Dumb Things – Paul Kelly
Though Dumb Things may owe some of its inspiration to The Clash’s London’s
Calling it owes just as much to Elvis Presley’s interpretation of the Garcia and
Saunders penned Mystery Train. Ultimately, Dumb Things is a train song.
It was written for his 1987 album ‘Under the Sun’ which also includes the classic ‘To
Your Door’ a song of lost love and anticipation, and the political ‘Bicentennial’
focussing on deaths of Aborigines in custody.
Although The Clash are often seen as a punk band, they were really part of the New
Wave movement in Britain first, and America later. Sex Pistols manager, Malcolm
McClaren supposedly used the term ‘New Wave’ as an alternative to punk, but it
grew into a very different musical style (see examples in resources). The music of The
Clash is too complex to be punk and it contains many elements of ska, which was
also, in England, a hybrid of rockabilly, reggae and punk. These influences can all be
heard in Dumb Things.
Despite his prolific output, Paul Kelly says he finds it hard to write songs, sometimes
describing himself as ‘lazy’. Some songwriters enjoy writing alone and find
collaboration difficult. Kelly often gets his impetus from listening to others and
working with others, and so just as his lyrics can often flower in their own individual
way from a line spawned from, for example, Greek mythology – ‘I melted wax to fix
my wings’ or the sentiments of a Raymond Carver story, such as his song
‘Everything’s Turning to White’, so too, his music draws inspiration from myriad
sources. He will often take a bass line or a chord progression, or even a melodic riff
and see where it leads him. For example the chord progression at the beginning of his
fantastic song ‘How to Make Gravy’ is very much the same as the opening chords of
Thunderclap Newman’s ‘Something in the Air’, but Kelly takes the song into
completely different territory both lyrically and musically. The harmonica playing in
‘From Little Things, Big Things Grow’ is pure Dylan, as is the whole style of the
song.
Kelly is equally at home bringing together a group of musicians and building a song
with them. He will often bring lyrics and a melody. But one only has to look at the
investment of the overall team in the meaning that comes from the combination of
lyrics and music in Dumb Things and many of Kelly’s songs, to realise how important
inspiration and collaboration are to him. He pays artistic homage to those who have
trodden the path before him (Shakespeare is a favourite) and to the contemporaries
who share his working life. He has worked with just about everyone in the Australian
music industry.
Kelly says that most of his songs are not autobiographical, that he creates characters
who sometimes permeate more than one of his songs and writes about, or for, these
characters. However, one would have to say that Dumb Things could be
autobiographical, not only in the sentiments expressed, but it the delivery which is
invested with Kelly’s ironic and self-deprecating sense of humour ‘I thought that I
just had to sing. I’ve done all the dumb things.’
1
Lyrics
Let’s tackle the lyrics first, because the music is structured around them. And I have
to say that Paul Kelly’s lyrics are studied in English. It’s sometimes at the expense of
developing an understanding of the meaning brought through the music. The same
can happen in an analysis of just the music. The lyrics are absolutely fundamental to
the meaning of the song.
Here they are:
Dumb Things
Welcome, strangers, to the show
I'm the one who should be lying low
Saw the knives
out, turned my back
Heard the train coming, stayed out on the track
In the middle, in the middle, in the middle of a dream
I lost my shirt, I pawned my rings
I've done all the dumb things
Caught the fever, heard the tune
Thought I loved her, hung my heart on the moon
Started howling, made no sense
Thought my friends would rush to my defence
In the middle, in the middle, in the middle of a dream
I lost my shirt, I pawned my rings
I've done all the dumb things
And I get all your good advice
It doesn't stop me from going through these things twice
I see the knives out, I turn my back
I hear the train coming, I stay right on that track
In the middle, in the middle, in the middle of a dream
I lost my shirt, I pawned my rings
I've done all the dumb things
I melted wax to fix my wings
I've done all the dumb things
I threw my hat into the ring
I've done all the dumb things
I thought that I just had to sing
I've done all the dumb things
(Kelly, p. 49)
2
The break-down
Welcome strangers, to the show
I’m the one who should be lying low
Well here I am, standing out for all the world to see, strangers all, when I should be
keeping a low profile
Saw the knives out, turned my back
People are stabbed in the back, which means they don’t see an attack on them coming,
whether verbal or physical. He sees it coming, but he still turns his back.
Heard the train coming, stayed out on the track
(Obvious)
In the middle of a dream
Many people have dreams about trains. Apart from Freud, who saw everything as
sexual (poor frustrated man) train dreams are often metaphors for aspects of people’s
life journeys. People can dream about trains going in the wrong direction, there being
no station, no end in sight, not going anywhere, or stopping between stations. The
song is about life choices and the fact that although the character KNOWS the
outcomes of his actions are likely to be pretty disastrous, he does them anyhow.
I lost my shirt
There are three sayings about shirts:
1. He’d give him the shirt off his back (He/she’d do anything for him/her)
2. He had nothing but the shirt on his back
3. Wearing one’s heart on the sleeve of one’s shirt
Kelly extends the first two to a level of personal irresponsibility. The third links with
the end of the line:
I pawned my rings
Rings are symbols of love, family, togetherness and eternity. They are circles with no
beginning and no end. He has sold all this. He has nothing.
I’ve done all the dumb things
Yes indeedy! Kelly, as he does in much of his lyric writing draws on known sayings,
metaphors and platitudes and gives them a bit of a twist! It’s humorous, but it’s also
poignant.
Caught the fever
Felt hot for someone
Heard the tune
3
Their song
Thought I loved her, hung my heart on the moon
This links back to shirt sleeves. It also links to the next line
Started howling, made no sense
Complex here. There’s a sexual element, the dog in heat howling at the moon – the
werewolf who can’t control the change in his body and the actions of his body when
there is a full moon. He’s also howling because he has a broken heart. And howling is
a fine rock ‘n’ roll tradition made famous by radio broadcaster Wolfman Jack, who
had the night spot on radio for many years in America (see links below) and blues
singer, Howlin’ Wolf who had a howl to his voice and used to enrapture and
simultaneously scare the wits out of his audiences with it!
So it makes no sense because the body and mind aren’t always in sync with each
other. One can be attracted to someone for all the wrong reasons, but it doesn’t stop
one from being attracted to the person.
Thought my friends would rush to my defence.
Reality check. Let down by chick? Double whammy. Let down by friends. (Made no
sense)
In the middle, in the middle, in the middle of a dream
Two things. I’m dreaming if I thought my friends would rush to my defence. It isn’t
just that he’s done a whole heap of dumb things, as we all do (on and on) but he has
been betrayed by those he felt would be loyal to him.
Secondly. Is it a dream? Where does the dream end and reality begin? Hard to tell.
One can try to wish away reality by pretending it was all a dream.
And I get all your good advice
(Someone, at least, is still there for him)
It doesn’t stop me from going through these things twice
Oh yes, that’s what we do! And this is so clever because it’s the line that leads back to
the repetition of the lyrics that have come before.
I see the knives out, turn my back
I hear the train coming, I stay right on that track
All in present tense this time.
I lost my shirt, I pawned my rings
I’ve done all the dumb things
4
Back to past tense. As is the rest – a reflection on a life dumbly lived.
I melted wax to fix my wings
This refers to Greek mythology. Daedelus created the wool to give to Theseus so that
once he had entered the maze at Knossos, he could kill the Minotaur bull and high tail
out of there by following the trail of wool he had left. Daedelus, in true ironic fashin,
was exiled to Crete (where Knossos is) as punishment for helping Theseus. He
wanted to get back to Athens and so he attached wings to his back and to the back of
his son Icarus, warning Icarus not to fly too close to the sun because the wax he had
used to attach the wings to his back would melt. But Icarus – you know, moth to a
flame, bloke to a chick, flew too close to the sun and fell into the sea where he
drowned.
