The music of Australian country music artist – Kasey Chambers has featured here so often and finally we arrive in the alphabetical listing to one of her most cherished and beloved songs – The Captain. It is the title track of her solo debut album released in May 1999. Kasey says that The Captain is still her favourite song to play. If my memory serves me correctly from an interview I saw with her, the inspiration for the song came from a family trip to Norfolk Island (1,412 km east of Australia).
A high-spirited tourist bus driver took them on a tour of the island, and due to his enthusiasm and storytelling, she was inspired to write the song in dedication to him while also reflecting on herself, insecurities, and early career. It’s as though she just surrendered to his zest for life and to take her on his journey in spite of her own hardships – ‘And you can carry me away if you want to‘.
‘Cause you’re the Captain, I am no-one
I tend to feel as though I owe one to you‘
Kasey Chambers was born on the 4 June 1976 in Mount Gambier, Queensland. From July 1976 the Chambers family travelled around the Nullarbor Plain, where the parents hunted foxes and rabbits for pelts during seven or eight months a year, spanning nine years. Prior to launching her solo career in 1998, Chambers performed with her parents and her older brother in family country group Dead Ringer Band for 12 years. If you would like more information about her background and family, I point you to this engaging video – At home with country superstar Kasey Chambers from 60 Minutes Australia.
Kasey’s break-out album was her follow-up Barricades and Brickwalls which was my first foray into her music and remains one of my favourite Australian albums. After the release of that No. 1 album she instantly became a household name and was on the tip of everyone’s tongue especially in the Country music industry. Specifically, the third single from the album (Am I) Not Pretty Enough rocketed her to fame overnight and was also the first music I had ever heard from her. The immediacy to which that song floored me I’ll never forget, which I discussed in my aforementioned linked post. I think that same day I picked up her album.
Both The Captain and (Am I) Not Pretty Enough explore themes of vulnerability and longing for acceptance, with the former depicting a yearning for guidance and recognition and the latter expressing insecurities about self-worth. In fact Not Pretty Enough was Kasey’s protest song about the commercial radio stations’ reluctance to play her stuff. Ironically it would be her big commercial breakthrough.
I came to learn of the Captain only after devouring Barricades and Brickwalls, but such was my adoration for that song as well as her second album, I wondered why The Captain had not been the tipping point into fame and fortune. Although the song did win Chambers an ARIA Award for Best Female Artist and was nominated for Single of the Year but it must have flown under my radar.
The Captain became more widely known when it featured on Season 3 episode of The Sopranos, He Is Risen which originally aired on April 15, 2001. Kasey reflects back on the impact of her song featuring in The Sopranos as well as other aspects in this interview celebrating 20 years of The Captain.
Please enjoy and thank you for reading.
[Verse 1]
Well, I don’t have as many friends because
I’m not as pretty as I was
I’ve kicked myself at times because I’ve lied
So I will have to learn to stand my ground
I’ll tell ’em I won’t be around
I’ll move on over to your town and hide
[Chorus]
And you be the Captain, and I’ll be no-one
And you can carry me away if you want to
And you can lay low just like your father
And if I tread upon your feet, you just say so
‘Cause you’re the Captain, I am no-one
I tend to feel as though I owe one to you
To you
[Verse 2]
Well I have handed all my efforts in
I searched here for my second wind
“Is there somewhere here to let me in?”, I asked
So I slammed the doors they slammed at me
I found the place I’m meant to be
I figured out my destiny at last
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
References:
1. The Captain (Kasey Chambers song) – Kasey Chambers
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
“The Captain” by Kasey Chambers is a great song. In fact, I included it in one of my recent Sunday posts. This was prompted by some of your previous posts about her.
I was holding off on this post in the listing because of your previous post. But I progressed with the alphabetical listing. It is indeed a great song and the back story is fascinating and inspiring.