"Things Don't Seem" is the first single by Australian

surf rock Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental su ...

band

Australian Crawl Australian Crawl (often called Aussie Crawl or The Crawl by fans) were an Australian rock band founded by James Reyne (lead vocals/piano/harmonica), Brad Robinson (rhythm guitar), Paul Williams (bass), Simon Binks (lead guitar) and David Re ...

from their 1981 album ''

Sirocco Sirocco ( ), scirocco, or, rarely, siroc (see below) is a Mediterranean wind that comes from the Sahara and can reach hurricane speeds in North Africa and Southern Europe, especially during the summer season. Names ''Sirocco'' derives from ...

''. It was produced by Peter Dawkins The song features one of the band's most complex pieces of

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the feature ...

work, thanks to the skills of guitarist

Simon Binks Simon John Binks (born 27 November 1956,) is an Australian rock musician who was a guitarist and singer-songwriter for Australian Crawl from founding in 1978 to disbanding in 1986. Biography Early career Binks was raised in the Mornington Peni ...

. "Things Don't Seem" was released in May 1981 and reached #11 on the Australian Singles Charts.

Guy McDonough Guy Gillis McDonough (17 October 1955 – 26 June 1984) was an Australian rock musician best known for rhythm guitar and singer-songwriter with the iconic band Australian Crawl. He provided rhythm guitar and lead vocals on two of their well-know ...

re-recorded the song for his solo album, ''My Place'', which was released

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ''Posthumous'' (E ...

in 1985, by his brother, Bill McDonough. It was also included as the 'B' side to the first single, "My Place", taken from the album. The original Australian Crawl version featured

James Reyne James Michael Nugent Reyne OAM (born 19 May 1957) is an Australian rock musician and singer-songwriter both in solo work and, until 1986, with the band Australian Crawl. Biography Early years Reyne was born in Lagos, Nigeria. His father, Rod ...

on vocals. In January 2018, as part of

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back t ...

's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Things Don't Seem" was ranked number 78.

Track listing

# "Things Don't Seem" (Guy McDonough, Sean Higgins) - 3:55 #"Big Fish" (James Reyne) - 2:42

Personnel

Credits: ;Band members *

—

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of th ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

–

, slide guitar, acoustic guitar *

—

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guita ...

* Bill McDonough —

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Paul Williams —

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

* Brad Robinson —

;Recording process * Engineer – Dave Marett ("Things Don't Seem"), Ross Cockle ("Big Fish") * Producer – Peter Dawkins ("Things Don't Seem"), David Briggs ("Big Fish")

Charts

References

1981 songs Australian Crawl songs EMI Records singles Songs written by Guy McDonough Song recordings produced by Peter Dawkins (musician) {{1980s-song-stub