Almanac Music: Vale – Broderick Smith: a great Australian musician
Stopping at Cooma for a coffee and a break on our drive from Canberra to Jindabyne checking my phone for emails I was shocked and stunned by the news of the death of Broderick Smith.
Brod, as we all know, was one of the great and much loved musos from the music world here in Australia with a career of over fifty years that saw him perform in many quintessential Australian bands. The Adderley Smith Blues Band, Carson, the mighty Dingoes, to name a just a few that he fronted.
I saw him perform many times, from grungy pubs in Melbourne, the Port Fairy FF, to the empty fields of Pennyroyal, and even in Colac a couple of times when I was fortunate to meet him. His brother had been a policeman in Colac at one stage so he knew the town fairly well, and Brod was an avid reader.
Chatting with him after one of his Colac shows he was attracted by the fact I owned a bookshop and said he‘d drop for a look before he left the next morning. He spent a couple of hours browsing the books on my shelves and chatting about his future plans. I really enjoyed this time with him finding him an articulate, sensitive and intense but, at the same time, an amiable person who didn’t mind chewing the fat – and buying books.
Brod recorded many great songs throughout his career but one always stuck in my mind to become my favourite song of his. I think it was at one of his Port Fairy performances that I first heard him sing the Andy Prieboy song, ‘Tomorrow Wendy’, quite a dark but moving song .
Another song I also played many times and love is ‘Waiting For The Tide To Turn’. Check it out below, it’s a great song.
Here’s Brod with Carson at Sunbury.
A doco by Chris Franklin about Brod’s career made a few years ago.
Farewell Brod, thanks for the wonderful music – RIP.
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About Colin Ritchie
Retired teacher who enjoys following the Bombers, listening to music especially Bob Dylan, reading, and swimming.
Beautifully summed up Col. I saw him many times at the Clifton Hill Hotel including my bucks night. Criminally underrated his whole career. My favourite song of his is Ocean Deep live in the Andy Durant Memorial Concert. Such a powerful voice. Will be sadly missed.
Ta for the post Col, sadly another of the musos of my long gone childhood/youth gone to the great band in the sky.
I reckon the last time I saw him play was at the Echuca Winter Blues festival a few years back, sadly I won’t see him perform this July. Like Ian Wilson I recall seeing him at the Clifton Hill Hotel, as well as the Moonee Ponds Tavern, among the venues I saw his shows.
Thinking back of the songs of his that stick in my mind: Boogie, of course the classic Way Out West, Smooth Sailing, My Father’s Hands.
Anyway enough of me, time to go; like A Boy On The Run.
Vale Broderick Smith.
Glen!
Well done, Col. I have been a fan also for many years and I have vinyl copies of all the Dingoes albums and the Big Combo as well. Was lucky enough to do a double bill in Colac with the Big Combo and our band The Phantoms back in the late 70’s. I used to love the covers that Brod would include in the band’s repertoire like ‘We’ve gotta get out of this place’ and other quasi r&b hits of the 60’s. A great voice and a mighty fine harp player. RIP Brod. Our band (The Hip Replacements) does a cover of ‘Boy on the run’. It was Brod’s brother in the police force in Colac!
Thanks Col,
I saw Brod many times. Didn’t get the chance to see the Dingoes in their prime, though saw them when they returned about 10years back.
They were great.
I saw him several times with the Big Combo at Richmond’s Central Club Hotel and lots at Clifton Hill Hotel.
I did get the chance to see him more recently though must have been pre Covid. His voice ceased still great and he still had that off best sense of humour,.
Great singer, great harmonica player …. a one off talent.
That should read “his voice was still great”
Thanks for the post Col.
Loved his music. Great to hear he was a likeable bloke in person.
RDL
Thanks for this tribute, Col.
Brod performed for a time with John Schumann’s Vagabond Crew, and I was fortunate to see them perform at the (now demolished) Williamstown RSL. I met Brod, and he was a lovely fellow.
I watched the clip of Ocean Deep yesterday…just brilliant.
His talent will live on trough his son, who is a member of King Gizzard.
Thanks for posting this tribute, Colin.
I’m another who saw him play quite a few times in Clifton Hill, when I lived in Collingwood, and on occasions pub-crawling back from the footy at Princes Park, if memory serves me right. It was a small venue and Broderick and Co played at floor level with the clientele; the music never failing to draw you in and evoke a sense of appreciation.
Coincidentally, I was just thinking about him the other day, and wondering if the pub still existed.
Incredibly – as far as I can see, there has been no mention of Broderick’s death in any of the major Melbourne newspapers. Did notice Gordon Lightfoot passed away yesterday. Another gone!
I saw Broderick many times back in the Carson days. the slightest of connections I had is that I went to a Catholic boys school and me and a few mates were charged with booking a band for the year 12 formal. girls from nearby schools were invited. we’d seen Carson lots of times at places like Sebastians and the Tum and Montsalvat (precocious lads that we were) so we booked ’em for the formal. it was held in the hall now occupied by the Kew Library but in those days it was Q Club. we loved it. the girls didn’t. a version of Boogie went (an addled memory tells me) for 20 minutes. there was a queue at the payphone with the students from the nun’s schools ringing their parents for an early pickup. I can only imagine the Carson fellas were going to insist that they not be booked for a bunch of private school twerps in future. helluva a singer Brod. it’s a great pity. most recently he occasionally played with the awesome Backsliders which is where I saw him last several years ago at the Caravan Club when it was in Oakleigh.
Thanks for the piece, Col. A memory I have of Brod is from the mid-1980s when he rang me and we had a discussion about songwriting; in particular, about a few songs of mine I’d sent him, as he was looking at material for a new album. He was great to talk to – pleasant, articulate and quite earnest about his musical endeavours.