Sounds of Then
{{redirect |This is Australia |the 2022 song and music video |Marrugeku}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}
{{Use Australian English|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Sounds of Then
| cover = Soundsofthen.jpg
| alt = The main image is a close up painting of a guitar near its hole with strings visible. Paint used is blue, red, white and black. The group's name is across the top in black print with "gang" all in capitals and "gajang" in lower case with no space between.
| type = single
| artist = GANGgajang
| album = GANGgajang
| B-side = House of Cards
| released = {{start date|df=y|1985|11|}}
| recorded = 1984–85
| studio = Rhinoceros
| genre = Rock
| length = {{duration|m=3|s=57}}
| label = * True Tone
| writer = Mark Callaghan
| producer = * Joe Wissert
- Graham Bidstrup
- Mark Callaghan
| prev_title = Dream at Night
| prev_year = 1985
| next_title = The Bigger They Are
| next_year = 1986
}}
"Sounds of Then (This Is Australia)" is a 1985 song by Australian rock band, GANGgajang, from their self-titled debut album, GANGgajang. "Sounds of Then" was written by front man, Mark "Cal" Callaghan, who provides lead vocals and guitar.{{cite web | publisher = Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | title = 'Sounds of Then' at APRA search engine | url = http://apraamcos.com.au/search?searchtype=works&keywords=sounds+of+then | accessdate = 27 April 2018 }} Note: For additional work user may have to select 'Search again' and then 'Enter a title:' &/or 'Performer:' He co-produced the album with fellow band member, Graham Bidstrup, and Joe Wissert (Earth, Wind & Fire, Helen Reddy, the J. Geils Band) at Rhinoceros Studios.
It was issued as a single in November 1985 and peaked at No. 35 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart in February 1986.{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6|page=121}} Note: The Kent Report chart was licensed by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) from mid-1983 until 19 June 1988. "Sounds of Then" became the band's most popular and recognisable song, and was used as Nine Network's station ID promotion in 1996. The B-Side, "House of Cards", had been recorded live for youth radio station, 2JJJ.
It has been described as, "a defining portrait of the nation."{{cite web| work= Junkee | title=The 200 Greatest Australian Songs Of All Time, Part Two|author=Jules LeFevre| url=https://junkee.com/longform/greatest-australian-songs-part-two}}
Composition
Callaghan recalled that it started as a poem in his notebook, reflecting on the time that his family moved from England to Bundaberg in Queensland, a major culture shock for him:
"We lived half way between Bundaberg and the ocean, all around was bush scrub and cane fields. And walking up to the top of the street to catch the school bus, one morning you turn around and there's fire. It's one of those songs where if your goal was only to sell records, whatever it took to do it, then the song would have been called 'This is Australia'. But it's not about that. It's a brick veneer drama. My parents got divorced when they came to Australia, it was a horrible period of my life. And the song is actually about how smells and sounds and sensations can rekindle a memory – which is what music does so successfully for people: 'I think I hear the sounds of then and people talking / Scenes recalled by minute movement / And songs they fall from the backing tape…'."{{cite web | url = http://www.debbiekruger.com/writer/aprap/songs1.html | title = They Wrote the Songs Part 1 | last = Kruger | first = Debbie | author-link = Debbie Kruger | work = APRAP | publisher = Australasian Performing Right Association | via = Debbie Kruger | date = March 2002 | accessdate = 27 April 2018 }}
Track listing
=1985 single=
=1996 re-release=
- "Sounds of Then" aka "This Is Australia" – 3:57
- "Giver of Life" (Geoffrey Stapleton, Chris Bailey, Callaghan, Graham Bidstrup, K Bidstrup aka Kay Bee)– 3:39
- "Sounds of Then" (Surf mix) – 3:23
In popular culture
The song was used in a Coca-Cola ad and in the 1987 feature film, North Shore.[https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800101773/info "North Shore – film credits"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070716123637/http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800101773/info |date=July 16, 2007 }}[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093648/soundtrack "Internet Movie database – North Shore soundtrack"] In the 2015 TV documentary-drama Australia: The Story of Us, a snippet from the chorus is frequently played.
An instrumental version sub-titled variously as: "Sounds of Then" (Instrumental) or (Surf mix) or (Mad Wax mix) had been used in the Quiksilver-sponsored cult surf film, Mad Wax (1984), for which Bidstrup was the musical director.{{cite web | archive-url = https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20120404005900/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/62267/20120404-1059/www.jlf.org.au/index.php/our-people/index.html | url = http://www.jlf.org.au/index.php/our-people/index.html | title = Administrator – Graham 'Buzz' Bidstrup | publisher = Jimmy Little Foundation | archive-date = 4 April 2012 | accessdate = 27 April 2018 }}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} The instrumental was later released as the B-side of their 1986 single, "Initiation". It was also added to the 1996 re-release of the main single (listed below) with an additional B-Side "Giver of Life".
In 2016 the song was one of ten new tracks added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia collection.{{cite web | url = http://nfsa.gov.au/collection/sound/sounds-australia/2016-registry-additions/#ganggajang | title = Sounds of Australia 2016 | date = 12 June 2017 | publisher = National Film and Sound Archive | accessdate = 27 April 2018 }}
In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Sounds of Then" was ranked number 7.{{cite news|work=Musicfeeds|title=Here Are The Songs That Made Triple M's 'Ozzest 100'|url= http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/songs-made-triple-ms-ozzest-100/|accessdate=4 January 2020|date=27 January 2018}}
Adam Brand and the Outlaws covered the song on the 2016 album Adam Brand and the Outlaws. Sarah Blasko covered the song in 2021 in a release as a single. Her rendition did not chart, but gained national exposure in Australia by being used in a television advertisement for Colorbond steel.
Charts
| class="wikitable"
!Chart (1986) !Peak |
| Australia (Kent Music Report)
|align=center|35 |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.ganggajang.com/ GANGgajang discography]
{{Gang Gajang}}