Darren Hanlon - The Kickstand Song

Artist: Darren Hanlon

Song: The Kickstand Song

Album: Hello Stranger (2002)

Darren Hanlon's debut full-length consists of 10 pop songs that bring to mind the whimsical, light-hearted music of the 60s with a modern bent. This Australian singer/songwriter evokes images of Billy Bragg, Jonathan Richman, and Evan Dando.

On the consummately enjoyable Hello Stranger, his first full-length release following on the heels of his Australian breakthrough EP, Early Days, Darren Hanlon delivers the logical follow-up, further refining his impressively accomplished pop hooks and lyrical wit. This is a perfectly vibrant mix, with the arrangements crackling with a live intensity and musical looseness, and Hanlon proves himself a songwriter and tunesmith clearly in the line of greats like Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg in his ability to pair memorable melodies with clever songwriting. Even with rather odd lyrical subjects, such as the man who invented the kickstand in the strangely earnest "The Kickstand Song," his songs rarely suffer from an overreaching sense of wistfulness.

From start to finish, Hello Stranger rings out with a true buoyancy and ultimately rates as one of the rare jewels in a rather ho-hum season of singer/songwriter releases. Matt Fink - www.allmusic.com

Up until now my ideas have been latent

The cycling world will never be the same

But come first light I'll be taking out a patent

And from that day

If a bike be found lying on the ground again

I'm not to blame

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

Bolted down by the back wheel, activated by the heel

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

What chicken laid the egg from whence inside an idea hatches?

From prototype to production lines to the first one hundred batches

I will do for parking bikes what anchors did for sailing

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

There's handle bars for steering and there's tyre tread for traction

A tiny bell for friends you pass and greet

But when they add my ingenious contraption

Mouths will fall

And eyebrows will rise and staring eyes will meet

The bike complete

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

Bolted down by the back wheel, activated by the heel

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

There'll be articles in newspapers and dinners at the town hall

My first cheque's for a thousand bucks, now that's one spicy meatball

But all the fame and fortune in the world will not compare

To the joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

Spring

Now bikes around the world can stand alone without their owners

And I can get some cash on the side but that's just a bonus

When underneath their helmets I will see their smiling faces

What joy it'll bring, piece of metal and a spring

Piece of metal and a spring