The 15 Best Paul Kelly Tracks Since ‘How To Make Gravy’
There's way more to the Gravy Man than *that* song.
There are few figures in Australian music that are as unanimously beloved as Paul Kelly.
The singer-songwriter has spent the last three decades routinely filling out everywhere from rock clubs to open-air amphitheatres with songs adored by a cross-generational pool of devotees.
He’s one of the few artists that could fit into the Venn diagram of A Day On The Green and Groovin’ The Moo and not particularly have to alter his set for either. With a new album out, Nature, and some huge ‘Making Gravy’ mini-festival shows booked for December, Kelly is as vital a performer now as he was back in the proverbial day.
If anything, wider audiences generally can’t keep up with his productivity. The most recent song in Kelly’s general setlist to get a huge reaction is, of course, ‘How to Make Gravy’ — a song which, it should be pointed out, came out over two decades ago.
Kelly has released over a dozen albums and EPs since then, ranging from solo masterworks to ambitious collaborative efforts.
So today, we present you with a playlist of PK’s best songs to come out after 1996 — a post-Gravy mix, if you will. Get into these tracks and you’ll soon look like a proper die-hard should the great man ever pull them out at a headlining show.
‘Coma’
One of the more obscure Paul Kelly tracks, given it’s technically not by him. In 1999, Kelly pulled a few of his touring bandmates into a side project known as Professor Ratbaggy.
The album was a far cry from the usual folk-rock fare of a Kelly solo LP. Instead, the album was drenched in reverb and echoing keys, adding breakbeats and dub elements to Kelly’s distinctive vocals.
‘Coma’ was a single from the album, and holds up the strongest out of the 11 tracks on offer thanks to its insistent percussive drive and memorable refrain. One for the curious diehards.
‘Every Fucking City’
Perhaps the best PK song to never get a studio version, ‘City’ arrived at the turn of the century as a live recording tacked onto 2000’s Roll On Summer EP.
Funnily enough, the song ended up being far more popular than the title track, scoring a top ten spot in the Hottest 100 and even winding up on the second volume of Kelly’s greatest-hits compilation Songs from the South.
Bonus points for being the only song in Kelly’s discography to reference both Ricky Martin and Arnold Schwarzenegger — a Venn diagram with three barely-touching circles if there ever was one.
‘If I Could Start Today Again’
Kelly has always had a knack for embodying the characters that he portrays through his music, and the opening number to 2001’s crucially underrated …nothing but a dream is testament today.
It’s an intimate, pensive and mournful song that looms with regret and shame as it interlaces with Kelly’s tried and true religious imagery. Though not a hit by any stretch of the imagination, the song certainly has its fans — among them Alex the Astronaut, who did a beautiful rendition of the track for Like a Version last year.
Certainly, one that deserves a bit more love and attention.
‘Just About To Break’
One of the darkest and most experimental songs Kelly has ever worked on, the song’s picked out acoustic guitar is somewhat of a red herring as it gives way to buzzing synth-bass and clattering drum machines.
As the title suggests, the song is centred in on tension and a troubled headspace as reflected in the cacophonous arrangement that serves as one of the more startling sonic departures this side of Professor Ratbaggy. The music video reflects this, with Kelly himself sending a lot of intense stares directly down the barrel.
Not for the traditionalists, but a fascinating listen nonetheless.
‘Won’t You Come Around’
After a couple of sadder ones, let’s get back to fun PK.
‘Won’t You Come Around’ is a real throwback to the Gossip era, picking out twangy lead guitar and bright major chords (care of nephew Dan Kelly) to serve up some bite-sized pop-rock goodness. Its surrounds are an exhaustive double album in the form of 2004’s Ways & Means, but for just a moment Kelly sounds entirely at ease in his surroundings.
This one’s got a killer video too, in which daggy-uncle Paul plays an IGA clerk and more or less ruins a couple’s night with his dance moves.
‘Song of the Old Rake’
A year after Ways & Means, Kelly put together a collective to work on a bluegrass-inspired LP under the name of The Stormwater Boys.
Foggy Highway was a mix of brand-new songs and tracks from previously albums specially re-recorded with new arrangements, and ‘Old Rake’ was one of three key highlights of the former.
It’s an ode to lost loves that only a traditional bluegrass track could manage, topped off with creaking double bass care of The Living End’s Scott Owen and some stunning three-part harmonies. It comes from a true love of the genre, and it’s a fitting homage.
‘They Thought I Was Asleep’
A classic case of Kelly storytelling, quietly devastating in its nature as the protagonist recalls innocence lost as a child. The backdrop is vintage Kelly — simple acoustic guitar, a harmonica break and little else intruding on the scenery.
It’s stripped back and bare, reminiscent of tracks like ‘Everything’s Turning to White’ from 1989’s So Much Water So Close to Home. At the same time, it recalls the starkly-autobiographical ‘Adelaide’ and ‘Going About My Father’s Business’.
