Colin Hay: The Man At Work From Down Under

There have been many stories about successful members of once popular bands experiencing some sort of career revival after years of struggling or being idle. One of my favorite artists of this background is the former lead singer and main songwriter from the popular 80s New Wave Australian band Men At Work, Colin Hay.



Men At Work began it's origins in Melbourne, Australia. Ironically, Colin Hay is originally from Scotland, but relocated to Australian in the late 70s. Men At Work was one of the hottest new bands of 1981. They released their debut album Business As Usual to both commercial and critical success, reaching #1 in both the US and Australia, and also raking up two US #1 hits "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under". The following year they earned a Grammy for Best New Artist.

Two years later the band released Cargo, another critical and commercially successful album, although not as successful as its predecessor; however, the band did manage to garner two Top 10 US hits "Overkill" and "It's A Mistake". The latter was a song I literally listened to ALL THE TIME when I was a kid. My dad had a CD mix of different 80s new wave songs, and I also remember hearing "It's A Mistake". And it was always my favorite next to "867-5309 (Jenny)" and "Stray Cat Strut".

Anyways, within the next two years, the band downsized and released their final studio album Two Hearts in 1985, still managing to hit Gold in terms of record sales, but contained no Top 40 hits. By 1986 the band called it quits. In 1996, Colin Hay and keyboardist/saxophonist Greg Ham revived Men At Work, which culminated a two year long world tour and the live album Brazil. By the 2002, Men At Work officially disbanded. Greg Ham passed away in 2012 from a fatal heart attack.

Since Men At Work's initial breakup, Colin Hay had pursued a solo career that was lasted almost 30 years. Within the first 10 years, he had relatively little to no success, playing for audiences of 100 people or less and attempting to build a fanbase from the ground up. His fourth album Topanga contains arguably his most popular solo track "Waiting For My Real Life To Begin", a song that resonates with any person coming of age or experiencing growing pains. We've all been there. We've all felt these emotions, afraid of the uncertainty but anxious to create our own independency. 



In my opinion, 1998's Transcendental Highway was his first great album. One of my favorite songs is "I'm Doing Fine", a song about being away from a past lover but finding yourself reconnecting with the person, which has opened up old wounds, but you're trying to prove that you are over it even though the pain is still there. 

Colin Hay's career revival officially took off in 2004. His song "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You", originally from the album Transcendental Highway was featured on the soundtrack for the film Garden State. The film was was directed and starred Zach Braff, who is actually a huge Men At Work and Colin Hay fan. The soundtrack itself sold over 1.3 million copies and won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Pictures, Television or Other Visual Media. Throughout the decade he was also featured on the Zach Braff television show Scrubs with a re-occurring role as 'the Troubadour", going around the hospital and playing acoustic guitar and singing about the lives of the employees, with songs like "Down Under", "Beautiful World" and mostly famously "Overkill".




Flash forward to the beginning of his solo career renaissance with the 2007 album Are You Looking At Me?. This album was full of many great gems including my personal favorites, the title track "Are You Looking At Me?", "Lonely Without You", "What Would Bob Do?", "Pure Love" (featured in the TV show Scrubs), and "I Wish I Was Still Drinking". The following album American Sunshine was in my opinion not his best of the recent years, but still contained some memorable songs like "Oh California" and "There's Water Over You".

In 2011, Colin Hay released Gathering Mercury, who's album's thematic content Hay regarded, "I think it’s about life and loss and the injustice of the way the universe is set up; how we lose people we love." Songs that represent these ideas include "Send Somebody", "Gathering Mercury", "Half A Million Angels", "Where The Sky is Blue" and "A Simple Song". This album contains so many great memorable songs, but it wouldn't be until his latest album that his solo career renaissance has reached full circle.


Next Year People was released in 2015 to critical acclaim, often cited as Colin Hay's best solo effort so far. Colin Hay hooked up with a couple of Cuban musicians that played with his wife Cecilia Noel in her band, and they recorded on many of the tracks along with other musicians from Cuba, Jeff Babko from Jimmy Kimmel's band and Colin's longtime drummer Charlie Paxton. This has been consistently Colin's best album. Every song is memorable and fits the vibe of the album as a whole. My personal favorites include "If I Had Been A Better Man", the title track, "Mr. Grogan", "I Want You Back" and "Did You Just Take The Long Way Home" (which I included in my Top 15 Songs of 2015 blog post). 

