Covid Island Discs

Day 22: How to Make Gravy by Paul Kelly

So on Thursday I posted a song by probably the greatest wordsmith of rock and roll, Bob Dylan. Yet this Australian gives the great Dylan a run for his money in my opinion. For my UK friends, his music is really worth getting into if you like poetry set to music. He has so many great songs but in this little number, he manages to smuggle a recipe for making gravy into his lyric (“Just flower, salt, a little red wine; don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for that sweetness and extra tang“). Like Bob Dylan’s song Hurricane, this song tells a detailed and complex story about a guy spending his time in prison over Christmas.

Another clever lyric clause in this song is: “and you’ll dance with Rita, I know you really like her, just don’t hold her too close oh brother please don’t stab me in the back. I didn’t mean to say that, it’s just my mind it plays up, multiplies each matter, turns imagination into fact.“