Paul Kelly has found song inspiration in the works of poets, including one of ours.
As he straps on his guitar, Paul Kelly ponders the tricky bits of his new song. “There’s fresh paint on this one,” he says with a grin. “I’ve just got to get all the kwardles and the oodles and the ardles and the dardles and the doodles right.” And then he’s off, singing about Tom and Elizabeth and the farm and that avian chorus of The Magpies, the touchstone New Zealand poem by Denis Glover.
Aptly, Kelly has rendered the rural tale into a toe-tapping country tune. It’s all part of a phase the veteran Aussie is going through – turning poems into songs. Kelly started a few years back with a project of song-ifying Shakespeare’s sonnets. Now, with his new and 24th studio album, Nature, he’s put tunes behind works by Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Philip Larkin, Walt Whitman and Gerard Manley Hopkins, plus songs derived from his own poems.
The onomatopoeic Glover poem, though, is for a festival show where Kelly adapts poems featuring birds into songs to be performed with a classical trio. There’ll be Aussie black cockatoos rubbing feathers with English finches. And, it’s hoped Glover’s (estate permission pending), “because it will be good to have a New Zealand poem”.
Bu hikaye New Zealand Listener dergisinin October 27 - November 2 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye New Zealand Listener dergisinin October 27 - November 2 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
First-world problem
Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.
Applying intelligence to AI
I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.
Nazism rears its head
Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.
Staying ahead of the game
Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?
Grasping the nettle
Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.
Hangry? Eat breakfast
People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.
Chemical reaction
Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.
Me and my guitar
Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.
Time is on my side
Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?
The kids are not alright
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.
