Russell Morris is an Australian singer-songwriter who has been composing, recording and performing music since the late 1960s. Some of his songs have been among my favourites since I was in my teens. He has recently completed his final tour, and we went to see his final concert of this last tour at the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House last Sunday1. The concert hall seats 2,600 people and it was booked out. Most of the people there were about our age, and I doubt there were more than a few dozen under the age of 40.
The songs of Morris’ that I have on my playlist include Rachel2, Wings of an Eagle3, The Real Thing4,5 and The Girl that I Love6.
In one of his numerous reminiscences during the concert, he said his attitude to music being like being at a smorgasbord with many genres to be enjoyed. This, I suspect, mostly referred to his recent detour into blues for his album Sharkmouth7, of which I am not a great fan.
He sang most of the songs for which he is renowned; however, when he came out for the encore, he sang Wings of an Eagle and perhaps one of the greatest songs he ever recorded, The Real Thing. I suspect if he hadn’t sung those two songs during the evening, there would have been a large number of very disappointed people in the audience, me among them. When he started the last of these, the whole audience was on its feet, with many of them singing along, as the lyrics are engraved on the psyche of many Australians of our age. At the end of it all there was huge applause, and the odd tear from the members of the band as this was the final concert in his final tour.
It is the first time I have been to a concert where I was moved to tears; when he sang Rachel, and Wings of an Eagle. The first of these revolves around a letter from a nurse involved in a war, and it made me think of the murderous bastardry being perpetrated on the men, women and children of Ukraine and Palestine by the psychopaths in power in Russia and Israel, respectively. The second always reminds me of my encounter with a wedge-tail eagle in western Queensland while doing field work on Mt Unbunmaroo8. The tears in the latter case were, I suspect, for a time long past, fading into distant memory, and never to be repeated. It was the most wonderful concert.
Sources
- https://russellmorris.com.au
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsVmNjBtanc
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho4igoIlrro&list=RDHo4igoIlrro&start_radio=1
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDel7m72iJU&list=RDWDel7m72iJU&start_radio=1
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqcfrDPi85c&list=RDTqcfrDPi85c&start_radio=1
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITxpVFkimOA&list=RDITxpVFkimOA&start_radio=1
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAkhmxUT-CY&list=RDAAkhmxUT-CY&start_radio=1
- https://blotreport.com/2019/12/05/the-wedge-tail/
