The Mangrove Song (2002) – My Friend the Chocolate Cake

The Mangrove Song comes from the Australian pop chamber group – My Friend the Chocolate Cake. Musically, it’s an uptempo track from what is mostly a sombre and introspective record – Curious (see image inset). The band reside from Melbourne, which by the way is unofficially known as the cultural capital of Australia. If I could point to just one song that epitomises the cosmopolitan nature and influence of European culture on the city it would be today’s featured song. Like how the kitsch 1964 song – The Girl from Ipanema encapsulates the sights and sounds of city cafe society in the 1960’s, The Mangrove Song to my senses represents the rich and diverse cultural life (including the vibrant arts, literature and sports aspects) of Melbourne.

The song is littered with clever string arrangements by cellist Helen Mountfort (middle above) and violinist Hope Csutoros (left in image above). The musicianship on display here is unlike anything I’ve ever heard – effortlessly hip and pure class to my ears. What has always captivated me about the group, and David Bridie as a solo artist, is how they fuse everything I love: chamber music, pop, and lyrical profundity, all woven into a sound that’s entirely their own.

Despite my coating the musicality of this song with a city-end and sophisticated allure, the lyrical significance couldn’t be anything further from the fabric of society and civilisation, hence its title The Mangrove Song. It’s directed at the farthest and most remote regiones where land meets sea and become inter-tangled with a mesh of ‘creatures that kill‘ and ‘The roots ‘neath the mangrove trees crawl through the sand‘. You can also hear the violin shriek, something akin to the plethora of things that can cut you including: ‘The ocean it will smash you it will cut up your skin let it in‘. But while the songwriter and vocalist David Bridie sings about the perils of these desolate and mostly inhabitable regions ‘where nothing is quiet‘ there exists this dual meaning where in places he’s speaking it up – There’s a place you may go and where the sun gets down so low. Remarkably in 2021 (nearly two decades later after the release of this song) Bridie moved to an off-grid property close to the Otway National Park on Victoria’s Shipwreck Coast.

The album Curious peaked at No. 14 on the ARIA chart. I received this album in the mail as a gift for having seen (founder) David Bridie and Archie Roach in concert and it remains one of my most cherished albums. I became a bit of a band groupie of the Cake and David Bridie’s solo work and watched them live all over the place and got the pleasure to talk to them on occasion. My Friend the Chocolate Cake and another quintessential Australian indie pop group – The Go-Betweens who have also featured here often are two of my favourite bands in the whole wide world, and yet remain hardly Australian household names, especially the Cake. But they are highly regarded in Australian music circles and recognised as influential, particularly among music enthusiasts and critics.

Inside the reef line the ocean is calm
The deaf one is a fisherman he’s working alone on his own
He’s working alone
Don’t you go out there when the tide’s coming in
The ocean it will smash you it will cut up your skin let it in
It’ll cut up your skin oh yeah

There’s a place you may go
When the tide is so low
There’s a place you may go

A blanket of insects the water is still
Down in the mangrove swamp there’s creatures that kill
if you will there’s creatures that kill
The mud crabs at moonrise crawl out in the night
Quiver with secrets and nothing is quiet in the night
Yeah nothing is quiet, oh yeah

There’s a place you may go
When the tide is so low
There’s a place you may go

I don’t know any ol’ place where the sun gets down so low
I don’t know any ol’ place at all

The roots ‘neath the mangrove trees crawl through the sand
Just like a hunting bird at all times prepared
they’re prepared at all times prepared
No don’t you go out there when the tides coming in
The ocean it will cut you it will cut up your skin
Let it in it’ll cut up your skin

There’s a place you may go
When the tide is so low there’s a place you may go
There’s creatures that kill