When we contemplate the history of Australian rock, names like John Farnham and Jimmy Barnes come to mind easily, but few, if any artists have contributed more to the acceptance and growth of Australian rock music than Richard Clapton.
His lyrics speak to an Aussie audience, and manifest vivid images of our unique lifestyle and culture , without invoking cliches. There are no shrimps on Richard Clapton’s ‘barbie’.
This could be because he spent much of his youth writing abroad, but it could well be that he just doesn’t see through that window.
With a career spanning 50 years , his accomplishments have been enduring and consistent.
Richard recently shared some of his thoughts with me.
We discussed his approach to songwriting.
“It’s changed a lot over the years. A lot of it is just a stream of consciousness, but songs like ‘Deep Water’ are almost journalistic. The lyrics in ‘Deep Water ‘ actually happened.
“I spent a lot of my youth in Europe, so there is almost a dual nationality thing happening there. Much of what I write about is within my immediate environment.”
Although Richard is recognised as an Australian artist, he spent a not insignificant amount of his early years in Europe and the U.K. It is not hard to see the influence that this has had on his overall style, both as a performer and as a songwriter.
“I had two bands when I was in London, then after I was deported from England for overstaying my visa, I moved to Berlin. I ended up living on a commune with these really out there german guys. They were part of a band called ‘Tangerine Dream’. They were into some really weird progressive stuff. At one point, One guy had a sheet of tin with rivets in it, and a guitar string stretched across it that made all of these weird sounds. It was fantastic. and by the time I returned to Australia , I was into folk music. When I first heard Bob Dylan, I thought ‘I wanna be that guy’ I was focused more on lyrics at that point. I wasn’t a particularly good musician. I probably started to focus more on musicianship with the ‘Girls on the avenue ‘ album”
“I’ve always tried to work with the best Australian guitarists, like Red McKelvie. He is considered to be one of the the greats of Australian guitarists back in the early 70s. He taught me so much. I’m not like the musicians that I play with. I don’t know how they do what they do, learning 30 songs for a gig. For example, if I say a certain album was influenced by ‘Steely Dan’ , I am nowhere near their level. They are so advanced, but because I used to listen to them so much, that tends to show up in what I am working on at the time.”
It is almost impossible to pigeon hole Richard’s work into one particular genre, or even a set of genres. The rare ability to write music that is accepted and embraced by audiences across generations, without hopping on bandwagons of trend or fashion is something that gives an artist longevity and consistency. Richard has written and performed material that spans rock, country, folk, jazz and has still retained the recognisable fingerprint of his sound.
“ I recorded a ‘hippy’ album because Terry Blamey, who was Kylie (Minogue)’s manager for most of her career retired , and I guess he kinda managed me for a while. After I came back from San Francisco, he suggested that I should do an album of what he called ‘Hippy anthems.’
I don’t think my songs sound like those songs, but they are similar to my embryonic roots.”
With a catalogue of 20 albums, one could ask how anyone could find the time to involve themselves with other artists ‘careers, but Richard clapton is in no small way instrumental in the success of other iconic Aussie performers, the most notable of which are ‘Cold Chisel’ and ‘INXS’. His close working relationship with these artists is no secret within the industry.
“Chisel came to Sydney in , I think 1977, and I used to live in Bondi Junction, so I used to go to ‘The Lifesaver’ a lot, and then INXS’ manager wanted me to produce their album, which was , I thought, a bit of an odd match, until I went to this pub and saw them playing to virtually nobody, and they just blew me away in the first couple of songs.
I had produced my own album, ‘Dark Spaces’, and they loved it, so they wanted to work with me, but I was new to producing so it was pretty daunting for me, and they were already getting well known . They were so diverse within the group. For me to work with that band, I really had to open my head up and instead of being fixated on the styles of Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell and the like, I had to get out of my comfort zone and get a lot more eclectic in my approach to producing. INXS and Cold Chisel both ended up playing on parts of my ‘Great Escape’ album. That era was a point in my development where I was really starting to hit my stride. I had been around so many great musicians by that time, and I had garnered so much knowledge, but I was like what a ‘Naive painter’ in the way that I had never been to music school, or had any formal training, but by being exposed to so many great musicians and producers, I could work by intuition”
Having been around for so long, I was curious about what changes Richard has observed within the industry in the last 50 plus years, and what challenges up and coming musicians face compared to the past landscape.
“My daughter has had a band for about 15 years, they have played all over the world, from Tokyo, Amsterdam …everywhere. They are fantastic. Really original, really unique, and they are struggling.
Songs are supposed to be about human communication, and so much of what is popular now is just vacuous crap. The likes of Bob Dylan and Neil young; that kind of music just isn’t happening anymore. They were saying things that were in my head , and probably yours. For the life of me, I don’t know. The attention span of the audience is different now, too. Music is moving towards TikTok and similar platforms. Songs used to be 3 or 4 minutes. Now it’s 30 seconds. If you’ve seen a modern royalty statement, they’re bizarre. Its just page after page of ‘five percent of a fraction of a cent’. Its insane.”
By all accounts, the show in Cairns should be a banger, as the kids say.
“The band is just blowing everyone away. Danny Spencer, who has been with me for 25 years, is one of the best lead guitar players in the world. He plays a beat up blue Strat that looks like it’s just holding together, but it sounds great. People are going to love this band. They’re really impressive musicians. You’ll just have to come to the show, and you will see what I mean. “
Richard Clapton plays CPAC theatre in Cairns 730 on Saturday the 8th of February, 2025, and promises to be an unmissable event. Tickets are available through Ticketlink.
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