Now that I’m 40 I have discovered yet another thing my mother was right about. That thing? John Farnham. Namely, that John Farnham absolutely rocks. Before now I’d always taken my dad’s side, unimpressed with Whispering Jack, more impressed by Willie Nelson. It didn’t help that, growing up, the only song of Farnham’s I really knew was Sadie (The Cleaning Lady). My grandmother was a cleaner, my mother was a cleaner, and then I was too (also the song is terrible).
But none of that matters any longer, because the algorithm that knows me better than I know myself showed me an important video. An opinion-changing video. It was Farnham in 1989 performing to a massive crowd. The video opens with John standing there, long blond 80s hair flowing, his breezy shirt open to the third button, showcasing his sweat-shined chest. He looks like Australia’s answer to Mills & Boon. He’s Millsy and Boony. He looks magnificent, and he sounds equally good, performing his cover of Help by the Beatles – backed by the equally 80s hair of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
