My Kind of Scene uncovers the past and present of Australian music. This is part 2 of our Aussie soul deep dive, from the '60s & '70s pioneers, to the innovators of the '80s, '90s, 2000s and beyond.
Find the episode playlists on Spotify & YouTube. Send questions or compliments to mykindofscenepod[@]gmail.com.
MKOS acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of the land many of us call Australia. Warning: This episode contains the names and voices of people who have died.
Sources:
My Kind of Scene uncovers the past and present of Australian music. This is part 2 of our Aussie soul deep dive, from the '60s & '70s pioneers, to the innovators of the '80s, '90s, 2000s and beyond.
Find the episode playlists on Spotify & YouTube. Send questions or compliments to mykindofscenepod[@]gmail.com.
MKOS acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of the land many of us call Australia. Warning: This episode contains the names and voices of people who have died.
Sources:
Intro 00:00:00
π΅ Welcome to My Kind Of Scene where we uncover the past and present of Australian music. I'm Cara Diaria, indie musician and music nerd, bringing my unique perspective to the hits and misses, the movers and shakers, the goodness and greatness that make the Australian music scene, my kind of scene.
I'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to the past, present, and future traditional custodians and elders of the land many of us call Australia, and give a warning that this episode may contain the names and voices of people who have died.
In our last episode, we dove deep into three original queens of Australian soul: RenΓ©e Geyer, Marsha Hines, and Venetta Fields. On this episode, instead of going deep, we're going wide. We're going to take a look at who else was pioneering soul music in Australia in the sixties and seventies, and who's been carrying the torch for the genre since. This might be our longest episode yet, so buckle up. It's gonna be quite some ride!
What is soul? 00:01:21
π΅ I realized after the last episode that we hadn't really defined soul music. If we're talking about Australia's leading proponents of the genre, then we should probably lay out what we mean by that. It's been a while since I've used an actual encyclopedia for anything, but the online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica has a definition that resonates with me. It defines soul music as a <quote> "... term adopted to describe African American popular music in the United States as it evolved from the 1950s to the '60s and '70s." <Unquote>
Soul descended from rhythm and blues music pioneered in the 1950s by artists like Chuck Berry π΅, Little Richard, and Ray Charles π΅ β all African American artists. And note, no women in this list, although there were women, like Willie Mae Thornton and Ruth Brown π΅, at the forefront of rhythm and blues.
This early R&B evolved into rock 'n roll, with its prominent guitars and accentuated backbeat π΅. Britannica asserts that, <quote> "...if rock and roll, represented by performers such as Elvis Presley, can be seen as a white π΅ reading of rhythm and blues, soul is a return to African American music's roots, gospel and blues. The style is marked by searing vocal intensity, use of church-rooted call-and-response, and extravagant melisma <unquote>.
Melisma is when you sing more than one note on a syllable, sometimes called a vocal run. Aretha Franklin was one of the first artists who popularized this style. She, alongside James Brown, are artists who defined the soul genre π΅. Another characteristic of many quintessential soul recordings is the use of a horn section, something Brown employed to great effect.
Driving the rise of soul were rival π΅ record labels, Memphis-based Stax in the American South that gave us artists like Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Etta James, and Wilson Pickett. And up north, Detroit's π΅ Motown that nurtured Stevie Wonder π΅, Marvin Gaye, The Contours and The Supremes π΅. Elsewhere in the US, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke, Donnie Hathaway, the OJs, and the Jackson Five were releasing some of the great soul records.
π΅ Over time, the genre evolved, with some artists like Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye injecting a sense of social consciousness into their work.
One more important quote from the Encyclopedia Britannica: <quote> "... to varying degrees, the power and personality of the form were absorbed in disco, funk, and hip hop, styles that owe their existence to soul." <unquote>
So, when we talk about soul, we are talking about the gospel and blues-rooted music that came to prominence through the sixties, as well as the styles that developed in subsequent decades π΅.
