{"id":1009,"date":"2023-01-17T10:43:32","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T10:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.justsheetmusic.com\/blog\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2023-01-17T10:43:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T10:43:32","slug":"men-at-work-rip-greg-ham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.justsheetmusic.com\/blog\/news\/men-at-work-rip-greg-ham\/","title":{"rendered":"Men at Work: R.I.P. Greg Ham"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gregory Norman "Greg" Ham (27 September 1953 \u2013 approx. 19 April 2012)<\/p><\/div>\n

Greg Ham was found dead in his home on April 19, 2012. The 58 year old musician lived alone, and friends who had not heard from him went to his home to check on his welfare, and found him deceased. The cause remains unknown. Although authorities initially spoke of \u201cunexplained circumstances\u201d more recently they have been saying that the postmortem turned up nothing suspicious.<\/p>\n

There has still been no straight answer as to how<\/em> he died, though. Drug abuse is suspected in some quarters. The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> cited an anonymous \u201cclose friend\u201d who said he had been using heroin.<\/p>\n

Men at Work<\/h3>\n

\"\"Ham will be fondly remembered as a member of the \u201880s group Men at Work<\/em>, which gave us the album Business as Usual<\/em>, released in November 1981, with singles \u201cWho Can It Be Now?\u201d and \u201cA Land Down Under.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1978, Aussie Colin Hay (1953- ) formed the band with his buddy Ron Strykert. Though they began as a guitarist duo, over the next couple of years they brought in Jerry Speiser (a drummer), John Rees (bassist) and Greg Ham (who could play any of a number of instruments, as a particular song demanded.) The photo above shows Colin Hay and Ham together: Ham is the fellow with the sax.<\/p>\n

In 1981, the resulting group, Men at Work<\/em>, signed a contract with Mercury Records, which was headed at that time by Peter Karpin. Their first album: \u201cBusiness as Usual.\u201d This was released in November of that year in Australia. It came to the US in April 1982.<\/p>\n

Ham plays his sax to good effect in \u201cWho Can It Be Now.\u201d Listen for a brief solo at around the 1:20 mark of this YouTube video.<\/a> The song would not have been the hit it was without that wailing sax at that moment. As Karpin said, Ham gave the band color, \u201cboth in the recording and [in his] stage presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u201cA Land Down Under\u201d<\/a> has left an even bigger mark. The lyrics of this song are not just, as might seem the case at first hearing, a few Aussie-themed stereotypes humorously contorted. Rather, there is a plot. The song tells the story of a young Australian touring the world, and discovering, perhaps at least somewhat to his surprise, that his homeland has made its mark amongst the different people he encounters, the \u201cstrange lady\u201d who thinks of Australia as the land where women glow and men plunder, the man from Brussels who (naturally!) serves his Aussie guest a Vegemite sandwich, etc.<\/p>\n

\"\"Marcus Breen, the author of Rock Dogs <\/em>(2006),a history of the Australian music industry,<\/a> said that the song represented the consolidation of that industry, and its \u201cnew state of global engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breen quotes Ham on this point, telling us that Ham congratulated earlier Aussie groups for \u201cestablishing themselves\u201d in Europe and the US, \u201cIt was like a groundswell that served us well.\u201d (He surely had in mind the Little River Band, as well as AC\/DC. Even, perhaps, a successful global solo artist, Olivia Newton-John.)<\/p>\n

Aussie musicians might have been aided, too, by the global recognition of all those philosophers named \u201cBruce.\u201d Those comedians from pommeyland, also known as Britain\u2019s Monty Python troupe<\/a>, contributed to a sort of Aussie chic in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

The Implications<\/h3>\n

In 1983 the band came out with its second album, Cargo.<\/em> According to Rolling Stone\u2019s reviewer, Christopher Connelly<\/a>, this album lacked any single song with the \u201cbody-slamming intensity\u201d of either of the two great hits from its predecessor. But, he also said, it is still a \u201cstronger overall effort,\u201d extending \u201cthe darker side\u201d of their skills.<\/p>\n

The darker side is perhaps best exemplified by \u201cOverkill.\u201d<\/a> Vocalist Colin Hay starts by telling us that he can\u2019t \u201cget to sleep\u201d because he thinks about the implications.<\/p>\n

\"\"The implications of \u2026 what? He doesn\u2019t know, but he does know something is very wrong: \u201cDiving in too deep, and possibly the complications\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Connelly also wrote, the first album already had a sense of mild paranoia, but it was the second one extended that sentiment into thoroughgoing solipsism.<\/p>\n

If you follow the above link to the YouTube video, you\u2019ll find that there\u2019s a guitar solo around 2:00 with a terrific build-up, until Ham jumps in with his sax at 2:26.<\/p>\n

Going Through Changes<\/h3>\n

Speiser and Rees appear to have been kicked out of the band in 1984.<\/p>\n

The three remaining members recorded another album that year, Two Hearts<\/em>. Strykert left the band even while work on that album was underway, leaving a two-man operation, Hay and Ham. The album\u2019s reception showed the effects of the band\u2019s disarray. Hay and Ham went their separate ways not long thereafter.<\/p>\n

In 1996, Hay and Ham re-united for a tour, and gathered around them four musicians new to the \u201cMen and Work\u201d brand: Tony Floyd and John Watson (drums), Stephen Hadley (bass), and Simon Hosford (guitar). Out of this tour came a live album, Brazil.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"A critic listening to Brazil<\/a> tended to become both enthusiastic and nostalgic. \u201c[W]ith a stellar star list composed almost entirely of classic material, it\u2019s nearly impossible to hear the difference between the Men at Work lineups of 1996 and 1983. Positively electric versions of all their hits are here,\u201d one wrote.<\/p>\n

In the autumn of 2005, this song \u201cOverkill\u201d was featured in the US television show \u201cScrubs,\u201d a sitcom with a medical theme.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

I would like to say again, \u201cRest in Peace, Greg Ham\u201d and leave it here, leaving the issue of the cause of death to the authorities and questions of the full merits of the group\u2019s music to posterity. I can\u2019t do that, quite. One cannot write in May 2012 about this group or that man without noting the litigation brought against them, and in particular against him, by Larrikin Music, claiming that the song Land Down Under \u2013 particularly, that haunting riff from Ham\u2019s flute \u2013 was plagiarized from a nursery rhyme.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Norman Lurie, then the head of Larrikin Music, decided that Ham\u2019s riff sounded too much like a bit of the song \u201cKookaburra sits in the old gum tree,\u201d to which Larrikin owned the rights. Listen for yourself.<\/p>\n

Side by Side<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is some footage of an actual Kookaburra<\/a> sitting in an actual gum tree.<\/p>\n

I hope to post my thoughts about musical plagiarism, the realities and the accusations, in a few days. In the meantime I\u2019ll only say: Wherever Mr. Ham is now, he is Beyond all that. Rest in peace, sir.<\/p>\n

Let us conclude by listening to what Monty Python was telling us about the Land Down Under:<\/p>\n