In the 80′s, Australia had a string of musical exports: INXS, Men At Work, Crowded House, Air Supply, and the man responsible for the Greatest Song Ever Written By Man (“Jessie’s Girl”), Rick Springfield, to name a few.
One band that kind of went under the radar (but kind of didn’t) was The Church. After about seven years of making records, they finally hit the charts with their 1988 release, Starfish. The reason I say they kind of (but also didn’t kind of) went under the radar is that they were already charting consistently in Australia since 1981.
I always found it weird that a band would call themselves “The Church.” I don’t know why, I guess I just thought that they would get slammed by religious groups that found it blasphemous or something. There’s actually a band out of the UK called The Bible… and amazingly enough, there’s a group out of New York called… get ready for this… Jesus H. Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse. Wow. Talk about having some big cajones. They describe themselves as a “rock/pop/metal/psychedellic/cabaret band.” Pique your interest?
Getting back to The Church, their first (and unfortunately only) US Top 40 hit was “Under the Milky Way.” Written by the band’s singer and bassist, Steve Kilbey, and his girlfriend, Karin Jansson, this second track off of Starfish brought international attention to the group, charting in not only the US, but England, Canada, and of course, Australia. It remains their most popular song, and in 2008, “Under the Milky Way” was voted as the best Australian song in the last 20 years by the readers of The Weekend Australian Magazine.
Not bad for a song that almost didn’t make the record.
“What???” you say? Yep. The song almost died a quick death because nobody except for their manager at the time liked it. In an interview for The Weekend Australian Magazine, Kilbey explains that after initially showing his demo of the song to the band, “No one really liked it that much. Our manager liked it and wanted it on (the album) Starfish.”
I was pretty surprised to read that. It’s funny… you’d think that Kilbey would LOVE the song by now, but after twenty years, this is what he has to say about it: “… if I had to be saddled with one song that everyone wants me to do, I figure Milky Way is an OK one.”
GEEZ. That’s like saying, “You ain’t a beauty, but hey, you’re alright.”
Saayyyy… that sounds like a great lyric… does anybody know if it’s been used yet? I can’t think of a song that has that line in it… nope… not me… nope. Anyone else?
Another interesting thing about the song: it’s about nothing
“Cha?????” you say? In the same interview, Kilbey states, “”There are songs about something — about the Vietnam war or about how much you love your wife — and then there are songs that operate as a premise for you to have your own adventure. “Under the Milky Way” is definitely one of those songs; it’s not really about anything at all. I just wanted to create an atmosphere and I didn’t even put a lot of thought into that.”
In the Wikipedia post about the song, it reads that “Under the Milky Way” is about “an Amsterdam music and cultural venue called Melkweg (Dutch for “Milky Way”), which Kilbey used to frequent,” but there is no citation, so I’m not sure if I believe it…
So for right now I’ll believe Kilbey and his unenthusiastic explanation. I wonder how he even introduced the song to the band:
You know, this is the exact conversation I think 99% of the songwriters out there have when they play songs for people.
Here’s the music video…
I’d love to know what was going on through Kilbey’s head at the the time of shooting. Probably an ecstatic “Ho hum.”
Regardless of how he feels, the public response to the song was overwhelmingly positive. “Under the Milky Way” won the Australian ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) award for Best Song of 1989, and has appeared in the tv show Miami Vice (episode “Asian Cut”) and the film Donnie Darko.
Pretty good for a song about nothing.
Here’s the clincher, though… the hands-down proof that “Under the Milky Way” is a GREAT song… RICK SPRINGFIELD covered the song in his 2005 release, The Day After Yesterday. Dude, if the writer of The Greatest Song Ever Written By Man covers YOUR song, you KNOW you’ve got a good one.
You’ll find an acoustic version of the song in the Dig-It section below. The “atmosphere” Kilbey wanted to create remains intact… which is really quite cool to hear. Dig it and take a trip into well, nothing.
Buy The Church on Amazon
Buy The Church on iTunes
Your Dig-It Downloads: (right click links to download)
Download: Under the Milky Way (original version)
Download: Under the Milky Way (acoustic)
Popularity: 1% [?]
I’ve always loved this song, especially the production! Thanks for taking me back to the ’80s in a good way.
As long as we’re talking about Aussie bands, let’s throw a mention to Icehouse, who are gods for contributing Crazy and Electric Blue to my listening ears as a music fan in the 80s.
Good news is that Rick Springfield covered Under The Milky Way. The bad news was that like a lot of the rest of the album, it was pretty wretched.
I’ve always wanted to see The Church – they played many a show here in Cleveland back in the day…and I missed all of ‘em. Pretty sure they were here within the past coupla years too. I’m a slacker on this one!!
I remember this song! Tres cool. Interesting how the acoustic sounds so similar to the fully produced version. The original stayed true to the essence of the song. How refreshing.
Thank you for reading!!!!
Ahhh… Icehouse… “Electric Blue…” great song! I have that album on vinyl… a girl I dug liked the band, so I bought it to give to her, but never did because I stopped digging her.
I’m actually itching to hear Springfield’s cover of this song…
Yes, it’s a great version… stays true to original… I dig the sound!
Not England, the UK, it’s the UK charts… England is not the UK.