n cons for me
i guess i could have been a half canadian bloke without much trouble
anyway
we come here
dad does well coz hes a charmer with the cockney malarkey down pat
and the aussies used to be impressed with poms n yanks
they still are a bit...its true...not all poms n yanks natch
but if youre a classy pom or yank in australia you gotta foot up
anyway i turned out to be cheeky
not nice cheeky neither
i had a big rude mouth and i opened it a real lot
i pissed off all my dad n mums brothers n sisters that were here in aust
and then pissed off all their other friends n rellies
my mum did not namby pamby me much n all that
neither was she cruel or hard
but she was stern
and she had that true grit to back it up
much more afraid of her than my dad
my mother didnt really have much of a philosophy
about raising kids
a wallop if needed
a good dressing down frequently
a bit frosty if you played up
she was pretty even handed
she didnt really seem that jazzed about being a mother really
i always felt that my mother could have dedicated herself to a career
like being a librarian or something
she never would have missed having a husband or kids
she always seems to have a detachment
she never worries too much
she never counts her chickens
she just kinda gets on with it without any soap opera
my mum was a good tennis player
even tho she was often attacked leaving the tennis court
by our very own boxer dog, lionel
who had a strange fetish of hanging round the tennis court
and nipping womens backsides as they went in n out
(!?)
anyway when she retired she become a state champion bowler
with many cups n trophies till her knee stopped her playing
i dont think my mother double guesses herself too much
which is one of my faults
in that she is like eve
they just do things and thats it
whereas me n say aurora
we always talking ourselves out of things
my mother was never phased that much by my ups n downs
she didnt change her attitude to me when i got lucky in show biz
it was business as usual for her and thank god
i wouldnt impress her much if i won the gold whatnot or whatever
shes like a constant in my life
no matter what joyce is joyce
and she cant n wont change
whether youre some bigshot manager
or some humble fan looking for an autograph
joyce will be the same
a few years back she wrote an amazing book
the tale of the old iron pot
my brother john helped her immensely in getting it published
it is quite an eye opener n should be rated AO for the language
tho my mother herself rarely swears ...she quotes others freely
yes it is a great read
i'm not in it all that much
just towards the end
but wow it was an entertaining
if sometimes ever so slightly farfetched book
so thats a talent i inherit from her
and i hope i inherit her longevity and her energy
and i wish i could have her cool detachment from highs n lows
anyway 81 aint a bad innings
and i'm glad i had a mother who treated me fair n square
she let me be most of the time
my parents forced no manifesto on me
other than their intrinsic englishness
i was free to become me n luckily
the times permitted such a selfish luxury
because at the age i was discovering trex
my father was killing geezers in europe
so you can imagine it was a bit different for them
anyway
i love my mother
shes a real brick as they used to say
and i am thankful to her
she did what she could with me
and it all turned out ok
(in the end)

unreleased

2009-10-22T18:13:00.002+11:00

what is the secret
what is any secret
what is the secret of secrets
the master secret that unlocks all others
it turns on the tap that makes it flow
well yes this universe is endless my friend
like all the universes gone before
i see it all now
i see it thru my damaged raybanned eyes
i see it with a pinch of salt
i see it and i cant hang on to any of it
time has its tides
the waves of the past dump you on the future
you got a knew song in yer head
yeah a regular sailor on the seize of fate
fate tosses you up in africa
fate tosses you up in greenland
you arrive in australia
a convict
you escape and join a band of bushrangers
you play the bass
you grow a little pointy beard
you ride into dodge city on the back of a falcon
critics takin' potshots at ya bang bang bang
ricochet zing zang sssssssss
you mount your career
flogging a dead sea
takes a long time to warm up
dad can i buy a new amp?
what happened to the last one, son?
dad, that was in the last century....
in a shop on cyprus buying a postcard i run into nap b
hes reformed his group the imperial french army
and theyre gigging in europe soon
late for an appointment off floral street
a rare sunny day in the garden of whispering winds
the cafe is stocked with generals and peacocks
i notice im dressed in black velvet
and the stage is thru those yonder curtains
i walk on
the lights dazzle my blurry retinas
someone hands me my axe
and i slay em
thats right
i blew their minds right out
a bloody good show
in the lear or leer jet
i relax with a canister of ether
and a bi carb soda
we head into miami despite the hurricane
and i get scared when i see the pilot
runnin' up the isles singing
take me to the pilot of yer soul
exiting thru a rear door
after tampering with the nosmo king device
i am back in baines place with my mother joyce bennett
she will turn 81 tomorrow i mustnt forget
the boys are in their pajamas
and dads out watering the lawn
in his ever present white singlet
its a warm canberran night i suppose
quite still and quiet
exams tomorrow
dad n i smoke a cigarette together in the gathering dusk
a quiet time in our lives
a plane always flies overhead
back in my boyhood bedroom
i pick up my old bass my old violin bass
and i cant believe how lightweight n mickey mouse it is
compared to a fender jazz the king of basses
i look thru my old vinyl..hawkwind the small faces jethro tull
etcetcetc
stuff i got from the record club
the sprinklers come on next door
i gotta do some study
i'll fail my exams n then....and then what...?
who will want me if i fail my fucking exams...?
a gloom falls across my poem
i seek solace in the radio
2CA.....gee they love neil diamond
suddenly then
its over

