Post (Paul Kelly album)

Background

Paul Kelly and the Dots, had released two albums in the early 1980s, Talk and Manila, but they had little chart success. Kelly had become involved with the Melbourne drug culture, the Dots disbanded in 1982 after numerous line-up changes and Kelly formed the Paul Kelly Band. Kelly's first marriage, to Hilary Brown, had broken up in late 1984; likewise the Paul Kelly Band had ended too. Kelly had moved to Sydney by January 1985, where he recorded Post in the studio of Sherbet guitarist Clive Shakespeare. It was self-funded (at a cost of $3,500), with Michael Barclay on drums and guitarist Steve Connolly (The Zimmerman), guest performers on the album included bass player Ian Rilen (Rose Tattoo, X), Peter Bull (Flaming Hands, Grooveyard) on keyboards and guitarist Graham Lee. They spent two weeks recording at Clive Shakespeare's studio, Shakespeare engineered the album and co-produced with Kelly, it was released in May 1985 on the independent label White Label Records, and licensed to Mushroom Records.

The term 'post' has a few layers of meaning for Kelly in this album, i.e. post Kelly’s childhood and youth in Adelaide, post his life in Melbourne, particularly post his involvement with the Melbourne drug culture, post the death of his musician friend, Paul Hewson. Kelly dedicated the album to Hewson, who was a keyboard player and songwriter for the Australian/New Zealand band, Dragon, he died of a heroin overdose in January 1985. 'Post' also relates to a marker or 'signpost', pointing to a new direction, and even a way to 'post' his account of the world. Kelly has described Post as a concept album dealing with addictions - not necessarily heroin addiction - but various forms, he has also denied that the songs were autobiographical but that he wrote about the world around him. The album was re-released in 1990 as one of Mushroom's Midprice Masters and was re-released again in 2006 by Mushroom.

Professional reviews

According to Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, Post is a stark, personal collection of acoustic songs that highlight Kelly's broadly based song writing skill. Australian Rolling Stone magazine hailed Post as the best record of 1985. Both the album and the one single released from it, "From St Kilda to Kings Cross", failed to chart. The album is thought by some critics to be more of a demo recording, as four tracks were re-recorded by Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls for their debut album Gossip in 1986. However, according to others it is like Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, where there is a beauty and delicateness in this raw production, with the emphasis on the words, the melodies, the song structures that are the defining elements of Kelly as a songwriter.

Personnel

Additional musicians

Recording details

Art work