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Slim Dusty
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Slim Dusty was the most prolific and biggest-selling recording artist in Australia, with more than five million of his recordings sold on the domestic market of 20 million people and a status akin to the all-time greats in country music. In 2000, the 73-year-old Australian music legend released his 100th album. He was born David Gordon Kirpatrick in Kempsey, NSW, Australia, and spent most of his younger days at a dairy farm. The first major influence on his career in music was his father, who liked to vocalize to the accompaniment of his fiddle playing when Kirpatrick was still a toddler. The event that changed his life forever took place when he was ten and heard an aborigine sing a song called "The Drunkard's Child." He was so fascinated, that same year he wrote his first song, "The Way the Cowboy Died."
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Slim Dusty, born David Gordon Kirkpatrick, was an Australian country music singer, songwriter and a true Aussie icon. Kirkpatrick was born 13 June 1927 in Kempsey, New South Wales. Young David was introduced to music by his father (known as Noisy Dan) who was an amateur musician and farmer. By the time David was 10 years old, he had written his first song, The Way The Cowboy Dies. He changed his name to Slim Dusty the next year and with his boyhood friend Shorty Ranger (Edwin Haberfield) began appearing regularly on local radio soon after.
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By April 1957, Slim Dusty already had a recording career of ten-plus years behind him when he was scheduled to record four more songs, but only three had been chosen. At the time, Slim was traveling with Gordon Parsons, who was singing a song he'd written based on a poem by Dan Shean. Needing that extra song, Slim asked Parsons if he could record his song, thinking it would make a good B-side for a song called "Saddle Boy." Parsons had no problem with that as to him, "A Pub With No Beer" was just a novelty song. Months later, while Slim was working in outback Queensland, he was told that the B-side of his latest single had made the pop charts in Brisbane, and as the months rolled on "A Pub With No Beer" became the first-ever Australian-made single to reach the national number one spot. The record went on to reach number three in England, and ... sold well in the U.S. For a long time, it was the biggest selling single in Australian music history.
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Australian country music singer Slim Dusty the voice of the bush has died age 76. Slim died early Friday 19th Sept 2003 losing his battle against cancer. Slim was born David Gordon Kirkpatrick in 1927 in the coastal town of Kempsey and grew up on a dairy farm near Nulla Nulla Creek. At 10 he wrote his first song "The Way The Cowboy Dies" changing his name to Slim Dusty some years later.
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Recording consistently over the past ten plus years, midway through 1957 Slim Dusty's records started appearing as 45s on the Columbia label. In April of that same year Slim was scheduled to record four more songs, but only three had been chosen. At the time Slim was travelling with Gordon Parsons who was singing a song he'd written based on a poem by Dan Shean. Needing that extra song, Slim asked Gordon if he could record his song, thinking it would make a good B-side for a song called 'Saddle Boy'. Gordon Parsons had no problem with that. It was no big deal.
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Slim Dusty's formal schooling finished at the age of 12, not that it had ever formally started. About this time, Slim made a sort of declaration of independence: he took a pencil and carefully wrote the name Slim Dusty across a photograph of himself wearing a striped blazer and short pants. The symbolism was clear to the boy: Slim Dusty was getting on top of Gordon Kirkpatrick. And he had found a kindred spirit to join him on the road. Bobby Haberfield, Slim's best mate, put on his Tex Morton shirt and adopted the show name of Shorty Ranger.
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Slim Dusty