The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

i was in canberra
or was it south america
i was young so much younger than today
darkness…returning…..
my father sits at the piano
bolan sits in a field
kathy sits at a bar talking to frank clarke
david neil sits in the window of a record shop in kingston
ford aurora just used my song reptile to advertise their amphibi-car
nestles just used my song terra nova cain to advertise their future bar
i am not selected as a school prefect due to past misconduct
(being naughty the whole time)
the shopkeeper presses drugs into my hands
a downtown hag sells me a big old bag
ricky is there too though he wouldnt have been born yet
hes rehearsing some players in an i-studio in london
my fathers jamming away and laughing
i take a swig of absinthe
i set a flame the honey wine
some white american chick gets her breasts out in slow motion
a missile comes hurtling towards the stage
i see it with my eagle eye
someone tries to explain something to me
but it just makes me angry
on the screen in the hotel keith richards is coughing
i drive around red hill lost looking for my school reunion
all my friends are professors now
they drink expensive red wine n live in red hill
i drive up in my ford aurora
yeah i got one free but its a test model
and in canberra after baby grandes rehearsal
my window is all frosted up
and in bangkok where the metal is cooking
and in new york some big copper handcuffs me
and in london some bouncer swears at my mum
and i lie low in my bedroom avoiding homework
and peter koppes is staying with us
while the family have all gone to uk
and at night we record things on his stereo cassette player
with a pair of little black mikes
he puts his guitar through a phaser pedal
wow
summers just around the corner
the girls are buzzing round my ears at the olympic pool
its a bit mixed up i admit
my my
up in sydney the nights are warm
in bondi flats we sit around plotting
in germany we stop at a cafe and i buy chocolate n some chips
in germany they have naughty videos playing in the room for 10 marks
hey can you lend us 10 marks, banga?
in germany the muesli has real hazelnuts
but in canberra
its either corn flakes or rice bubbles
mum buys one of those variety packs
like 10 little boxes of cereal
lets see the fruit loops will go first
then the oks
then the coco pops just like a chocolate milkshake only cruncheee!
then last will be the sugar frosties which no one likes
in london there is no breakfast
we dont get outta bed until in the afternoon
in america we get up early to catch our flight
in school the dark clouds have rolled in
the bullies hound me n the girls aint found me
i listen to hawkwind man
i read the hawkwind log
i go to a great party one night
i smoke galaxy cigarettes they are short n cheap
pages fly off the calendars
the screens flip n multiply
i saw your brother during lunch
we play cards it was raining hard
i surf the waves and the nets
i get caught up forging musical notes
i lose money up a vacuum cleaner
at christmas time
i deliver for
gold, frankenstine and murphy
my song asks me for permission to go on a date
hows this date ….1215…?
thats when magna carta signed the barons n the knights
and like bad king john went to one in the norman charts
and king dick the lyin’heart was at the cru-de sade
and lo it was blurred
and the national anthhyme was played
and in sydney the weeds cluster round lowboys door
and in sydney where theres two brawls for every boy
and someone gets smacked in the head honey
and i pour out them damn sugar frosties even tho their so stale
and i park by the molonglo river for a while
i lot of people i knew
will be dead by now i guess
it doesnt seem fair…most of them were kind …..
my wisdom teeth never come thru
i got a blister from playing bass seven nights a week
i got a rash creeping up my thigh
i got delusions of grandeur and visions of sugarplums
christmas round the corners
christmas in the air
am i a year too early
or
a year too late…?

ttb knocked this up in a spare nano-sec
written performed n filmed ttb studio 2026
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this video is dedicated to j w h and the hu dosties

