Billy Thorpe's last recorded performance.
-
-
To call it bittersweet is an understatement. Honest, intimate, exhilarating, poignant, funny as hell; looking back, forward and sideways, it's 110 minutes of pure revelation.
For Billy, this one-off solo show performed at the Basement in Sydney on Saturday, December 16, 2006, distilled his belated realisation that "playing old songs on an acoustic guitar" could capture the essence of his life's work – as well as providing a hushed reception for stunning, previously unheard songs and insightful banter.
For his incredibly fortunate audience on that night – an audience that now includes us – it's a timely insight, through story and song, into one of the most gifted, committed and remarkable performers to stride through this half century of rock'n'roll.
Neither the gig's calibre nor construction were accidental. "I want to deliver something special," Billy wrote to Liberation last June. "This will mark my first Australian solo release in 30 years and my first ever acoustic recording. It's important for many reasons that it's not good but great."
A solid month of isolation in his studio followed. For six hours a day, Billy played and replayed five decades worth of material, searching for a new perspective on what is, by anyone's estimation, a daunting body of work.
What emerges first is his enduring love of '50s rock'n'roll. Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis are mashed into one electrifying boogie-woogie medley. There's the Aztecs' #1 of '64, Poison Ivy, and classic flashbacks in Be Bop A Lula and Oop Poo Pa Doo.
From Stand By Me circa '65 to his signature version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, his uniquely tilted standards are seamlessly matched by some of Thorpie's own, iconic compositons: the raucous rip of Most People I Know; the breezy lilt of Almost Summer.
Then there are the surprises: loans from Joni Mitchell and the Master's Apprentices; a glimpse of his Moroccan recording project under construction, Since You've Been Gone, and a lost demo that positively chills, Girls of Summer: "Are we all travellers on a road that leads somewhere,
or passengers upon a ship of fools?
It doesn't really matter and I don’t really care
Cause it’s been enough to take this trip with you."
Finally, between the fire and tenderness are the stories that bind them. From baked beans with the Beatles to his life-changing trip to Morocco, Billy the raconteur is in top form. At times, it feels eerily like the last performance of his life. But as every fan knows, Billy brought that kind of energy to every gig.
Timeline
1956 10-year-old Bill begins performing on Brisbane TV as Little Rock Allen
Later opens for Jerry Lee Lewis, Col Joye, Johnny O'Keefe
1963 Joins the Aztecs in Sydney
1964 Second single, Poison Ivy, keeps the Beatles from #1
Somewhere Over The Rainbow is second #1
1965 Debut album, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs
Band draws 63,000 to historic Myer Music Bowl gig
1966 Thorpe hosts live TV rock show, It's All Happening!
Demise of Mk II Aztecs
1969 Billy launches heavy rock phase with Aztecs Mk III
1970 LSD-fuelled The Hoax Is Over album
1971 Legendary Melbourne Town Hall gig recorded and released
1972 Signature tune, Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy), hits #1
Aztecs Live! At Sunbury celebrates pivotal event in Australian rock
1973 Band plays Sunbury '73, appears on debut 3LP Mushroom release
Thumpin' Pig and Puffin' Billy LP, with Aztec Warren Morgan
First rock show at Sydney Opera House yields double Aztecs album
1974 More Arse Than Class LP causes moral outrage
1975 Almost Summer appears on Million Dollar Bill album
1976 Pick Me Up & Play Me Loud, last Oz album before US relocation
1977 Billy continues writing/ production/ sessions with Jeff St John, Angry Anderson, Wendy Saddington, the Who's Tommy
1979 "Space rock" LP Children of the Sun hits #1 in several US cities
1980 21st Century Man LP continues US arena conquest
1981 Stimulation LP
1982 East Of Eden's Gate LP
1984 Retires from rock for electronics, production, film music ventures
1985 Time Traveller compilation
1990 Shakin' the Cage album with Mick Fleetwood's band, Zoo
Inducted into ARIA's Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame
1993 Lock Up Your Mothers box set heralds Aztecs' triumphant return
1996 The Billy Thorpe Band launches
First bestselling autobiography, Sex and Thugs and Rock'n'Roll
1998 Second bestseller, Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)
2006 Dec 16: last recorded performance at the Basement in Sydney
2007 Feb 28: Billy dies of cardiac arrest in Sydney
Apr 14: Solo: The Last Recordings released
2008 Moroccan recording project, Tangier, due for posthumous release
20 tracks, 2 CD
Track Title
1 Free Man In Paris
2 Ride This Train
3 Rock Me Baby
4 Brisbane Billy
5 Medley: Dance To The Bop - Sick and Tired - High Heel Sneakers - What'd I Say
6 Girls Of Summer
7 Million Dollar Billy
8 It's Almost Summer
9 A Long Way With Billy
10 Because I Love You
11 Billy Goes To Morocco
12 Since You've Been Gone
13 Be Bop A Lula
14 Stomping With Billy
15 Poison Ivy
16 Over The Rainbow
17 Aztec Gold
18 Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)
19 Stand By Me
20 Ooh Poo Pah Doo
-
password = ozblogdownunder
-
http://sharebee.com/3fbddf24