In ‘Dumb Things’, the character uses wax, not just to attach the wings, but to fix
them!
I threw my hat into the ring
To throw one’s hat into the ring is to ‘put one’s hand up’ or offer one’s services – it’s
a gamble, like throwing one’s money into the centre of the table during a card game,
but there is more at stake with one’s hat, like one’s shirt.
I thought that I just had to sing
Love it! The song could so easily be Kelly in this instance, but it’s also a song for
Everyman. We all make dumb choices and we’re all the victims, at times, of bad
timing and sheer dumb luck.
There’s a shrug of the shoulders humour in the lyrics, no bitterness, no angst, just
acceptance that this is who I am and this is what happens.
Being a singer has actually worked out pretty well for Kelly, but it doesn’t for
everyone. Sometimes you do just have to throw your hat into the ring. Sometimes you
have to fly close to the sun. The story of Icarus is often used as a metaphor for the
creative risk-taking of artists. Most artists see it as their duty, their ‘commission’ to
challenge the perspectives of mere mortals! Kelly does it persistently. Have a look at
Bicentennial and Everything’s Turning to White for starters.
But what does the music say?
Kelly’s singing has its oft-used lay-back feel, there’s almost a sense of ‘lag’ in their
delivery. Ironically, the placement of many words, is just prior to the on-beat and
before the instruments, not after. This puts him out of sync with the music in a sense –
or out of sync with life if one likes to see it this way. (He particularly emphasises the
off-beat in his performance of the song with Cat Empire. See below.) Musically, he’s
milking the shuffle effect used throughout. But the music which introduces us to the
train feel long before the vocals enter, is propelled along, from the opening use of the
drum kit notes with heavy foot on bass 1st beat and hand on tom, second beat with
5
subtle shuffle notes in-between, like the chuck chucka rhythm of a train. This is
reinforced by the driving use of guitar chords alternating between A minor and E
minor, and played with that beautiful brash strum so common in The Clash’s music.
This is a combination of fast precise down strumming with a shuffle flick back on the
last quaver in the triplet and the use of chorus and reverb on pedal effects. The strong
beat of the shuffle is always slap bang on every single beat, just like the drums and
the walking bass line, which reinforces this sense of strict timing. All this sets the fast
pace, a common feature of much of the ska music around in England at the time, and
the rockabilly feel which also permeates the piece. (Ska had many influences and
rockabilly was a strong one). My old metronome has the pace at around 144 beats per
minute.
As has been pointed out in other analyses, there is a shuffle feel throughout the song.
Shuffle refers to the sound of feet shuffling or sliding across the floor when dancing
to a swing rhythm – long note, short note, first note crotchet followed by last note
quaver in a triplet. The term tends to be used with faster music – swing with a slower,
funkier pace. There’s a specific ‘shuffle’ step in tap dancing.
So the train is on its journey, its repetitive journey, stopping for no-one it seems. Sure
we have a lovely Doppler effect harmonica ‘howl’ at the beginning of the piece
warning anyone on the track to get the hey off. It also doubles as the howl effect in
the lyrics bringing these two motifs together. And Kelly gives a lovely vocal howl to
help set the scene for the lyrics. Howling was also the province of the 1970s group
Daddy Cool. Much influenced by Howlin’ Wolf and the whole 50s rock’n’roll scene,
lead singer, Ross Wilson used to wear a wolf tail when he performed. Despite the fact
that the group’s influences were largely drawn from America, they were essentially
Australian in sound and Kelly follows this tradition.
The guitar works from the A minor and E minor repetition, through a lovely chord
sequence of Am, C major, C major and D major with a bass melodic riff coming in at
the same time on A, C, down to G and up to D. The lead guitar settles back into A
minor, E minor and the bass A (minim) down to E, up to G and leading back to A.