It’s a worthy successor to every one of them, and a must-hear for those that are drawn to this side of Kelly’s impeccable writing.
‘Meet Me in the Middle of the Air’
There’s nothing quite like experiencing this song live. It makes your hair stand on its end and sends a shiver up the spine. The a cappella number is derived from Psalm 23 and implements the use of truly stunning close harmony.
It was beautifully covered by comedians Tripod and Eddie Perfect, but there’s nothing that quite compares to Kelly and his bandmates gathering around a condenser microphone and bringing even the rowdiest of audiences to a reverent silence.
Hands down one of Kelly’s most important songs — an inimitable standard that has brought people together time and time again.
‘God Told Me To’
Like ‘Meet Me’, ‘God’ is heavy on religious effigies and allusions. It should be stressed, however, that’s precisely where the similarities end. The lead single from Kelly’s great Stolen Apples is a minor-key brooder that turns PK into a murderous villain, certain of their actions in good faith through the man upstairs.
Dan Kelly deserves a lot of credit here too, adding in a killer (pardon the pun) chorus harmony and one of the more memorable lead breaks to be featured in one of his uncle’s songs. Additionally, there’s a fantastic (and slightly NSFW) video to complement this one too.
‘Please Leave Your Light On’
Stolen Apples is an accomplished a record as Kelly’s ever put out, ranging from the snarling ‘Right Out of My Head’ to the cautionary tales laced into the title track. As it closes, however, we’re drawn back to just the man of the hour sat at the piano.
It’s Kelly at his most vulnerable, painstakingly pleading with an estranged lover that can only come when one has reached their lowest.
“I’ve been taking the long way home,” he confesses, as the piano does exactly that by looping its chord progression a few more times to let the words ring out.
‘New Found Year’
Five years later, Kelly returned with Spring and Fall. Produced by Machine Translations’ Greg Walker, the album is a much gentler and sweetly melodic record than its predecessor.
It opens with this resplendent number, which sadly hasn’t appeared in set lists since Kelly wrapped the tour in support of the album. It’s the soundtrack to a blossoming romance that is brought to life by bristling jazz brushes and bells.
It’s one of Kelly’s most evocative album openers, one that can turn even the grimmest of Melbourne rain into the first day of spring in a matter of minutes. A pure joy.
‘Hasn’t It Rained’
In the next half-decade between Spring & Fall and Life is Fine, Kelly occupied himself with collaborative and conceptual releases. One of the more popular was The Merri Soul Sessions, where Kelly enlisted the Bull sisters, Dan Sultan, Kira Puru and Clairy Browne to perform R&B and soul-flavoured numbers.
‘Hasn’t It Rained’ is the only track on the album to feature all seven vocalists simultaneously, and they send the sessions out with a triumphant gospel-blues sing-along. Kelly spontaneously performed it during his Opera House forecourt show last year, paying tribute to the downpour that preceded the start of the show.
‘Firewood And Candles’
If you’ve seen Kelly in the last year, this will probably be familiar. It’s the lead single from Life is Fine and easily one of Kelly’s most fun songs this decade.
Flanked by a killer Ash Naylor riff and some electric organ work by tireless session guy Cameron Bruce, not to mention some Bull sisters righteousness to spice up the chorus, there’s a lot of credit that has to go to the Paul Kelly Band on this one.
They know how to let loose as they do how to draw back, and ‘Firewood’ is a prime example of the former.
‘Don’t Explain’
This one is for the trainspotters. Although technically written before ‘Gravy’ — it appeared on Kelly’s 1992 live album — Life is Fine saw Kelly finally record a studio version of this beloved deep-cut after 25 years.
When he introduced it on Live, May 1992, Kelly described it as “an older woman talking to a younger man”. Only fitting, then, that its studio recording would see his lifelong friend Linda Bull taking the lead vocal — and, it cannot be emphasised enough, absolutely killing it.
It’s been wonderful to see this one return to the setlist. Better than ever, too.
‘With the One I Love’
Paul Kelly has absolutely nothing to prove. He’s gonna do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
If any song has so impressively surmised that in his later years, it’s ‘With the One I Love’. The first taste of Nature, Kelly once again has the band firing off on all cylinders in a rousing folk-rock stomp.
“I might be wrong ’bout the one I love,” he confesses, “but I don’t care what’s bad or good”. Moments later, he’s letting out a whoop of joy as the Bull sisters egg him on. May he live the rest of his days so carefree.
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Nature is out now. Paul Kelly will be touring the country in mid-December, check out all dates here. Photo credit: Cybele Malinowski/Supplied
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David James Young is a writer and podcaster who has probably never been more nervous in his entire life than when he met Paul Kelly at the Northcote Social Club in 2013. He tweets at @DJYwrites.