This song is only humourous in a poignant way. It is a very sad song reflecting the sense of loss by separation at (normally joyous) Christmas Time. The prisoner tries to inject himself into the family occasion by reminding them that he usually makes the gravy and he wants to be remembered, if only for that. Perhaps a listen to the original recording will better reflect the true sentiment. This song makes me want to cry. Paul Kelly told of his decision to write such a Christmas song by reflecting on the song White Christmas, which in reality has a wishful theme - "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, just like the ones I used to know". It is a actually a lament. Love your channel. Thanks for showcasing the wonderful Paul Kelly.
I agree wholeheartedly about the poignancy of this beautiful song about an ordinary family man who stuffed up and ended up in prison for a stretch that keeps him away over at least one Christmas. Missing your family get together at this time when scattered family and assorted friends fly in to a home from all over Oz is very relatable and memories can be sad but also humorous which is sad because everything new happening this time will be missed. Whenever this is sung at a live concert the atmosphere is more happy because every one loves this song (and demand it) because it helps them, or has helped them, through bad times for whatever reason and they are getting through it, or the bad time is now past and all of us just appreciate this shout out for understanding and hope. There's also an old Aussie saying that seems to have disappeared since the arrival of 2000. Aussies ( my dad included) used to say it when yet another problem knocked them back. " You can't help laughin'. "
Holy crap.. this hit right in the feels... as an Aussie stuck overseas due to covid hearing paul kelly, one of the most iconic song aussie song writers of all time, had me cutting onions.
@@ltlgaming2669 SE Asia mate - Unfortunately getting home isnt an option as it would mean 2 weeks quarantine in Aus then 2 weeks here when i returned for work and thats even if Aussie allows me to leave the country as apparently they arnt letting people fly out right now . Actually my Nan passed away a few weeks back and couldnt even make it back before she passed because by the time i made it through quarantine it would have already been too late.. over this covid stuff. Stay well mate!
Mate, that’s our national anthem and you witnessed greatness watching that. Poetry in motion. Watching PK live is a spiritual experience. He is the greatest of Australian storytellers.
Thank you for featuring this song. Two items of polite feedback. I’ve read PK’s autobiography and another bio and there are no Allman brothers in his influence sphere. The guy has varied interests but his centre of gravity is Bob Dylan. The second point is I dunno how you read this as humorous every Aussie takes it sincerely and cries into their beer over it.
pk himself played it , freshly minted , to a friend. when the friend was weeping copiously at the end, PK said " you know, it's a comedy? " friend replied piteously " I know, I KNOW." It's in a PK autobiog.
Paul Kelly actually has a Ted video on the making of this song and how it came about. He was asked to do a Christmas concert and the song he wanted was already taken so he decided to write his own and used white Christmas as an inspiration for the story. The reason we Australians love this song so much is because it’s the only song that’s not a ridiculous parody that represents and Australian Christmas, every other carol is about snow, hot chocolate and roaring fires when that’s so far from our reality looking at 40 degree days and using fans as Christmas trees. As far as other Australian artists go you should check out Tash sultanas “blackbird” also the Tesky brothers are a band I think you would really enjoy. It’s great to see someone sharing some Australian music because we have such a huge music culture here but it’s not highlighted internationally because it’s not “mainstream” but we have some truly talented musicians ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DnGPxmxVTuE.html
I love this song because it humanises people in prison. The aching sadness that comes when you're imagining everyone at Christmas. We do play it on 21st December to keep justice in our hearts.
This is a great song, and Paul Kelly has MANY. Hes a great story teller who will lure you in with dry humour and detail and then get you with lament and melancoly. Flight of the Conchords are great Kiwi band, but definitely in it for the comedy only. Cheers for talking about this song :-) Maybe have a listen to 'To Her Door' or 'Dumb Things'..
