1) an Austral… Read Full Bio ↴There are at least nine artists with the name Paul Kelly:
1) an Australian singer-songwriter
2) an American film and TV composer
3) an American soul singer & songwriter
4) an Irish folk singer and songwriter
5) a member of British bands Birdie and East Village
6) a member of English rock band Northern Uproar
7) an English multi-instrumentalist for The Islanders
8) an American bass player
9) a member of The Martial Arts, BMX Bandits and How to Swim
1) Paul Kelly is an Australian singer-songwriter, based in Melbourne, and widely considered as an icon of Australian music. He has released music under his own name and as Paul Kelly and the Messengers, Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, and Paul Kelly and the Stormwater Boys. His output has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output comfortably straddles folk, rock, and even some country. His lyrics, simply and laconically voiced, have managed to speak to Australian experiences and history perhaps more broadly and directly than any other artist.
2) Paul Kelly is an American composer based in New York City. He is the talent that brings music to the world of film, TV, and advertising. He has been sought after by renowned directors, like Oliver Stone, for his blockbuster films, Savages, Any Given Sunday, Comandante and Oscar-Nominated short film Everything In This Country Must. Glowing reviews that Kelly has received, can be seen in the following from Thom Jurek, Soundings in Film, who say, “His moving sound constructions are full of emotions and moods — not all of them pleasant — and his takes on funk, rock, and blues are not journeyman, but those of a musician who takes these art forms seriously and seeks to represent them accurately in his utterances. Kelly may be a sketcher, but his sketches stand on their own outside the realm of the image,” and Frank O. Gutch Jr, Evolution In Film, who give glowing context to the work of Kelly in the following, “Paul Kelly knows what music is. He knows that it can be a setup, a climax, or an anticlimax. He knows the value of music applied to other media. More than that, he knows music. Not at all unlike a classical composer or even the rock band which plays beyond the fringe, he creates music for a reason.”
Visit http://paulkelly.com for more information.
3) Paul Kelly (born Paul Laurence Dunbar Kelly in Overtown, Miami, Florida, USA on 19 June 1940) is an American Soul singer, musician and producer. He is best known for the song "Stealing in the Name of the Lord", which was a hit in 1970. And in 1974 another hit with "Hooked, Hogtied & Collared" from the album with the same title. He also wrote "Personally", which has been widely-covered, and was a hit for soul singer Jackie Moore, as well as country singers Karla Bonoff and Ronnie McDowell. Other songs have been covered by gospel artists, including The Mighty Clouds Of Joy and The Staple Singers.
4) Paul Kelly (born 1957 in Dublin) is an Irish folk singer and songwriter. He has played Irish traditional music, bluegrass and country, and is equally at home in a variety of different styles of music.
5) Paul Kelly is a British member of Birdie and East Village
6) Paul Kelly is a member of English rock band Northern Uproar
7) Paul Kelly is an English multi-instrumentalist for The Islanders
8) Paul Kelly is an American bass player
9) a member of The Martial Arts, BMX Bandits and How to Swim
Ghost Town
Paul Kelly Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Standing on the corner
I was just about to call your name, I nearly touched her
Then she turned and suddenly it all came crashing down
Just my imagination playing tricks in ghost town
This morning I lay sleeping
I heard soft footsteps creeping
You said 'Daddy can I come inside? It's cold down in the ground'
The sun came in, I woke up hard and empty in ghost town
Now I wander everywhere
Talking to the air
And every day just like the day before in countless numbers
And every night the curtain falls upon the day gone down
And every single town that I pass through is a ghost town
The lyrics of "Ghost Town" by Paul Kelly are a moving reflection of grief and loss. The song is haunting and poignant, conveying a sense of emptiness and isolation that can only come from the death of a loved one. In the first verse, the singer sees someone who looks like the person they have lost and is momentarily filled with hope before realizing it was all in their imagination. The second verse is even more heart-wrenching as the singer has a dream of their deceased child asking to come back inside and the next morning, they wake up to a reality where they're wandering around, talking to the air and every town feels like a ghost town. The song touches on themes of grief, loss, and the search for meaning in life after the death of a loved one.
The imagery used in the song is powerful in conveying a sense of emptiness and desolation. The chorus "Every single town that I pass through is a ghost town" brings home the sense of isolation that comes with grief. The use of the word "pass" instead of "visit" or "go through" creates a sense of moving on, but the ghost towns that they pass through highlight that there is no escaping the feeling of grief. The singer has lost someone who was central to their life, and every place they go, everything they see, and even their dreams are now haunted by that loss.
Line by Line Meaning
Today I thought I saw you
The singer believes that he saw someone who resembled a person he knew in the past
Standing on the corner
The person he believes he saw was standing on the street corner
I was just about to call your name, I nearly touched her
The singer was about to call out to the person he thought he saw, and thought he was close enough to touch them
Then she turned and suddenly it all came crashing down
When the person turned around, the artist realized that it wasn't actually the person he knew, causing him emotional distress
Just my imagination playing tricks in ghost town
The artist attributes the experience to his own imagination, and uses the term 'ghost town' to refer to the desolate state of his own mind and emotions
This morning I lay sleeping
The singer was sleeping earlier that day
I heard soft footsteps creeping
The singer heard someone walking quietly
Standing right beside me at my bed I felt your breathing
The artist felt someone breathing next to him while he was in bed
You said 'Daddy can I come inside? It's cold down in the ground'
The artist's child, who has passed away, appears in his dream and requests to join him
The sun came in, I woke up hard and empty in ghost town
The artist wakes up from his dream to a feeling of emptiness and sadness, and associates it with the previously mentioned 'ghost town'
Now I wander everywhere
The singer travels aimlessly and without purpose
Talking to the air
The artist speaks to no one in particular, as if there's someone there who can't be seen
And every day just like the day before in countless numbers
The singer's life has become monotonous and repetitive
And every night the curtain falls upon the day gone down
Each day ends, symbolized by the curtain falling, leaving the singer feeling helpless and alone
And every single town that I pass through is a ghost town
The singer sees each place he visits as desolate and lifeless, like his own emotions
Contributed by Jonathan F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.