1960s & '70s Australia 00:06:53
So, what was happening in Australia during the 1960s? Was soul popular? Well, Australians were enjoying quite a bit of this music, but not really playing or recording too much of it themselves. The more <quote unquote> "white" rock and roll style gained popularity on the radio and in dance halls. Without its own gospel tradition, soul music didn't seem to resonate as much with the broader Australian population. With hindsight, we can say there was almost certainly some conscious or unconscious racism at play, with radio stations, record labels, and even the purchasing public eschewing black music trends.
π΅ In part one of this episode, we talked about Renee Geyer, the singer who did have some success with soul, but this was a bit later in the 1970s.
One Australian artist who experimented with soul and funk in the sixties was Sydney π΅ singer Kerrie Biddell. Growing up a pianist, she became a singer after suffering a collapsed lung and rheumatoid arthritis that affected her piano playing. Her first live performance was backing English blue-eyed soul singer Dusty Springfield on her 1967 Australian tour.
Springfield encouraged her to become a lead singer, and Biddell went on to front bands, the Echoes, The Affair, and The Daily Wilson Big Band. Ultimately Biddell moved away from soul, persisting through crippling pain to carve out a career as a distinguished jazz singer, but not before leaving us with some great soul-funk π΅ interpretations, like this version of Sly Stone's "Sing a Simple Song." Check out that high note!
Another soulful young π΅ Australian in the sixties and early seventies was blues, soul, and jazz singer, Wendy Saddington. Growing up in Melbourne in a working-class family, her first record purchase was 13-year-old Stevie Wonder's album With a Song in My Heart.
She scored her first regular club gig after attending a show in Carlton, where she realized, <quote> " Oh my God, I can sing better than that." <unquote> The next week, she asked the club's manager if she could sing. She did, and was asked to come back every week. Saddington went on to front psychedelic soul and rock bands Revolution and James Taylor Move, before joining rhythm and blues proponents Chain. In 1970, she became co-lead vocalist of Jeff St John's Copperwine. Saddington only had one solo single, released in July 1971, co-written π΅ and produced by Billy Thorpe and Warren Morgan of the Aztecs.
Despite sounding more like a last single than a first, "Looking Through a Window" reached number 22 on the Australian charts. Saddington paired a hippie aesthetic with a punk attitude, and was a feminist icon and gay ally before such things even really existed. In 1972, she was on an all-too-familiar destructive trajectory with alcohol when she was introduced to the Hare Krishna movement, which she credited with saving her life. She became known as Gandharvika Dasi, and only performed sporadically from then until her death in 2013.
It's worth coming back to π΅ Jeff St John for a moment β the other singer of the band Copperwine that Wendy sang with for a while. Jeff was one of the few Aussie vocalists in the sixties who resisted the British invasion instead covering American soul hits that were relatively unknown in Australia.
St John's powerful, resonant voice belied his physical challenges β he was born with spina bifida, which consigned him to a wheelchair for most of his life. And boy did he rock that wheelchair. It's such a joy to watch clips of him on YouTube doing spins and wheelies as he belts out a song. He developed a loyal live following, fronting several bands, the best known being Copperwine, Yama, and The Id.
Jeff St John and The Id were certainly soul pioneers. In Jeff's own words, <quote> " I don't know whether The Id actually introduced soul music to Australia, as is often claimed, but we were the first to make it a commercial success. We were not only the first soul band β a seven piece was a large outfit to have around at the time β but we were also the first brass soul band." <unquote>
St John had some Australian chart success with The Id's album, Big Time Operator, from which this Wilson Pickett cover is lifted, hitting the top 10 in three cities, and two hits on the singles π΅ charts β " Teach Me How to Fly" with Copperwine in 1970, π΅ and solo single, "Fool In Love" in 1977. While his music spanned rhythm and blues, rock, psych and funk, Jeff St John's soulful voice was always at the center.
People my age might be more familiar with Colleen Hewett from eighties TV shows like Orange is the New Black prototype, Prisoner, or from 2000s theater productions like The Boy from Oz or Chicago.
But the singer and actress first became a household name in the seventies as a pop queen who injected a plaintive soulfulness into her performances. In 1971, she was cast in the Australian production of the musical, Godspell, and "Day By Day" became Hewett's first and only number one hit. Hewett was voted TV Week's Queen of Pop in 1972 and '73, the same honor bestowed upon Marcia Hines later in the seventies.
