Elders Part II: My Father-in-Song

A good songwriter gets your attention. A great songwriter diverts your attention to other great songwriters. A brilliant songwriter can change the way you see everything.

Every Australian song I'd ever heard sounded like sunburn, truck tyres, red dust and the wide open blah blah blah. Places I'd never been, but places I'd been tricked into believing were my home. 

When I discovered this guy, my country sounded like the bend on Kensington Road, like whiskey and fishing, like the Colonel Light statue, like the backseat at seventeen, like a crowded beach with the big kids out past the breakers. 

This gentleman made me aware that the big red country myth had left me feeling homeless. I have always lived in the suburbs, like almost everyone in this country. I got married early, never had no money and am thankful she didn't take the kids when I went crazy. Love like a bird flies away, so I'm told.

These days many of his songs are about getting old, about loving the fine lines time has drawn on her face, about the spring and fall of a life of love, but I just can't yet relate. I've only lived to the fifth verse. 

Deeper Water (1995)
On a crowded beach in a distant time
At the height of summer see a boy of five
At the water's edge so nimble and free
Jumping over the ripples looking way out to sea

Now a man comes up from amongst the throng
Takes the young boy's hand and his hand is strong
And the child feels safe, yeah the child feels brave
As he's carried in those arms up and over the waves
Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on

Let's move forward now and the child's seventeen
With a girl in the back seat tugging at his jeans
And she knows what she wants, she guides with her hand
As a voice cries inside him - I'm a man, I'm a man!
Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on

Now the man meets a woman unlike all the rest
He doesn't know it yet but he's out of his depth
And he thinks he can run, it's a matter of pride
But he keeps coming back like a cork on the tide

Well the years hurry by and the woman loves the man
Then one night in the dark she grabs hold of his hand
Says 'There, can you feel it kicking inside!'
And the man gets a shiver right up and down his spine
Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on

So the clock moves around and the child is a joy
But Death doesn't care just who it destroys
Now the woman gets sick, thins down to the bone
She says 'Where I'm going next, I'm going alone'
Deeper water, deeper water

On a distant beach lonely and wild
At a later time see a man and a child
And the man takes the child up into his arms
Takes her over the breakers
To where the water is calm
Deeper water, deeper water,
Deeper water, calling them on

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