Why Did Paul Kelly Take Out A 'How To Make Gravy' Death Notice In The Paper?
Is he teasing a sequel?
Paul Kelly (Credit: Joe Brennan)
It looks like Paul Kelly is preparing to return to the characters in his beloved almost-Christmas song, How To Make Gravy.
Yesterday’s (11 August) edition of The Age newspaper in Melbourne featured a public notice for the passing of Joe, the main character in Kelly’s song.
In How To Make Gravy, Joe writes to his brother, Dan, while incarcerated ahead of the family’s traditional Christmas meal—Joe used to make the gravy for the occasion, but in the song, he makes it in prison. He also asks Dan to look after his wife, Rita, and their children.
The public notice about Joe’s passing arrives just a few months after Kelly hinted that he’d been working on a sequel song to How To Make Gravy.
“There’s a song; there’s a sequel to How To Make Gravy called Rita Wrote A Letter,” Kelly told Henry Wagons on Double J back in May.
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After Wagons quipped that “It’s like a Marvel franchise that continues,” to laughs from Kelly, and that people are waiting for part two of the song, Kelly continued, “I had the idea for that song for quite a while. Rita Wrote A Letter – it’s been in the notebook for a while.
“Dan Kelly, my nephew, had a piece of music that he’d written on piano, sort of New Orleans-style piano, and he said, ‘Put some words to that.’ And that was… that’s the name of the song, Rita Wrote A Letter.”
Kelly concluded, “I always wanted to sort of have more, I guess, her point of view in that whole situation. It took a little dark turn, but I can’t say much more about that.”
It seems that Rita Wrote A Letter might be coming as soon as this week, with the passing of Joe anchoring the song.
“With great sorrow, we announce the death of Joe by sudden misadventure,” the notice reads. “Much loved father, husband, brother, brother-in-law and uncle to Dan, Rita, Stella, Roger, Mary, Angus, Frank and Dolly.”
The notice continues:
We'll miss you badly, Joe. You loved life and went hard at it. You loved music, food, football, celebration, tall tales and strong argument. We can still see you cooking up a storm in the kitchen at our big family gatherings, pots and pans on the go, BBQ smoking outside, glass of wine in hand, your beloved reggae music on the stereo, Junior Murvin, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Gregory Isaac and the like. You filling up everybody's drinks and teasing the little ones.
Christmas just won't be the same this year without you. Who's gonna make the gravy? But we know you'll always be with us, hovering above us, floating all around us, making sure we get it right. And laughing when we don't.
According to the public notice shared on Kelly’s Instagram, the “funeral and service” will take place on Thursday, 14 August, “followed by a wake to end all wakes.”
Read the notice below.
The potential How To Make Gravy sequel news arrives ahead of Kelly’s forthcoming arena tour of Australia, which begins on Tuesday, 26 August, in Perth, and continues through Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne, and New Zealand. You can find out more about the tour on the Frontier Touring website.
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