Throughout the seventies and eighties, Hewett balanced her music career with popular roles in TV shows like Homicide, The Truckies, The Flying Doctors, and, as mentioned, Prisoner. Through the '90s and 2000s she focused on theater, but in 2015 released her first album in 14 years, Black and White, which debuted at number one on the ARIA Jazz and Blues chart. The album was a stripped-back departure for Hewett, exploring topics such as domestic violence and the taboo African and African American heritage of her grandmother and the racism she experienced in regional Victoria.
Quick hit early soul groups 00:18:46
Other Aussie outfits leading the charge for soul music in the sixties and π΅ seventies were:
Thoughts on early Australian soul 00:26:53
A few things I'll say about these Australian groups flying the soul flag in the sixties and seventiesβ¦
One: it was a lot of dudes. That's reflective of the music scene at the time, which, following the 1964 Beatles Australian tour was swarming with groups of guys trying to recreate that Mersey beat magic. This also serves to highlight how special and groundbreaking women like RenΓ©e Geyer, Wendy Saddington, and Colleen Hewett were in this era. They had the confidence and skill to stand side-by-side with the boys in a very male dominated pursuit.
Two: it was almost entirely white musicians, in direct contrast to the soul music coming from America. The big names in American soul were all Black artists. In Australia, it was mostly white artists doing their best to emulate the sound of those Black musicians.
Which brings me to point three... It was an imitation. The early Australian soul scene lacked innovation. The few groups and artists who were inspired by US soul artists were rarely writing their own music or developing the style to have a unique Australian sound. This may be why it didn't become very popular, where the Australian rock 'n roll sound was developed by bands like The Easybeats, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, and later, Daddy Cool AC/DC, and Skyhooks to name a few. Aussie soul remained fairly stuck in its roots, or pushed towards a more psychedelic sound that merged with rock.
And finally, four: it was completely on the fringe. Whether a racist hangover from the White Australia policy enacted in the first half of the 20th century, or for some other cultural reason, commercial radio stations gave a lot less airtime to many Black musical trends like soul, funk, or disco, than they did rock or pop, even when those trends were extremely popular overseas. So Australian audiences were not used to some of the sounds that those few clued-in musicians were being inspired by.
π΅ In my research, I did uncover one exception, to the white dude rule at least! Great name, too β the Hot City Bump Band was formed in late 1973 and led by Chicago-born African American singer, Chuck McKinney, who, like Marcia Hines, came to π΅ Australia to perform in the musical Hair, and his wife, white Sydney-born singer, Maggie McKinney, who he'd met during the run of the show. When the musical closed, they joined up with local musicians including The Mixtures' drummer Mick Holden, and West Indian percussionist, Robert Ellis.
Disco queen Marcia Hines' label took a chance on the Hot City Bump Band, and their critically acclaimed debut album, Come Together, was released in mid-'75.
π΅ Third single, the smooth, mid-tempo number, "Do What You Wanna Do" was their biggest hit, reaching number 13 on the Melbourne charts. They performed this on Countdown and, thanks to the internet, we can now enjoy this lonely but beautiful example of diversity in Australian soul. Hot City Bump Band went on to support Gladys Knight & The Pips, and The Temptations, before disbanding in 1976. Later, Chuck McKinney toured as a backup singer for John Farnham and appeared on his 1990 Chain Reaction album, and Maggie was an in-demand session singer herself, providing backing vocals for RenΓ©e Geyer, Marcia Hines and Jimmy Barnes. Small world, hey? Or at least, small country!
1980s soul + Barnes + Bulls 00:32:26
So, what's happened since the seventies? As American and British soul splintered through the eighties and nineties into progressive soul, funk, R&B, disco, pop, hip hop, acid jazz, new jack swing, and neo-soul, Australian soul kind of followed suit. Perhaps encouraged by the popularity of old-school soul in hit movies like The Blues Brothers and The Commitments β which, by the way, were some of my first conscious experiences of soul music β there were a few artists that carried on the old-school soul tradition.
These were very much in the minority in the eras of pub rock, new wave, alternative, and techno, and there were a few that started to break out and bring their own flavor.
