The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

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….

i am in west australia doing my solo tour
ricky maymi on guitar
shaun hoffman on drums
adrian hoffman on bass
im playing my guild 12
we are playing tonite after rehearsing yesterday
we sound really good too
please come along and cheque us out
the weather is warm n sultry
had a delicious vietnamese last night with ricky
the song tam in fremantle
had a sweet potato n pumpkin roll for lunch
we are staying on the top floor of a freo guesthouse
its really nice
very quiet
perth is 3 hours behind sydney
i got a minor case of jet lag
the flowers next door are magnificent blue pink and red
richard lane the promoter of tour is in the stems
we are playing a couple of david neil numbers
my strings are quite old
we did an interview at 8 am proving rockers can get up early
there are posters on the wall in here
of every old aussie rocker in the book
i fell asleep for a while on the way here
i looked out and imagined triffids songs being enacted out there
a woman at a mall bumped into me accidentally n said sorry
i charged my coffee to my new debit card
i hope i remember the words to all the songs
ricky did a great job teaching the band my songs
i had an anzac cookie in bunbury which i funnily called bumbury ha ha
our van is a hyundai not a kia as i previously thought
im wearing the periodic tables t shirt
a lovely male fan in seattle gave me
i dunno what it all means
but at least im getting a nuff magnesium now
and plenty of zinc alloy
we have our soundcheque in 1 hour n thirty minutes
or 1 and a half hours, if you like
we will roadtest our material
see if it is pure 100 %rocknroll no other rubbish ingredients
because rock must be rock…its carved in stone, isnt it?
so that we may rock…..all so that we may rock
my computer battery is about half empty
im wearing black undies with white piping
ive had 2 cups of coffee n its making me wee a bit
ricky didnt bring his wah wah or his ragini
adrian is playing bass live for the first time
hes very good i must say
at 18 i was useless n you all know thats the truth
shaun uses drumsticks called hotrods
i wonder why coffee makes me wee so much?
i cant play the drums myself but i play the tambourine
which is much harder to spell than drums
thats why i wanted to originally play the cor anglais
(literal translation : a slightly distorted crumphorn)
i like instruments that are difficult to spell
like base guitar because your the base of the pyramid
and lead guitar because you play it on a lead like a dasch hund
and symbols are always more legible
ricky is sitting next to me now
a big blog huh ?he says
the bjm have black undies on their ryder
but what do the black ryder have on their undies??
the bjm have black sox on their rider too
thats to put all their speedballs in so the feds cant bust em up
does anton really work for the reserve bank?
ricky is having a snooze
i want to too but the coffee got me restless
you see im rest-less…english is easy isnt it?
i came top of my english class once
n now im the arguably best lyricist in bussellton wa
arguably
my knee aches a little
i shood do yoga soon
please come n see us
all you thousands of time being readers in bussellton wa
if only one tenth of you would come
we would have at least a pair of shoes here toniote
a little dog just ran in n sniffed my leggy
i made a sound like psssst n it fled
but its owner who runs this pub gave me a stern look
mind you i bet my legs do smell nice
especially to little white dog
or maybe a tapir would enjoy my finest calves
rickys got a little beard
he looks like dylan off the cover of infidels
type type type
people walk thru our dressing room like its a thorough fare
i hope the little doggie does not come back to snifter me
i might upset bc n give it a little kicky next time
imagine if i ran around sniffing strangers knees
its totally unthinkable in a town like bussellton
perhaps the dog was trying to sniff my legend
after all im an old aussie legend now …
a motion was passed in the senate: TTB = LEG end
must wee wee soon but lavvy is so far away
lucky i is not type of rocker to become disgruntled n wee
in a bottle n leave it hidden in some festering place
until the whole fucken gig has to be demolished
to get rid of the galloping strpto-cocco n strepto-rococco
and the germans in my eppigloppalis
i still got my adenoids though
sometimes they crash into the earth leaving craters
ricky wakes up briefly
someone downstairs says cheque 1 2
over n over in a cartoon aussie accent
with all the hum n ring n feedback
my ears love it
please come n see us if i have tempted you
bussellton wa tonight
live in the showbiz capital punishment of south west west australia
in the south west hemisphere a long way from the north, paul
yeah well
see ya!
sk