10 Best Paul Kelly Songs: Part 1, 1985-1992

Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly is barely known outside of Australia, but he’s one of his country’s most beloved musicians. His literate songs are plain and unadorned, often with a rock band or with touches of country and folk.

Kelly has disowned his first two albums from the early 1980s. For most fans, his career begins in earnest with 1985’s stripped-down Post, where Kelly emerged as a great songwriter.

After 1985’s almost-solo Post, Kelly was backed by The Coloured Girls. They changed their name to the more politically correct The Messengers. Lead guitarist Steve Connolly was a major asset, adding an edge to Kelly’s songs.

Kelly broke up The Messengers in 1992, finishing their career with the excellent rarities collection Hidden Things. This first list covers the years between 1985 and 1992, encompassing Post and Kelly’s work with The Messengers.

10 Best Paul Kelly Songs (1985-1992)

#10 From St Kilda to Kings Cross

from Post, 1985
Kelly was at a low ebb in early 1985. He’d split from his wife and left his band. He’d also lost a friend, Dragon’s Paul Hewson, to a heroin overdose. From adversity, he emerged as an accomplished songwriter on Post.

‘From St Kilda to Kings Cross’ opens Post. It feels like a fresh beginning and a statement of intent from Kelly. It tells the story of him moving from Melbourne to Sydney after the end of his marriage.

Much of Post is stripped back, almost like demos. But ‘From St Kilda to Kings Cross’ features a fuller arrangement, with Steve Connolly on lead guitar and Chris Coyne on saxophone.

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#9 Darling It Hurts

from Gossip, 1986
Some of Kelly’s best early work combines literate lyrics with muscular pub rock. ‘Darling It Hurts’ is his second single with The Messengers. It laments an ex-girlfriend who’s turned to prostitution.

Musically, ‘Darling it Hurts’ veers close to rockabilly or 1950s rock and roll.

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#8 Last Train to Heaven

from Gossip, 1986
Kelly followed Post with Gossip, a double album recorded with his backing band The Messengers. They were originally named The Coloured Girls, after a line in Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’. Gossip is an embarrassment of riches, and stands as Kelly’s finest studio achievement. ‘Last Train to Heaven’ is an interesting synthesis, standing somewhere between blues, rock, and reggae.

The song’s good, but the instrumental sections make it a standout in Kelly’s catalogue. They aren’t solos as such, but instrumental interludes that put Connolly’s guitar in the spotlight.

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#7 (You Can Put Your) Shoes Under My Bed

from Post, 1985
Like the other tracks from Post, ‘(You Can Put Your) Shoes Under My Bed is stripped back. It’s built around Peter Bull’s piano, providing a bed for Kelly’s vocal and a saxophone. It’s one of Kelly’s prettiest tunes, driven by understated desire.

The title is an idiom for sexual attraction. It was also used on the 1978 Billboard #1 Country song ‘She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed (Anytime)’.

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#6 Brighter

from Comedy, 1990
‘Brighter’ is overlooked in Kelly’s vast canon – it wasn’t even included in his 100-song The A to Z Recordings boxset.

There’s a very E-Street Band piano introduction before it lifts into a sunny melody. It’s underwritten, without a bridge, but there are some interesting touches. The last line of each verse is low key, almost spoken, before ‘Brighter’ launches into the euphoric chorus.

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#5 When I First Met Your Ma

from Hidden Things, 1992
Kelly is fond of reworking his songs into simpler versions. ‘When I First Met Your Man’ appears on the compilation Songs from the South in an acoustic version. But I prefer the original band version, found on Kelly’s superlative outtakes collection Hidden Things.

Like some of Kelly’s other songs, it’s personal and self-deprecating. It tells the story of Kelly’s courtship with his first wife. It recalls how her father kicked Kelly out of her bedroom, forcing him to walk two miles in the Melbourne rain.

If you want another excellent Kelly song in the same vein, ‘I Can’t Believe We Were Married’ from Comedy just missed this list.

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#4 Everything’s Turning To White

from So Much Water, So Close to Home, 1989
A Raymond Carver short story provided the title for Kelly’s fourth album, So Much Water So Close to Home. It also inspired the plot of the key track ‘Everything’s Turning To White’, about friends who choose fishing over civic duty.

I’ve opted for the live version that’s included on 1997’s Songs from the South. The austere arrangement works for this literary, reflective song.

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#3 Bradman

from Under the Sun, 1987
Don Bradman is an Australian legend, the most dominant cricketer of all time. Bradman averaged 99.94 with the bat. The next highest average from a test cricketer who’s played at least 20 games is 61.87. This means that, statistically, Bradman was 61% better than any other international batsman.

The verses are almost spoken, but it’s engrossing with Kelly’s words and the pretty chorus.

‘Bradman’ isn’t Kelly’s only song about a cricketer – he’s also written tributes to Shane Warne and David Gower. But ‘Bradman’ is easily his best cricket song, a love letter from one Australian legend to another.

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#2 To Her Door

from Under the Sun, 1987
‘To Her Door’ is the only song from Kelly’s catalogue to appear on the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. It’s also his highest-charting single in Australia.

It features the same character appears in two other beloved Kelly songs – ‘Love Never Runs On Time’ and ‘How To Make Gravy’.

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#1 Leaps and Bounds

from Gossip, 1986
‘Leaps and Bounds’ was one of Kelly’s earliest efforts – he wrote it with a friend in 1977. He stated “it was kind of a song about nothing, really. It was just a song about a feeling; it was an autumn song.”

Kelly sometimes reworked his 1980s songs to simpler versions. But the synth part that colours the second half of the song fits perfectly.

Did I miss your favourite Paul Kelly song (up to 1992)?

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