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Sounds of Australia 2018

Sounds of Australia 2018

Powderfinger, Pilita, Goanna and Migaloo

Ten sound recordings with cultural, historical and aesthetic significance have been added to Sounds of Australia for 2018. 

They include the best-selling Aboriginal music album in history, the first non-single to top the Hottest 100 popular poll, one of the first female singers to make the Australian charts and the musical tongue-twister that inspired over 130 cover versions!

Established in 2007, the Sounds of Australia is the NFSA’s selection of sound recordings which inform or reflect life in Australia. Each year, the Australian public nominates new sounds to be added with final selections determined by a panel of industry experts.

There are now more than 130 sounds in the complete Sounds of Australia list.

These Days by Powderfinger
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463749
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Powderfinger’s ‘These Days’ has been described by the band as ‘one of their most simple, enduring and popular works’. Lyrically the song deals with bowing down to all the responsibilities and obligations of life. It also responded to an emotional scene of redemption, vengeance and justice in the film Two Hands (Gregor Jordan, Australia, 1999), for which it was written.

‘These Days’ was initially released as the B-side to the single ‘Passenger’ in 1999, then as the lead track on the film soundtrack. The success of the song saw it top the triple j Hottest 100 chart in 1999, and it was subsequently awarded Song of the Year at the 2000 Music Critics’ Awards.

Powderfinger later re-recorded ‘These Days’ on their fourth studio album, Odyssey Number Five (2000). In 2009, These Days was voted No. 21 in the triple j Hottest 100 of all time.

Gurrumul by Gurrumul
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758793
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Gurrumul was the debut solo album for singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (1971–2017), referred to as Dr G Yunupingu since his death. It is the best-selling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music album in Australian history, having been awarded triple platinum status.

The University of Sydney granted Dr G Yunupingu an Honorary Doctorate of Music in 2012. Blind from birth, his musical education was largely self-taught and through cultural immersion; he learned drums, keyboards, guitar, didjeridu, foot stomping and calling, whooping, vocalisation of traditional songs, and more. Gurrumul is performed in a mixture of both Yolngu languages and English, with lyrics that often refer to traditional lore, and relationships with family and nature.

The album peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA chart but reached No. 1 on the independent chart and was an international success on world music charts. At the 2008 ARIA Awards the album won Best World Music Album and Best Independent Release, and also won three Deadly Awards for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year and Single of the Year for the track ‘Gurrumul History (I Was Born Blind)’.

The autobiographical single, extracted here, represents many of the themes that connected Dr G Yunupingu’s music to his audience: his bilingual vocals, his personal story of blindness, and living across cultures.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons
Solid Rock by Goanna
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303972
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‘Solid Rock’ deals with issues of land rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and was the lead single from Goanna’s debut studio album, Spirit of Place.

According to songwriter Shane Howard, the inspiration for the song came on a 10-day camping trip at Uluru in 1980, where he saw ‘an incredible injustice that needed to be dealt with … I had to reassess my whole relationship with the land and the landscape, and understand that we had come from somewhere else, and we had disempowered a whole race of people when we arrived.’ 

The protest message resonated with the Australian public, with the single peaking at number 3 on the Australian Kent Music Report and winning Best Debut Single at the 1982 Countdown Music and Video Awards.

Come Closer to Me by Pilita Corrales
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322824
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Pilar ‘Pilita’ Garrido Corrales was one of the the first women to make the Australian pop charts with a locally produced record - her hit single ‘Come Closer to Me’, in 1959.

Born in the Philippines, Pilita began her distinguished recording career in Australia, after being shipwrecked off the coast of Arnhem Land. In Sydney Pilita released ‘Come Closer to Me’ with Astor Records in November 1959; it was a cover of ‘Acércate Más’, a 1946 track written by Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés and performed in Spanish.

Pilita recorded at least three LPs in Australia and became an early television star, before returning to the Philippines in 1963. She has starred in many films and on television, recorded more than 135 albums and appeared as one of the judges in the Philippines edition of The X Factor.

I’ve Been Everywhere by Lucky Starr
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306316
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This 1962 hit was written by Australian country singer Geoff Mack in 1959 and made popular by Lucky Starr. It has such universal appeal that more than 131 versions exist - with lyrics adapted for the United States, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland, Canada, Finland, Germany and many other locations.

The novelty song as originally written listed 94 Australian towns and locations sung at speed, and proved a hit for Leslie William Morrison (known professionally as Lucky Starr), reaching number 1 in the Sydney charts. Soon after Mack wrote an American version, which was a number one hit for Hank Snow. Other famous performers include Johnny Cash, Lynn Anderson and Willie Nelson.

