Paul kelly singer songwriter

Every Fucking City Love Is The Law Won't You Come Around Song Of The Old Rake

From Little Things Big Initially it appeared to be a dispute over wages and conditions — black workers at that time were paid less than white — but it soon turned into a land claim, one of the first in the country.

Following on from the bark petition sent to the federal government by the Yolngu people indemanding sovereignty over their ancestral home further to the north, the strike spearheaded the land rights movement in Australia.

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The stockmen, around strong, based themselves at Daguragu, also known as Wattie Creek. It was blackfella country. The novelist Frank Hardy got involved and wrote a book about their struggle called The Unlucky Australians. Vincent travelled to the southern states and drew unionists and students to his cause.

Despite bribes and threats the Gurindji stood their ground. The longer they waited, the stronger they became. What many outsiders had thought unthinkable at first came to pass almost nine years later, when the Labor government of the day agreed to give them back their land.

Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof, in Australian law, that these lands belong to the Gurindji people and I put into your hands part of the earth itself as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever.

He was twenty-eight years old and it was big news in his world. Kev had grown up in a droving family. His dad was second-generation Irish Australian, his mother a Bunjalung woman, her father a traditional man from Cape York in the far north.

As a child he spent a lot of time in mustering and droving camps throughout the great plains of western Queensland and the Darling Downs; slept in a swag under stars that went forever. At the age of ten he went to school and learnt proper English, and as a young man he moved to the large town of Toowoomba, became a welder and played rugby union for the Queensland Country team.

He found his way to university, studied politics and devoured books, started writing songs for his thesis as a form of oral history. When I first met Kev in the late s he was a full-grown bull of a man who looked like he was carved out of stone, with a thick unruly head of hair only partly tamed by a red, black and gold headband.

We were on the same bill at a Rock for Land Rights concert in Sydney.

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He played his guitar like a machine gun and howled, curled and hurled his words into the air. After the show we kicked on here and there and ended up sitting around his kitchen table in Marrickville with Crown Lagers and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red, playing songs to each other.

I soon found out, as our friendship developed, that he had a whole swag of songs written over twenty years — stories of drovers and their wives, miners, drifters, warriors, junkies and brothel madams. Stinging polemics too, that tore strips off the establishment.

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And hymns, paeans of praise to the land, the natural world and its wonders. The whole was stitched together with rich, poetic language: Not long after that Kev and I and Declan went camping for a few days at Lake Wivenhoe, a huge dam supplying Brisbane, eighty kilometres to the east.

We walked and fished, kayaked and cooked, and played guitars around the campfire.

One night we got to talking about Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji walkout. I knew more of the story by then: There had been big demonstrations by Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Aboriginal land councils, which traced their origins back to the Wave Hill walk-off, were active and vocal. Self-determination for Aboriginal Australia was in the air, and Prime Minister Bob Hawke had raised the possibility of a treaty between black and white Australia.

For many people, by then, he was a hero. I knew the broad outlines of the fabled, unfathomably long strike, and Kev had a few more details.

The first time I sang the song in public was at a concert on Bondi Beach put on by Building Bridges, an organisation dedicated to reconciliation between Aboriginal and white Australians. I thought reconciliation was an odd choice of word — when was the original conciliation?A personal portrait of Australian singer and songwriter Paul Kelly and an overview of his musical career and songs.

Review by Louise Keller: Despite having penned more than songs in a career that spans nearly 40 years, Paul Kelly is still looking for his next song.

Shane Howard, Paul Kelly and others trace their roots in songs of Irish exile A simple question from an old man in Central Australia prompted a complex musical and spiritual journey. Aug 02,  · Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly has enjoyed a richly diverse career over the past three decades, having put out 21 studio albums as .

Paul Kelly is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, guitarist, writer of prose and harmonica player. He has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers.

I have been a huge Paul Kelly since the mids when a friend (who owned a record shop) recommended I check out his music. Considering his stature in Australia, it's both unfortunate and a bit puzzling that he hasn't been more successful in North America.

Paul Kelly has been acknowledged as one of Australia's best singer-songwriters. His music style has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output comfortably straddles folk, rock, and country.