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"Flame Trees" is a song by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel from their 1984 album Twentieth Century. It is one of their best known songs, and was written by drummer Steve Prestwich and organist Don Walker.
[edit] Background
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 (directed by Kimble Rendall)[1] 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"[2]. 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. [3])
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.
[edit] Recording credits
[edit] Cover versions
- In the 2005 Australian film Little Fish, two versions of the song are featured: one by singer Sarah Blasko, and another version sung by The Sacred Heart School Cabramatta School Choir. Both renditions are featured on the film's soundtrack, and both were also released as singles.
- The children's choir version was sung by the Sacred Heart School Choir in Cabramatta. They were shown singing the song during a scene in the film, and their version was also released as a single in 2006.
- The song also was featured in a documentary on the "Choir of Hard Knocks", a Melbourne choir comprising a group of homeless people. Jimmy Barnes recorded an acoustic version of the track on his 1993 album Flesh and Wood.
- The song was also covered by The Killjoys in 1994 on a compilation CD titled Earth Music, which featured many prominent artists covering well known songs.
"Flame Trees" was voted in at number 15 in the 2005 Triple J Hottest 100 songs.
[edit] Track listing
- "Flame Trees" - 5:23
[edit] References
- ^ Music Video Database entry on Kimble Rendall. Alex Garcia. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.
- ^ Cold Chisel - Petrolheads. Retrieved on 2006-01-09.
- ^ Cold Chisel - History. Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
[edit] External links