lakshmi n saraswati

2009-10-21T18:30:00.002+11:00

well lakshmi n saraswati go into a bar
no
they dont
why would they?
lakshmi the goddess of fortune
saraswati the goddess of music n art
if you ever get those ladies on your side....
what do you have to do to get their attention....?
imagine this supernatural guiding light
the gift
the masterpiece
the esteem
the kudos
the grace
the knowledge
i wish i wish i wish i hope
perceive the singularity approaching
tiny differences cause huge deviations
artists are born and made
look carefully
listen hard
go soft
watch out
easy
now
goddesses in some imaginary heaven
whose to say
bestowing their favours willy nilly
the money and the art....oh wouldnt it be nice
it doesnt work like that does it
its like
this
you take these ideals
fortune and art personified
and you focus on them maybe at first
breaking thru into fuller realizations of what they represent
let them in let them in
listen if they say something
its a subtle tongue they will talk in
you have to disengage yer mind
concentrate
but dont concentrate
wait
wait
patience
wait for patience to come
ponder the levels of interconnection
unlock it for yourself using the keys you found
ask the goddesses for help
it cant hurt...can it..?

jack 2 (on the road usa 1991)

2009-10-20T16:36:00.002+11:00

frill

2009-10-19T14:40:00.002+11:00

time passes
we remain outside the wall
the pressure builds up
my head cant take it
i need to breathe or something
i cant find my way home
i follow the birds
i follow the fish
i follow the roads
i amble aimlessly
many things happen
people born
people die
the moon glides through the sky
the systems keep pumping
the great machine with its music
the hammers and bells
the strings and skins
a black piano
a silver saxophone
a blue note
a distant yacht
take me
take me back
take me back to a time when i was safe
and i never knew how music was made
and i was dreaming in the back of my daddies car
cos we were going on our christmas holidays
listen isnt that those beatles
we could hear them here and there
in the bohemian streets of old surfers paradise
go go girls at the jolly spot
the chlorine in the pools
the koala park
the bird sanctuary
my first guitar came 6 years later
a violin copy made by aria
and australia pressed all around me
my school and all its wonderful and strange kids
and on hot days and on cold mornings
and music magically kept appearing
new music old music
someone lent my dad a led zepplin record
and a record by spirit
and i tape recorded my favourite songs off the radio
with an old reel to reel machine
and i believed in all the songs
i thought they were all real
i never knew it was just like people making em up
and i joined and left bands in some long ago dismal past
that seems like in some other century...well of course it was
and i was so young
and i knew nothing
nobody really cared what i did
and i did what i like
cruising round canberra
in my datsun 1300 station wagon loaded up with guitar n amp
i drove out to queanbeyan n jammed with some guys
one day in the heat in this community hall or something
me plunking away on that bass
lugging my stuff up n down stairs
smoking stupid cigarettes and drinking chocolate milk
i was a veg so my mum gave me egg n chips n salad every night
life seemed so mysterious n unending
i would never grow old
i lay in the sun trying to get a tan
my hair got pretty long n silly
my girlfriend dropped me n picked me up again
we drove to the river for picnics
my dad put a little swimming pool in our garden
people would pop round n have their towels with them
one day electric warrior came out
i was lost in a dream
no paperwork
no computers
no mobile phones
no dvds no video cassettes
no colour tvs
the radio was king
we listened reverently
music was an aural thing
there was no visual attached
ah......
anyway......

