Charlie No. 3

The song that changed my life

For the full story of how this song rocked my world, read the entry in my other blog today. I played this song over and over constantly the first week I heard it. It gripped me in a way that I felt in my solar plexus. I’ve never had another song affect me like that.

Greta Gertler wrote the music for this haunting track. Tim Freedman, the lead singer of The Whitlams who was reeling from the death/suicide of his partner in crime, Stevie Plunder (Freedman believes that Stevie did intend to kill himself via waterfall but changed his mind at the last minute, but slipped and went over anyway), asks Gertler if he can write lyrics over the original and she agrees. And this track was born.

The lyrics are about Plunder. Freedman has always been upfront about that. The verses are trying to imagine Plunder’s state of mind, while the chorus is about Freedman’s grief. Freedman has an extraordinary gift of creating unusual turns of phrases and my favourite in this one is There's a half-eaten moon in the sky.

The music starts with just piano and a haunting wind sound. The guitar comes in on the third line of the verse. In their musical partnership, Freedman played piano, Plunder played guitar so the first verse with just guitar and piano sets the stage. The bass and drums come in for the chorus. Strings get added in the second verse. As we move into the bridge, the guitar comes in strong at first, only to be overtaken by an organ and some psychedelic sounds. The bridge ends with an almost ghostly back and back and back and back. Going back to the chorus, Freedman’s voice becomes urgent, with a rougher tone building to a crescendo. The vocal fades, the drums then the guitar drop out, leaving just the piano for the tag.

I think you really need to hear Tim Freedman singing this live. This recording is from 2005, the closest I can get to replicating the energy of what I heard that first night. This is a solo performance with just keyboards, which always seems to add more poignancy to Freedman’s voice when he sings it. This version is just beautiful.

Enjoy this very special song of the day.