The Australian songwriter who still feels like a total beginner
In short: Despite winning 14 ARIA Awards and being hailed as one of the finest songwriters in history, Paul Kelly maintains a humble stance on his craft. He describes the act of songwriting as mysterious, claiming he hasn't quite "nailed" it yet after nearly 50 years of chronicling the Australian landscape.
Born in 1955 in Adelaide, Paul Kelly's musical lineage is as rich as his discography. His maternal grandfather was an Argentine-born Italian opera singer, Count Ercole Filippini, a leading baritone for La Scala in Milan. This heritage intersected with Australian history when Filippini toured the country in 1914, staying to marry one of his students, who became Australia's first female symphony orchestra conductor.
Kelly's own career path was marked by a transition from the Melbourne pub rock and drug scene of the 1970s to becoming a national cultural icon. After early years with groups like The High Rise Bombers and the Dots, he moved to Sydney in 1985. It was there he formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, a name later changed to Paul Kelly and the Messengers for international releases to avoid racial interpretations.
His body of work is defined by its versatility, spanning folk, rock, country, and even studio-oriented dub reggae. Kelly has been noted for his ability to tailor songs to different vocal ranges, even providing material for a 2002 tribute album featuring 14 female artists. His lyrics are celebrated for capturing the vastness of Australian culture, a feat recognized by his 2017 appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Despite his accolades, Kelly's journey included significant personal hurdles, including a heroin addiction during the early 1980s and a broken jaw from an assault in Melbourne. He has expressed a complicated relationship with his early recordings, once wishing he could put his first two albums with the Dots "in a big hole," even as those same years laid the groundwork for his enduring legacy.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Paul Kelly (Australian musician)
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