secrets of hit songwriting

2009-10-17T14:24:00.003+11:00

you will find the title of the song walking through the city
you will find it whispered in the crush
you will hear it shouted down deserted alleyways
you will see it written down at the cenotaph
the rumble of the traffic shall be thy bassline
the clanking of trams and trains thy percussion
the thrust of the empire illustrated by guitar
persians n medes in chariots choogle to war bugles
lambs to the slaughter the bleat goes on
we shoot em down headlong in sound
i need to unscramble my sandals
a messenger will arrive with some lyrics
you will receive him in your tent at dusk
in the fertile valley of one thousand oases
(may the tisroc live forever!)
drive down park lane in your roles royce
but thats all in a future
songwriting involves deep concentration on certain secret numbers
for these secret numbers plus tips on hit singing
send 500 rupees to
secrets of hit songwriting
po box 13
bombay, nevada
oh look dont waste your money
heres one tip for free:
if youre looking for tips in the 1st place
maybe youre barking up a wrong tree
the action has already moved on
a thousand phrases assail yer brain
but only the astute pick em n catalogue em instantly
well little wolfgangs mother
she could see her sun
she could hear how he heard a universe in each note
for such a mind as a genius may have
is no different from the common lumpkin
except that the genius is like a man on a beach
examining every grain of sand
and seeing the vast mechanisms of creation
and being in tune
in tune with the great masters who went before
and bending tradition without shattering it
and being uniquely powerful
and god gave rock n roll to you
and as he did
he appeared framed in strobe
white light white fog
oh god its god
the god of music at least
the great god apollo
a golden iggy pop type
inexorably muscled and preening
and mugging for the camera
and iggy/apollo takes the podium
man his six pack like its etched in quicksilver flesh
he takes the mike
shakes back his tousled mane
and he laughs his melodious laugh you see
the band look to you
which song we playing they ask you
iggy/apollo glares at you man
you do what
you say
ok we better write a song write hear on the spot
right on
the words pop out
effortless
coz yer a frickin' genius
here come the words
up in mount olympus....you scribble down hastily
what are the fuckin' chords man
asks hermes/ricky the messenger
i dunno...oh...c....a minor...f....that'll do
whats the fooking drums do asks mars ringo
something t rex you yell back
even tho this is one thousand bc
the atoms which will make up marc bolan
still swirl in the inchoate void
t rex i scream through the maelstrom of electric guitar
hermes/ricky with his amp n wah wah peddles
he sounds like every guitar that ever was all rocknrolled into one
(im on fire)
t rex like the thundering beasts of old
mars ringo fuckin well thumps the kit
boom whacka boom boom whack whack
the joint begins to finally rock
you finish the lyrics at the same time as you figure out the keys
you change a bass note to indicate a descent
the ground seems to fall away from beneath the audience
as the bass guitarist hits that note
that fuckin' note which fell outta yer head so quick n easy
now look at the audience
you slew em
but you aint got time to gloat
you need to sort out the ending
and suddenly with that new bass note
the mellotron flutes sound a bit suss
apollo is grooving on yer lyrics man congratulations
lower the curtain down in corinth he croons
scrutinize the screen for another final thing to chuck in there
apollo sings lets go to nineveh it isnt that far...!!
and the crowd erupt as he cuts open his chest and bleeds his ichor on em
the ichor encore smirks hades the manager in the backroom
watching it all on closed circuit
you put on the finishing touches
sprinkle on the fuckin' fairy dust
use your imagination for this bit
scroll thru yer options
have an open mind
etc
jesus you fill spectral caverns with your walls of sound
years later an archaelogist will take off all that reverb
man you boogaloo'd with the gods at last
so you see how easy it can be
pure and easy
pure n simple
sweetnsoft
get in
get out
and then
end

