Kitch's Top 10 Classic Australian Rock Songs - #4 "Great Southern Land"

"Great Southern Land" – Icehouse

Writer(s): Iva Davies

Album: Primitive Man

Released: 1982

Peak Chart Position: #5

A synthesiser-heavy song about our country, with a few nice references to various places, particularly around Sydney, the Icehouse classic could easily be an Australian national anthem, and is certainly an unofficial one in many circles, even if there is an anti-postcard feel to a lot of it’s lyrics. Maybe the musical style is outdated now in 2015, but the lyrics aren’t. There’s no doubt that it’ll get plenty of air time this Australia Day, like many Australia Day’s gone before.

Iva Davies wrote and recorded the song in his Leichardt apartment directly under the airport flightpath, and legend has it that he had to routinely stop the tape during recording in order to avoid picking up the rattle of the house’s foundations each time a plane went over. 

Davies did pretty much everything on this song: lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards, bass guitar and programmed drum loops. The iconic song was featured in the Young Einstein film, starring Yahoo Serious, in 1988, which undoubtedly helped along it’s popularity. One of my eternal favourites.