The A – Z Recordings

The A – Z Recordings
Face close up of a 55-year-old man, he has sparse pale grey hair and stubble on his chin. It is shot in black and white. The collar of a dark shirt is just visible. Behind him, mostly obscured and out of focus, is a wall with brickwork. His name is print in large letters over his forehead, the album's title starts above his left eyebrow and continues between his eyes. The print is in black lettering except the 'A' and 'Z' are in blue.
Live album by Paul Kelly
Released 24 September 2010 (2010-09-24)
Recorded 2004–2010
Genre Australian Rock
Length 378:00
Label Gawd Aggie, Universal
Producer Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly live chronology
Live at the Continental and the Esplanade
(2008)		 The A – Z Recordings
(2010)		 Goin' Your Way
(2013)

The A – Z Recordings is an eight-volume live album by Australian rock musician, Paul Kelly, which was released on 24 September 2010 on Gawd Aggie Records in Australia and Universal Import in North America. It had been recorded from a series of performances from 2004 to 2010 on Kelly's A – Z Tours in various locations. The tours led to Kelly writing his memoir, How to Make Gravy (named for the song of the same name), also in September 2010. Kelly's A – Z Tours continued until March 2012. Rolling Stone's Jason Cohen described the release as "a 106-track, eight-CD boxed set culled from Kelly's now-trademark A to Z live performances" and, with the associated memoir, Kelly "might be creating the world's longest CD liner notes" at 568 pages.

Background

56-year-old Kelly is standing at a microphone with his guitar slung over his shoulders. His right arm is bent at the elbow towards the viewer, while his left is at his hip. He wears a grey suit with an orange shirt.
Kelly performing "The A - Z Shows" in New York City, September 2011. Rolling Stone's David Fricke was at the performance, "a live alphabetical retrospective of Kelly's life's work as Australia's Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello combined, in narrative candor, trap-door wit and devotion to rock's country, folk and blues roots".[1]

The The A – Z Recordings originate from a series of acoustic concerts by Australian rock musician, Paul Kelly starting in December 2004 with 100 songs performed alphabetically over four nights at The Famous Spiegeltent in Melbourne.[2] In November–December 2006 Kelly undertook his A – Z Tour at the Brisbane Powerhouse, Melbourne's Spiegeltent, and at the Sydney Opera House.[3][4][5] On his A – Z Tours, over subsequent years to 2010, Kelly was often accompanied by his nephew, Dan Kelly, on guitar and vocals and sometimes by his then-girlfriend, Sian Prior,[6] on clarinet and vocals.[7][8][9] For some of his North American shows, he cut back his performance to only one or two nights, "the speed-dial version".[1] Kelly would provide anecdotes or background for each song, which led to his writing a memoir, How to Make Gravy (named for the song of the same name), issued in September 2010.[4] The book contains a chapter per song with the lyrics supplied followed by Kelly's description of varied topics. According to Rolling Stone's Jason Cohen, Kelly "might be creating the world's longest CD liner notes" at 568 pages.[10] It was released in "tandem with The A to Z Recordings, a 106-track, eight-CD boxed set culled from Kelly's now-trademark A to Z live performances".[10] The boxed set was issued on 24 September 2010 by Gawd Aggie Records in Australia and Universal Import in North America.[10][11] In October that year, the book and boxed set were packaged together and issued as How to Make Gravy: The A – Z Recordings.[12]

In January 2011 The Sydney Morning Herald's Bernard Zuel caught the first two nights of a four night set, he disputed the "accepted wisdom that acoustic performances were the test of a song's lasting quality" and preferred when Kelly's nephew Dan "add[ed] colour guitar or extra vocals to particular songs" or when Prior "provided scattered 'furnishings', playing clarinet, briefly bringing some operatic vocals to the party and noticeably brightening proceedings".[13] Zuel felt the first night was "lacking some energy, vocal and physical" and that "the show's highlights came in the purely solo songs about or from the perspective of women".[13] Kelly's A – Z Tours continued until March 2012.[10]

Composition and recording

In November 2011, The A – Z Recordings were featured in two parts on The Weekend Planet program on Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) with Doug Spencer presenting tracks "beside another artist's utterly different (often, wordless) take on the same subject, or closely related theme".[14] Spencer described some of the collection's tracks: "Adelaide" is a "21st century 'live' version of a song Paul wrote early in the 1980s, when his former home-city was a fresher 'wound'".[14] For the song Kelly "sings and strums acoustic guitar, with nephew Dan Kelly's electric guitar".[14] "Cities of Texas" is "spare – Paul's voice, [acoustic] guitar and harmonica – in the persona of the wind".[14] Kelly's inspirations are seeing Dallas from the front of a tour bus in 1987 and reading Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet Ozymandias.[14] "Don't Explain" is "a deliciously wry song, in persona of an older woman, brushing off her 'toy boy'. Kelly, solo – voice and [acoustic] guitar".[14] It was written as an answer song to Billie Holiday's 1946 track of the same name.[14] "Lately" is "as close to 'croon-ville' as Paul Kelly gets", and is partly inspired by Frank Sinatra's songbook. Kelly's singing and chordal acoustic guitar, is joined by Sian Prior's clarinet.[14] "If I Could Just Start Today Again" is regarded by Kelly "as his 'most precise', most perfectly proportioned song. He says he has no idea how he wrote it, 'without thought or struggle'".[14] For the track he sings and fingerpicks his guitar.[14] On "I Can't Believe We Were Married" he is joined by Dan on harmony vocal.[14] Spencer finds "Dumb Things" is a "very exuberant version, 'live' with [Kelly's] vocal and whooping and [acoustic] guitar, with [Dan] playing up a storm on ripe [electric] guitar".[14]