The change from minor progression to major progression gives the sense of, minor –
we’re working hard here, to major – we’re on a mission, we’re going somewhere. The
bass line is really smooth and juxtaposes nicely with the rougher, harsher texture of
the drums and guitar. So again, there’s that whole train feeling of the body moving
quite smoothly but the wheels and mechanism of the train having to work much like a
duck’s webbed feet below the surface. It’s a lovely texture with Kelly’s broad
Australian accented, vocal delivery added. Kelly has a strange voice, which he
doesn’t like very much, mainly because of what he feels is a limited vocal range. But
there’s a sense of both humour and pathos in it, much like his lyrics and it’s hard to
find covers of his songs that actually do justice to the feeling he conveys in his own
work. He allows the music to do the hard work in creating pattern and texture and the
verse is largely sung on two notes, C and A, mainly C, which we could see as the
mediant in the key of A minor, or really, it’s the Aeolian mode because there are no
G#s, or alternatively, and again ironically, a plaintive cry on the tonic of the relative
major! Take yer pick.
A saxophone copies the guitar in the bar leading into the chorus.
6
The chorus (In the middle etc) has a much smoother texture than the verse to give a
dream-like effect, one feels. The guitar has bar length chords, and the beautifully
meandering walking bass takes us off the tracks for a wee while.
All crotchets
FGABCDCB, EFGEFFGG
Then minims
A
F
D
E
E
C
A.
Kelly stays pretty much on his one note thing, dropping to a B (wow!), but the
melody seems much more flowing here, despite the punctuated phrases for two
reasons. During ‘In the middle of a dream, he sings ‘on beat’ and so the sense of
punctuation in the verse is smoothed out here. Additionally there is the introduction of
a harmony vocal line which, rhythmically runs in parallel to the main vocals. It is
higher than the melody. There’s also a touch of echo effect here which is, I guess, the
musical equivalent of rubbing a little Vaseline on the lens of a camera (dreamy
indeed!)
Harmony F (in the middle) E (in the middle) D (in the middle of) C (a) E (dream) slide to C
Melody C
C
B
A
C
slide to A
Harmony D (I’ve) E (lost my) D (shirt I’ve) F (pawned my) E (rings)
Melody BA
C
B
C
C
I’ve done all the dumb things, drops down from E below middle C to ‘things’ on the
A below that. Head hung in shame, but somewhat coy me thinks.
There is a reality check in there too with the introduction of some sassy, brassy
saxophone blasting through at the end of the dream with a nice turned riff.
And we return to our lovely instrumental intro, replete with chuga chuga harmonica
and hence into the second verse, back on track! This is pretty much the same in all
facets to the first verse, except for a small howl, which is interesting because the
lyrics seem more pointed, but Kelly doesn’t emphasise them musically in any way.
The instrumental break is a great chance for keyboard player and guitarist in
particular to extemporise melodically around the riffs created by bass, guitar and
drums in both the verse and chorus and interestingly, even the more sombre chords of
the intro and verse become quite uplifted with the undulating explorations of melody
and complex rhythms by the soloists in this section, all fast paced – all very upbeat
with loud dynamics. The howling and melodically bending or bluesing guitar and
harmonica lead to a paring back though, of everything.
In the third verse, Kelly’s voice is much more prominent. The tom drum is replaced
with a skiffle/shuffle rhythm on the rim of the snare drum. (Skiffle is often played
with brushes. See resources.) The guitar chords are replaced by the simple melodic
riff without the underlying chords like a ‘response’ at the end of the vocal phrase.
And the harmonica sets up a fabulous shimmering effect – train approaching from a
distance in a very hot environment. As the train gets closer ‘I hear the train coming, I
7
stay right on that track’ the dynamics build exponentially as the guitar hits its chord
progressions again and the full force of the entire drum kit, cymbals blazing, kicks in.
The final chorus keeps up this momentum with the use of saxophone, bending into a
high C and sustaining it on ‘I lost my shirt, I pawned my rings’ and then into an
extemporisation that just goes wild. And in the coda that follows the off-beat entry of
Kelly seems accentuated, as though his actions are purposeful in some respects. He
stretches his range somewhat with lovely vocal harmonising on ‘I knew that I just had
to sing’ and then drops again, beautifully to those low notes on ‘I’ve done all the
dumb things’. And there is some great harmonica howling and bending at the end.
