[8] The song is a ballad with country-rock underpinnings, in which Kelly tells the story of a young couple who "married early".

The man is identified as "Jack" in the unedited album version, but not in the edited single mix; the woman is never named.

In the final verse, Jack is on his way to meet them, and the song ends as he arrives in town on a Sunday, wondering, "Could he make a picture and get them all to fit?

In his book How to Make Gravy, Kelly notes that "the entire story takes three and a half minutes and ends at the beginning.

[15] In 1988, Australia celebrated its bicentenary, in the song Kelly writes from the point of view of those unimpressed with 200 years of white settlement.