Post (Paul Kelly Album)
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''Post'' is the first solo album by Australian singer-songwriter rock musician, Paul Kelly. Kelly had moved to Sydney by January 1985, after leaving his
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
-based Paul Kelly Band and the breakup of his marriage to Hilary Brown. The album was produced by
Clive Shakespeare Clive Richard Shakespeare (3 June 194715 February 2012) was an English-born Australian pop guitarist, songwriter and record producer, producer. He was a co-founder of pop rock group Sherbet (band), Sherbet, which had commercial success in the 1 ...
( Sherbet guitarist) and Kelly, and was released in May 1985 by the independent White Records label, leased to
Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival ...
. The album failed to chart in Australia, with only one single, " From St Kilda to Kings Cross", released in April which also failed to chart. The name of the album, ''Post'' relates to both being 'after' significant changes in Kelly's life and to the sense of a 'signpost' to future directions. Kelly dedicated the album to Paul Hewson, keyboardist and songwriter for New Zealand/Australian band
Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
who had died of a heroin overdose in January.Album liner notes – Paul Kelly : ''Post'' Kelly has described ''Post'' as a
concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
dealing with addictions – not necessarily heroin addiction – but various forms, he has also denied that the songs were autobiographical but that he wrote about the world around him.


Background

Paul Kelly and the Dots, had released two albums in the early 1980s, ''
Talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...
'' and ''
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'', but they had little chart success. Kelly had become involved with the Melbourne drug culture, the Dots disbanded in 1982 after numerous line-up changes and Kelly formed the Paul Kelly Band. Kelly's first marriage, to Hilary Brown, had broken up in late 1984; likewise the Paul Kelly Band had ended too. Kelly had moved to Sydney by January 1985, where he recorded ''Post'' in the studio of Sherbet guitarist
Clive Shakespeare Clive Richard Shakespeare (3 June 194715 February 2012) was an English-born Australian pop guitarist, songwriter and record producer, producer. He was a co-founder of pop rock group Sherbet (band), Sherbet, which had commercial success in the 1 ...
. It was self-funded (at a cost of $3,500), with Michael Barclay on drums and guitarist
Steve Connolly Stephen James Connolly (1959–1995) was an Australian musician and record producer. He is primarily known as the lead guitarist and singer in Paul Kelly's backing band The Coloured Girls/Messengers from 1984 to 1991. Steve played melodical ...
(The Zimmerman), guest performers on the album included bass player
Ian Rilen Ian William Rilen (12 August 1947 – 30 October 2006) was an Australian musician. He was bass guitarist and songwriter with rock and roll band Rose Tattoo, and led punk rock group X (Australian band), X on guitar and vocals. Rilen was born in ...
(
Rose Tattoo Rose Tattoo are an Australian Pub rock (Australia), rock and roll band, now led by Angry Anderson, which formed in Sydney in 1976. Their sound is hard rock mixed with blues rock influences, with songs including "Bad Boy for Love", "Rock 'n' R ...
, X), Peter Bull (Flaming Hands, Grooveyard) on keyboards and guitarist Graham Lee. They spent two weeks recording at
Clive Shakespeare Clive Richard Shakespeare (3 June 194715 February 2012) was an English-born Australian pop guitarist, songwriter and record producer, producer. He was a co-founder of pop rock group Sherbet (band), Sherbet, which had commercial success in the 1 ...
's studio, Shakespeare engineered the album and co-produced with Kelly, it was released in May 1985 on the independent label White Label Records, and licensed to
Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival ...
. The term 'post' has a few layers of meaning for Kelly in this album, i.e. post Kelly's childhood and youth in
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
, post his life in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, particularly post his involvement with the Melbourne drug culture, post the death of his musician friend, Paul Hewson. Kelly dedicated the album to Hewson, who was a keyboard player and songwriter for the Australian/New Zealand band,
Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
, he died of a heroin overdose in January 1985. 'Post' also relates to a marker or 'signpost', pointing to a new direction, and even a way to 'post' his account of the world. Kelly has described ''Post'' as a
concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
dealing with addictions – not necessarily heroin addiction – but various forms, he has also denied that the songs were autobiographical but that he wrote about the world around him. The album was re-released in 1990 as one of Mushroom's Midprice Masters and was re-released again in 2006 by Mushroom.


Reception

According to Australian rock music historian,
Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...
, ''Post'' is a stark, personal collection of acoustic songs that highlight Kelly's broadly based song writing skill. Australian ''Rolling Stone'' magazine hailed ''Post'' as the best record of 1985. Both the album and the one single released from it, " From St Kilda to Kings Cross", failed to chart. The album is thought by some critics to be more of a demo recording, as four tracks were re-recorded by Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls for their debut album ''
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'' in 1986. However, according to others it is like
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
’s ''
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'', where there is a beauty and delicateness in this raw production, with the emphasis on the words, the melodies, the song structures that are the defining elements of Kelly as a songwriter.


Track listing


Personnel

* Paul Kelly – guitar, vocals *
Steve Connolly Stephen James Connolly (1959–1995) was an Australian musician and record producer. He is primarily known as the lead guitarist and singer in Paul Kelly's backing band The Coloured Girls/Messengers from 1984 to 1991. Steve played melodical ...
 – guitar * Michael Barclay – drums Additional musicians * Chris Coyne – saxophone (
tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...
) (tracks 1 & 9) *
Ian Rilen Ian William Rilen (12 August 1947 – 30 October 2006) was an Australian musician. He was bass guitarist and songwriter with rock and roll band Rose Tattoo, and led punk rock group X (Australian band), X on guitar and vocals. Rilen was born in ...
 – bass guitar (track 2) * Peter Bull – keyboards (tracks 8, 9 & 11) * Graham Lee – electric
12 string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in ...
(track 8),
Dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...
guitar (track 10) * Toni Allayis – vocals (track 11) * Jimmy Niven –
piano accordion A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more that of an organ than a piano, as they are both aerophones, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deir ...
(track 11) Recording details * Producer –
Clive Shakespeare Clive Richard Shakespeare (3 June 194715 February 2012) was an English-born Australian pop guitarist, songwriter and record producer, producer. He was a co-founder of pop rock group Sherbet (band), Sherbet, which had commercial success in the 1 ...
, Paul Kelly * Engineer – Clive Shakespeare Art work * Cover, Sleeve Design – Yanni Stumbles * Photography – Francince McDougall, Laurie Markham, Tom Takacs


References

{{Authority control 1985 albums Paul Kelly (Australian musician) albums Mushroom Records albums