So the overall effect is quite complex, because there is established through the music,
some sense of fun, some sense of the naughty boy fessing up and wishing things were
different, tinges of melancholy particularly given the lower notes in this part of the
melody and the use of changing major and minor chords, but there’s momentum
throughout – life will keep going, and mistakes will continue to be made. Shrug of
shoulders and off we go. The music beautifully articulates the metaphors in the lyrics
and the one thing that doesn’t ‘gel’ so to speak, is that they’re all having a great time,
so the sense of loneliness that comes through in the lyrics, certainly isn’t backed up
musically. Paul Kelly is a strong aspect of the whole music-making process. The
vocals and lyrics are in no way divorced from the music. They operate together
perfectly.
It’s interesting watching the version with Cat Empire when, for my money, Kelly
really does seem a bit lonely. But the genre is entirely different. Where this is
definitely a hybrid, I don’t hear anything punkish (at all) and the main influence
would seem to be much more rooted in ska influences, a hybrid music itself (see
resources).
The LASH version
The Lash version of Dumb Things was recorded in 2001 in Melbourne, when the all
girl band from Perth was prominent in its production of recordings and its touring.
The girls formed as a band at school in Western Australia when they were thirteen.
Their interest in a strong rock guitar and drum sound is evident in this version of
Dumb Things.
Gone is the shuffle feel. This is straight rock/punk/thrash 4/4 with an opening again
on drums with two bars of semi-quavers leading into a heavy bass line, also straight
up on the beat, though the repetition of each note is slightly softer giving it a bit of a
groove feel.
AaAaEeEeAaAaEeEeAaAaEeEeACGD
AaAaEeEeAaAaEeEeAaAaEeEeACGD
Because the bass goes from the A UP to the E there’s a much more positive major feel
to this sound, like an A minor followed by an E major chord, though there is no guitar
to confirm this.
When the lead guitar does come in, it’s with beautiful bent Cs at the end of each bar.
8
The vocals are delivered with a tone ranging from seductive to menacing and really
this sets the pace for the whole song. The ‘off the beat’ component from the original
is retained but it sounds raunchy rather than out ‘chucka chucka’ perhaps because of
the slower pace of the whole song. But the conveyance is, I’m in control here, which
would seem paradoxical to the contents of the lyrics. But this is a much more punk
infused version of the song. Punk culture applauds individualism and anarchy, each of
us makes his/her own rules. So, in a sense, doing dumb things is a right of passage,
it’s positive to take risks. There’s a real sense of girl power here too.
There’s an alternating of just muted bass line with vocals
Welcome strangers to the show
I’m the one who
And then ‘should be lying low’ is accompanied as well by guitar strumming out that
ACGD with ferocity in a thrash metal style (see resources)
This is repeated.
The chorus with its dream like section, as in the Kelly version, sees the introduction
of vocal harmonies, but rather than parallel the melody these are a series of more
angelic sustained notes. The guitar also uses echo effect here and sustained notes
while the bass and drums punch out a sequence of quaver notes in a muted fashion so
that the dream-like effect is coupled with an urgent edge. As stated, this version is
slower (between around 122 – 126 - it fluctuates like all good music), but the tempo
seems fast because of the use of all emphasised quavers in much of the song.
The dream is over fairly quickly with the effects pedals going into overdrive on ‘I lost
my shirt’, through to the end of the chorus. The melody line, true to punk style,
remains pretty firmly on the one note ‘E’ and where Paul Kelly drops remorsefully on
‘I’ve done all the dumb things’ in this version, the E above middle C is retained, held
and even sustained on ‘dumb’ before dropping briefly to A on ‘things’. One should
also say that the truest punk artists sang slightly above the note in an angst-ridden
fashion but the melody here is very much on key, and very ‘girl positive’ in many
ways.