Really not sharing Michael's thoughts on this one. I can see the humour in the song in certain lines but it's not a humourous song. It's really sad, touching and human. It's an important Christmas song because the narrator is, possibly for the first time in his life, acting entirely unselfishly. He's genuinely sorry for what he's done and how he has hurt the people he loves. Clicked because I love the song and listen (and tear up) each Christmas. Listening this year to remember that lockdown Christmas in the UK isn't as bad as christmas in jail.
I saw a TED talk with Paul Kelly, he said it was mean’t to be funny and was surprised when he brought a tear to the eye when he first played it. I found that surprising!
This song is by the Australian legendary songwriter and poet PK. At first listen, its easy to see why people see the humour throughout the lyrics, the sadness, sorrow and love for his family only starts shining through after multiple listens, which many aussies, like myself, have heard this masterpiece numerous times - and absolutely it brings a tear to the eye. I think we’ve adopted this as an Aussie Christmas song due its multiple layers of emotions involved. We have a little giggle at some lines, the yummy roast on Christmas Day, with all the trimmings regardless of how hot it can be, him being in jail/prison and won’t be with his family some of whom are coming from across our magnificent continent, and reminding us of that importance of being with family at such a time, once all said and done. He is also looking forward to getting out, and making amends with everyone he has hurt doing whatever put him there This song is sooo Australian ❤❤❤
I discovered Paul by finally buying Gossip. I found a cassette while living in Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A. I own most everything up to Words And Music. I saw him in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the Spring of 2001. I loved it although he only played six songs I knew. That changed quickly. Paul is The Man. I met a guy at the show who said he had so loved Paul Kelly that he moved to Australia! That’s love! ♥️
Easily the best AUSSIE Christmas song. As great as Gravy is there's nothing quintessentially Australian about it (apart from a single reference to Queensland).
Hilarious! Like Flight of the Conchords! A guy calling home from prison filled with sadness, regret and paranoid thoughts. That’s always comical. You might wanna get the lyric sheet and revisit this one. Paul Kelly is awesome! I see him every time he comes to California, not often enough.
Paul's Messengers (the Coloured Girls in Australia) opened for Crowded House in the US in 89 or 90. I've beena fan ever since. He's a treasure! His "I've Done all the Dumb Things" has been my theme song my entire adult life. I urge you to dig deep into his catalog.
That was 1987. Paul and the Messengers played a club show in San Diego on an off night from the tour, that I was lucky to catch. Seen him dozens and dozens of times since.
Thank you for including this Aussie legend, Paul Kelly is such an amazing writer and I love the feeling in his performances. There’s definitely also a strong living continuation of the Irish/Aussie way of storytelling coming through in Kelly’s songs. Melancholy and humour all at once. Love him - you laugh and cry at the same time with so many of his songs ✨ Oh ps - you can add another Aussie friend here to your growing list 👍😆
Lets not forget the Bull sisters who join him on the vocals at the end. Two of Australias greatest backing vocalists (formerly of The Black Sorrows and also Pauls vocalists for decades as well as great solo careers!) All a solid class act
The backup singers are Vika & Linda Bull, they're the best backup singers in Australia & have worked with pretty much everyone. This song came about when Paul Kelly was asked to be part of a christmas album with a bunch of other Aussie artists but all the existing christmas songs he liked were taken, so he decided to write his own. There's a great interview where he describes the phone call telling the record company about the song 'well... it's set in a prison & doesn't have a chorus'
enjoyed that thanks 🥃Thank you to Aussie fire fighters who spend their "winter season" here in CA Very Happy Christmas🎄 to down under shorts sandals muscle tops Hot Summer Santas
Hey Michael I could be an Aussie mate of yours! :) Gotta say, I cant hear this song without crying. The storytelling is classic Paul Kelly, deep and meaningful. Poor bugga stuck in prison on xmas day while his family is making the gravy and everything else without him :( You can hear how much he misses them and how much they mean to him while he is 'standing in line'
“To Her Door” is another Kelly song, that will tug the heart strings, “ Dumb Things” is a great Kelly number on all Aussie playlists. Please review any please. Yes you need so much more Australian music.
