Australia’s first gold record star Slim Dusty lived the country life he sang about

SLIM Dusty was born 90 years ago today and his influence is still being felt in Australian country music

Slim Dusty’s 1957 hit A Pub With No Beer was the first Australian single to earn a gold record.

THE hopeful young singer had just cut his first record for Columbia’s Regal Zonophone label, a chance he had waited years for. He thought he had done a good job, but the head of sales, Archie Kerr, strode into the studio and told him he had to record it again.

When the singer asked why, Kerr told him, “It hasn’t got a yodel in it”.

Rather than have his career evaporate over the lack of a yodel, the singer, Gordon Kirkpatrick going by the name Slim Dusty, invented his own version of a yodel on the spot. While he later said how much he hated that yodel, it did the trick. Dusty’s song, an original titled When The Rain Tumbles Down In July, was successful enough to kick off his singing career.

It was an illustrious career. Dusty became the first Australian recording artist to have a gold record. He also earned multiple Golden Guitar Awards, induction in the ARIA Hall of fame, an MBE and an Order of Australia, and he is still known as the king of Australian country music.

Born David Gordon Kirkpatrick 90 years ago today, on June 13, 1927, in Kempsey, NSW, he grew up in an era when most people picked up an instrument as a way of passing the time so you could carry music anywhere. He was singing from an early age, partly inspired by his dairy farmer father, David “Noisy Dan” Kirkpatrick, who sang and played the fiddle.

Slim Dusty in the mid 1940s.

“Noisy Dan” was the life of local parties, singing, playing music and occasionally laying aside his instrument to recite bush poetry and the works of Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson.

Son Gordon was inspired by these descriptions of Australian country life. He also drew inspiration from American recording artists, who had become popular on radio in Australia. The American influence was reflected in his first song The Way A Cowboy Dies, written when he was 10. He was soon performing in a duo with friend Edwin Haberfield. After trying out the name Buddy Bluebird, he decided on the more Australian-sounding stage name Slim Dusty in about 1938.

He auditioned for Kerr, from Regal Zonophone, in 1942 but Kerr told him to get some experience. Slim recorded some songs at his own expense and honed his live act. He got another shot when Kerr invited him to record some songs in 1946. Among the tunes he recorded was When The Rain Tumbles Down, inspired by a rainstorm he once watched on a farm, it showed his love of the countryside and, after he inserted the yodel, it won him his first recording contract.

Slim Dusty and wife Joy McKean at a Townsville show in 1957.

As his music career began to take off, Slim continued to work on the farm he had taken over when his father died in 1945. He lived the rural life he sang about, giving his music an authenticity that won over fans.

Slim married country singer Joy McKean, one half of the McKean Sisters, in 1951. Joy and Slim formed a strong, lifetime show business partnership, touring with the Slim Dusty Show. She would write some of his best known songs including Walk a Country Mile. As they began raising a family, there were times when they contemplated giving up.

But in 1957 Slim recorded a song, written by his mate Gordon Parsons, that kept him on the road and made him an international star. Called A Pub With No Beer, it was based on a poem by Dan Sheahan, from north Queensland, inspired by a beer shortage at a pub in Ingham, Queensland, during World War II. The song was an instant hit, both here and overseas and held the record for being the biggest selling Australian song for many years. It was also the first Australian single to win a gold record, selling more than 50,000 copies in the early ’60s.

Slim Dusty celebrates with a beer after the pressing of his 100th single record release at EMI, Homebush, in 1976.

Singer Slim Dusty in the 1990s.

Never resting on his laurels, Slim began an annual tour of Australia in 1964, over the years continuing to turn out hits, like Lights on the Hill, Cunnamulla Fella, G’day G’day and
(I’d Like To Have A Beer With) Duncan.

During that time he honed his trademark look — a stockman’s hat with the brim turned down at the front, moleskins, western shirt and elastic-sided boots. The style was quintessentially Australian, but also authentic.

It is said he once refused to remove his hat for Queen Elizabeth II when he met her after a performance in Brisbane. “I wasn’t being rude, but I’m not Slim Dusty without my hat”.

Slim died in 2003 but was survived by Joy and his children David and Anne, who, with their children, continue the family music tradition.

Originally published as Australia’s first gold record star Slim Dusty lived the country life he sang about