The tongue-twisting lyrics, rapid fire delivery and international success have ensured that this novelty song has remained popular in the Australian imagination long after its initial chart success.

Songlines: Songs of the East Australian Humpback Whales by Mark Franklin (The Oceania Project)
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1543251
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Songlines: Songs of the East Australian Humpback Whales (1992–2008) features humpback whale song recordings taken off the coast of Eastern Australia during their cycle of migration between their birthplace in the Great Barrier Reef and their Antarctic feeding areas. Track 3 (‘1998 Songline’, extracted) features Migaloo, the rare albino humpback whale that, when first sighted, was believed to be the only white whale in the world.

The recordings by Mark Franklin are part of The Oceania Project, a long-term research project undertaken by Franklin’s parents, Dr Trish and Dr Wally Franklin, on humpback whales. It looks at the whales’ social behaviour and organisation, abundance and reproduction, and has provided new insights into eastern Australian humpback whales.

The recordings also help raise awareness of the need for the rehabilitation, preservation and conservation of humpback whales and their ocean environment.

Girls in Our Town by Margret RoadKnight
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287049
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Released as a single in January 1976, Margret RoadKnight’s version of Bob Hudson’s ‘Girls in Our Town’ reached the Top 20 of the Kent Music Report Singles Chart.

Written by Hudson, the song describes the often limited opportunities for teenage girls living in Newcastle, with few career options and limited entertainment. However, the lyrics have a universality to them, which connects them to a broader experience of suburban and rural life for young women.

RoadKnight included the single on her third album, Margret RoadKnight, which was issued in October 1976. It has become a performance favourite in a career that spans more than five decades across a wide variety of styles, including blues, jazz, gospel, comedy, cabaret and folk.

Binny Lum Collection by Binny Lum and interviewees
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1108342
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Actor, scriptwriter, accompanist, compere, television host and radio presenter – Binny Lum was a pioneer whose extraordinary career in radio and television broadcasting spanned five decades, from 1934 to 1984.

She hosted Channel Nine's first ever daytime television talk show, Thursday at One with Binny Lum, in 1957. Binny went on to host one of radio's first magazine format programs on 3XY in Melbourne, where she interviewed many high-profile people before venturing overseas to New York and London, interviewing Barbra Streisand, Dame Joan Sutherland, Richard Attenborough and, most famously of all, The Beatles (extracted here).

The Binny Lum Collection includes over 175 interviews recorded throughout her career. Listen to Binny Lum interviews and recordings on SoundCloud.

After the Dawn by Sydney Simpson and his Wentworth Café Orchestra
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196416
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On 23 October 1926, the Daily Telegraph reported that the Columbia Company had released the first record pressed and recorded at their Homebush studio and factory – and made the first entirely Australian recording, 'After the Dawn'.

The 10” shellac disc consisted of two items played by Sydney Simpson and his Wentworth Cafe Orchestra: the popular ‘After the Dawn’ waltz by Jack O’Hagan, and a foxtrot, ‘Freshie’, by Jesse Greer and Harold Berg. ‘After the Dawn’ was the first entirely Australian recording, being composed, performed, recorded and pressed by Australians.

Many thousands of Australian performances were later recorded and pressed at the Homebush facility up until 1992, when the factory closed with the cessation of production of vinyl records.

Caro Mio Ben by Ada Crossley
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757100
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‘Caro Mio Ben’ was recorded in the United States on 30 April 1903; it was the first recording in Victor Gramophone Co.'s pre-eminent Red Seal Celebrity series.

It is a popular concert aria composed in 1783 by a member of the Giordani family. Crossley was a prominent Australian opera singer of the 1890s-1910s and a member of the Marchesi School, along with Dame Nellie Melba.

She undertook popular tours of America (1902-03 and 1908-09), Australia (1903, with Percy Grainger in support) and South Africa (1904), as well as performing at a range of charity war concerts.

Freshie by Sydney Simpson and his Wentworth Café Orchestra
NFSA-ID:
NFSA ID
196416
Year:
Year

On 23 October 1926, the Daily Telegraph reported that the Columbia Company had released the first record pressed and recorded at their Homebush studio and factory – and made the first entirely Australian recording.

The 10” shellac disc consisted of two items played by Sydney Simpson and his Wentworth Cafe Orchestra: the popular ‘After the Dawn’ waltz by Jack O’Hagan, and a foxtrot, ‘Freshie’, by Jesse Greer and Harold Berg. ‘After the Dawn’ was the first entirely Australian recording, being composed, performed, recorded and pressed by Australians.

Many thousands of Australian performances were later recorded and pressed at the Homebush facility up until 1992, when the factory closed with the cessation of production of vinyl records.