Song of the day – 453: Jimmy Little
Sad to report that Jimmy Little passed away yesterday at the age of 75.
We were fortunate enough to be living in Melbourne when Little released his Messenger album, in 1999. It was a highlight of the year we spent living there to see him performing it live in concert – smooth, loving renditions of classic Australian songs such as ‘The Way I Made You Feel’ (Ed Kuepper), ‘(Are You) The One I’ve Been Waiting For’ (Nick Cave), and ‘Under The Milky Way’ (The Church), performed with elegance and grace.
The one that really drew our attention – and indeed, the attention of many others – was his reading of The Go-Betweens’ ‘Cattle And Cane’, a song that I previously had marked down as uncoverable. (It was probably no coincidence that, two years later, the song was selected by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.) His reading – subtle, and with the song’s wistful emptiness and nostalgia intact – didn’t change too much, just added fresh layers of meaning and resonance.
R.I.P. Jimmy. Thanks for helping us understand Australia a little better, right at a time when we needed to.
