Paul Kelly, How to make gravy

Paul Kelly, How to make gravy

How to make gravy is based on a concert which goes for four days, where Paul Kelly sings his songs from A to Z. The book is an adjunct to this with memoirs around each song. For me 'How to make gravy' was rather nostalgic, much of the music was familiar, released during my teens and beyond.
Song writing
If you are a budding song writer, poet or writer then this book is an excellent primer. Much of the book was taken up with the location and circumstances of how a song was written, often describing the agony of birth getting the right words for a song. What amazed me was the often spontaneousness of a song yet on other times the literal years a song takes to write. Hardly ever was a song written the same time every time. One of the constant themes that came out was there is not that many original ideas out there. Usually just reworked old ideas.
Drugs
One of the early confessions in the book was Paul Kelly's admission of drug use. It rattled me a bit. Paul Kelly has been one of my hero's so the writing about his drug usage tarnished his reputation for me a bit. But it gave me an understanding of drug use and how people can go down that slide. It was interesting also how it distorts reality. All up it was an honest admission which was part of Kelly's past and makes up a large part of him. I suppose there is a lot of people who have drug habits that you don't know about. Usually the prescription type.
Australian place and culture
One of the reasons that I identify with Paul Kelly is his Australian imagery. Many of the places and experiences that he sings about are things which I've experienced. 'Summer rain', the smell of the Australian bush when it rains in summer and that beautiful smell for example. Places, people and history which I can identify with. Australian Cricket hero's, injustice done to aboriginals who were the original owners of the land. In some way it makes me connected to the book.
repetitiveness of tours
Often written about in the book is the tours. There is a certain monotony that come out; the bus, the camaraderie on board, sound checks at the next venue and then moving on. I got the impression that the tour was enlightening with new experience and places yet filled with dread with the distance from routine and loved ones.
Family
I enjoyed how Kelly looked at his past, his family. There was a richness which he knows of his roots which most people don't have any knowledge of. His Catholic upbringing merged with Irish and Italian roots and how it has permeated most of his life, makes for fascinating reading. As well as an understanding of his angle on the songs he writes.
Overall if you have an interest in music and song writing you wont be disappointed. If you enjoy Paul Kelly's music you will love it.

Paul Kelly's How to make gravy

Cover of Paul Kelly

Just finished Paul Kelly's book 'How to make gravy', you can read my review here

Oral tradition

Image via Wikipedia

There have been lots of interesting stories in Paul Kelly's 'How to make gravy' The book resolves around his songs and often how they came about. I found this quote paragraph interesting especially when you examine the biblical 'oral' tradition.

A couple of weeks later we arrived in Washington, just before Christmas. I went to a bookshop, found a copy of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and thumbed through it to find 'So Much Water so Close to Home'. I was keen to compare it to my song, expecting to have remembered the story imperfectly and made up some of my own stuff. But I was surprised to read that the details in each were exactly the same - the men, the mountains, the whisky, the cold river, the body - right down to the story being told from the point of view of the wife of one of the men.

Its intereting that Paul Kelly read the book a number of years prior to writing the song. yet as you can read the details were uncannily similar.  This got me thinking about oral tradition which a lot of the old testement was based on as well as the gospels. Which where decades after the actual events.
Memory is an interesting thing. There are some things I recall well,  other which needs prompting and some which I'm sure is lost for ever. I think it is one of the 'mysteries' with the Gospels, the gap between the events occurred and the documentation of what happened. Then adding the 'iconic' status of Jesus which had happened in that gap. Will we ever know....