π΅ In the early eighties, a Sydney-based band brought a tight, modern sound to some R&B classics, and brought the same flavor to their growing repertoire of originals. Led by groovin' frontman, "Continental" Robert Susz, The Dynamic Hepnotics released a four-track EP, Shakin' All Over in 1980. The next year, original single π΅ "Hepnobeat" was featured on the mini-album Strange Land, produced by Ross Wilson of Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock.
The energetic live band gathered momentum in the thriving eighties pub and club scene, and in '84 they had their biggest chart success, the top-five Australian hit, " Soul Kind of Feeling" APRA's most performed Australasian popular work of π΅ the year. A live album released at this time didn't set the charts on fire, reaching number 66, but did quite literally set the stage on fire! As well as live renditions of covers and originals, the album included the sound of fire extinguishers, used to put out a fire under the stage as the group performed at Melbourne's Billboard nightclub. After one more album, the π΅ group disbanded with frontman Robert Susz, forming soul/R&B groups The Mighty Reapers and Continental Blues Party. Other members went on to perform and record with Glenn Shorrock, Doug Parkinson, Ross Wilson, Mental As Anything, Ganggajang, The Whitlams and The Necks. π΅
Meanwhile, in Adelaide, a young bass player named π΅ Peter Flierl returned from a UK trip enraptured by British soul revivalists Dexy's Midnight Runners.
He placed an ad in the local newspaper seeking like-minded musicians to form an eight-piece soul-pop band. I know from personal experience that this is a fantastic way to start a band, having done almost exactly the same thing about 25 years later. Get inspired at a concert, post an ad β in my case on local music website, Melband β and form a group with a large number of like-minded strangers, most of whom would go on to be tremendous bandmates and lifelong friends. Shout out to The Good China!
π΅ But back to the early eighties, Peter's horn-driven band called themselves The Dell Webb Explosion and explode they did, being active for only 20 months. Their debut release, Searching For the Young Soul Rebels included some Dexy's covers alongside soul classics.
Their first single, "One-Way Love," found a wider audience, and their live show was generating major label interest, but by the time their second single was released, the group was starting to fracture. By the end of 1983, they'd called it quits.
π΅ In part one of this episode, one rock singer's name kept coming up and I want to talk a little bit more about him now. Legendary Scottish-born singer Jimmy Barnes may have made a name for himself as a rock singer in the seventies, fronting Cold Chisel, but it was in his solo career in the eighties and nineties that he really let his soul shine through. You might remember from part one, his chart-topping double-platinum 1984 debut, Bodyswerve, contained the backing vocals of both Renee Geyer and Venetta Fields. This mostly rock album was sprinkled with soul classics like this Sam Cooke cover, "A Change Is Gonna Come."
After three more number one, rock albums, Barnes showcased his love of the genre with Soul Deep, a full π΅ album of covers of hits by Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder, the π΅ Supremes, Tina Turner, and yes, that spectacular Sam and Dave cover with John Farnham, featuring brother-in-law Diesel on guitar. Barnesy also π΅ duetted with Diesel on Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me."
π΅ Almost a decade later, after even more successful rock albums, Barnes released Soul Deeper, this time celebrating songs from the Deep South. He followed that with an album of live soul covers. π΅ Another studio covers album came in 2016, Soul Searchin', which became Barnes' 11th number one album in Australia, tying him with Madonna and U2 for the equal second-most Australian number one albums behind the Beatles, who had 14.
Since then, Barnes has had another three number one albums β four, if you count the 30th anniversary reissue of Soul Deep, so you can do the maths. Jimmy Barnes currently holds the record for the most number one Australian albums, a fact not hindered by his regular soul sojourns.
While favoring soul covers, Barnes did occasionally experiment with originals, like this 2005 duet with his π΅ daughter, Mahalia Barnes, "Gonna Take Some Time."
Speaking of family collaborations, we talked about the Bull sisters, Vika and Linda, pretty extensively on our siblings episode, Closer Than My Closest Friend, but it's worth mentioning them again here.
Although their studio π΅ recordings rarely go into classic soul territory, you do get the occasional funky number, like this one from 1999's Two Wings, and you π΅ don't have to try too hard to hear their gospel roots come through, showcased gorgeously on this track from 2020 album, Sunday.