In a nutshell, Colin Hay is one of my favorite singer/songwriters because he sings song that resonate with people throughout all aspects of life, whether it's love, loss, heartbreak, loneliness, isolation, regret, and nostalgia, everything is there. His songs have influenced me greatly as a songwriter, and he is an immensely talented guitarist and singer. I

I've seen him perform live a few times, once with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, on tour opening up for Barenaked Ladies and the Violent Femmes, and as a special guest at the Lucky Strike Jam Night in West Hollywood California. I met him and I told him how much his songs meant to me and how specifically the songs "Lonely Without You" and "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" got me though my last heartbreak over two years ago. He was very gracious and I took a picture with him. He was very sweet and appreciative.

If you haven't experienced the songs of the former Men At Work frontman, I urge you to listen right away. In my opinion, it is really the best music, particularly Are You Looking At Me?, Gathering Mercury, and Next Year People. His songs mean a lot to me and maybe his songs will mean something to you.

Prologue:

Top 10 Favorite Colin Hay Solo Songs:

1. "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You"
2. "Did You Just Take The Long Way Home"
3. "Lonely Without You"
4. "I'm Doing Fine"
5. "Waiting For My Real Life To Begin"
6. "Gathering Mercury"
7. "I Wish I Was Still Drinking"
8. "Send Somebody"
9. "What Would Bob Do?"
10. "Are You Looking At Me?"

Jason Isbell and John Moreland Concert Review

22 January 2016 at the O2 Kentish Town

The concert was originally booked at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, but due to renovations the gig was moved to the O2 Kentish Town, which was a larger venue apparently. I had only recently discovered Jason Isbell while listening to all the best albums that came out in 2015. His 2015 album was entitled Something More Than Free. I immediately fell in love with his songs and his songwriting. His story is quite interesting. Born and raised in Athens, Georgia, he was formerly a member of Southern rock jam band the Drive-By Truckers. He played on three of their albums and contributed some songs to their records. In 2007, he was fired from the band due to his ongoing alcohol addiction, and he then divorced his wife and Drive-By Truckers bassist Shonna Tucker. Soon afterwards he made a couple of studio albums that really did get him anyway. Then he reconnected with an old musician friend Amanda Shires, a singer-songwriter and violinist, who motivated him to go to rehab and get sober. A while after that he released the album Southeastern, which received critical acclaim and performed well on the charts. Something More Than Free reached #7 on the Billboard 200 and topped the rock charts, the folk charts, and country music charts.


The show began with the opening act, a singer-songwriter from Tulsa, Oklahoma named John Moreland. Coincidentally, I saw John Moreland almost a year ago open up for Jim Lauderdale in Chicago. John was a big guy, big beard, glasses, trucker cap, he looked like he was from the Southeast. But once he closed his eyes and started plucking his Martin acoustic guitar and opened his both, your jaw dropped. This man had a beautiful voice, very reminiscent of Springsteen, except John's a better singer. John Moreland poured his heart out with every word he sang. His songs were full of pain, heartbreak, memory and beauty. Two songs that especially stuck out to me were "You Don't Care Enough For Me To Cry" and "Break My Heart Sweetly". Other highlights include "Nobody Give A Damn About Songs Anymore", "3:59", "Cherokee" and "Gospel". I was mesmerized by this artist's presence. He did not speak in between songs; just played one song write after the other. His performance last about 45 minutes, but I won't have minded if it went on another hour. I immediately bought his albums they were selling at the merchandise table, signed.

Next was the main event: Jason Isbell and his band the Unit 400. He kicked the show off strong with "Palmetto Rose" and "Stockholm", going straight in the title track "Something More Than Free". Jason was in fine form and the band was totally in the zone. Next were a couple of older tunes, the Drive-By Truckers tune "Decoration Day" and the Unit 400 number "Alabama Pines" (a fan favourite). Then he played my favorite Jason Isbell composition "Traveling Alone", a story about living your life without anyone to share your experiences and feelings with. Least to say there are times where I can relate to this situation. The show was filled with great songs, great rockers, and great energy on stage. Another personal highlight was when he performed my favorite track from Something More Than Free "24 Frames", which describes the memories the narrator reminisces about, full of both nostalgia and deep emotional pain.

But by far the best highlight was Jason Isbell alone on stage with his acoustic guitar singing "Cover Me Up". The song, straight and simple, was about Jason's relationship with Amanda Shires and her motivating him to get sober. This single performance was one of triumph, inspiration, and glory. He had arrived, and we were in his presence to witness it. "Children of Children" is considered the best song Jason has ever written, and he performed at the end of his set before the encore. Some other great jams included the Drive-By Truckers number "Never Gonna Change" and the final number of the night "Codine". 

