A cover is always more interesting if it brings something different to the original, and we are honoured to bring you an exclusive listen to troubadour extraordinaire Simon Robert Gibson‘s interpretation of World Party’s enigmatic track ‘Put The Message In The Box’.
With unlimited song writing skills and a depth of material of his own, why a cover? Gibson explains:
When I first heard this song by World Party as a young man, I immediately fell in love with it. So much so, in fact, that I wrote a letter to Karl Wallinger, via his agent, asking for a chance to audition for his band if he ever needed a drummer. I was very naive, obviously, but I was young, enthusiastic, and very confident in my drumming abilities. It makes me smile now, and unsurprisingly, I never heard back from Mr Wallinger…but…I still loved the song.
To me, ‘Put The Message In The Box’ is one of the last great pop songs from that era before the grunge tidal wave washed everything that came before away.
No doubt it was a glaring omission from Wallinger, which has resulted in Gibson’s continued and invaluable contribution to the local Australian music scene. And in this version, Gibson has delivered a sparkling and uniquely antipodean-flavoured version of a brilliant song – a tribute but not a beige pastiche of the original with his distinct style that simply oozes yearning and an ethereal beauty.
Gibson’s vocals as ever seem to invoke a sense of calm and empathy that makes the eyes water and the spine tingle. You can almost see the oceans over Bondi heave and sparkle as Gibson drives along the seafront, elbow out the window, breeze blowing through the furnace heat of a late afternoon in summer:
‘Put the Message in the Box’ is out tomorrow and available through all the usual sites and through the link below:
