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 Comments are closed.
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