famous last birds

2009-10-16T15:15:00.003+11:00

richard from darwin has requested a blogge about fame

although i have never had true fame
i have had a little taste of it
i wanted to be famous and rich
but who didnt?
i felt like i was destined for something
and i was always sick of real life
i wanted to be famous because
i thought that life would fall in my lap
and for a short while life did indeed fall in my lap
ive never really been particularly materialistic
among my many many faults and defects
greediness for possessions has not been one
nevertheless i would have enjoyed a villa and a pool
and a flash car
the flashest car i ever had was a renault
the only house i ever had was a little terrace in dirty rozelle
mice fleas mozzies pollution
no pool no library no grounds
my money all went into musical equip then into drugs
i felt dissatisfied with my bit of fame
it seemed like an ever receding horizon....
just around the corner was the real thing but it was ever elusive
in the fleeting long ago days when teens mobbed me
i was embarrassed and then angry with the stupidity of it
luckily that only lasted a few weeks
then my fame was in drips n drabs
i'd be famous at a gig on saturday night
but by sunday morning i was back to being an idiot again
to some i was the marc bolan character that bolan had been to me
some mythical angle-faced rockstar plunking a bass in sydney
to some bedsit fanboy in england
or to some shy awkward girl in the usa
sydney would assume mythical status
as london had to me when i lived in canberra
the grass is always greener n cheaper on the other side of the pond
kids in new york city used to say to me
wheres it happening...i bet its happening in sydney...
kids in sydney say to me
wow! i wish i could go to new york....
but my fame wasnt anywhere
occasionally i got spotted somewhere
sometimes in my tired/emotional days too
when i didnt wanna be spotted
hocking my guitars or selling my vinyl
or waiting for some dealer in an alley
or walking up the steps to the methadone clinic
or coming out of a courtroom in new york by an aussie reporter
or at an NA meeting or in a rehab joint
or by customs officers
hey its steve kilbey!!
my fame is like an untended garden half ruined half overgrown
in the one year of semi-fame in america i was fighting with other members
i woke up one morning n it was over
and i hadnt really enjoyed it
i went to game theory show once in 88
and the whole audience were gawking it me instead of the band for a minute
that was about as silly as it ever got
i perceive fame as ruinous thing
many think that they could take it on
but only the strong can withstand it
it has always amazed me how normal paul n george n ringo were
after all that they went thru
it is unimaginable what their lives were like..the unreality of it
but absolute fame fucked marc bolan in about five minutes
left him clueless and ridiculous
it also musta done elvis in
can you imagine his sorry life...?
bob dylan had to go sideways to get away from it
dya know what i mean?
he had to kinda enter another place to avoid the hugeness of his fame
n then theres all those actors that were done over by fame
not many can handle it
especially these days when all the gloves are off
posh spice n all that crowd...do they look happy to you?
and of course we're going thru those times
when fame n infamy blur
as long as you had yer name in the news
you can sell yer story
look at ronnie biggs n oj n paris hilton et al
but you cant ever turn it off
you cant stop em gawking at ya just coz you dont want it
fame is a drug..you gonna crave it when its gone
and you can never get enough even when its making you sick...
sometimes
when you feel like a wreck
but you gotta be famous on some stage
or get on some plane somewhere
or some guy has cornered you at a party
and hes in yer face n hot under the collar
coz youre famous n hes not
but he thinks he should be
so he wants an argument with ya
and people have to be doubly rude to ya
coz they assume that yer a arrogant prick
coz you were on mtv last night
and other people just stare at you like youre a statue
and others think you got the power to help their career
and others want to pick your brains
and others wanna tell you how much they dont know who you are
excuse me but ive never heard of you
and others dont like you clowning around
and blah blah blah
i knew i was gonna be famous
i knew right from the start
n when i 1st saw the beatles i thought
thats it...my way in...
lucky i had a little music in my genes
n lucky i was vaguely good looking
n lucky i could vaguely manage to sing
n lucky that i was smart enough to figure it all out
n lucky that i lived in a day n age with no wars n plagues
so idle young fops like me could explore dissolute fame
and for a little while it was ok
am i famous now?
no not really
i'm a micro-celebrity at best
isnt that a thing to be?

boogie knights

2009-10-15T16:22:00.003+11:00

rocknroll
what can you say
its ineffable
people waste a million words trying to
who am i trying to define its nebulous essence
rocknroll i gave all you all the best years of my life
and most of the worst ones too
how stupid to address rocknroll as an entity
coz rocknroll is a capricious spirit who alights where it will
it cannot be pinned down
the formulae fail
god knows why one thing works for one
but it wont for anyone else
in the end
even the most erudite loquacious writer (like me) is baffled
stupider than the stupidest brute
more lofty than the highest ideal
dirty and pure
a cartoon
an idea
just like the art world
rubbish gets lauded
brilliance goes unrewarded unnoticed
the fickle audience
themselves random individuals
they buy one week
they dont buy the next
they come this year
they dont come next year
they behave like tiny fish in a big school
something spooks em and they split up and vanish
who can predict their movement....they are truly mercurial
rocknroll itself a stupid expression
old blues expression for sex
i like rock but i dont like the blues
i like rock n only rock
i am obsessed by and devoted to rock
yeah i like to rock n i like to listen to rock
i am too old to dig the new bands
they all mostly seem hopeless to me when i do hear em
with notable exceptions
they seem silly
silly as i seemed to some olde gheezer in 1981
the olde guard in aust thought i was silly
and so i was
and still am
but when you think of it
war is silly
sex is silly
drugs is silly
humanity is silly
i mean only humans are really silly
so rock is fucking silly in spades
you have ridiculous idiots with the teensiest talent lording it over us
you have boring old puddings trotting out their stodge
you have gormless pimply youth poking 5th hand in the beatles puddle
you have dance routines n showbiz aesthetic...just like vegas
keith richard once the most unsilliest is now totally silly
dylans xmas record got to be silly...i bet my whatnot on it
tori amos is silly...textbook silly i'd say.....
robert smith...aint he silly
and noddy holder.....
and trevor bolders silver sideboards
and steve kilbey wearing eye makeup
and elvis at the end...that was total silliness
and jesus babylon zoo...how silly was all that
and cyndi lauper is very silly i reckon
and rap seems slightly silly if i may say so
i mean presumably theres something good about it
but i aint ever discovered it
oh i hope i aint scared piff duddy of coverin' utmw
and the new romantics were silliness itself
and so are all boy bands...all embarrassingly silly sods
and prog is silly
all metal is silly....the height of silliness.....grotesquely silly
i find whatsisname hetfield in full flight the epitome of silly
and emo and all the rest
terminally silly
and yet
and yet
yeah
you gotta get what you can take
every now n then
you hear something
you feel something
rock validates itself in yer life
listen to funhouse by iggy n stooges
mean lean amateurish howling rocking trash thrash
this impressed me when i was a youngster
is iggy silly?
what do you reckon
i'd like each commenter
to leave a comment:
the silliest moment in rock ...so far..imho
go on
the silliest damn thing you ever saw or heard in rock
you can even include me

