Silverchair, John Williamson and Master’s Apprentice enter Sounds of Australia archive
Some of Australia’s most-loved artists - including Silverchair - are among the latest entries into the National Film and Sound Archive’s Sounds of Australia.
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Silverchair’s Tomorrow, John Williamson’s True Blue, and the Master’s Apprentices’ Because I Love You have joined the National Film and Sound Archive’s Sounds of Australia registry.
Ten sound recordings are added to the registry each year to mark their defining impact on Australian culture.
Also selected this year are the souvenir recording of the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games, the It’s Time jingle from Gough Whitlams’ 1972 election campaign, and every episode of the Martin/Molloy radio show from the 1990s.
Williamson, who has just turned 75, said he was “tickled pink” about True Blue’s inclusion.
“It doesn’t get much more Australian than True Blue,” he said. “It’s definitely part of our culture. It’s played at funerals all the time, it works for sad occasions and celebratory occasions – the cricket team still sing it when they win, Steve Waugh started that. I didn’t design it to be that way.”
The musician released True Blue in 1982, and was approached to use the song on the Australian Made advertising campaign in 1986.
“I wasn’t happy with the original version, I wanted to re-record it,” Williamson said.
“I took out the word ‘Vegemite’ because at the time Vegemite was owned by Americans so I thought they didn’t deserve to be in the song.
“When I wrote it Joh Bjelke-Peterson was flogging off all the Queensland coast line to Japanese golf courses, I wasn’t that impressed. There’s a line about being sold out like sponge cake. That’s about selling out to the Americans, we shouldn’t become too American or too British, it’s about being ourselves. You could take it literally, RM Williams and Kraft have just come back to being Australian owned. They’re Aussie icons, I think they should be protected.”
Williamson has made a new video for the song featuring photos fans have sent with what True Blue means to them.
“I’m very protective of True Blue,” Williamson said. “I’ve been offered a lot of money by big companies to use it in ads. It annoys me to see Waltzing Matilda used like that in ads. True Blue is my song, for the people who love it it’s their song. If I gave it to Woolworths for example I wouldn’t want to see it become the Woolworths song. Money’s not everything. True Blue is my calling card.”
Glenn Wheatley, bass player in the Master’s Apprentices, says Because I Love You was a special song for the band.
The song became a hit in 1971.
“We wrote it on the boat on the way over to London from Australia,” Wheatley said. “We’d jam new songs as we entertained the people on the ship. Then when we got to London we got to record it at Abbey Road Studios, with John Lennon hanging around with his son Julian. And we used the piano Paul McCartney played Yesterday on. I know (singer) Jim Keays, who is no longer with us, would be thrilled. We’re really proud of what we did with the band, to have your song immortalised like this is an honour.”
A vinyl reissue of Choice Cuts, the album with Because I Love You, will be released next March to mark the song’s 50th anniversary.
A TV special on The Master’s Apprentices is also being prepared for early next year.
The public can nominate recordings for 2021’s Sounds of Australia archive at nfsa.gov.au
2020 SOUNDS OF AUSTRALIA INDUCTIONS
Starlight by Hamilton Hill – 1907
Etude de concert in F minor and Etude de concert in A flat major by Eileen Joyce – 1933
Olympic Games, Melbourne 1956: Official souvenir recording of Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony – 1956
Nausicaa: Opera in Three Acts by Peggy Glanville-Hicks – 1961
Arnhem Land Popular Classics: Aboriginal Dance Songs with Didjeridu Accompaniment by David Blanasi, Djoli Laiwanga and others – 1963
Because I Love You by The Master’s Apprentices – 1971
It’s Time by Alison MacCallum – 1972
True Blue by John Williamson – 1986
Tomorrow by Silverchair – 1994
Martin/Molloy by Tony Martin and Mick Molloy – 1995-1998
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