Saturday Song

Hans Poulsen - Aussie troubadour

As a young fella, I'd run home from school and later from work to watch our pop shows of the day. The 60s were great. They say that if you can remember the 60's you were not really there. Well I WAS there and I do remember them vividly - I was drug free, (mostly).

OUR DONOVAN
I guess you could say that most countries had their own Donovan or Dylan or even Joan Baez but we had Hans Poulsen. He was a local boy just up the road along the bay from where we live. Hans seemed like a very peaceful sort of guy and sang songs that gave you a good feeling. Maybe he had his own good feeling at the time - who knows. He only had a few songs that hit the charts and I wonder where he is today.
I looked him up on Wikipedia and what do you know, there he was.

He was born as Bruce Gordon Poulsen to parents Vic and Nellie who played two instruments, lap-steel & ukulele with their styles of Hawaiian music, bush ballads and Country & Western music
His grandfather migrated to Victoria from Denmark and being proud of his heritage Bruce took on the name of Hans Sven when he was still a teenager. It is possible he took the name as a stage-name when he started his school in 1961 called the Rimfires; at this time he played around the Frankston area, an outer suburb of Melbourne and around the Mornington Peninsula region on the coast. It was here he learnt his craft and became known for his interpretation of Buddy Holly music and songs
In 1965 Hans formed the first version of Melbourne group 18th Century Quartet, which played original material (mostly by Hans) and performed in a style that later came to be known as world music; the group also differed from most of its contemporaries with its use of diverse acoustic instruments including mandolin, autoharp and bouzouki.
After embarking on a solo career in 1967, Hans scored two Australian pop hits with the songs "Boom Sha La La Lo", "Light Across the Valley" and he enjoyed great success as a songwriter with hits written for other artists, including "Rose Coloured Glasses" for John Farnham and "Monty and Me" for Zoot. One of his best-known and most successful compositions, "It's Only A Matter Of Time", was the much-played B-side of the famous single "The Real Thing" by Russell Morris, which was an Australian #1 hit in May 1969.
 


A song for all immigrants that came to an island/continent across the ocean called Oz
A lovely clip with inspiring words.