The instrumental break is not a showcase for the instruments in the band as it is in the
Kelly version. The lead guitar plays a fairly easy and straight melodic interlude
merely hitting the distortion pedal as the end of the break nears and this is most
appropriate for this genre of music which spurned anything ‘showy’.
There is a paring back in the third verse of the Kelly version and there is here too. The
emphasis is on distortion or angularity. The vocalist breathily sings on a note just
wavering below the C. The bass bends up from Aaaa to Cccc and bends down again.
The drums employ a very clean triplet effect on the rim, similar to the skiffle idea in
the Kelly version and as with the Kelly version, the train then heads person-bound
with a fabulous, piercing, sustained A on lead guitar.
The dream sequence is repeated after the third verse in this version and the vocal
harmonies and instruments crescendo towards the coda where on the repeated ‘I’ve
done all the dumb things’ the harmonic vocalist sings an octave higher than the main
9
vocalist and a third vocalist fills between these octaves. The lead is thrashing and the
bass is also churning it out, with a repetitive pattern similar, but not the same as the
Kelly version. Minims
A E F C G D A D (repeat)
Also as with Kelly, the cymbals are used to great effect here. As the ‘dumb’ is again
sustained on one note, that lovely riff used in the Kelly version is introduced on lead
and doubled up on bass:
Aa Cc Gg Dd x 3
And then the lead guitar finally lets loose with some beautiful anti-punk flourishes,
finishing on an unresolved F. (We don’t conform to anyone or anything!)
But let us not think even for a second that the group lacks any sense of resolve in this
song. It is both a homage to Paul Kelly in taking up many of the techniques used in
the original – particularly its dream sequence effects, the bending of sounds and the
use (even adulation) of riffs and chord progressions. The difference is in the attitude
that is portrayed through the very positive and determined sound of all the instruments
and the vocals.
The whole piece is simpler in its instrumentation. It’s a ‘Let’s get this straight. I’ve
done all the duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuumb things and I’m
daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamned proud of it!’ There is certainly some tongue in cheek
humour there with the seductive delivery of some of the vocals, but it is not Paul
Kelly’s self-deprecating humour and at no time do we feel a sense of compassion for
these chicks. It’s the last thing they would want!
Suggestions for Students
1. There is only one reason, ever, to analyse a song and that is to better
understand its meaning. When artists (art, sculpture, drama, dance, music) go
to the bother of creating an artwork, they are investing their souls in the
expression of an idea, emotion or ideal. To reduce an analysis of this
investment to a weighty discussion about compound metre is to undermine the
soul of the artist! Approach the analysis with the passion and curiosity it
deserves and make sure this comes through in your writing.
2. This is a list. Your response to the question on the final exam should NOT be
a list. It should be in narrative form. Ensure that you address all the criteria
required by the question, but your ultimate aim is to unravel WHY these
techniques have been used to convey the meaning of the music. This cannot be
done well with a list!
3. Practise writing essays with a clear structure in the time you know you will
have available to you. Use the skills you have developed to write essays in
English and apply them to this task. This question might seem like a small part
of your overall music mark, but it can be the difference between a good mark
4. and a great mark. ANSWER THE QUESTION. DON’T REGURGITATE
THE INFORMATION IN YOUR HEAD. RE-FORM IT TO ANSWER THE
QUESTION.
10
5. Dumb Things is a song. It has both lyrics and music. If you only analyse the
music, you are not demonstrating your understanding of the song as a whole,
just as English teachers who only teach the lyrics are not making sense of the
whole song! Ensure that you look at how the two work together or Mr. Kelly
will be very cross.
6. Load both versions of the song onto your iPod and listen and listen and listen
through really good earphones. You will pick up different things on every
hearing. Concentrate on different aspects of the song when you listen.
7. Listen to and view other versions such as the recorded version on YouTube,
Kelly’s live version on YouTube and with The Cat Empire, also on YouTube
(see below for links to all these). Don’t play the version with visuals first as it
alters the meaning. But later it is great to sort out who’s playing what on
which instrument.
