Paul Kelly has released a sequel to his iconic tune How to Make Gravy.
Nearly 30 years ago, Kelly released his Christmas classic about an inmate named Joe missing his family’s Christmas celebrations.
Joe writes a letter to his brother and his wife, Rita, explaining how to make his famous gravy for the holiday.
How To Make Gravy has won a loyal following, and was recently voted the ninth best Australian song of all time in Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown.
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December 21, the date mentioned in the 1996 song, has even become colloquially known as ‘Gravy Day’ among Australians.
Now, three decades on, fans finally know what came next for Joe.
The sequel released today, Rita Wrote a Letter, revealed Joe’s worst fear came true – his partner Rita ended up with Danny while he was locked behind bars.
‘Rita wrote a letter and this is what she had to say,’ Kelly sings in the song.
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‘Joe I’m really sorry but me and Dan, our love is here to stay / With the kids, it’s getting better, and now a little baby’s on the way.’
The song is from the perspective of Joe, who is singing from beyond the grave.
’I really don’t know how I’m talking,’ the song starts.
‘Six feet down and under the clay / The laws of nature forbid it, but I was never good with rules anyway.’
The song also offers a glimpse of Joe’s life once he left prison, saying he kept the letter Rita wrote him as he went on to his new life.
He goes back to the kitchen he was working at, but this time as a busboy, washing and pans.
The storytelling is just as vivid as it is in How to Make Gravy.
In the second chorus, Joe explains how Rita wised up and moved on while he was getting into trouble behind bars.
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“She said ‘Joe I gave you good chances / but half a year turned into two / you could never hold your temper and you always made it about you.'”
The song resolved with Joe saying he’ll always love Rita and will “be the ghost above her,” but the lead admits he couldn’t forgive his brother Dan.
Kelly told the ABC’s radio show Double J he had been planning on writing a single for ”at least five to six years.”
“I had the title and wanted to write (about) Rita because she doesn’t get much of a go.”
Before the song’s release, a funeral notice popped up in a Melbourne newspaper announcing Joe’s death by “sudden misadventure.”
The notice quoted Kelly’s song, reading “who’s going to make the gravy?”
The death notice references August 14 as the funeral, which is the same day of Rita Wrote a Letter‘s release.
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