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He who has the best stories wins

It’s down to the wire on Australian Idol. Either Anthony Callea or Casey Donovan will walk away with the title after Courntey Murphy was eliminated last night.

Not that I care too much for any of them (*See Disclosure Statement below!). Neither of them are very exciting, very different or anything other than pretty good singers. Their styles are no different to the countless singers and bands that clog the commercial radio stations and CD stands. That’s probably why they’ll be successful… for a fleeting moment in time anyway. Neither of them have shown any signs of enduring star quality. 

I was thinking about it today, making the inevitable comparison between Idol finalists 2004 and the 2003 pair of Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll. The difference is easy to spot; Sebastian and Noll had (have) great stories, fascinating stories to tell; Callea and Murphy don’t.

Sebastian was the shy, unasuming church going, Sunday School teaching boy from Adelaide who was still a virgin. Noll had an amazing tale to tell about how he was signing to make a living because is farm was drought-affected and his family struggled to make ends meet after the death of his father in a farming accident.

These stories helped to flesh out their personas beyond being good singers in TV contest. They are interesting, compelling people. Their stories helped to establish- dare I say it- their brand. Which is just as important to being a good singer as singing is.

Ever seen the Steven Spielberg movie Armistad? It’s about a mutiny on an American slave ship with Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins. Anyway, during one seen Hopkins (playing former US President John Adams) says to Freeman (as Theodore Joadson, a black abolitionist lawyer):

“Early in my career, I learned that he who has the best story wins. What’s your story?”

It’s a great quote. I have heard many people refer to it (even Tom!).

But based on that, the Australian Idol final could be a nil-all draw.

(* Disclosure Statement: I don’t watch Australian Idol. But you’d need to be on another planet not to know what is going on!)

Almost Advancing Australia's Fair

Back in September I tee'd off at our national anthem, Advance Australia Fair:

The words and tune that make up Advance Australia Fair fail to reach any inspiring heights. It’s almost bit of a dirge:
Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea

Well, Thor Prohaska agrees:

I also came to the same conclusion that Australia needs a better national anthem. So I did something about it and created an improved version of Advance Australia Fair. I have changed half of the words but left the tune unchanged. It is now titled Australia and goes like this:
Australians all let us rejoice
for we are all born free.
We are the dreaming of this land
its spirit breathes in me.
Our home abounds with nature's gifts
of beauty rich and rare.
At every stage let history's page
treat all Australians fair.
With joyful voices let us sing
Australia is our home

(You can check the whole thing out here)

Thats a bit more evocative I guess, but still has no real attack in it, like the best national anthems do. Thor's lyrics (whilst an improvement) still fail to relay any deep, insprirational images on our idea’s and ideals.... I still wouldn't put my hand on my heart and sing it with a lump in my throught.

But I do like the "it's spirit breathes in me" bit; some more of that type of thing and we would be on to something.

(I'd have a lash at writing a National Anthem, but I struggle to write a decent limerick)

Advance Australia Fair

The AFL Grand Final is arguably the biggest annual sporting event in Australia, each year more than 80 000 fans flock to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch the Premiership decider. Millions more watch on the TV. And yesterday Port Adelaide won the 2004 premiership, defeating the reigning (3 time) champ, Brisbane. Port Adelaide deserved to win after the work they put in, both in this game, and in the season as a whole.

But that’s not really what I wanted to blog about today. You can read all about the big game here.

But I want to talk about our National Anthem; the banal Advance Australia Fair.

When I tuned into the GF telecast yesterday I was just in time to listen to Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian make a fair fist of singing AAF(a few have gaffed this task in recent years, but Guy did a good job). As he sang, the TV cameras panned the players from both teams, a few were singing, but most looked completely disinterested.

If you have ever listened to Advance Australia Fair you could understand such disinterest. It's almost embarressing to think that we use it to celebrate and commemorate so many important occasions, such as the AFL Grand Final. The words and tune that make up Advance Australia Fair fail to reach any inspiring heights. It’s almost bit of a dirge:
Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea

Compare this passive opening- which is completely at odd’s with our local vernacular- with that of The Star-Spangled Banner:

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twighlight’s last gleaming?

Or my favorite, ‘The Marseillaise’
Arise, children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived,
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody standard is raised.

Now that's inspirational! But, no such inspirationa exists in Advance Australia Fair. No attack. No assertion of our ideal’s, let alone any defence of them.

Even New Zealand’s “God Defend New Zealand” has lyrics that are deep with idea’s and ideals, including God, peace, and hospitality and is full of resolute determination to defend them.

So why do we have such a tacky, uninspiring song? It is probably born out of a history that doesn’t include much singing, certainly not as much as the American’s, the Irish, even the Scot’s and English. In fact for the most part of our modern history, we just sang the song’s of the Americans, the Irish, the Scots and the English. We even borrowed our National Anthem from Britain for the first eighty years of nationhood (God Save the King)

Whilst I take no pride in our existing National Anthem, I am not holding my breath waiting for a new one to emerge; it’s not like we have any hoard of great ideas or death-less phrases from immortal Australian statesmen to draw inspiration from. But for as long as I have to sing “our home is girt by sea” I am not likely to be putting my hand on my heart….