Background
He was born in Paddington, an Eastern suburb of Sydney in 1926, and moved with his parents to Cooks Creek near Bellingen, New South Wales in 1929.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Gordon Parsons
Edit ProfileCareer
Early Life and Regal Zonophone Records, as a result of hearing him on "Amateur Hour", recorded six songs with him in 1947. As a performer, he then toured widely in rural Australia with a number of travelling shows, including Goldwyn Brothers Circus. They had a daughter (Gail) in 1949, but the marriage soon ended.
He continued to tour regularly with major country acts such as Slim Dusty, Chad Morgan, and Tex Morton, and between tours “went bush” to write more songs, fish, and do menial farm work.
He continued to record for Regal Zonophone, and later for various other labels, including Mystery (1950s), Hadley (1960s), Master in Surgery Records (1970s), and Columbia and Selection (1980s). In 1956, someone handed Parsons a scrap of paper with the words of a poem, "A Public Without Beer" (written in 1943 by Queensland farmer Dan Sheahan, on finding that his local public, the Day Dawn Hotel in Ingham, Queensland, had been drunk dry by United States servicemen stationed in the area), and suggested that it might be a basis for a song.
Parsons wrote "A Public With Number Beer", fleshing the poem out with word-portraits of patrons of his own local public, the Cosmopolitan Hotel at the tiny settlement of Taylors Arm, about 25 km inland from Macksville, New South Wales. Slim Dusty heard the song while touring with Parsons, and he asked if he could record it as a novelty filler for his upcoming 1957 recording date, as he was one song short of the required four.
Dusty"s recording was released as the B-side of his 78 rpm release, "Saddle Boy", and much to Slim"s surprise, the B-side was soon getting huge air-play, particularly on Sydney radio station 2UE. In 1958 it became a massive hit all over Australia, and remains the first and only 78 to be certified an Australian gold record.
In 1959, it reached Number. 3 in the United Kingdom and Number. 1 in Ireland, as well as becoming popular in Canada and the United States of America.
Parsons wrote numerous other songs, and also contributed the hook and chorus for Chad Morgan’s classic “The Fatal Wedding”, but made only a few records in the 20 years after his 78rpm discs of the 1950s. He was inducted in 1979 into "Hands of Fame" in Australia"s "capital of country music", Tamworth, New South Wales, and in 1982 he was added to Tamworth"s "Hall of Renown".
There is also a bust of Parsons in Tamworth.
Parsons died on 17 August 1990, at age 63, and is buried in Pinegrove Cemetery.
