The Best Songs About Adelaide

Read on and see that South Australia has served as artistic stimulus for several iconic songwriters.

‘Adelaide’ by Paul Kelly

Famed wordsmith Paul Kelly seems to understand Adelaide better than anyone. In this track, he perfectly characterises the slow, sleepy nature of the town he was born in. Or, as he says in the song, “the streets are so wide, everybody's inside. Sitting in the same chairs they were sitting in last year.”

He mentions various Adelaide landmarks and geographic points, such as Kensington Road and the statue of Colonel William Light.

To Kelly, Adelaide is hot, sluggish, lethargic, and though he doesn’t sound entirely affectionate, he acknowledges that it is still the city that raised him: “This is my town.”

‘Town With No Cheer’ by Tom Waits

No one does gravelly despondency better than the cigarette-huffing Tom Waits. “There'll be no refreshment for a thirsty jackaroo from Melbourne to Adelaide on the Overlander,” he wheezes on the sixth track of his acclaimed album Swordfishtrombone.

Though ‘Town With No Cheer’ mentions Adelaide, Waits has explained that the song is technically about a tiny town on the border of Victoria called Serviceton, which the Overlander used to pass through.

It’s an engaging image - thinking of Tom Waits sitting on the Overlander from Adelaide to Melbourne and gazing out the dusty train windows in the early 1980s.

‘Adelaide’ by John Cale

Experimental rock legend and former The Velvet Underground member John Cale sounds tremendously enthusiastic about the Festival City on this upbeat little number from his debut solo album Vintage Violence. “I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go back to Adelaide,” he chirps. According to Cale, for whatever reason, Adelaide is the place to be.

‘Adelaide’ by Ben Folds

The multi-faceted American musician Ben Folds clearly has an affinity for Adelaide.

In this jaunty number, Folds sings, “There’s better beer in Adelaide.” He paints it as a city where there is “no hurry, fuss, or worry.” He even mentions Rundle Mall’s iconic “Malls Balls.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by City of Adelaide (@cityofadelaide)

Folds married his third wife, Frally Hynes, in Adelaide, South Australia, where they made their home and birthed two children. He sings, “A voice says, Why Adelaide? You could live anywhere. And I say, because I want to.”

And when it comes to AFL, he is an avid supporter of Port Adelaide Power.

‘Hayplain’ by Julia Jacklin

Julia Jacklin solidified herself as a defining sound of modern Australia in 2016 with her debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win. And its gorgeous, sweeping penultimate track includes a noteworthy Adelaide shout-out.

The song was inspired Jacklin’s reflective drive home from Adelaide as she watches the sun set over the eponymous Hay Plains. In it, Jacklin poignantly describes “that night in Adelaide in the back of a cab, when a good man said he’d give me what I’ve never had.”

‘Hay Plain’ vividly expands on intimacy and independence, and on all the journeys we are all forced to eventually take, both literal and metaphorical.