“Children, get wise to ways of the world, cast a dark eye as the sunshine spills, coz if the girls don’t get you, then the government will.”
Such an underrated song-writer that is Dan Kelly, his opening lines for opening song Safeway Holiday (Get Wise) from this his second album.
So seems tomorrow is the U.S.A. election day I’m going to going to do this one for my Classic Albums post today. So it is for all the Americans going to vote or not going to vote, you would have to be mad not too this year but the whole election has been totally mad anyway. It’s an Aussie album so it’s not really for them because do Americans listen to anything other than Americans? I’m an Aussie so I think at a guess they’re going to be more Aussie albums on this list of mine and/or have more than any other country in the world, I don’t understand people who don’t like music your own country. Well, quite a few times I had that thing of people saying to me “Why do you listen to all this Aussie music? Something else is better!” or something like that but it’s like they are all saying they wish they are somewhere else. Mostly these type of list have just UK or USA albums so it’s like nowhere else in the world makes music so I’m making it up for with this one. I was very disappointed in say and this is just one of a lot that do this but that book called 1001 albums you must hear before you die only has like not a dozen Aussie albums in it, it’s edited by an English journo, off course and chosen by a panel of music critics so I guess, I’m saying here on my thingy that journos and music critics are just full of shit and why can’t someone like me who’s I think I’ve listen to just as much music as them write something like this? Anyway…
Drunk On Election Night is the song to play for any and every election from now on because, well no I will not just go on about all that. What I will say, is you don’t know the song was hand picked by Neil Young on his website based Living With War: Songs Of The Times in late 2006. It’s just only of of the great tracks from the album and yes it’s a little bit more well known than the rest but they’re all pretty great and I think it’s got to be Kelly ‘s best album. Dan Kelly is from Queensland but moved down to Melbourne to play his music and his uncle is Paul Kelly so Dan also plays in his band too. Since Drowning album he dropped The Alpha Males band and when solo and had two pretty good albums Dream and Leisure Panic. You also might know Dan Kelly was an Australian bushranger and outlaw from 1880’s and younger brother was Ned Kelly but that’s a different person, you know?
Babysitters of the World Unite somewhat titled after The Smiths songs but the chorus is great because it goes “A fool for a lover” repeat that a few times, it’s great to singalong with in front of your partner and point at them and even yourself. The title track has some brackets in the lyrics booklet which has plastic surgery jam in between them so that’s kind-off what it’s all about or not. I Will Release Myself (Unto You) has a wicked line in it that goes “I’m not like Delta Goodrem, born to try” and then Fire And Theft and My Brains Are On Fire! are middle songs and has the same word in both titles, Theft start like this “I had a notion to drive this bomb to the ocean” and tell story about a girl and a car, that’s what Aussies call their old cars: bombs, it’s not a real bomb and then Brains has a wicked chorus “I’m smokin’ like a burning tyre.” The next few titles pretty much tell you want they’re about but are great listening too but I’m just quoting lyrics again so just listen to it yourself again or if you haven’t yet, do it now. The whole album goes for a little over 55 mins. with the twelve tracks. It really does reminds me of seeing Dan live for the first time, he play solo and was just opening for Clare Bowditch who’s known more for that TV show than her own music now.
It’s just been now ten years since this album has come out in 2006 but it’s only just been put out on LP for the first time and you can buy your vinyl here. In Melbourne a few months ago Dan Kelly And The Alpha Males got back together for the first time in a long time to play a special one-off show just for this album, playing it all in full. After this album Dan’s put out those two pretty great solo albums but Drowning In The Fountain Of Youth has got to be a classic album by now, right? The Alpha Males band are Arron Cupples on guitar and “dealt with any computer problems” as it’s listed on the album’s liner notes, Dan Luscombe on keys and slide guitar, Lewis Boyes on bass and Christian Strybosch on the drums plus the old bass player, someone called Gareth Liddiard as special guest playing his saxophone.
Inpress the Melbourne weekly magazine/street press who’s now just called The Music named it the album of year in 2006, then in 2007 he got Best Male Artist ARIA Award nomination with the album. Also it was up for Triple J‘s J Awards album of the year and in 2011 for the same radio station’s The Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time in the Industry List it came in at number 97 but missed out on the listeners list.
Now today it’s my own 21st entry on Classic Albums tag. I never said it’s going to be this or that number of them and is it too late to say that now? I think it’s just going be all the albums that I think I can write a little something about because I love them so much and that’s it really so we will see what number I get too in the very end, I guess?
Drowning In The Fountain Of Youth track listing is:
1. Safeway Holiday (Get Wise)
2. Babysitters of the World Unite!
3. Drowning In The Fountain of Youth
4. I Will Release Myself (Unto You)
5. Fire and Theft (The Landscape Gardener’s Dream)
6. My Brains Are On Fire!
7. Back On The Booze Again
8. Mail Order Bride
9. Drunk On Election Night
10.The Lonely Coconut
11. Vice City Rolling
12. Star Of The Sea
My Classic Albums are, so far:
Tales From The Australian Underground – Volume 1 & 2 by Various Artists
Station To Station by David Bowie
Unplugged In New York by Nirvana
Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs by Marty Robbins
Henry’s Dream by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Whatever You Love, You Are by Dirty Three
In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd
Songs Of Love And Hate by Leonard Cohen
Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones
Silence Is Sexy by Einstürzende Neubauten
Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam And The Ants
Drowning In The Fountain Of Youth by Dan Kelly And The Alpha Males
So, this was the reason I started this blog. The idea is simply to write page/post about one of my fave album each that I consider a classic album. Please leave your comments below about each album because I would love to hear what you think about each album too, cheers!
a1000mistakes 