Under the Milky Way

Background

In 1987 Australian alternative rock band The Church travelled to Los Angeles to record their fifth studio album, Starfish, and worked with producers Waddy Wachtel (Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams) and Greg Ladanyi (Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac).

The Church's line-up for the album was Steve Kilbey on bass guitar and lead vocals, Peter Koppes on guitars, Marty Willson-Piper on guitars, and Richard Ploog on drums and percussion. However, while recording "Under the Milky Way", the band were unable to get a drum track which sounded right with Ploog, so they played to a click track and later session musician Russ Kunkel was brought in to add drums and percussion.

Composition

"Under the Milky Way" was written by Kilbey and Karin Jansson of Curious (Yellow). Kilbey and Jansson had become friends in 1983 and lived together in Australia from 1986. Kilbey said, "I smoked a joint and started playing the piano and she came in the room and we just made it up." According to a press release issued with Starfish, the title is from an Amsterdam music and cultural venue, Melkweg (Dutch for "Milky Way"), which Kilbey used to frequent.

"Under the Milky Way" features a 12-string acoustic guitar melody along with a solo composed with an EBow on a Fender Jazzmaster, and recorded on a Synclavier, leading to a sound reminiscent of bagpipes. In October 1990 Jansson told John Tingwell of Drum Media about songwriting with Kilbey "it's a very spontaneous thing. It's not as if someone has put us together to write a hit song. It's more like sometimes when we write together, a song comes knocking on the door". While in September 2008 Kilbey discussed the track with Iain Shedden of The Australian.

Release history

"Under the Milky Way" was released on 15 February 1988 in both 7" vinyl and 12" vinyl formats by Arista Records (internationally) and Mushroom Records (Australian region). The Church's fifth studio album, Starfish, was issued simultaneously with the single. In April the single was released in several formats worldwide including 7", double 7", 12", CD single, and compact cassette, using at least five different cover art designs. The 12" B-sides were "Musk" and "Warm Spell", whereas the 7" B-side was "Musk". Different Spanish versions added either "Anna Miranda" or "Perfect Child". The music video for the song featured on The Church's video compilation Goldfish (Jokes, Magic & Souvenirs).

Reception

On the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart "Under the Milky Way" peaked at No. 22. However, it was not their highest charting single: "Almost with You" (1982) and "Metropolis" (1990) charted at No. 21 and No. 19, respectively, on the Australian charts. In the United States it reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Other charting peaks include No. 25 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, No. 69 on the Canadian RPM 100, No. 70 on the Dutch Single Top 100, and No. 90 in the United Kingdom.

At the ARIA Music Awards of 1989 "Under the Milky Way" won 'Single of the Year', though Kilbey refused to attend the award ceremony. He said, "You will note that I didn't collect the award. I don't give a fuck about winning that award. I've been a big critic of the Australian music industry. I think the whole thing is utterly embarrassing and repulsive."

In 2006 Kilbey said of the recording, "It's actually flat lifeless 'n' and sterile. Great song, sure, but the performance, the sounds are ordinary. We coulda got that in Australia in a week or two for a 20th of the money we spent. Hey, it's sold almost a million in the US alone, but we'll never see any money 'cause it cost so much to make". Kilbey's assessment ignored its second life as a much-licensed track. In December 2011, he told News Limited reporter, Cameron Adams:

"There is almost nothing, except for maybe a cigarette ad, I'd say no to 'Under the Milky Way' being used for [...] It was used for a car advertisement in America, very lucratively for me. You'd think people would think it's been overused, but the more it's used the more people seem to want to use it. I'm signing off all the time for TV shows or chocolate bars using it. Sure, have it, it's just a song, do whatever you like with it. You can hear it wasn't written for profit. It's an accidental song I accidentally wrote and accidentally became a single and accidentally became a hit. It's been a nice earner [...] I've written 2000 songs. Thank God one of them came through! [...] The others aren't pulling their weight. They sit and grumble about 'Under the Milky Way' and I say, 'Well, boys, go out and earn the same dough as that one'. I never see 'Under the Milky Way' – it's so busy out there working..."

In 2001, the song was featured in the soundtrack for the movie, Donnie Darko. In 2006, it was performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Kilbey said after the performance that it was as if the song had been made for the occasion, though in his blog he was critical of the Commonwealth Games as an event. In September 2008, readers of The Weekend Australian Magazine voted it as the best Australian song of the last 20 years. Sheet music for "Under the Milky Way" was published by Hal Leonard.

In October 2010, The Church's Starfish was listed in the top 40 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums. The authors, John O'Donnell, Toby Creswell and Craig Mathieson, described "Under the Milky Way" as "[The Church's] signature track ... [which] caught them at their peak of guitar-fuelled creativity ... [it is] the elegiac centrepiece of the record ... sounded like an induction, with its soft, monkish keyboard washes and ringing guitar chords, but it never reaches the point of transition where one world gives way to the next ... possibly concerned with drugs, but it transcends any single setting or worldview".

Cover versions

Sources:

Strawpeople – Broadcast (1994)

Seven Nations – Big Dog (1 December 1996)

Jimmy Little – Messenger (28 June 1999)

Fates Warning – Disconnected [bonus track] (25 June 2000)

george – Triple J, "Like a Version" radio broadcast (3 November 2000)

Gordon Merrick & Liz Enthusiasm – internet album, Best Friends Forever (2004)

Rick Springfield – The Day After Yesterday (12 July 2005)

Grant Lee Phillips – nineteeneighties (27 June 2006)

Kill Hannah – Until There's Nothing Left of Us (1 August 2006)

The Dear & Departed featuring Jessica Origliasso – Something Quite Peculiar (22 May 2007)

Coheed and Cambria – on tour promoting Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow (after October 2007)

Nicole Atkins – Nicole Atkins Digs Other People's Songs EP (9 September 2008)

Josh Pyke – Triple J's "Like a Version" (17 November 2008)

Tearwave – Different Shade of Beauty (2008)

Starflyer 59 – Minor Keys EP (7 April 2009)

The Killers – live at AAArena Miami (2009)

Sia Furler – "Under the Milky Way" [single] (26 January 2010)

Powerman 5000 – Copies, Clones & Replicants (31 July 2011)

Miami Horror – Snickers Sessions (18 August 2011)

TV/film appearances

"Under The Milky Way" was featured in the season 1 episode of Scorpion titled "Charades", the episode "Asian Cut" in Season 5 of Miami Vice, and also in the 2001 Jake Gyllenhaal movie, Donnie Darko.