The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

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the slow slow crack
that ever widening gap between …….
a brother of a friend was a builder
he examined the foundations of my house at rozelle
he looked up
and in a very aussie way he said
its a slow crack
of course i had to name my next record that
so i did
it was originally only an ep
but like those old myths
it grew and grew and grew
the first batch was all 8 track
all done for the purposes of a record
this was like in what 1987?
an e.p. (this was in the days of vinyl)
a strange thing to do i guess
from a songwriter who was after all
bursting at the seams
with songs
why not an l.p.?
who knows …?
i didnt think things thru so well back then
(not like now….)
the songs were a mixed bag of things
fireman was an extension on that old song mockingbird
i figured it was justa bout public domain by now
that idea….
and i heard about this kid i knew who was a bit of a pyro
joining the fire brigade
and i wondered on whose side:
putting em out or lighting em?
and it turned into a single
released on hot red vinyl
and lo it went to #1 on the indy charts
and slow crack went to #1 too
woman with reason is a remarkable song
i had loved it since i first heard it when it was a minor hit for
an aussie band called company caine (geddit?) in about 1970
i found a cassette copy of their album
product of a broken reality
and flogged it in my car
i decided to do a “harvest” like version of the song
i subsequently became friends with gulliver smith from company caine
he wrote that song for his wife who was very nice
his wife was the first vegan i’d ever really met
no animal products drugs tobacco alcohol caffeine etc ever
when i met her she was about 40 and had amazing line-free skin
that was translucent
favourite pack of lies is indeed “the dawn poems”
recycled from earthed
something that means something is a very typical kilbey song
from mid to late eighties
with the music n chords n lyrics n what have you
ariel sings…..ouch….somebody shoulda stopped me
a minute without you is so so and feels like filler
surrealist woman blues is unlike anything i did before or since
tried to play the piano a bit like my father used to
starling st was originally recorded for a flexi disc in the u.s.
it ended the original record on a downbeat tom waitsy vibe
transaction ep was then added to slow crack
transaction was a song recorded on a 16 track during a day off in new york
i reckon its pretty good
it rocks along like kiss or something
consider yourself conquered is a noisy complicated proggy thing
its got a good guitar solo
like a ghost was a song i wrote that got covered in 1981
john foy asked me to rerecord it for this ep
its not a bad song is it….kinda knew romantic
song of solomon is me once again trying to play the bible as rocknroll
wondering what the music these cats listened to was like
i guess mine is nothing like whatever that was
mine is more like a hollywood bible vibe i suppose
good lyrics tho
finally
added on to slow crack was this asphalt eden single n extra tracks
although asphalt eden was recorded in 1985 at 301 studios
the big studios where the church used to record
i did it with john bee who had done some church stuff
asphalt eden was a bad attempt at something walker brothers-ish
quantization was in its early stages i guess
this is the process where things would fall exactly on the beat
in this case everything got quantized
and it very much works to the songs detriment
never come back was a very nice little folky song
it remains hidden here on this record
tho i reckon it coulda been a hit for johnny cash or someone
shell is typical early eighties kilbey fretless bass n analog keys
sensitive lyrics
a lot of people like that song
listening back to the s.crack it sounds better than i remembered
the artwork was by a guy called guy crosley
and it was incredible
a bloody amazing painting
its not such a bad disc for a hodge-podge of ideas
20 odd years later
i kinda enjoy it…..