Day 185: Mother, Mother by Tracy Bonham

Roderick Benson — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 23:00:00 +0000

This song was a major hit one year when I was visiting Sydney. I like the concept of this song: the loyal daughter writing home to her mother about her life and how everything is under control. The music instrumentation is very calm and collected as she phrases her letter to her Mum but then the chorus breaks out into a much more intense almost discordant tune where she reveals the real state of play “I’m hungry, I’m dirty, I’m losing my mind” before shouting “every things fine”. A clever song.

Day 22: How to Make Gravy by Paul Kelly

Rbenson — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 17:05:52 +0000

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.“

1996 – Think Bensonium

Day 185: Mother, Mother by Tracy Bonham

Day 22: How to Make Gravy by Paul Kelly