Look at how long.paul Kelly has been creating music!! Axis of awesome and flight of the.concords are amazing but Paul Kelly is just a pure artist and came along 20 years earlier. He's a classic old school Australian artist in the true sense
Thanks for giving Paul Kelly some love...he and Neil Finn released an excellent live performance a number of years ago that is sublime...check that one out.
Love this song and so glad you seemed to get it! Paul Kelly was asked to write a Christmas song and this is what he came up with. Christmas from the perspective of someone in jail! PK Isa legend!
This song is the only Christmas song that represents Christmas down under there’s no snow here even in winter it’s probably really hot and with our European backgrounds we still go with the traditional roast dinner.
Hi Michael, I quite often read through all the comments on songs, vids etc that interest me. This is my favourite Christmas song, so naturally, after listening to your reaction, I scrolled through the comments. The fact that I usually find 3 or 4 comments and your reaction has given rise to closer to a hundred, should tell you two things. Aussies are passionate about their musical icons and you've got it completely wrong! There is no humour in this song, NONE! There is no Allman Bros twang in the riffs. The song is right up there with the sadest songs in history. I'm 58 yrs old, been listening to this song since its release and it still can make me cry because my job, although not a jail cell has kept me away from family often over the past 20 years. The true deep heart of the song actually comes in the outro, I believe. "I'll be making gravy, I'll be making plenty, I'm gonna pay em all back". This is where he understands just how many people , other than himself, that he's let down. And he vows to make amends. To show another example of just how powerful a line this is in a "sad song" it reminds me of what I feel is the most romantic line ever in a "love song". Yet, like Paul's jailbird, Glen's Wichita Lineman never gets to be with his beloved but can succinctly show all his love in one line; "I need you more than want you and I want you for all time". Such a definitive, more romantic way of just saying infinity! Do some research on PK, especially on the history of why and how he wrote this song and you'll become hungry to listen to more of his work. To me, he's actually more like an Australian version of Leonard Cohen. But regardless, an amazingly talented songwriter in his own right.
I think Aussie humour is often so ubiquitous that it is kind of a staple of any story telling we do so doesn't stand out for us. I'm okay with an outsider picking up on it and was open to the point he was making, and he acknowledged it was hard for him to be as emotionally invested in it being not an Australian.
Today is Gravy Day here in Australia. I just came here to wish you a merry Christmas, Michael, and shed a little tear over this song. Funny in some ways, yes, but truly poignant too
The story is aching. Stuck in jail and his family is together for Christmas and there’s nothing he can do about it. Except part with his recipe for making gravy. Gets me Every Single Time.
A Christmas song about a bloke in prison, for a country with half it's history built by convicts. The other half of our history is 80 thousand years of Aboriginal culture (that Paul Kelly is a great advocate for). He's one of our best! Cheers for the reaction, mate.
He is iconic , from Melbourne Australia… Stkilda/ Elwood … near the beach and probably the coolest suburb in the world … Paul Kelly is perfect australia 🇦🇺 ❤love that you have paid respect ❤
This was surprising on so many levels. I’ve heard this song hundreds of times, even watched this version at least a dozen times. I didn’t expect to get teary watching it again, here, now. It’s certainly worthy of a reaction from a song writing point of view but it’s such a basic guitar song that I never expected to see it reacted to be a guitar player like Michael. Paul Kelly is indeed one of Australia’s greatest ever poets and song writers
Paul K. is a master story teller. A 20th/21st century balladeer. This song bring tears to my eyes every time. It was compelling to watch how you slowly transformed from listening to the music to listening to the story Try "If I could start this day again" if you want your guts ripped out and you heart to sink.
We just had a family singalong to this song yesterday before Christmas lunch. It's an iconic song, full of love and pain. It was actually originally published on a Myer Spirit of Christmas CD in 1996, pitched as a song about Christmas without any chorus and sung by a guy in prison.