you will find it when i am gone

2009-10-14T16:53:00.003+11:00

yeah
a giant mythological bird
roc n rule
plug in here in this channel
in this english channel
cause we rock in english
we opera in italian
and we poem in france
and we dream in colour
because we are not dogs or cats
and we bury our dead in the earth
and the sun is up behind the clouds
and music at the core of silent things
and the marvellous out of the ordinary
and the rock within the roll
and i know how now
i got the knowhow nohow
i stumble into the middle of a song
a 2 minute song
say it and shut up fast
a 2 minute song like a 2 minute egg
hatching before your eyes
a little roc
a little role
a little self control
uniquely common
common or english garden
sitting in an english garden
that i have never done
i wander thru virtual instruments in a menu
i lose myself in the foggy piano
i get to know myself better as i wait for the strings
i have a coffee at some alpine cafe
i have a smoke round the back of the gym
i get changed into my costume
i get out my box of 2 minute songs
i hawk them shamelessly
all thru transvaal
i get that t rex thing i like
cant you move on someone suddenly asks
as purple evening drips down the chimney
and london comes out of sydney and stands there
and i cant get at the master volume
because my bass line has gobbled up my voices
and i got hiss and hum on
and i stand backstage at my last ever gig
pancake makeup covers my old lined face
my guitar hangs there limp
my cocaine has clumped in the damp confines
my charisma has congealed in my veins
my message unheeded
my car clamped and toad
my pass revoked
my ticket invalidated
my money counterfeit
my 2 minute songs are over
my shadow bows
my fingers nod
my mouth drums
my shoulders kiss my back
the tiny bells shrug
the slug of booze
the hug of smoke
the chug of the mute palm ostinato
the drug of the thud thud thud
hallelujah rocknroll
a chasm in the music cracks and out comes singing madwomen
we speed down a highway in our convertibubble
we copy and move memory
we take a drug called chances
we slake a thirst called knowledge
we make a love called life
writing songs is the easy part
you want a song
bang bang bang
mummy changes hands
the future suppurates waiting to be revealed
the past frizzles away in the pan
hollywood burps
washington frowns
london shivers
sydney yawns
down in antarctica they set up the amps for the big show in 2012
the roadies dressed in white like the snow
the whales gathered offshore
the caravans for the stars
trailers of the magnificent
the limos are pulled by reindeer and huskies
get ready
the ice moves
the drums roll
the band has assembled
i dont know how this is gonna end
there...ive said it
i dont know how this is gonna end

ambition

2009-10-13T13:26:00.003+11:00

pic by t.helberg

am working on portraits for commissions
a picture for alphabet foundation charity for kids in burma
recording vox for b sides for operetta single
doing a gig in a library
making music on garage band
playing round with i movie
talking to people who have good advice
considering my new double album of 2 minute songs
getting david neil sorted out
solo tour of perth early nov
church tour in late nov/dec including 3 acoustic shows
a holiday with fambley for 3 days at a hotel up the coast
music n a small part in a short film
etc
etc
not enough time to keep up with it
feeling a bit worn out right now
but still
better than having real job....i guess
more freedom but more uncertainty
more uncertainty attached
n guess what
still slowly
ever so slowly
getting better
at
everything