8. Perform Dumb Things. Download the sheet music from Musicnotes.com (see
below). Arrange it in such a way that you accommodate the needs of the
members of your group (or as a soloist) whilst maintaining the integrity of the
meaning of the song. Listen to various parts of the recorded versions and steal
whatever you like for your own version. In this way you will become
intimately familiar with the structure of the music.
9. Get into Paul Kelly’s skin. Check out his web site, read interviews, look at
where he’s performing and if you get a chance, go and see him perform.
Listen to a whole range of his songs and cover versions of them. Listen to the
recorded versions and compare them with ‘live’ versions (for example on You
Tube) of his work.
Mandy Stefanakis
Resources
Official Website
http://www.paulkelly.com.au/
Student Resource Page on Official Website
http://www.paulkelly.com.au/index.php?page=StudentResources
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kelly_(musician)
Australian Music Website (a gem)
http://www.amws.com.au/pk/
Enough Rope InterviewTranscript
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1147867.htm
Sheet Music
Dumb Things Sheet Music Downloadable in original key from here
http://www.musicnotes.com
Dumb Things with the Coloured Girls (as the recorded version being studied)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWhj4sVeVD0
Performance of Dumb Things on YouTube (Live)
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=3mpczZfyWj4
Dumb ThingsWith Cat Empire
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=GwTGhyiqw8g&NR=1
Icarus
11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus
New Wave
The Clash
http://www.theclashonline.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clash
London Calling
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=FiVvA9YQpiI
Rockabilly
Elvis Presley
http://www.elvis.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
Mystery Train
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=-xWjmznpCA0
Ska
Madness – Ghost Train
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=etxd0z5TfiA&feature=related
Tomorrow’s Just another Day
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=nSlHSq3cFAg&feature=related
It Must be Love
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=kSf1VCh_MZk&feature=related
The Specials – A Message to You Rudy (Cross ska-reggae)
http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?q=The+Specials&oe=utf8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF8&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=5&ct=title#
Cat Empire (many Carribbean, Cuban, Jamaican, Middle-Eastern influences)
http://www.thecatempire.com/
Skiffle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKUyHpoWnT4
Reggae
Bob Marley
http://web.bobmarley.com/index.jsp
No Woman No Cry
http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?q=bob+marley&oe=utf8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF8&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#
Jimmy Cliff
http://www.jimmycliff.com/v-css/home/
No Woman No Cry
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=v985TLLgGfc&feature=related
12
Punk
Sex Pistols
http://www.sex-pistols.net/
Anarchy in the UK
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4bM_l443VV4&feature=related
(Please check Sex Pistols lyrics and video content before showing students. Some
may be offended!)
Howling
Howlin’Wolf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howlin'_Wolf
American Graffiti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Graffiti
Wolfman Jack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-PCEe8bNiY
Lash
Interview
http://www.girl.com.au/lashinterview.htm
http://www.musicaustralia.org/apps/MA?function=showDetail&currentMapsRecord=
NAMO~1051&itemSeq=9&total=14&&returnFunction=searchResults&scope=scope
&simpleTerm=catholic&sessionId=reuseSearch59B15950B2D2333E528F53A46A02
BC261221493048229
Thrash
Evile
http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&hs=cK1&q=evile&um=1&ie=UTF8&ei=Xz2qSZ6ZD9KukAW3ztHtDQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct
=title#
Books
Kelly (2004) Don’t Start me Talking: Lyrics 1984 – 2004. Crows Nest NSW: Allen
and Unwin.
McFarlane, I. (1999) The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock. St. Leonards, NSW. Allen
& Unwin.
Spencer, C., Nowara, Z., & Mc.Henry, P. (1996) Who’s Who of Australian Rock.
Noble Park, Vic.: Five Mile Press
Interpretation in performance 1: Songs from the South: Paul Kelly’s Greatest Hits,
Musk, 33009.5
Interpretation in performance 2: The Women at the Well, FMR, 335122
13