Slim Dusty passed away this morning. There’ll be the odd pub with no beer in Tamworth tonight….. (and a patently insincere and tasteless tribute from Ken Parish).
Slim Dusty passed away this morning. There’ll be the odd pub with no beer in Tamworth tonight….. (and a patently insincere and tasteless tribute from Ken Parish).
Never speak ill of the dead, they say, but they didn’t mention singing (especially very bad, tuneless singing).
OW. I am sorely tempted to contact NTU and let them know you’re misusing the facilities.
James,
Actually you might be right. It probably is a bit remote from academic discourse (not to mention good taste). So I’ve stuck the audio file on the Victims of Crime website instead. Which if you think about it is much more appropriate.
Ken – if you get used as a line-dancing dance mat by a large number of bootscootin’ C&W lesbians, don’t come crying to me.
“Oooh there’s nothing so lonesooome, morbid or dreaaaaar, than to stand in the pub, [pause] of a.. bar… with no beeeeer…”
Sounds like you realised your mistake halfway through, and decided to correct ;-)
I don’t want to bag the poor pathetic bastard at this so sad moment for his dear family… but I do write as someone who was born in Tamworth and loves country music.
As you might have gathered from my tasteless tribute, I wasn’t a Slim Dusty fan. But millions of Australians were, and good luck to them. I can even partly understand why they liked his music – simple, catchy tunes; equally simple lyrics on down to earth subjects with which anyone can identify; often a bit of larrikin humour as well. Slim was a good bloke by all accounts, who gave pleasure to millions. In death, he gave pleasure to one more: me. I have to confess I took unholy delight in pissing off Geoff Honnor, and inflicting my excruciating version of Pub With No Beer on everyone silly enough to click on the link. Just wait until Bob Dylan carks it. I’m already practising the world’s most appalling rendition of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.
“I have to confess I took unholy delight in pissing off Geoff Honnor,”
Oh…is THAT what you were doing? I just assumed that you were consumed with grief – it certainly sounded as if you were in considerable pain ;)
I’ll pay “Pub With No Beer” as a great Australian folk song … but did he do anything else that is genuinely memorable? That thing about Darren or Daryl or whatever it was called was just a shocker …
It was Duncan. Anyone interested in doing a blogosphere karaoke cover version?
“I’ll pay “Pub With No Beer” as a great Australian folk song … but did he do anything else that is genuinely memorable? That thing about Darren or Daryl or whatever it was called was just a shocker”
[GASP!]”I’d like to have a beer with Duncan” was the first lyrical tribute to the post-modern public health harm minimisation approach to licensed conviviality.
“we drink in moderation” Slim cautions sagaciously, concluding with his ringing, defiant – almost Nancy Reaganesque in it’s clarity – cry of “we never, never, never get drunk!”
Along the way, he pays tribute to “conversation” perhaps a metaphor here for the interaction of various lived human realities coming together for a fellowship – a shared humanity – in which the libation is all but tangential (albeit pleasantly so)to the main event.
It was also allegedly composed in the Town and Country Hotel, up the road from me in St Peter’s – but they’re all pissheads in there so you never know what to believe.
Geoff, has anyone told you yet today that you’re full of it …?
Actually the line as I recall it was “we never, never, never get rolling drunk!”, an important qualification that suggests an almost Nixonian trickiness on Slim’s part: – condoning gross alcoholic excess conditional on maintaining vertical posture.
There may well be a doctoral thesis in the cultural studies “discipline” here somewhere.
Ken,
Re the world’s most appalling version of Knocking on Heaven’s Door; you’ll have a long way to go to surpass the Leningrad Cowboys/Red Army Choir version.
Gummo, have you ever heard Dylan’s own version on his live unplugged CD? Talk about a shocker. If you listen carefully, it’s apparent that the audience sounds in the background are actually a repeating tape … suggesting that he deliberately spoiled it … not the first time His Bobness has done such a thing (and a reasonable trade-off for the best ever version of “Desolation Row” on the same CD).
And Ken, while I’m here, my real hard core Dylan mates have repeatedly alleged that Bobby has a postumous Nobel for literature in the bag, as soon as he snuffs it (the story being that the committee is too wary of his response while he’s still hanging about).
I’ll do a rendition of “Lights On The Hill” If you want Ken. That’s his best “serious” work IMO. I might also add that I sang a solo part in the Dumbleyung primary school choir’s prize winning rendition of “We’ve Done Us Proud”. Slim is pretty popular down there.
Sam,
Tell me when it’s posted and I’ll link it. I’ll promote a new genre of blog karaoke yet. With any luck it’ll be even more irritating than “fisking” (which seems mercifully to have gone out of fashion).
I’m already practising the world’s most appalling rendition of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Guns n Roses beat you to that about a decade ago, Ken.
I think I could give it a burl with “Everybody Must Get Stoned” or “The Times, They Are A-Changing”, but “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” seems a bit too much. Perhaps we could convince Tim Dunlop to do “Hurricane”?
Ken:
What software do you use to record it?
Sam,
I used Windows Media Encoder because it’s free and easy to use, and it “streams” up to 10 or 12 simultaneous streams even when the file is loaded on an ordinary web server (i.e. one without server-side streaming software). The WM Encoder can also be used as your digital recorder (select the “Capture Audio or Video” option in the new session wizard). The only other thing you need is a microphone that plugs into your PC. You don’t even need talent (I certainly don’t have any). I wonder whether we could cajole John Quiggin into recording a blog folk music session. He’s an accomplished folkie by repute, and Tim Dunlop is said to be a pretty fair guitarist too.
Download WM Encoder from here
I have the mic already. Song by tomorrow, with any luck!