The only artist to have recorded on every major commercial music format — from 78rpm records through vinyl LPs, singles, cassettes, 8-track and CDs, to VHS video and DVD, and now iTunes and ring tones — Slim has been deeply loved by many generations of Australian country music fans — and plenty of overseas enthusiasts too.
During his lifetime, Slim released more than a hundred albums, selling more than seven million records and earning over 70 gold and platinum album certifications. Yet all those achievements pale into insignificance compared with the real legacy Slim has left behind: his music. For close to half a century, Slim and his wife Joy McKean — his partner in both life and music — toured Australia, bringing their perceptive songs and entertaining shows to far-flung communities and people from all walks of life.
When Slim sadly passed away on September 19, at the age of 76, after a long and private battle with cancer, he was honoured with a State Funeral, attended by the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, and featuring tributes from his family and his peers.
Thousands of fans travelled from around Australia to stand outside the cathedral and farewell their mate. Search Search. The event that changed his life forever took place when he was ten and heard an aborigine sing a song called "The Drunkard's Child.
In , as a "seasoned performer" of 15, Slim talked his way into the studios of the local radio station, and at his own expense recorded two songs: "Song for the Aussies" and "My Final Song.
In , he married country performer and songwriter Joy McKean. By April , Slim Dusty already had a recording career of ten-plus years behind him when he was scheduled to record four more songs, but only three had been chosen. At the time, Slim was traveling with Gordon Parsons, who was singing a song he'd written based on a poem by Dan Shean.
Needing that extra song, Slim asked Parsons if he could record his song, thinking it would make a good B-side for a song called "Saddle Boy. Months later, while Slim was working in outback Queensland, he was told that the B-side of his latest single had made the pop charts in Brisbane, and as the months rolled on "A Pub With No Beer" became the first-ever Australian-made single to reach the national number one spot. The record went on to reach number three in England, and also sold well in the U.
For a long time, it was the biggest selling single in Australian music history. From then on, the Slim Dusty career was assured.
Unmistakable in his workman's hat with the turned down brim, Slim was the kind of country music performer America lamented having lost. He was someone who, throughout his album career, sang songs about the Australian landscape and the people who occupy it, someone who toured the length and breadth of the land.
The cream of Australian songwriters lined up to offer him songs. Slim 's long journey came to an end in Sydney on September 19, , the victim of kidney cancer. His importance to the Australian music landscape was immense.
Just one example of his homeland's pride came in September , when he was one of the Australian performers featured in the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games. Slim was given the job of singing Australia's unofficial national anthem, "Waltzin' Matilda.
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