"Sweet Guy"
Single by Paul Kelly and the Messengers
from the album So Much Water So Close to Home
B-side"Ghost Town"
ReleasedJune 1989
RecordedFebruary–March 1989
StudioTrafalgar Studios, Sydney
GenreRock
Length3:40
LabelMushroom
Songwriter(s)Paul Kelly
Producer(s)Scott Litt, Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly and the Messengers singles chronology
"Dumb Things"
(1988)		 "Sweet Guy"
(1989)		 "Careless"
(1989)

"Sweet Guy" is a song by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Messengers released in June 1989 as the lead single from the studio album, So Much Water So Close to Home. The song was written by Kelly – his first from a woman's point of view. He co-produced the track with Scott Litt. The single was released in June 1989 on the Mushroom Records label.[1] It reached No. 53 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart[2] and the Top 40 in New Zealand. The song was later covered by Renée Geyer on Difficult Woman (1994), Adalita Srsen on Before Too Long.

Background

Paul Kelly had formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls in 1985, named for Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side".[1][3][4] The line-up of the Coloured Girls was Michael Barclay on drums and backing vocals, Peter Bull on keyboards, Steve Connolly on lead guitar and Jon Schofield on bass guitar.[1][3] For international releases from 1987 they used the name Paul Kelly and the Messengers to avoid possible racist interpretations.[1][4] The group released Gossip in 1986 on Mushroom Records in Australia and in 1987 on A&M Records for international release.[3] A second album, Under the Sun, was issued in 1987 in Australia and in 1988 internationally.[3]

Their next album, So Much Water So Close to Home was released in August 1989 as by Paul Kelly and the Messengers in all markets,[3] it peaked at No. 10 on the ARIA Albums Chart.[5] The entire album was recorded in the United States with Scott Litt, best known for his work with R.E.M., co-producing with Kelly.[3] Litt had re-mixed some of Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls' tracks from Gossip for its US release as by Paul Kelly and the Messengers.[1][3] So Much Water So Close to Home was released on Mushroom/White Records in Australia and A&M Records in the US and Europe.[3] "Sweet Guy" was the first single from the album, which reached No. 53 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart[2] and in September 1989 it peaked in the Top 40 in New Zealand.

The video for "Sweet Guy" was directed by Claudia Castle, who had earlier directed Kelly's "To Her Door", which won 'Best Video' at the ARIA Music Awards of 1988.[6][7][8] The video is shot in black and white and switches between Kelly and his band, and a couple fighting and making up. Kelly later wrote that he was disappointed in the video, "this one looked like an ad for coffee or sheets... [Castle] had worked with us on a couple of videos previously ... that had turned out really well. We'd talked this one through and made a plan ... but when I saw the rough cut my heart sank. And there wasn't much I could do to change it".[6]

In 2004 Paul Kelly and the Boon Companions performed the track for the DVD, Ways & Means, in the section subtitled Live in Boston.[9][10] Kelly and his nephew Dan Kelly recorded the song as part of Kelly's A – Z Tours from 2004 to 2010, it was issued on the 8× CD album, The A – Z Recordings (2010).[6] It was later covered by Renée Geyer on Difficult Woman (1994) – Kelly produced her album, also wrote the title song, "Careless" and "Foggy Highway".[11][12] Adalita Srsen (ex-Magic Dirt) sang both "Sweet Guy" and "Everything's Turning to White" for the Kelly tribute show and related album, Before Too Long (2010).[13] Peter Bull's daughter, Vika Bull performed "Sweet Guy" on the RocKwiz National Tour which was recorded on a DVD and CD of the same name (2010).[14]

Composition

"Sweet Guy" is a song with a length of three minutes and forty seconds.[15] The song is set in the key of C major and has a medium fast tempo – 128 beats per minute – with a piano range of C2–G5 and a vocal range of E4–G5.[16] Kelly is credited with both lyrics and music.[17] The lyrics are written in the first person perspective, with the narrator, a female, reflecting on the violent nature of her relationship and broods over the Jekyll and Hyde transformation of her partner from being loving and attentive into a violent man.[18] Typical of the 'battered woman syndrome', she adopts a victim's view claiming that it is her problem, and is happy to forgive the man after he has bashed her. According to Rolling Stone's Clinton Walker the song is about Ian Rilen, where "his friend Paul Kelly sang in a song that was always understood to be about him, 'What makes such a sweet guy turn so mean?' He could be his own worst enemy".[19] Rilen (Rose Tattoo, X) had supplied bass guitar for Kelly's first solo album, Post (1985), and was married to Stephanie Falcolner (Sardine v) at the time.[1][19][20]