hail hail rocknroll

2009-10-12T18:09:00.003+11:00

i thank the lord humbly
for laying rocknroll on this world
to have lived in this day of rocknroll
to have been a childe in its golden age
oh how blessed i am
and god this olde earth doth feel so lonely
without george and john
none of you have any idea how groundbreaking this was
every idea by every other rock band you ever heard of
came from the beatles
and yet
strangely while acknowledging their supremacy
i do not love them the most
even though they and only they made all of this possible
course over in america you got your bob d
hes a different thing
but boy harness those 2 things those 2 elements
yer beatles and yer bob
and truly thou shalt be called a true rocker
course the old rolling stones had to add sex n violence
and brian wilson added wonderful sweet musicality
and mr jimi added fucking fire and animal and brute virtuosity
and then cream invented supergroups
and jack bruce played lead bass
and ginger baker played lead drums
and then came prog
and lo, that was ok for a while
not much sex n violence but lots of musical virtuosity
(but not much of it sweet)
oh im forgetting the byrds
the byrds showed us how rock could glide
(a lesson not lost on me, fiendss)
and then mark feld who called himself bolan
and david jones who called himself bowie
c,mon these guys made it interesting again for me
what a pair of twentieth century characters
what the hell was it i loved about em so much
i dunno
maybe why i always go back for more
can you believe that in 1973
i turned up at work looking like
a freckly aladin sane
at the public service in canberra
this guy said to me
youd kiss david bowies arse!
and he wanted to punch me in the halls of primary industry
right then n right there
especially when i said ....yeah...
(no fiendss, i was just incensing this ninny)
instead he just sadly shook his head n walked away
i was surprised he even knew who my haircut was sposed to be
then i was happy that it did suggest bowie
cos i cut it myself
(my david cassidy do hit the bathroom floor)
and then i dyed it with some dye my mum bought for me
my fuckin hair went bright SCARLET
my dad came home
n
he was in disbelief
like those indians seeing columbus' ships coming over the sea
like
he was so shocked n miffed
he just said to no one in particular
'as 'e dyed 'is bloody 'air or what?
and that was the end of it
he just couldnt comprehend why a bloke would wanna do that
funny my dad had this do
a bit of an old bodgies thing
combed back with brylcreem or something
with a little wave he used to pat up
that was ok
but my vermillion spiky mess was just too much
anyway a few days later
a few guys from school drove past me
when they saw my hair
they were all laughing
and one of em held up a copy of pin ups
(they just happened to have)
and pointed at me and they all laughed
i was deliriously happy of course
and my hair do n i frequented a night clubs called jack stones
where they played the sweet n suzi q n stuff
when the the thin white drake came on we all were mesmerized
for he n bolan truly were such a notch above the other glammers
my good friend michael farrant who runs a church fanzine in england
the maven
he gave me a marvellous gift
a double glam rock cd
and its got all the classics on there
all on one double record they still sound good
by the way im continuing enjoying bab zoo on youtube
a good example of glam
anyway
my my
i digress
but ive lost track now
n too lazy to scroll back
and see what i was rabbitting on about before
yeah
and make no mistake
bowie idolized bolan
if you dont believe that then listen to black country rock
off the man who sold the world
you see they were like freud n jung
one makes the other possible i guess
sometimes the pupil goes on to better the master
bowies sphere of influence much greater
bolan was a fleeting minor star in the states
he made 3 or 4 great records and he implodes
but bowie is watching bolan from the wings
and what he unleashes eclipses bolan in many ways
i should write a book on this
i cant see anyone else who could do it better than me
such was i saturated in their music n myth
a giant poster of marc bolan..just slightly pre glam
adorned my bedroom wall
i listened to virtually nothing but bolan bowie
i mean where do you go after that?
funnily enough
back into the rolling stonies and lou reed
thats where you go
and bands like silverhead and aerosmith
i reckon theres a few great aerosmith songs btw
i sat on a plane with steve tyler once
and such was his charisma that i couldnt
figure out how it was done....!!??
anyway it also brought me into contact with mott the hoople
wow!
3 sensationally good records
all the young dudes has gotta be
one of the best songs ever written in rock
can you believe bowie...?
producing transformer and doing raw power
and tossing off this song all the young druids n producing the lp
for a couple of years everything he touched turned to gold
except lulu doing man who sold the world...that didnt...
people back then didnt understand diamond dogs or lous berlin
how can you not understand berlin??
it had it all but the idiots back then dismissed it
can you imagine dismissing an album like berlin
because it wasnt the vu all over again?
no wonder lou went off the rails
mind you rocknroll animal is an essential

