The original author of Daryl Braithwaite’s iconic hit The Horses wants to do a duet with him

SOMEONE else wrote Daryl Braithwaite’s iconic hit The Horses ... and now she wants to come to Australia and perform our unofficial national anthem with him.

DARYL Braithwaite is in talks to perform The Horses in Melbourne with the woman who wrote the hit song — Rickie Lee Jones.

US musical icon Jones is headed to Australia for Bluesfest and has been in contact with Braithwaite, who turned her 1989 album track into an Australian No. 1 hit — and national anthem — in 1991.

The singer/songwriter wants to meet Braithwaite and a duet has been discussed for her show at Melbourne’s Recital Centre on April 7.

“That would be really special,” Braithwaite said.

US singer Rickie Lee Jones will have made a pretty penny from The Horses in Australia.

“As every day gets closer I start to get more and more nervous about it coming off. I emailed to her management six months ago, they forwarded it to her, she said getting that made her day. I guess she thought if she’s coming to Australia she’d like to meet me.

“I’m really looking forward to it. Maybe if it comes off I’ll walk out on stage and people will go ‘Oh, isn’t that that guy?’”

The Horses appeared on Jones’ 1989 album Flying Cowboys, written for the singer’s daughter.

A fan of Jones and the record, Braithwaite had finished making his album Rise in 1990 when he suggested doing a version of The Horses for the record at the eleventh hour.

Duet’s the way it’s gonna be, little darlin’ — Rickie Lee Jones wants to team up with Daryl Braithwaite for a special performance of The Horses. Picture: Alex Coppel

Released in January 1991, the song featured Margaret Urlich on backing vocals and after a slow but steady build made No. 1 in May.

It topped the chart for two weeks, spent 30 weeks in the Top 100 and became the fourth-highest selling song of 1991 in Australia.

The Rise album sold over 300,000 copies on the back of the song’s success.

“I mentioned in the email it seems like a lot of people like the song in Australia,” Braithwaite said modestly. The singer also noted he is always quick to point out that Rickie Lee Jones (and Walter Becker) wrote The Horses, not himself.

The song has continued to find new audiences in Australia, through use in TV ads and sporting events, while Braithwaite now performs the song as an encore at each show, with the song usually reaching around 10 minutes to accommodate the crowd singing the anthem.

Braithwaite said he is back to “95-per-cent” health after being hospitalised earlier this year.

The 68 year old had a benign “golf ball sized tumour” removed from his abdomen in December, however after a string of infections had to return to hospital.

Daryl Braithwaite performing as Labor MP Anne Aly sings with other MP's and staff at the Parliamentary Friends of Australian Music event at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

He had to cancel several gigs on the Red Hot Summer Tour, leading to good mate James Reyne covering The Horses in his set to appease audiences expecting to hear the song.

“There’s still a hole in my chest, near my lung, where the drain for the infection was. That was taken off a month ago, I’ve been putting patches on since but it’s still leaking. My health feels good, we’ve been doing gigs, they’ve been really fantastic.

“Apparently it happens often with people who have surgery, especially in the gut area. You think you’re all right after a week or so and somehow you get this infection and it really takes it out of you.”

Braithwaite performed in Canberra this week, alongside Ross Wilson, Kav Temperley, Montaigne and Megan Washington and Diesel, to highlight the impact changes to copyright law will have on the livelihood of musicians.

Musicians Diesel, Montaigne, Ross Wilson, Megan Washington, Kav Temperley and Daryl Braithwaite promote the rights of musicians in Canberra this week. Picture: Kym Smith

“It helps to enlighten the politicians to the plight of musicians overall,” Braithwaite said.

Braithwaite’s version of The Horses created a singalong with Australian politicians, but the singer denied reports from Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim that Pauline Hanson “was neither singing nor dancing” during the song, which he jokingly called #unaustralian.

Hearing that Pauline Hanson was neither singing nor dancing when Daryl Braithwaite sang Horses at Parliament last night. #unaustralian

— Nick McKim (@NickMcKim) March 29, 2017

While Braithwaite did not see Hanson, the controversial One Nation leader was at the concert, which featured The Horses as the final song.

“I didn’t think (Hanson) was there,” Braithwaite said. “I did meet Jacqui Lambie though, who was there. I think the politicians there had a good time.”

Anthony Albanese, occasional DJ and Labor minister, was also at the event. He has recently been announced as one of the celebrity ambassadors for Record Store Day, which promotes the sale of physical musical formats including vinyl.

Video miming, sunburn and a blue Mazda 323: The strange history of The Horses

Originally published as The original author of Daryl Braithwaite’s iconic hit The Horses wants to do a duet with him