''Honey Steel's Gold'' is the fifth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter

Ed Kuepper Edmund Kuepper (born 20 December 1955) is a German-born Australian guitarist, Singing, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded the punk band The Saints (Australian band), The Saints in 1973, the experimental post-punk group Laughing Clowns (acti ...

recorded in 1991 and released on the

Hot Hot commonly refers refer to: *Heat, a hot temperature *Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality Hot or HOT may also refer to: Places *Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand ** Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot Distric ...

label.The Kuepper Files: Discography
Retrieved 4 July 2010 The album was re-released in 2000 with six bonus tracks: four from Kuepper's ''No Wonder'' EP, and early recordings of "The Way I Made You Feel" and "Everything I've Got Belongs to You".

Details

The songs recorded for the album had been written at different times over the previous decade. Kuepper said, "Something like "King Of Vice", was originally written for

Laughing Clowns Laughing Clowns, sometimes written as The Laughing Clowns, were a post-punk band formed in Sydney in 1979. In five years, the band released three LPs, three EPs, and various singles and compilations. Laughing Clowns' sound is free jazz, bluegr ...

. I just never liked the way we played it particularly, so it never got recorded. And it was only by the time I got to ''Honey Steel's Gold'' that it sort of dawned on me that what I had as a saxophone intro would actually sound really beautiful and much better if it was played on a piano. There were little revelations like that."

Critical reception

Reviewing the album in ''

Rolling Stone Australia ''Rolling Stone Australia'' is the Australian edition of the United States' ''Rolling Stone'' magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture, published monthly. The Australian version of ''Rolling Stone'' was initially published in 197 ...

'' at the time of release, John Encarnacao said "Much of this album seems to be about the conjuring of mood rather than unfolding songs in a narrative manner." Encarnacao noted the contribution of

Chris Abrahams Christopher Robert Lionel Abrahams (born 9 April 1961) is a New Zealand-born, Australian-based musician. He is a founding mainstay member of experimental, jazz trio the Necks (1987–present), collaborated with Melanie Oxley as a soul pop duo ...

, and predicted the song "Everything I've Got Belongs to You" would be a hit if released as a single. The

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

review by Ned Raggett awarded the album 4½ stars and states "''Honey Steel's Gold'' is Kuepper in many ways at his most dramatic and expansive".Raggett, N.

Allmusic Review AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the data ...

Retrieved 4 July 2010 In October 2010, it was listed in the top 50 in the book, ''

100 Best Australian Albums ''The 100 Best Australian Albums'' (a.k.a. ''One Hundred Best Australian Albums'') is a compendium of rock and pop albums of the past 50 years as compiled by music journalists Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell. The book was ...

''. A 33¹⁄₃ book written by John Encarnação analysing the album is to be released on 2 November 2023.

Commercial performance

The album spent 12 weeks in the Australian charts in 1992 peaking at number 28. ''Honey Steel's Gold'' was nominated for an

ARIA In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

for the Best Independent Release at the

ARIA Music Awards of 1992 The Sixth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) was held on 6 March 1992 at the World Congress Centre in Melbourne. Hosts were international guest, Julian Lenno ...

.6th Annual ARIA Awards
Retrieved 8 July 2010.

Track listing

All writing by Ed Kuepper, except where indicated. # "King of Vice" – 9:53 # "Everything I've Got Belongs to You" – 4:15 # "Friday's Blue Cheer/Libertines of Oxley" – 8:03 # "Honey Steel's Gold" – 5:23 # "The Way I Made You Feel" – 5:20 # "Not Too Soon" – 3:12 # "Closer" – 4:16 # "Summerfield" – 3:41 # "Indian Reservation" (

John D. Loudermilk John Dee Loudermilk Jr. (March 31, 1934 – September 21, 2016) was an American singer and songwriter. Although he had his own recording career during the 1950s and 1960s, he was primarily known as a songwriter. His best-known songs include "In ...

) – 3:10 Bonus track on CD reissue # "Steamtrain" (

Ray Davies Sir Raymond Douglas Davies ( ; born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter for the Rock music, rock band the Kinks, which he led, with his younger brother Dave Davies, Dave pro ...

) – 7:40 Bonus track on CD reissue # "No Wonder Medley: No Wonder/Built for Comfort/Cypress Grove Blues" (Kuepper, Mark Dawson/

Willie Dixon William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...

Skip James Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James (June 9, 1902October 3, 1969) was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter. AllMusic stated: "Coupling an oddball guitar tuning set against eerie, falsetto vocals, James' early recordings ...

) – 8:06 Bonus track on CD reissue # "Milk Cow Blues" (

Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900June 5, 1977),
known as Sleepy John Estes, was an A ...

) – 2:08 Bonus track on CD reissue # "The Way I Made You Feel 2" – 5:21 Bonus track on CD reissue # "Everything I've Got Belongs to You 2" – 4:16 Bonus track on CD reissue :*Recorded at Electric Avenue, Sydney, Australia in mid-1991.

Personnel

– vocals, guitar *Mark Dawson – drums, percussion *Sir Alfonso – bass guitar *

– piano

Charts

References

{{Authority control Hot Records albums Ed Kuepper albums 1991 albums