And shout out to my uncle Dean for answering the call I put out to you, my listeners, asking you to send me your favorite Aussie soul tracks. I just had to share his π΅ recommendation β another wonderful duet from the music trivia show, RocKwiz, in which Vika pretty much steals the show from You Am I's Tim Rogers, on this version of The Rolling Stones', "Gimme Shelter."
1990s experimentation 00:46:00
In the nineties, a few brave souls experimented with soul, funk, and their new π΅ cousin, acid jazz. Cut to 1994, the year that swamp rockers, The Cruel Sea, swept the ARIAs. A Sydney dance-funk band called π΅ Bellydance had their debut album, One Blood, nominated for Best Pop Release, alongside Girlfriend, Sound Unlimited, Tony Pearen and Peter Andre, who ultimately won the award. Now there's a snapshot in time!
Bellydance's nine members included keyboardist Scott π΅ Saunders, also the keyboardist and spoken word vocalist in acid jazz band, Directions In Groove, or DIG. DIG had two Australian top-10 albums with 1994's Dig Deeper and '95's π΅ Speakeasy, and their track "Futures" won an APRA award in '96 for the Most Performed Jazz Work.
π΅ Around the same time, Dylan Lewis, the quirky host of ABC TV's experimental Saturday morning music program, Recovery, was delighting Melbourne funk fans, including my 18-year-old self, with his band, The Brown Hornet, and their novel and energetic live show.
2000s retro revival 00:49:23
π΅ Following the turn of the millennium, as overseas artists, Macy Gray, π΅ Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, and Duffy, brought retro soul to the charts π΅ all over again, and neo-soul artists like Maxwell and Erika Badu reinvented the genre, Australians continued to follow their lead.
Australian R&B singer Daniel Merriweather emerged in the early π΅ 2000s, first appearing on a track by Australian dance act, Disco Montego. In π΅ 2002, he was signed to a local label, which connected him with English, Grammy-winning super-producer, Mark Ronson, famous for his work with Amy Winehouse.
Ronson signed Merriweather to his own π΅ label and produced the 22-year-old's debut solo single, "City Rules," which featured New York rapper Saigon, The Roots' drummer Questlove, the Black-Eyed Peas' horn section, and members of Beck's backing band. "City Rules" was nominated in the inaugural Best Urban Release category in the 2004 π΅ ARIA's.
The following year, second single, "She's Got Me" β also featured on Ronson's album, Here Comes the Fuzz β was nominated for the same award, and turned it into a win. π΅ Merriweather, went on to co-write and co-produce Melbourne MC Phrase's debut album Talk With Force, before being featured on a π΅ track from Mark Ronson's album of retro soul covers, Version; a Smiths' cover, "Stop Me," which climbed to number two on the UK singles chart.
In π΅ 2009, Daniel Merriweather released his debut album, the Ronson-produced Love and War. It entered the UK album's chart at number two, off the back of two top-10 singles, and produced a return visit to the ARIAs podium, this time as Best Male Artist. Did I mention this album had a song π΅ featuring Adele on it? Yes. The Adele, then fresh off the success of her multi-platinum debut album, 19. Following this peak, Merriweather popped up on a collaboration here and there with a hip hop artist like Urthboy, Diafrix or Bliss n Eso, but didn't π΅ release any subsequent solo work for years.
A couple of new singles surfaced in 2020, potentially signaling a new album, but nothing has yet materialized.
π΅ Another soulful male singer, a little more on the rock and blues side, is Dan Sultan. Sultan's heritage is Irish, Arrernte and Gurindji, the latter two being Australian Indigenous nations on his mother's side. He grew up in artist enclave Fitzroy, where he first started performing, and soon found a like-minded writing partner in guitarist Scott Wilson, who co-wrote and produced Sultan's 2006 roots and rock debut, Homemade Biscuits.
Single "Your Love Is Like a Song" won a Deadly award β these were the annual awards recognizing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievements β π΅ and album track, "Roslyn," a tribute to his mother, who was a member of the Stolen Generations, was performed at that year's National Sorry Day concert.