essential
look i wont have any body criticize this record
the guitars are perfection
entwining and interlacing and rocking n rolling
i hate all that virtuoso lead stuff
but this was different
this was scintillating stuff
dick wagner n steve hunter
fuck those cats can rock
rocknroll animal
oh ho
boy that record hit me square between the eyes when it came out
still the best live record ever sayeth me who must surely be an expert
after all
i went out and tried to live in these guys shadows
a confused apostle spreading some word...what word was that...?
anyway that is enough
see ya down jack stones ha

the crazy world of bab zoo

2009-10-11T07:19:00.003+11:00

yessaday i stumbled on youtube
looking at the killers doing utmw (ok, i guess)
and i notice theres a killers song called spaceman
and i wonder......
is it...? that spaceman....?
and suddenly my mind is flooded with memories of the mid nineties
and my very very miserable life
starring as a hermit in my own home
either being anxious waiting for some smack to be delivered
or feeling sleepy and stupid after it had arrived
(there was a fucking lot more of the first option, fiendss)
anyway i used to watch a lot of telly in those days
as i waited waited waited waited
and it was then that i first ran into babylon zoo
by the way the killers spaceman was a song theyd written themselves (ok, i guess)
not the babylon zoo spaceman
now dig this
babylon zoo was one guy
an english sikh called jasbinder singh
he went by the name of jas mann
in his home 8 track studio one day circa 1995
he came up with a song spaceman
its a pretty bloody good song
in itself
one olde sk wouldnt have minded writing
tho maybe i wouldnt have been quite so heavy on
the androgynous bleat button
nevertheless a very very good song
glammy ziggy shiny weirdy... all that stuff
(look sorry i have a bit of a penchant for that stuff...done right!)
anyway he got a deal a video was made
but nothing really happened
not much later
arthur baker remixed the record as a twelve inch
now i dunno about you
but i used to buy the occasional 12 inch
and some of em ran at 45 rpm n some ran at 33 rpm
so one can imagine the scenario
some astute ad execs go to the record co
they say
we look for music for levis ad
record co go try this
AND PUT OUR JAS'S SONG ON AT THE WRONG SPEED
but guess what...?
the ad men dig it
they insist on it at this wrong sped up speed
the ad comes out and is massive success
meanwhile jas was initially horrified
what have they done to my song? he musta been bewildered
waiting for his big break...and now this
his manager n record co convince him to stick sped up bit
at beginning n end of his spaceman single
he gives in
the record comes out
new bits added to video for sped up bits
the song is cut down a bit
the song sells in the millions and becomes fastest blah blah blah
still this was not when i first caught up with jas
it was a little bit after that
after the success of spaceman
babylon zoo got to do a real video
and guess what
i do hereby declare it the best rock video i ever saw
then or now
the song is animal army
which is a cheeky bolanish glam stomper
a pretty good song...not a classic tho
and perhaps not ever destined to be a hit
oh but the vid is a fucking corker
and back in the mid nineties
as i sat like an idiot in front of my idiot box
one night
this video came on n it blew my mind
the whole thing was all kinda silvery
and jas first appears pushing his face thru this building
jas himself is so handsome
like an alien reflection of tyrone power
slimmed down n in a silver space suit
his hair is cut or done up in some style ...you cant really figure it out
jas comes crawling along this chrome bar between buildings
everything all white n silver n metallic
people swinging of these lines
down in the street elephants n leopards rampage thru the streets
the first line of the song is
tryrannosaurus (sic) marching towards us
giving away the t rex connection immediately
tho its more in spirit than in actual execution
anyway the vid is a marvellous futuristic thing
we rocket thru jas n some girls retina
and find our inner jas
whos there all tangled up in weird DNA or something
the elephants stomp on cars
crocodiles erupt from sewers
jas has got his silver spacesuit on n long fingernails
and he seems deliriously outta control
as he straddles the metallic pylons between buildings
its funny its wild its flashy its trashy its super
its rocknroll
and at this moment jas has got charisma oozing out his poor pores
anyhow
this vid really was a breath of fresh air after grunge n rap n boy bands
and in those days you couldnt just watch vids whenever you liked
you had to wait for em to come on
and animal army wasnt played more than twice or 3 times that i saw
so it sorta remained a mythical video for me till yessaday
when i remembered it and watched it about 5 times
i still love it!
jas mann...wow ...what a true glam star....
from some occidental parallel universe..
he could play the part of the singer from that book
the ground beneath her feet (a recommended read!)
yeah
go n check it out at you tube
animal army ...babylon zoo
thats what i call a rock video!!

