<p>Beloved Australian songwriter Paul Kelly has just turned 70 – “it sounds Biblical, threescore years and ten.” He looks back here at the road he took to get there, from early days in Adelaide to the pub circuit to his catalogue</p><p>of stirring and eloquent songs about the big issues of life and love, as Neil Finn says, “with not a trace of pretence or fakery”. You’ll find …</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the moment he felt he’d arrived</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the story of How To Make Gravy – “a Christmas song with no chorus about a man in prison” – and Rita Wrote A Letter, its ghostly sequel</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… early records he loved – Tommy Roe, Peter Paul &amp; Mary, Yes, Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, the “chaotic” Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… life on the Melbourne pub circuit playing Neil Young, Gram Parsons and Hank Williams</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… touring with Leonard Cohen – “a masterclass in performance, like a prayer, a ritual, like a Vaudevillian Rabbi”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>.. the storytelling songs of the Stanley Brothers, the Louvin Brothers and Buck Owens</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>... the great Calypso cricket tradition and the track he wrote about Shane Warne</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… “the odd-sock drawer”: the file in his computer where he stores early sketches</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>…&nbsp;I’m In Love With A Blue Frog, the five chords that underpinned 50 years of songwriting!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the intricacy of Neil Finn’s impressionistic lyrics</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… and the things you hear in your songs when someone else sings them.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Order Paul Kelly’s ‘Seventy’ here: </strong><a href="https://paulkelly.lnk.to/seventy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://paulkelly.lnk.to/seventy</a></p><br><p><strong>Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: </strong><a href="https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear</a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>