Flame Trees
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"Flame Trees" is a song by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel for their 1984 (see 1984 in music) album Twentieth Century. Along with "Saturday Night" (also from Twentieth Century), "Bow River" (from Circus Animals) and "Khe Sanh", Flame Trees is considered one of the best Cold Chisel songs. It was written by Steve Prestwich and Don Walker.
According to the band's official website, Walker's inspiration for the song was a combination of his memories of Grafton where he had lived as a youth, and of his romantic dreams. The video of the song however was filmed in Oberon, New South Wales. The reference to Flame trees instead of the Jacarandas for which Grafton is famous due to its annual Jacaranda Festival, is partly because of a contemporary television miniseries, the BBC's The Flame Trees of Thika, starring Hayley Mills, "an old flame of the lyricist's dreams". [1] The wording of the source article indicates that he had in the past fantasized about romance with Ms Mills, but not that there was actual romantic involvement between the two. (The source article contains some typos: instead of Thika, it calls the work The Flame Trees of Thaw, and the "author" given as Tony Creswell is named the more-probable Toby Creswell in another part of the site. [2])
It seems likely that the romance of the song is an amalgam of Walker's past romance and dreams, associated with this archetypal Australian country town. "It's a song of lost love, of mortality and what's left behind," according to Creswell, and, "Appropriately, the band's last hit."
However, Grafton is well-known for its many specimens of the Australian native rainforest tree Brachychiton acerifolius [1] (also known as the Illawarra Flame Tree or Kurrajong), which along with the more pervasive, introduced poincianas and the town's famous (also introduced) jacarandas, set its streets ablaze every spring.
Contents |
[edit] Cover versions
| "Flame Trees" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by Sarah Blasko | ||
| Released | March 18, 2006 | |
| Format | Digital download | |
| Genre | Alternative | |
| Length | 5:23 | |
| Label | Dew Process | |
| Producer(s) | Jim Moginie & Wayne Connolly | |
| Sarah Blasko singles chronology | ||
| "Don't U Eva" (2004) |
"Flame Trees" (2006) |
TBA |
In the 2005 Australian film Little Fish, two versions of the song are featured: one by singer Sarah Blasko, and another version sung by a children's choir. Both renditions are featured on the film's soundtrack.
In 2006 the song was performed by Blasko and released as a stand-alone download-only single on the Australian iTunes Music Store.
"Flame Trees" was voted in at number 15 in the 2005 Triple J Hottest 100.
[edit] Track listing
- "Flame Trees" - 5:23
[edit] References
- ^ Cold Chisel - Petrolheads. Retrieved on 2006-01-09.
- ^ Cold Chisel - History. Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
[edit] External links
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