I have to report that I cried my eyes out when I first heard this song, I was no doubt feeling a little fragile but this is actually a very sad song, the guy is stuck in prison and imagining what his family and friends will get up to and how he will miss it, for him it is poignant and wrenching to think of, for the people outside, 'just another Christmas'-the humor is ironic and parochial but I think a heartfelt, sad ballad.
As a side note, the two ladies who joined Paul towards the end of the song are two sisters, Vicka and Linda Bull. They have supported and joined a number of famous Australian artists and are quite famous here in Australia in their own right.
Right Michael. This is the bloody 4th time I have played out this vid. Can I please explain that there is a saying in Australian working class vernacular. The expression relates to getting a good job and making really good money...it goes "making gravy". That is the metaphor in this poetry. Turns out the poem is a wonderfully positive tale of a man waiting to get out of prison so that he can get a good job and pay everyone back when he is "making gravy".
It’s sung as “a letter” home from a guy in Jail, absolutely beautiful and easily the greatest Australian song writer. I think it’s taken as humour but it’s a sad/lovely song. PK has some beautiful songs, but it isn’t humour.
It's got a great sense of humour but few songs hit me harder in the feels than this one does. It's real. It's human. The guy is in jail for christmas and just longs to be with his family. It's also so deeply Aussie in soul and spirit.
The acoustic version doesn’t do it justice. It needs that slightly overdriven, jangly electric guitar sound to give it the urgency at the end of each verse. The original version works so well due to that.
You have a style similar to Albert Lee I actually saw Paul Kelly in Toronto at the El Mocambo He brought a full band with a lead guitarist that played incredible
Wouldn’t be an Australian song without Vick’s and Lynda Bull making an appearance. If your going to do an Australian song your going to have to do. Slim Dusty song. Pick any song off one of his 120 albums.
Stumbled across this video and am so glad. This is one of my favourite songs and is so meaningful. To hear the breakdown and view from you Michael has been great. As an Australian living abroad, it's songs like this which make it so very important. I love this song, and the story of the guy being locked away in the prison and missing Christmas with his family really hits home.
nah bro you 100% dont get it. not saying you didnt try or were terrible... it's just that just because we share a language doesnt mean you can pick up every nuance from our side, just as we can't pick up on yours. it comes from living that life. this song has me in tears every time.
What a pleasure and a joy watching you listen for the first time. The original version has a funnier line in it here, 'I hear that Mary's got a new boyfriend, I hope he can hold his own. Remember the last one, what was his name again? Just a little too much cologne.' Humour and pathos abound! Ps. He pre-dates flight of the concords by many a moon. I think of him as our answer to Bob Dylan ;)
Australia used to have an excellent pub band scene in the 80's and 90's, I would love to see you do some Midnight Oil (not beds are burning their hit), they are a really interesting band musically and performance wise. King of the mountain or US forces or "The Dead Heart" or "Read About it".. Thanks, and you have many Aussie friends..
@@starlightshimmery - Oh yes, I'm with you both on this. I remember seeing the following bands in PUBS or small festivals. - Cold Chisel, Aussie Crawl, Midnight Oil, The Sunny Boys, Rose Tattoo, AC/DC, The Angels, Hoodoo Gurus, Moving Pictures, Ice House, Men At Work, The Divinyls, Little River Band, Sherbert, Dragon, Mi-Sex, Redgum, Goanna ....and that's just off the top of my head. In the late 80's I remember when I was travelling from Melbourne to Cairns on holidays, I saw 1927, Noiseworks, Crowded House, Black Sorrows and so many more. There was another band who sounded similar to The Hoodoo Gurus that I also used to see a lot, I can't think of their name. I look back now and think of all the great times I had, especially along the coast around New Years Eve. Even the cover band were rocking, I was a fan of Captain Spalding and the Party Boys. At the time, I always felt like the USA & UK had better bands and songs, but I certainly do not feel that way these days.....our bands were the best.