Jason Isbell's set last nearly 2 hours. His band was absolutely phenomenal and Jason's voice and guitar playing shined throughout the venue. The whole audience was in complete attention. To put that more into perspective, I only saw one person with their phone out recording songs and taking pictures, and he was standing right next to me. I took some pictures as well, but the audience overall respectful and attentive. Even Jason acknowledged how the front house security was bringing cups of tap water to concert goers near the front: "They don't do nothin' like that in the states". Jason was very engaging with the audience. He had a fine sense of humor and was very appreciative. On stage he was full of confidence, charisma, and warmth. The upshot of this experience is, it was a PERFECT concert.

P.S.

Please check out Jason Isbell's albums Southeastern and Something More Than Free as well as John Moreland's albums In The Throes and High On Tulsa Heat

From Compton to Joshua Tree

Today has been a particularly lazy day for me, except for doing laundry. I was out of socks. Anyways, I'm about to do some review for an assignment I have due for an online course, but before I get productive, I'd like to talk about my music experiences today.

This afternoon I watched the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, and the BBC documentary Gram Parsons - Fallen Angel. Two completely different artists on two completely opposite spectrums of the music world. This is how my mind works sometimes. I had seen Straight Outta Compton last year, and I thought it was a fantastic film and such an incredible story. The film explores the entire existence of one of the most influential Rap music groups from the late 80s, from the groups inception in 1986 all the way to Easy E's death in 1995. It also goes into the solo career's of Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, as well as Dre's connections with Snoop Dogg, Suge Knight, and Tupac Shakur. This film is very very long, probably one of the long films based on the true story of a musician, and even with that they did still leave a few things out. They also did an open casting call for most of the main cast, including Ice Cube's son O'Shea Jackson, Jr. portraying his father onscreen. I don't know if the public really knew what to expect, considering also that this was a project that had been in the making for many years but was never really able to get off the ground. And when it came out, everybody saw it and love it. Critics loved it, movie goers loved it, and obviously the fans loved. You can tell the filmmakers put A LOT of effort into this project, turning out results that from my perspective exceed everybody's expectations. And for the record, I love N.W.A.. I love the album Straight Outta Compton and the solo records Ice Cube and Dr. Dre put out when they left the group. If you think you know hip-hop and rap, and you've never heard Straight Outta Compton, you NEED to listen to that album and watch this film. 

Now here is where we make a complete 180 and turn the direction towards the desert. I've been meaning to watch this documentary on Gram Parsons that came out many years ago, but only now have I given myself the chance to see it. First of all, if you don't know who Gram Parsons is, you might be a part of the vast majority. He is regarded as perhaps the most influential country artist that has yet to be inducted into either the Country Music Hall of Fame or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The documentary goes into more detail, but I will mention a few of the important highlights. Parsons joined the Byrds in 1968 and recorded the album Sweetheart At The Rodeo. This is seen as the first modestly successful blend of country, folk, rock, and R&B. Pedal steel guitar, twangy guitar lines, and Gram's Southern Florida soul gave new life to the Byrds, if only for a short while. He was fired and went on to form the Flying Burrito Brothers with Byrds member Chris Hillman. The first album The Gilded Palace of Sin is where Gram Parsons took his innovative brand of country soul rock music to the next level. This record has most of Gram's best compositions, including "Christine's Tune (Devil In Disguise)", "Wheels", "Sin City", and my personal favorite "Hot Burrito #1". We was in the band for one more album then got kicked out due to his erratic behavior and thoughtlessly missing gigs to hang out with Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones. After hanging out with the Stones in France when they were recording Exile On Main St., Gram headed home, hooked up with Emmylou Harris and Elvis Presley's Vegas musicians, and recorded his first solo album GP; but, it was his second, and final, solo album Return of The Grevious Angel that people today consider his greatest masterpiece. The album also contains what some consider one of the greatest country songs ever written "$1,000 Wedding", a tale about a wedding gone awry when the bride doesn't show up, and the meaning and interpretation of the rest of the lyric has been the debate for many years. And no, I can't even understand it completely either, but the beauty of the track also comes from Gram's voice, and when he harmonizes with Emmylou Harris. Because of Gram's indulgent lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, he died in 1973, and the rest is history. No, literally, you wanna talk about one of the most infamous death's in rock and roll history, that happened AFTER the artist had died? It's quite extraordinary and bizarre. I don't want to give it away here, but you are interested, look it up for yourself and/or watch the documentary. It's a beautifully done documentary that captures the spirit, talent, and innovativeness that Gram Parsons possessed, and who, without a doubt, definitely deserves more credit and recognition for his work. 

Gram Parsons - Fallen Angel