| Author | Message | ||
     Thomas |
I always found the whispered "black hat" rather chilling, in context with the rest of the lyrics . Could Grant mean it to be the husband's ghost instructing the widow to keep wearing the black hat? | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
This has always been one of my favourite Go-Bs songs and I consider it to be the third installment of McLennan's semi-autobiographical trilogy that began with "Cattle and Cane", followed by "Unkind and Unwise". "A hole in the ground spits dirt at the sun" is simply one of McLennan's greatest descriptive lines, up there with "the sound of a finished kiss" from The Wrong Road for my money. I like the displaced tone of the whole thing, contrasting with the chorus in question that to me, as you say Thomas, is either a command from the husband's ghost or something the widow of the song carries with her (a black hat of mourning perhaps). More chilling than the whispered "black hat" is the "ch-ch" on the fade out. Don't know why, but I always think of it as being the loading of a shotgun: maybe something to do with the rural isolation of the lyrics and the closeness of death. The overall jauntiness of the music, especially the carnivalesque sounding accordian make it one of the more cinematic of the Go-Bs numbers: like a (very) short movie of Les Murray's "A Widow in the Country" poem (interesting, David McComb referenced this poem as the genisis of the song New Years Greetings from the Black Swan album of '89). | ||
| thomas |
Thanks for the insight Pete, I'll definitely check out this Les Murray. Unfortunately here in the U.S we get a more Bavarian-esque dilution of Australian culture, so it's good to get a different perspective. I always thought the ch-ch were cicadas rather than shotguns, but I assume there must be plenty of both in rural Australia. | ||
| Mark Ilsley |
I like the idea that the black hat must be a Mourning Hat. It fits perfectly with the rest of the song. I think I can ask Lindy about this one. It might be quite personal so please don't put her under any pressure to respond. Anyway, she may not know the story. Love the reference to Four-X.  | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
Don't pretend to know much about this, but the poet Les Murray has a lot of detractors here in Australia, most notably for our current embarrassment of a prime minister enlisting him to write a preamble for a recent constitution. There is something definetly old-hat about his writing: the rural conservatism that McLennan has mentioned about his upbringing is one attribute that springs to mind, so it's very fitting for this song then. I still recall having to write an essay on Murray's famous poem, "The Broad Bean Sermon", for VCE literature which didn't exactly endear me to his heroic pastoral descriptions (a very common British colonial theme to write of: very alien and irrelevant to most contemporary Australians who live in concentrated urban areas, most of who have probably never set foot on a farm). | ||
| Mark Ilsley |
He won the T S Eliot prize in 1998 for his submission called Subhuman Redneck poems. I think I know how he feels. Party politics aside, rural conservatism is often mistaken for a predisposition that is considered backward, uneducated and banal. | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
Hi Mark. I'd just like to clarify that I wasn't making a sweeping assumption about country Australians; rather, I was illustrating that Mr. Murray was chosen for his old-fashioned tendencies for he's more in tune with the outdated notion of the "Aussie-battler" than his contemporaries. To his credit, I recall an interview with him around the time he was to write the preamble and he was embarrassed by Howard's insistence that he use the hideously masculine and inept term "mateship" throughout. Hope I didn't offend you Mark. My closest childhood friend grew up in the sticks and he's the most worldly person I know. | ||
| Mark Ilsley |
You didn't make any sweeping assumptions, Pete. First, I live the life, then I try to understand it. | ||
| Mark Ilsley |
Lindy replied that she doesn't specifically remember the song, but thinks it may be written about Grant's mother. Read Dusty in Here. See the relationship? "I know your face, I share your name" |