It was covered by the Get Up Mob (including guest vocals by both Carmody and Kelly) in 2008 and peaked at number four on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) singles charts.
[3][4][5][6] Jack (also known as "Bull"), had been a member of the red beret parachute commando unit in World War II, and had sustained a back injury during training.
Carmody said that the boys did not do much schoolwork, but spent their time feeding chickens, collecting eggs, "hauling in coal for the kitchen stoves and buttering bread for the nuns".
[3] After schooling, he returned to his rural roots and worked for 17 years as a country labourer,[6][9] including droving, shearing, bag lumping, wool pressing and welding.
Although Carmody had extensive historical knowledge, learnt by oral traditions, much of it could not be found in library history books and was attributed to "unpublished works".
[11] Carmody completed his Bachelor of Arts degree,[9] then postgraduate studies and a Diploma of Education at the University of Queensland, followed by commencing a PhD in History, on the Darling Downs 1830–1860.
I wished I'd had the time to take every course.At university, Carmody had used music as a means of implementing oral history in tutorials, which led to his later career.
[4][6] It drew heavily upon country and folk styles with tracks such as "Black Deaths in Custody" and "Thou Shalt Not Steal" describing ignorance and oppression experienced by indigenous Australians.
[4][10] In the song "Thou Shalt Not Steal", Carmody draws attention to the hypocrisy of British settlers who brought Christianity to Indigenous Australians, including the commandment prohibiting theft, and yet took the land that the Aboriginal people had inhabited for more than 60,000 years.
In subsequent recordings Carmody adopted a broad range of musical styles, from reggae to rock and roll.That first album was acoustic because we didn't have enough money for anything else, but as I went on, I was always exploring sound.
Just opening up to that sensory perception of sound.Carmody's second album, Eulogy (For a Black Person), released in November 1990, was produced by Connolly,[14] with musical support from the rest of the Messengers and members of pioneering Aboriginal rock band Mixed Relations.
[4][10] A review of the album noted that "Using a combination of folk and country music his hard-hitting lyrics deal with such potent material as the David Gundy slaying,[15] black deaths in custody, land rights and Aboriginal pride and dignity.
Late night, big city alienation",[17] whilst the B-side, "Elly", is the moving story of a young woman attempting to escape the poverty and racism of western Queensland, who finds herself trapped in Surfers Paradise working in the sex industry.
Early in 1991 Carmody co-wrote a song, "From Little Things Big Things Grow", with Paul Kelly;[18] it was an historical account of the Gurindji tribe drovers' walkout led by Vincent Lingiari at Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory during the 1960s, the incident which sparked off the indigenous land rights movement.
[10] He continued performing, as a musician and public speaker, to audiences as diverse as the National Press Club and Aboriginal Australians in prison.
The concert closed Breast Cancer Awareness Month and was the brainchild of 20-year-old Nick Vindin, who had lost his mother Kate to the disease a few years earlier.
[28] This version featured vocals by Carmody and Kelly, as well as other prominent Australian artists (including Urthboy, Missy Higgins, Mia Dyson, Radical Son, Jane Tyrrell, Dan Sultan, Joel Wenitong and Ozi Batla).
To promote the album, Electric Fields were joined virtually by Jessica Mauboy, Missy Higgins and John Butler for a performance of "From Little Things Big Things Grow", recorded at the Adelaide Botanic Garden conservatory and broadcast for the season finale of ABC Television's 6-part pandemic series, The Sound, on 23 August 2020.
The Deadlys Awards was an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community.
[37] In 2019, Carmody received the JC Williamson Award, the LPA's highest honour, for their life's work in live performance.
The National Indigenous Music Awards recognise excellence, innovation and leadership among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians from throughout Australia.