This was the first song that Kelly had penned from a woman's point of view – he was initially hesitant to sing it himself fearing that it would not sound "honest".[6] Kelly had tried to persuade female singers to adopt it but his band encouraged him to keep it for themselves, "'Don't give this one away', said [Schofield], 'we can do it.' 'Yeah,' chipped in [Connolly] '...What's to stop you cross-singing?'".[6] Paul Kelly and the Messengers first performed it at a Leagues Club on the central New South Wales coast – after several gigs Kelly felt perfectly normal singing it.[6] Kelly liked Barclay's backing vocals as they "sounded sweet" and Connolly "had written a killer guitar riff to kick things off".[6] Kelly enjoyed cross-singing and wrote both "Everything's Turning to White" and "South of Germany" from a woman's perspective – these tracks also appear on So Much Water So Close to Home.[6]

The B-side, "Ghost Town" was also written by Kelly,[21] but did not appear on an album until Kelly's 1994 release, Hidden Things, which also included a slower version of "Sweet Guy", re-titled as "Sweet Guy Waltz".[22]

Reception

Allmusic's Mike DeGagne liked "Everything's Turning to White" and "Sweet Guy" from So Much Water So Close to Home, he calls the latter "a disturbing piece" and observed that "[b]oth songs are true to Kelly's intriguing knack of fiction telling, making some of the other tunes seem a little weak in the content department".[18] While for his review of Hidden Things, DeGagne wrote that "the slower version ... 'Sweet Guy Waltz' ... presents an even eerier feel than the quicker version".[22]

Track listing

  1. "Sweet Guy" (Paul Kelly)[17] – 3:40
  2. "Ghost Town" (Kelly)[21] – 2:51

Personnel

Paul Kelly and the Messengers

Additional musicians – "Sweet Guy"

Recording details – "Sweet Guy"

Recording Details – "Ghost Town"

  • Producer – Paul Kelly
  • Mixing Engineer – Tim Ryan
  • Recording Engineer – Ross Muir
  • Studio – C.A.A.M.A. Music, Alice Springs
  • Mixed – Trackdown Studios, Sydney

Charts

Chart performance for "Sweet Guy"
Chart (1989) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[2] 53
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[23] 39

References

General
  • McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Whammo Homepage". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 5 April 2004. Retrieved 9 March 2010. Note: Archived [online] copy has limited functionality.
  • Nimmervoll, Ed. "Paul Kelly > Biography". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  • Spencer, Chris; Zbig Nowara; Paul McHenry (2002) [1987]. The Who's Who of Australian Rock. Noble Park, Vic: Five Mile Press. ISBN 1-86503-891-1.[24] Note: [online] version established at White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition.
Specific
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 McFarlane, 'Paul Kelly' at the Wayback Machine (archived 30 September 2004) entry. Archived from the original on 30 September 2004. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 "25 Years Ago This Week: July 30, 1989". chartbeat.blogspot.com.au. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Holmgren, Magnus. "Paul Kelly". Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  4. 1 2 Jenkins, Jeff; Meldrum, Ian (2007). "31: Paul Kelly – 'From Little Things Big Things Grow'". Molly Meldrum presents 50 years of rock in Australia. Melbourne, Vic: Wilkinson Publishing. pp. 213–219. ISBN 978-1-921332-11-1.
  5. ↑ Hung, Steffen. "Discography Paul Kelly". Australian Charts Portal. Hung Medien. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kelly, Paul (21 September 2010). How to Make Gravy. Camberwell, Vic: Penguin Books (Australia). pp. 427–31. ISBN 978-1-926428-22-2.
  7. ↑ "ARIA Awards: History: Winners by Year: 1988". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  8. ↑ Garcia, Alex S. (2008). "Paul Kelly - artist videography". mvdbase.com. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "Paul Kelly and the Boon Companions". Music Australia. National Library of Australia. 13 December 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  10. ↑ "Ways and Meads (DVD) – Paul Kelly". Allmusic (Rovi Corporation). Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  11. ↑ "Difficult Woman / Renee Geyer; produced by Paul Kelly; engineered and mixed by Terry Becker". Trove. National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  12. ↑ Blanda, Eva (2007). "Paul Kelly – Discography – Part III – Everything Else". Other People's Houses (Eva Blanda). Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  13. ↑ "Before Too Long". Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  14. ↑ "RocKwiz National Tour 2010 (DVD+CD)". SBS Shop. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  15. ↑ Blanda, Eva (2007). "Paul Kelly – Discography – Part IIb – The Recordings of Paul Kelly with Bands". Other People's Houses (Eva Blanda). Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  16. ↑ "Paul Kelly – 'Sweet Guy' Sheet Music". Musicnotes, Inc. (Kathleen Marsh). Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  17. 1 2 "'Sweet Guy' at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  18. 1 2 DeGane, Mike. "So Much Water, So Close to Home – Paul Kelly & the Messengers". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  19. 1 2 Walker, Clinton. "Ian Rilen". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  20. ↑ McFarlane Archived 27 February 2004 at the Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 27 February 2004. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  21. 1 2 "'Ghost Town' at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  22. 1 2 DeGagne, Mike. "Hidden Things - Paul Kelly & the Messengers". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  23. ↑ "Paul Kelly – {{{song}}}". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  24. ↑ "Who's who of Australian rock / compiled by Chris Spencer, Zbig Nowara & Paul McHenry". catalogue. National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
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