Paul Kelly is our National Treasure he is at every disaster relief, and boost young Talent whenever he can includes them in his big shows. Check the New Years Eve Sydney Concert Amazeballs on ABC iView. Brother is in Jail for those who missed it. Ironic Humour is 100% Aussie,
this song makes me tear up every time. thanks for looking at one of our national classics - its not really humorous, it is pain, and longing and missing family at Christmas for an incarcerated dude.
Amazing how you can break down the song, great work Michael. I’m Australian and Paul Kelly is a legend, he tells our history through music, he has recorded so many wonderful songs throughout the years. Vika and Linda Bull on backup vocals are also a mainstay. My suggestion for another Australian is my all time favourite Shane Howard a brilliant singer/songwriter in his own rite and also founder of legendary Australian band Goanna, for him it’s all about the music, not fame and fortune, it’s about speaking out against injustice, a champion of our own indigenous owners of our country and the environment. Check him out!
If you're interested in reacting to another beloved Australian Christmas song this year, I can enthusiastically recommend Tim Minchin's 'White Wine in the Sun'
Aussie content yay! We come from convicts. This is a happy tune to us 😃 please do more Paul Kelly. Deeper Water, Everything’s turning to White’, Darlin’ it hurts, When I first met your Ma. So so many.
Let me open by saying I love how you played little fills in between the chords. The fact you’ve never heard the song before but it fit so well shows you’re a serious player. On to the song, this is from the perspective of someone writing to his brother from prison. Not really meant to be humorous haha.
This song is quite applicable to many families for Christmas this year on the east coast. There has been a very recent lockdown put in place (which has funnily enough not allowed my brother to visit for the family Christmas), I can see a lot of people relating to the frustration this recent hindrance has brought for Christmas plans.
Xmas is about the love you have to give. Paul's song says that in a unique way, from a bound and humorously different perspective. We all feel it. Every one of us at Xmas wants to show it, but some of us for untold reasons can't. Love from Queensland Australia....
Paul Kelly is the greatest singer songwriter Australia has ever produced so far. I highly recommend learning a lot more of his tunes!! Hunters & Collectors is a great band during the 1980's and 1990's which you might like as well. Holy Grail and Throw Your Arms Around Me are 2 of their biggest hits, with the latter being a favorite Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder!! Crowd House is also another great band that formed in Melbourne after Spilt Enz from New Zealand broke up. Don't Dream It's Overreached #1 in the USA.......
It's a shame you weren't given some context for this song. It is truly a sad song of frustration and regret. Paul is an amazing songwriter who crosses many generations of fans in Australia. Different memories of growing up in Australia I can align with a Paul Kelly song. Such an Icon.
Discoverd this song last year! great track, great musician. Not super well known (at least I never heard of it and I don't know anyone who knows it). Glad you picked this one up!
Hey Angus - it' another Aussie here called Angus who happens to like Michael.a lot (Michael - i won the Supro Comet you gave away around Christmas time a few years back. So happy to see Paul Kelly making an appearance here - put a big smile on my face. I've been in New York for 15 years and really miss home around this time of year. Really enjoyed this! Cheers and Merry Christmas. Listen to the studio version as well Michael - also a great version. Merry Christmas.
Ive always loved this song as an Aussie,... it depicts the non glamorous reality of the Christmas season, and i sought even more comfort in this song when i was living 1000s of Km's from home for several years and couldnt make it to see my family in my home town. Paul Kelly is a veteran singer/ songwriter who has many many hits, and is a mentor to the struggling entertainers making their way up the ladder today. Please check out his "God Told Me To" DVD filmed at Toowoomba Qld Australia.
Michael thanks so much for playing some Paul Kelly. It's interesting that you point out the humour in the lyrics.... I always find the song so poignant. I cry every time I hear it. I think the album version brings out the sadness more than this version. I hope you get to investigate more of Kelly's work (he has a huge catalogue)... I recommend 'To Her Doors. Thanks again for your wonderful channel. (Tracey V)
Paul Kelly explains that this Charity song came from his love of “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin, The singer is powerful because the singer is “dreaming of a White Christmas”. He’s not there! That’s where the emotion comes from.
