Marks Gillespie’s Only Human Re-Released

Mark Gillespie was one of the great, relatively unsung artists of Australian music. He was an elusive and reclusive figure but he wrote and performed songs that were peerless in this country. He blended soul and pop and rock and funk in a style that was inherently musical and accessible and yet he had the depth of intellect that made his songs small, startling works of literature. Gillespie had a storytellers insight into the human condition, he was cynically world weary and blissfully optimistic. Mark Gillespie was my favourite Australian artist.

Unfortunately for me (and his many other fans) he only made a few albums largely because he found himself at odds with the requirements imposed on him by the music industry. He just wasn’t an “industry” kinda guy.

He retired from music, he returned briefly and retired again. I’ve heard that he’s living somewhere in rural Victoria. I wish him well.

For those who haven’t heard his music the specialist label Aztec are re-releasing his album Only Human, with a bonus disc. Only Human is a brilliant album as Gillespie is joined by the likes of Ross Hannaford and Joe Creighton. It includes the wonderful and mysterious Mayday In Arcadia, the brutal tale of Damsel In Distress, the wonderfully funkified Shake It and the irresistible pop/rock  of Small Mercies and Bad Scene. For many though the song that resonates most is Suicide Sister, a song that has become eerily timeless with the passing of the years.

And personally I think Only Human was only his second best album!

The bonus tracks on this release are fascinating. The two tracks from the Debutantes sampler are both Gillespie gems – especially the gorgeous I’m A Kite (with the explicit question “won’t you be my hurricane?”). The Black Tape songs include a couple I’ve never heard as well as early versions of songs that evolved for inclusion on the Sweet Nothings album (Stormy Bed, Nothin’ Special and probably Another Ms Wrong (which I assume became Miss Right)).

I ordered mine today and I’ll probably gush a few more words when it arrives.

Tracklisting:
CD1 – Only Human
1. Only Human
2. Shake It
3. Mercury
4. Small Mercies
5. Long & Strong
6. Suicide Sister
7. Black Angel
8. Bad Scene
9. Mayday In Arcadia
10. Damsel In Distress
Bonus Tracks:
Single 1981
11. Deep As You
12. Stronger Together
13. Falling

CD2 – the Early Years 1977-1979

From the 1977 OZ Records
sampler LP Debutantes
1. I’m A Kite
2. The Joke’s On You
The Black Tape, October 1978
3. Suicide Sister
4. Savonarola
5. Another Ms. Wrong
6. Talkin’ To The Devil
7. Nothin’ Special
8. Just Wanna Ball
9. Stormy Bed
10. Too Far Gone
11. Black Angel
(unreleased from the
Black Tape sessions)
Single 1979
12. Coming Back For More
13. Alligator Music

Rodriguez Announces Sideshows

Elusive and enigmatic singer- songwriter Rodriguez will play shows around Australia in addition to the BluesFest at Byron Bay.

Rodriguez, who recorded his much lauded debut album Cold Fact in Detroit almost four decades ago, has shows on sale in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Sixto Rodriguez has been a mysterious figure in contemporary music. He has only ever made two studio albums with the second Coming From Reality being released in 1971.

After failing to make an impact in America, he gave up his career as a musician. However, although he was relatively unknown in his homeland by the mid 70s, his albums were starting to gain airplay in countries like South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), New Zealand and Australia. While all this was happening Rodriguez was notable by his absence from the public eye – over the years rumours abounded suggesting everything from his long term imprisonment to running for public office to completing a college degree.

An Australian record label, Blue Goose Music, bought the Australian rights to his back catalogue in the mid 70s. The label released his two studio albums plus a compilation album At His Best (featuring unreleased recordings from 1976 “Can’t Get Away”, “I’ll Slip Away” (a re-recording of his first single), and “Street Boy”. Unbeknownst to Rodriguez, it went platinum in South Africa, where he achieved cult status.

In response to the interest 1979 he toured Australia where he was supported by the extraordinary Mark Gillespie. Two shows from the tour were later released on the Australian only album Alive—the title being a play on the rumours caused by his public obscurity that Rodriguez had died years ago. After the ’79 tour he returned to Australia for a final tour in 1981 with Midnight Oil before quietly slipping back into normal life.

The following excerpt from a 2009 Detroit newspaper is slightly illuminating:

“A shadowy figure known as Rodriguez was, for many years, lost too. A decade ago, he was rediscovered working on a Detroit building site, unaware that his defining album had become not only a cult classic, but for the people of South Africa, a beacon of revolution. Sixto Diaz Rodriguez was born in 1942 to Mexican immigrant parents in Detroit, Michigan. He recorded Cold Fact – his debut album – in 1969, and released it in March 1970. It’s crushingly good stuff, filled with tales of bad drugs, lost love, and itchy-footed songs about life in late ’60s inner-city America. “Gun sales are soaring/Housewives find life boring/Divorce the only answer/Smoking causes cancer,” says the Dylan-esque Establishment Blues. But the album sank without trace, thanks, in part, to some of Rodriguez’s more idiosyncratic behavior, like performing at an industry showcase with his back to the audience throughout. Cold Fact producer Mike Theodore remembers how he would only play at “hooker bars, inner city dives, and biker bars.” When the follow-up, 1972’s Coming From Reality, also tanked, Rodriguez called an end to his recording career. He’d never even played a proper gig. And he got on with life. Over the years, he turned his hand to local politics, philosophy, a job in a petrol station and, eventually, hard labor.”
Cold Fact remains an amazing album – for the uninitiated you could possibly describe it as a cross between Dylan and Jeff Buckley – but even that barely scratches the surface. It delves into personal and urban politics, it contains a twisted nursery rhyme and it contains a title This Is not A Song, Its An Outburst, which says a lot. The song bursts forth with inner-city and global observations that Dylan would be proud to have made. But there’s also  Hendrix-like  electric Only Good For Conversation and Most of the songs clock in at around two minutes and as such a short sharp jolts of consciousness. It’s folk music I guess but it really defies labels. Just go see him.

March 31, Brisbane, The Tivoli

April 5 and 6, Sydney, The Basement

April 7, Melbourne, The Corner

April 10, Adelaide, The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel

April 11, Sydney, Factory Theatre