i know nothing

2009-10-10T08:26:00.002+11:00

i know nothing
i follow nothing
beyond the hint of a melody that
i was chasing in my dreams
i am nothing
i have achieved nothing
i moved imaginary strings
in an imaginary world
i sang some songs
all of them to be forgotten eventually
circling the atmosphere a thousand lives behind
i sweep and i glide and i swoop on myself
everywhere then nowhere
happy sad young old rich poor
man woman child star worm
god devil sinner saint
right/wrong
left/right
war/peace
truth/lies
i bounce through these lives
breathing it in like plankton
i collide with the obstacles planted in my way
people places events
all that chatter
the mountains dont care
the waves dont care
the sun and the rain dont care
i owe no allegiance to nothing
only music and art and trying to enjoy myself
i like playing my bass guitar...how simple minded is that
it hasnt made an appearance on my blog yet
coz its been quarantined in customs
they suspect it of having the rockin' new monia
and the boogie woogie flu...
i really have no good opinions on anything
other than maybe writing lyrics
do whatever you like...leave me out of it
vote for president meat and shave off your pingis
see if i give a damn
socialism heroin rocknroll
poking in a puddle with a stick
the waist of time
i am an australian artist and i wish i had no guilt
suddenly stevies got the feeling
hes surrounded by panthers panthers
closing in in all directions
panthers panthers
ha ha ha
i can do anything on here
say...did you know genghis khan was a vegan
and he did a lot of charity work?
did you know addy hitler had a pet rock?
did you know napoleon bonaparte once played castanets in mink deville?
did you know that eve wore gilga-mesh stockings to the eden ballroom do?
did you know the church were first formed in macedonia when my dad fixed
washing machines for alex the great?
did you know my mother was once a committed sexagenarian?
and the british tobacco company notified me that i had won
ONE MILLION POUNDS!
all they needed was my sex n d.o.b. and address ..AND IT WAS MINE
but how could i have won all that money
and them not even know i'm a bloke?
hey i realized the other day
THERE IS NO REAL MONEY
it is literally different digits showing up on screens
theres no dough to back it all up
its no longer tied to gold or anything
its fucking imaginary
i go wow
a big figure flits across my screen
i go fuck!
a minus figure flits across my screen
some imaginary bank says
you have this much imaginary money in your imaginary accnt
heres your credit card ...more imaginary stuff
mr tax man gets on my screen
he says we want some o your digits on our screen
i move a digit on my screen into his screen
just a tiny little digit tho
he at the other end smiles a teeny bit says thank you
my little digit now joins his little pond full of digits
i never saw that dough
i never felt it come in
i never felt it go out
someone say
oh we gotta deficit
oh we gotta surplus
i never felt either
i never noticed my dad noticing it either
i never noticed anyone noticing any of this stuff
i dont know who owes australia what...
i dont know who won the football....ANYWHERE
i dont know and i dont care who wins prizes or who sings my songs
i dont care if youre bored with me or dont love me anymore
(WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?)
i am a freaking renaissance man before your eyes
knocking out my inimitable scam
half genius half fool
c'mon you either love me n understand why i am the king
or you go gently into that good night
i am beyond caring as i enter the final stretch of my life
i lay down my 2 minute songs on you
*
thats what i do
isnt it enough
i feel like white hippy moses
having come down from the mountain
where i have plucked my ten commandments from the snarling void
and i come down here
to see you worshipping gossip and dissent and opinion and statistics
90 % of statistics are baloney pal
and here are my fucking commandments for thee
1 thou shalt not eat meat
2 thou shalt rock
3 thou shalt not bicker in the comments
4 thou shalt subscribe
5 thou shalt honour marc , david b, johnny o boogie bobby d
6 thou shalt be nice
7 thou shalt expand thy consciousness
8 thou shalt forgive the time being his weaknesses
9 location location location
10 did i say subscribe already?
yes yes
remember its an imaginary figure
put it in my pond
i'll put it in someone elses pond
eventually it will come back round to your pond
you wont feel it go
you wont feel it come back
i dont understand why people say i'm mad
i know nothing
i am nothing
i came from nothing and back to nothing i am going
nothing
one day i will be nothing
in light of that
i will write music
i will paint and paint
i will fiddle with a new camera
that MR MARC W of PA sent me
(marc w arise...you are now lord marc
for services rendered to the cause)
hope or despair....?
history will laugh at us all
then it will laugh at them doing the laughing
its all a blink in vishnus eternity
so do whatever you like
merrily merrily merrily
life is but a dream

in the garden of gilgamesh

2009-10-08T11:06:00.002+11:00

with love
sk