π΅ 2009 album, Get Out While You Can, described by Sultan as, <quote> "country soul, rock'n'roll," <unquote> drew the artist more mainstream attention, topping the independent album charts and winning two ARIA awards.
The same year, Sultan appeared in the musical π΅ comedy film, Bran Nue Dae alongside Rocky McKenzie, Geoffrey Rush, Missy Higgins, Jessica Mauboy and Ernie Dingo, and sang several songs on the soundtrack.
π΅ 2014's Blackbird album β another ARIA winner β was a straightforward rock affair, but 2017's Killer showcased gospel, funk, R&B and blues influences, merging perfectly with themes of place, belonging, family, and civil rights. The album reached number five on the Australian album charts and garnered three ARIA nominations.
One of the signatures of Sultan's career so far has been his collaborations, π΅ especially his ability to provide soulful, bluesy, melodic hooks for Australian hip hop groups like Hilltop Hoods π΅ and AB Original. π΅ He's performed or recorded with The Bamboos, Midnight Oil and Dr G. Yunupingu, Kram, π΅ Lisa Mitchell, Meg Mac, π΅ Camp Cope, Ella Hooper, Paul Kelly, Emma Donovan, π΅ Delta Goodrem, and even The Wiggles!
The Sapphires 01:01:03
π΅ Dan Sultan isn't the only Indigenous voice to have shaped Australian soul. Of course, we can't talk about soul in Australia without mentioning The Sapphires.
The 2012 box office hit based on a 2004 play of the same name, told the story of an Aboriginal girl-group who traveled to war-torn Vietnam in the late sixties to entertain the troops. The film was loosely based on the experiences of playwright Tony Brigg's mother, Laurel Robinson, and Aunt Lois Peeler, who toured Vietnam as backing singers.
The film centered on four-piece group, The Sapphires, depicted as Australia's answer to The Supremes, played by Deborah Mailman, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell, and R&B pop songstress Jessica Mauboy, joyfully smashing out soul classics. The real-life Sapphires β originally a three-piece, comprised of Laurel Robinson, plus sisters Beverly Briggs and Naomi Mayers β grew up on a diet of country & western music, discovering soul through records their cousins brought home, and through their church, which would invite visiting African American musicians to perform for the congregation.
They started putting on concerts as teens in the Shepparton Cummeragunja area of Victoria, where they grew up, to help their families with money, since the racist attitudes of the time made it hard for the young Aboriginal women to secure any other kind of work.
π΅ The Sapphires eventually moved to Melbourne, where they continued performing in pubs, cabarets, clubs, Army barracks, and universities. A fortuitous meeting with a New Zealand MΔori entertainer, looking for performers to round out his South Pacific-themed act, set them on a path to Vietnam.
Two Sapphires members, Beverly and Naomi, had been protesting the war and refused to go, so Laurel's sister Lois was drafted in to join her on tour. The pair found it exciting, but also confronting, to find themselves in the middle of a war zone, flying to shows in unlit helicopters, audiences rolling in on tanks out of the jungle, and witnessing napalm strikes. It was a long way from Cummeragunja.
Sadly, the 1960s wasn't a time when everyone walked around with a video camera in their pockets, so there were few, if any, historical records of The Sapphires' performances. But I'm grateful through Briggs' film, we can imagine the power and beauty of those Blak sister harmonies.
I'm going to pause our Australian soul story, here in the bloodstained, soul-drenched jungles of 1960s Vietnam. I managed to unearth so many great examples of Aussie soul to share with you that part two is going to have to have its own part two. Join me next time as I bring us up to the present day and fast forward to the future of Australian soul.
If you want to hear the songs from this episode again, check out the Cara Diaria page on Spotify. You'll find a playlist featuring as many of the tunes as possible, plus playlists from previous My Kind Of Scene episodes. I'll also add a YouTube playlist to the episode description that fills in many gaps, Especially earlier artists not available on Spotify and lets you enjoy the visual splendor of many of these performers.
Outro 01:05:55
π΅ Thanks for listening to My Kind Of Scene. This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Cara Diaria. Theme music by Cara Diaria. Source links are in the episode description. Are you enjoying the podcast? Send me an email at mykindofscenepod [at] gmail.com, And please rate and review us, and tell your friends!