The second program showcased "Winter Coat" which Spencer declared was "a superbly written, bittersweet song, in which the coat lives on, long after the departure of the lover who bought it for him" with Kelly playing solo.[15] While "You Can Put Your Shoes Under My Bed" addresses "a somewhat errant longtime friend/ former flame" with Kelly providing vocals, piano and harmonica.[15] His rendition of "Maralinga (Rainy Land)" is a "[v]ery good performance of an extraordinary song. It adopts the personae of two of the (many) indigenous Australians who were irradiated when Britain dropped atomic bombs into South Australia's desert country in 1957 and 1958". Kelly is joined by Dan on electric guitar and backing vocals.[15] "Shane Warne" is perceived as a "nicely silly calypso-cricket song about Shane Warne. [Prior] plays the clarinet. [Kelly] borrowed the tune from Lord Kitchener's "London is the Place for Me".[15] "Smoke Under the Bridge" tells the story of its protagonist, 'Banjo' Clark, "a young black man in mid-century rural Australia ... [who, later] was well-known, widely respected and much loved".[15] It was delivered as an "intimate, quiet song, performed solo".[15] "Meet Me in the Middle of the Air" was performed a capella with the title "common to various blues, gospel and spiritual songs. The other words come from Psalm 23".[15] "My Way Is to You" is a "[v]ery haunting song and performance. Kelly sings and plays acoustic guitar. Nephew and co-author Dan plays atmospheric electric guitar. The lyric is – by design – equally open to 'entirely secular' and to 'sacred' interpretations".[15] "Other People's Houses" has the lyrics spoken instead of sung – except the choruses.[15] Spencer feels it is "[b]eautifully written, eventually blurring the 'he' and the 'I' and the 'child, then' and the 'adult, now', still haunted thirty years later".[15]

In a 2002 interview with Debbie Kruger, Kelly indicated that the song, "To Her Door" (1987) took seven years to write.[16] Kelly uses the same protagonist in "Love Never Runs on Time" from 1994's Wanted Man and then in 1996's "How to Make Gravy" from the extended play of the same name.[16] All three tracks appear on The A – Z Recordings.[17]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Paul Kelly except as shown.[17][18]

Personnel

Musicians

Production details

References

General
Specific
  1. 1 2 Fricke, David (20 September 2011). "Australian Songwriter Paul Kelly Sings the Hits, from A to Z". Rolling Stone (Jann Wenner). Archived from the original on 18 May 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  2. ↑ Ziffer, Daniel (8 December 2004). "Paul Kelly". The Age (Fairfax Media). ISSN 0312-6307. OCLC 224060909. Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  3. ↑ Bonus, Jade (9 October 2006). "Learn Your ABC's with Paul Kelly". thedwarf.com.au (The Dwarf (Matthew David Elmer)). Archived from the original on 17 June 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  4. 1 2 Kelly (2010), pp. flyleaf, 1–4.
  5. ↑ "A–Z Shows Paul Kelly @ the Famous Spiegeltent at The Arts Centre". LiveGuide.com.au (Liveguide and Dload Pty Ltd). Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  6. ↑ Horsburgh, Susan (4 June 2007). "Song Lines". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). ISSN 0312-6315. OCLC 226369741. Archived from the original on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  7. ↑ "Artist Roster – Stardust Five". The Harbour Agency Pty Ltd. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  8. ↑ Roberts, Jo (8 December 2006). "Kelly Stands and Delivers". The Age (Fairfax Media). ISSN 0312-6307. OCLC 224060909. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  9. ↑ Collins, Simon (4 November 2008). "Paul Kelly A – Z". The West Australian (Western Australian Newspapers Ltd). ISSN 0312-6323. OCLC 60621434. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Cohen, Jason (30 March 2012). "Paul Kelly Writes 568-Page Liner Notes for Career-Spanning Box Set". Rolling Stone (Jann Wenner). Archived from the original on 18 May 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  11. ↑ "The A – Z Recordings – Paul Kelly". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  12. ↑ "How to Make Gravy: The A to Z Recordings / Paul Kelly". Trove. National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  13. 1 2 Zuel, Bernard (22 January 2011). "Paul Kelly: A-Z, Part 1". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). ISSN 0312-6315. OCLC 226369741. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Spencer, Doug (31 December 2011). "Paul Kelly: A to Z Recordings, Plus Related 'Strangers' – Part One (Revisited)". The Weekend Planet. Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Retrieved 19 May 2012.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Spencer, Doug (14 January 2012). "Paul Kelly: A to Z Recordings, Plus Related 'Strangers' – Part Two (Revisited)". The Weekend Planet. Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Retrieved 19 May 2012.
  16. 1 2 Kruger, Debbie (December 2002). "Paul Kelly Words Are Never Enough". APRAP. Australasian Performing Right Association. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
  17. 1 2 "The A – Z Recordings". iTunes. Apple Inc. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
  18. ↑ ""To Her Door" at APRA Search Engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2012. Note: Requires user to click on 'Search again' and enter a song title, e.g. TO HER DOOR.
  19. ↑ Kelly (2010), p. 5.
  20. ↑ Shedden, Iain (18 September 2010). "The True History of Paul Kelly". The Australian (News Limited (News Corporation)). Retrieved 19 May 2012.
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