xxx

sk

doing interviews today n yessaday
people say
hey sk
howcome you lasted so long
i say
luck
luck
luck
luck luck luck luck luck
its all luck
the role of the dice
the fall of the cards
the stars line up
the little balls come down the tubes (mr humphreys)
how did you write utmw?
luck
how do you look so young?
luck
how did you meet marty n peter n tim
luck n luck n luck
what the fuck is luck?
we talk about fuckin’ luck like its solid
as if luck really exists…well, does it…?
i been on winning n losing streaks
i lost cards against guys on winning streaks
you cant stop em
if you had 4 kings
they had 4 aces
if you had a royal flush
they had a royal flush in spades
and confidence….
what part does that play in luck…..?
i got hit by a car
oh thats bad luck
but i survived
well thats good luck
but my arm was busted in 3 places
oh thats bad luck
but i got it fixed for free in a swedish hospital
oh thats good luck
now its a bit shorter than my other arm
oh thats bad luck
but i can still play bass
oh thats good luck
and luck just seems to be playing a game with me the whole time
i have narrowly avoided losing my life more than once
luck was on my side i guess
something ‘ll get me eventually
of course
when my luck runs out
when i push my luck too far
i never been that lucky at winning things in lotteries or anything
never won a horse race
rabbits feet are disgusting things…how can that be lucky?
black cats
walking under ladders
pinches of salt
pillars of salt
orpheus dont look back
lot, dont look back
dylan, dont look back
christ dont look down
laksmi give me luck
let me be the fortunate one
but winners never learn
only losers learn
when i won i never learned one thing
only winning
but losing is a better teacher for ya
coz thats when you find out
when your lucks dribbles away to nothing
go on you cant take a trick
the shop is closed
the line is busy
the phones switched off
the time has expired
the limit has been reached
the sand runs out
time
luck
time
luck
which one will you run out of first
no good having all the luck in the world
if you got no time
what good is time without luck…?
youd just wish it away
we’re lucky to get born at all…or are we?
i’m lucky to have a career in music, arent i?
sheer luck…i could have been a professor in ancient greek
i could have been a public servant getting ready to retire
i could have been a postman…i would have been good at that at least
i’m lucky my fans love me…you do love me dont you?
i went kinda bad during the nineties
i hit a ten year streak of bad luck
but i’m back n i’m old but i’m on
well nearly always
i’m a self obsessed olde bastard arent i?
lucky for some of you who like hearing me rave on
unlucky for the envious ninnies
and the disgruntled surplus carpers
who trawl thru my voluminous output
getting angrier n angrier for petty little reasons
i polarize em
love me or hate me…its all the same
vishnu has enlightened men who have hated him
because the intensity of hatred is more important to god
than the nothingness of apathy
so you who hate me so fervently
writing silly absurd threatening spiels no one will ever read
(not even me…i just deletey deletey)
so am i lucky having all these people being so interested in me
yes n no
i dunno
everything becomes clearer and simultaneously more obscure
my luck seems to have increased a little for a moment
oh but time
time running away n out
55
self obsessed
i am
i am i am
who wouldnt be if they had this self
half good half bad
good luck n bad luck mingling freely
i mean
i made some of this luck myself
i made my sausage fingers do walking basslines
but they didnt wanna
i sat down for weeks n months n years
writing n writing n writing
i was obsessed with music
i was obsessed with myself
i merged my 2 obsessions
if one is self obsessed is that a crime?
can one help it?
maybe the second world war mighta blown a bit of that away
i know a few self obsessed people
and i know a few who are but pretend not to be
and i know some who are nicely self obsessed
and some who are nastily self obsessed
in truth i am probably no more self obsessed than the next ninny
except i have my little platforms
to bleat my tedious self obsessive twaddle from
except some punters find amusement in my trip
some find empathy
some find symmetry
some like my tunes
some like my voice
some like my humanity..ie..i win n i lose in equal parts
some like my band
some like my luck
pretty lucky because i wasnt a very good singer when i started
i wasnt…its true
im not too bad these days
but when i started it was pretty iffy
i’m lucky i could pull it off
and its lucky that i was lucky
but not lucky enough to have a lovely pure sweet voice tho
like joe blow or blah mc blah does
fuck i dunno
some of my detractors try to paint my fans as fools
but theyre all bloody architects n teachers n dentists n marine biologists
where else are you gonna get the kinda lyrics i write
these guys n gals dont wanna hear about just any old thing
lucky for me
when you come home
n you had a long day
prosecuting villians
drawing up constitutions for small countries
engineering canals
engineering root canals
delivering verdicts or babies
studying fucking fish or whatever the hell it is
you turn to…
cmon
thats right
because my songs take you in
they dont treat you like a fool
my songs are landscapes that you enter
and you try to move through the houses and streets
thru the fields n forests n eras of my songs
you pick up hints
you pick up clues
you unlocking these doors
you realise
these arent kilbeys doors
these are my doors
now im unlocking my own doors
because youre smart right
you need some stimulus with your rock
who ever fucking said rock should be dumbed down?
well guess what then
im dedicated to taking it to the nth degree
im gonna rock like a fool
n spit out my take on life
with its big words n its hazy lazy cryptic mirrors
with its bullshit
everything has its bullshit
but at least mine is exotic bullshit
it aint no blah blah blah
im the rocking professor
im the doctor of rock
im the senior dean baby
thirty years not out
i must be doing something right right?
comments

i whipped this up on the way home from perth
hope you like it
coming soon roddy radar interview

sk

ricky is in w.a. for a while
hanging out n producing a record
he bumps into richard lane
keyboard player with the stems and sometime promoter
tho promoter is a silly term to apply to richard n fambley
who are total hippies
they drive around in a truck with a portable little cabin on the back
kind n nice and helpful n dreamy people
anyway richard books me 3 gigs in wa
ricky picks a band n rehearses em
n blow me down with a feather
they are tight
they are “on the money” as we showbiz types say
they already know all the songs by the time i get there
they made hardly any mistakes
shaun hoffman on drums is like a controlled explosion
or hes as exact as a drum machine
his hi hat work is great
he locks it down n he doesnt wander
no extra malarkey
hes like a full back in a team
and he doesnt let the timing slip
his son adrian 18 is playing bass for the 1st time
normally that would probably disqualify him for being in my band right there
but i saw adrian sing a song with the triffids
and hes got a lotta soul
his bass playing was
exact tight and almost error free
he was not nervous at all
a very matter of fact guy
someone should study the hoffmans
cos their kids are gifted and kind hearted
thats right
gifted AND kind hearted
i kept waiting to see this kids darkside
cos boy he was pretty good on the old bass
i heard him play guitar
he can sing in tune EVERY time
and i heard him tinker on the piano n it was
pretty good too
now the hoffmen were verily team players
and they did their jobs well
ricky of course was doing exactly the right thing
so we immediately had a good band going
and we acquitted ourselves well
considering we had 1 rehearsal
anyway
freo was a good gig for me
i enjoyed myself thoroughly at the fly by night club
a great venue indeed
easy going
fremantle is very easy going
not really in any rush or anything
anyway
i rarely say nothing went wrong
but nothing went wrong
i now have ricky n the hoffmen as my band when im solo
(when in season)
we got good houses in perth n freo
every single person i met was laid back n nice
no one laid any unpleasantness upon me
and i in my turn was fairly cordial
the freo crowd are really the coolest bunch
no pretenses no bullshit
the kids are all playing music
the airs fresh
the seas blue
the houses are quaint n great
i had me a real good time
ricky did a huge job as MD
the hoffmen were a dream rhythm section
richard was not yer run of the mill promoter
and the audiences were very very nice
maybe the west is the best after all..
how strange….