Sirocco

About

A year after their debut album, <i>The Boys Light Up</i>, Australian Crawl released <i>Sirocco</i>. It didn’t just top the charts for months (beating <i>Back in Black</i> for the No. 2 spot on the end-of-year charts in Australia) and remain the pub rock band’s most popular album, it became an enduring Aus rock favorite—one that’s still beloved, four decades later. “James [Reyne, lead singer] had written stellar songs for <i>The Boys Light Up</i>, but to come up with another batch of hit songs so quickly put him under enormous pressure,” drummer Bill McDonough tells Apple Music. So the group enlisted McDonough’s brother Guy to officially join the band on vocals and guitar—although he already had writing credits throughout their debut. Working with Reyne and other band member, Guy wrote and cowrote five tracks and sang lead vocals on “Errol,” “Oh No Not You Again,” and “Resort Girl.” “I remember him playing ‘Errol’ to me for the first time, sitting on his bed at his Mornington Peninsula cottage,” McDonough say. “He’d just finished reading Errol Flynn’s autobiography <i>My Wicked, Wicked Ways</i>.” The group’s fascination with Flynn didn’t stop there—the album itself is named after a yacht owned by the Australian-born Hollywood icon. McDonough recalls how much easier it was to tour as a six-piece, with his brother and Reyne sharing vocal dutie. “I remember many days on the road as we crisscrossed the country, taking the new songs to every big city, and many regional towns in Australia and New Zealand,” he say. “There were big highlights in 1981, like the two Festival Hall shows in Brisbane, the outdoor show in the Darwin Botanical Gardens at sunset—with the fruit bats flying overhead—and the record-breaking crowd at the Perth Entertainment Centre.” Below, McDonough offers details about each track on the record. <b>“Things Don’t Seem”</b> “A Guy McDonough and Sean Higgins song about the good old Mount Eliza day. First performed by a McDonough Brothers band called The Flatheads before Crawl did their dynamic <i>Sirocco</i> version.” <b>“Unpublished Critics”</b> “Paul Williams enlisted help from James Reyne to write this song, which was composed years before Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine,’ which has a familiar feel to the Crawl classic.” <b>“Love Beats Me Up”</b> “Classic cryptic James Reyne lyrics about intimacy.” <b>“Oh No Not You Again”</b> “Guy’s story of two young lovers in a coastal idyll, troubled by personal undercurrent.” <b>“Lakeside”</b> “Like James’ songs from <i>BLU</i>, a recollection of earlier uncomplicated time.” <b>“Trusting You”</b> “Bill’s comment on the pressures that fame and fortune can bring to maintaining friendship.” <b>“Errol”</b> “Guy’s ode to the great but very wicked Hollywood star Errol Flynn.” <b>“Can I Be Sure”</b> “Simon’s comment on people one tends to meet when you’re a rock star.” <b>“Easy on Your Own”</b> “Kerry Armstrong and Brad Robinson enlist Simon Binks to explore living with fame when you’re completely on your own.” <b>“Love Boys”</b> “Bill’s story about the rough, tough Aussie Crawl road crew.” <b>“Resort Girls”</b> .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →