The Whitlams - Flame Trees (Live on The Panel)

[Jeffroripper]

As a musician they sung this song in there own way , O.K the song is an Aussie icon, remember for all you critics out there , lets see you do it better ..... i Love Cold Chisel too , Though it's also nice to see the Whitlams sing it with Passion .....have a look at there faces they Just Freaking Love what they are singing be proud and that some one else appreciates to want to share it in there version , its not an offense to cold chisel , it's an honor .

[TheColonelsKitchen]

It's like they just threw the notes of this song up into the air, and let them land wherever ... all askew and misaligned.

They've taken a great Australian song, and callously ripped it's heart out: What a damn sacrilege.

[howerut]

@TheColonelsKitchen I don't know if you guys realise this, but thats what the whitlams do, each of their performances has idiosyncracies. That is what is amazing about the whitlams, they perform something new everytime.

[loverlyme]

I don't mind this version, it's kinda okay, but for something more special (apart from the original, of course) you can't go past the Sarah Blasko cover.

[MrGoandgetstuffed]

Nice try, but I don't like it, not even a little bit.

[DuckyBats13]

Hey Whitlams, who sings this song?

Cold Chisel?

Let's fucking keep it that way!!! 

[Benchomp]

@DuckyBats13 I laughed out loud. Spot on critique.

[Benchomp]

@DuckyBats13

I laughed out loud. Spot on critique.

[fildert]

This is total shit - typical of this guy.

This song has a a kind of sacredness and Blasko totally did it justice - I've seen her play it live a few times - goosebumps and chills.

[teamvampire1918]

I luv cold chisel and jimmy barnes, i think that the original is better

[jootlick]

You ruined this song you son of a butt slammin bitch! Why don't you sing a fuckin Milli Vanilli song you cock fag. I hope you commit a felony and end up in Goulburn jail where you will be sodomised by the pole of the same bike seat that caved in Karl Williams' skull cunt!

[jomay78]

I loved this video. It's haunting and sad and captures the mood perfectly. Duet is beautiful.

[scoyle18]

fuckin shit

[p0g05t1ck]

i like it :)

[Coitamac]

Fuck me, Sarah Blasko rips this as a cover. Fucken Whitlams just take the emotion right out of it....

Poor Jimmy would be spewin...

[lenylan]

you can't say a song is murdered because there's nothing wrong with experimenting with new ideas with new things. I don't think this version is anything compared to the original but good on them for trying and Tim Freedman is a talented musician.

[dasicknt]

its too depressing...far out

[BuisnessGirl]

abi is always beautiful. I love her!!!!!!!!!

[aussiebarracuda]

A massive massive fan of the whitlams....though they butchered the shit out of this!

[FlewMary]

Abi is so beautiful there :)

[kgc05]

OMG, they should be ashamed of this cover!

[gadflyzzz]

Awful. A version for the Howard era.

[hellerbird]

murdered, absolutely murdered. barnesy would be embarrassed!

[bmisk77]

up/down

on/off

energetic/lethargic

exciting/boring

cold chisel/the Whitlams

I agree 100% with *snifferenator*

the only thing they got wrong

was their choice of song.

[zergon11]

Horrible, where's all the passion gone?

[jerova]

They took the life out of the song :(

[snifferenator]

Correct pronunciation, correct harmony, everything's bloody correct except this is the coldest, most mechanical rendition of a great Cold Chisel masterpiece.

[samtheband]

Tim is a great singer/songwriter, but this cover SUCKS!

[Loll84]

Oh that is seriously shocking! They absolutely ruined that song! Makes you realise what an amazing band Chisel really is!

[barrelofagun08]

Sung with no passion!

[cepiroth]

musically they are good... but ruined an awesome song and made it lose its meaning

[MeoCaroline]

I love The Whitlams but I can't say I like this version! Ew! Sounds so flat.

Methinks that Sarah Blasko does a good cover.

[CLINTTOWEL]

im not a musician,,,,BUT FUK THATS BORING!!

[stevieontour]

Rubbish

[bournetimbo]

You're right, the way he sings it ...the words have no meaning.

[teflonboy10]

Its like some sort of William Shatner take on a classic song that goes horribly wrong. Its boring, dull and without purpose or melody. Utter crap!

[dajord]

i think this is great. The female singer wrecks it though... She's fucking horrible.

[pigmere]

you are deranged.

[redbullnicko]

shit!!!! an atrocity.

[kjanks]

The Whitlams suck shit they have just murdered

this aussie icon. fuck of sing your own crap music.

[shanog1987]

awful

[djimi66]

Finally ... more people - just like me - who can't fkn stand the Whitlams - or anything that Tim Whatsisname does.

Wish he'd get over that freshly-shagged haircut thing he has going, too ...

Pardon - just venting ... ;-)

[aussiedownunderman]

this is the worse cover of Flames Trees I have ever heard. It's just totally shit!!!!

[stylst]

SHIT SHIT SHIT!!! YOU TOOL!

[307bp]

Im from Ireland. love Chisel. I too think its shite!!

[anarylxx]

I didn't like this, well put together, but the phrasing and the performance, especially in the chorus really does kinda ruin it.

One of the best hting in the original was that the vocal melody served to create a lot of tension which was then released by the chorus. This cover unfortunately really destroyed that build up, and as such it really makes the song quite bland.

As a few people mentioned it really did remove the lament quality, making it a bit of a bland pretentious piece of reference

[Breniznit]

It's his lack of range,It's all in one key,it should be 3 or 4 keys.Not many Australian singers have Jimmy Barnes range apart from Vanessa Amorosi.

[Thelackofpizza]

Personally, I think Tim's range isn't too bad. They way he sings this song just doesn't show it off! I just think it needs to be accepted that a cover is a song looked at in another light by a completely different artist.

It's just The Whitlams take on this song.

As much as I love The Whitlams, I agree that this song doesn't do much for me. But you can't expect ever cover to be exactly the same as played originally. It has to have some difference, right?

[chickensw]

@anarylxx absolutely...

its actually fucking awful...

[benja54]

that bit that the girl sings "do you remember...in our day" sounds shite

the rest is good tho. it's nice to hear a cover that isn't a complete ripoff of the original. the whitlams did a good job of "whitlamising" a great chisel song

[Shehad]

spooninyourhorny, and other like-minded deadshits, it's not up to you to decide whether a song has "lost all its meaning". The song means something different to each person who hears it. You may not think, and I would agree, that this version is a good adaptation, but I'd rather see this than sub-standard imitations of Chisel songs repeated ad nauseam by cover bands all over Australia. The Whitlams are the best thing to come out of Australia in the last 20 years.

[lurker2601]

Barnes original, its not barnes song!its don walkers song , fckn sick of people thinking barnes was chisel

[AudreyT007]

Been playing this all week, so felt compelled to defend it! This is a beautiful interpretation. Lovely choices with harmonies and placement. Their voices sound divine. I 4 1 like to hear variations on classics & even if they don't gel with me, still respkt that renditions keep music alive. If evrythng styd the same it wld b a boring existence! BTW, Jonzot, Whitlam is alrdy doin ok. Check out his albums. TW shld still be as big as they were in their hay-day. LOVE EM! Stay calm and open, peeps.

[AudreyT007]

Been playing this all wk, so felt compelled to defend it! Think this is a beautiful interpretation. Some gr8 choices with the harmonies & placement & their voices sound divine. I 4 1 like to hear variations on classics, & even if they don't gel wth me, I still rspkt that renditions keep music alive. If evrythng styd the same it wld b a boring existence! BTW Jonzot, Whitlam is alrdy doin ok. Checkout his albums. In my view, this band shld stil b as big as their hay-day. luv em!

[izzdom]

To EnritherDarok , totally agree, spot on.

[808D3]

They should be executed for this.

[EnritherDarok]

How ridiculous that all you can present yourselves on youtube as musical critics. The fact that this is Tim's version of the song doesn't make it shit, we all love the original, but they're incomparable.

If Tim wanted to pretend he was Jimmy we would've sung it exactly the same.

A general rule of musicianship is that if you are to cover a song do it better than the original or change it enough to make it your own, and if you don't like it, so what?

I'd like to see you upload a cover! Pfft.

[jmewho]

we wont do a cover...because it will be shit..like this peice of butcherd emotionless garbage...

[craigp81]

It's a shame - Tim Freedman is a good musician. He has changed the harmony of the chorus and added some strange Middle Eastern percussion so it no longer sounds like a lament, like Barnes' original.

[alynch18]

Urgh... God that's horrible. Way to fuck up one of the most amazing songs ever Tim. Absolutely disgusting.

[alynch18]

For all those defending Tim (Tim Freedman is his name - not Whitlam) check out the original and live versions of this song under related videos. And also some of the Whitlams great work which makes this vomit even more disappointing.

[Spoonifyourhorny]

This is what happens if you swapped jimmy barnes with elton jhon. OMG THIS IS SHIT, its lost all its meaning. i think cold chisel songs shoundn't be covered ever

[jonzot]

This is good. Don't listen to them, Whitlam (sorry, don't know your first name). Keep singing and you'll make it big someday. Have you recorded this cause I want to buy a copy.

[BL0HARD]

no no no no No NO no NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO­!

[zbrad3]

He thinks he's John lennon haha. Fucked the sonmg up bro

[zbrad3]

That's shit. lmao.

[sonopop]

i love the Whitlams,but they kill this song with Abi tucker,especially when Abi start to sing it,my god THEY HAVE KILLED IT.

[ruoldenuff]

another reason to hate the whitlams...not that we needed one? as for the panel; in-bred gob-shite from cunts who wanna sit and and suck each other's cocks (langroek included) where was catherine tate when we needed her. the panel was/is an abortion of a tv program.

[peterm3964]

24 seconds into it and i now Truely hate this pretentious cockhead

[Gunnabee]

This should never have been attempted..its like listening to Cylen Dion trying to sing Nut Bush City Limits...arrghh! God help us if she ever did..

[Annie293]

It's Celine Dion

[Aussiegurl1974]

how embaressing, yeah they aint Aussies, cant even sing, where's Jimmy? booooo you aint got shit on us Aussies!!!

[WillCore85]

umm. the whitlams are australian. stupid fvck.

[Aussiegurl1974]

Learn how to spell dumb FUCK!

[pippa1010]

As much as it hurts me to admit it i have to say this rreally is crap.

I love the whitlams and i like chisel but together it sounds horrible.

[UWA1official]

Ok, i thought if it was just the whitlams, that it would have been good. That chick, crapped on this song. If the band had played it it would have given it a bit more of what we all know the song to be. It sounds better than those gay kids in little fish anyway.

[peeledsweetpotato]

they fucken butchered this song.

[Phattey123]

SHIT. That's all! It's Shit.

[korners4]

I agree with everyone else...this is shithouse. There is something to be said about reworking a song and not just remaking it but when you are going to fuck the whole thing up..well thats a different story.

leave classics alone. they are classics for a reasons.

[808D3]

Horrid.

[kingaboy]

Fuck me ! Chisel should sue those bastards for destroying their legendary song like that

[KulturalKringe]

Whitlams, yes...

This version of Flame Trees, no...it's boring and gutless.

[captnkaos01]

not bad... a bit slow and morbid, but a good band and a great song never the less.

[JoeyTheWee]

awful - sounds like some bunch of private school homos

[nickcccccc]

set fire to this town..they should set fire to this recording...i think tim freedman is a legend..but this sounds very boring his style suits charlie..no aphrodisiac far better than this cold chisel classic..sorry tim ..but???

[relianceoffilth]

CRAP!!!! this song is about passion!! not how SWEET the singers voice is, or how CLEVER he is in delivering the lyrics. this song is about the passion of a band and a song they wrote and sang with a devestating and very emotional performance. booooooooo

[pompernickle]

jcfiveo

It's

"Oh the flame trees will blind the weary driver"

[jcfiveo]

tell me folks whats those lyrics :is it "blind lou the driver:after"oh the flame trees.?

[clanrunner]

blind the weary driver

[BKKBRETT]

STOP......your killing Rock and raping Roll

[deankyrwood]

want to have a listen to my version ?

[ExceptionToTheRule]

i like sarah blasko's version best... this song doesnt really suit the whitlams.... even tho tim is a legend

[Kageti94]

if that song was a person, the whitlams just stabbed it 17 times, hacked off its head, drilled a hole hround its heart with 7 different drills at the same time, sawed off its lower left leg, run it over, dropped it off a 652 ft tall clif etc etc.

[nirad0]

don't know how the whitlams could have ruined it the tone deaf jimmy barnes did that the first time he sang it.

at least tim can sing.

[paulsalmonfan]

if you cant say anything nice, dont say anything at all, you try and sing with such beautiful voices, timmy and sarah you rock

[paulsalmonfan]

sorry its not sarah its abi tucker

[chunkyairguitar]

gawd, who the hell is that bird singing with tim?! how are the whitlams copping it for her absolute crappiness!!!

[mattithefati1987]

abi tucker

[Axeman055]

How to murder a song in one easy effort...

[paulsalmonfan]

to all who say this is crap, you try singing it, im sure timmy will out do you anytime, man has talent,

guts and determination, , god bless timmy

[cork43]

Congrats, whitlams. Ruined one of the best songs of all time.

[paulsalmonfan]

well at least timmy can sing, not like the screaming voice, of barnsey, what a crock he is, his voice is stuffed

timmy has the most gorgeous voice, and well those looks do it to, complete package

good on ya timmy you rock this world, people are just jealous they cant sing like you,

[chirky88]

@paulsalmonfan LOL comparing Tim to Barnesy... You certainly sound like you know your music! What a Douche!!!

[paulsalmonfan]

At least tim can sing, I grew up with chisel and love them but they are dead and best left as a memory, but someone has to make chisels songs live on. The only thing that barnsey or his half assed dick head brother in law johnny weasel can beat tim at is drinking.

[tony8028]

One of the greatest songs ever written, destroyed by the Whitlams. This is just awful.

[Sevy85]

great vid. So cool to see Abi live !

[yzemagic]

The Whitlams HHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA. Fucking talentless hacks. That guy has the worst voice I have ever heard

[TheBdChaser]

right cunt, time for you to burn. are you some sort of fuckin talentless hack yourself? you're ears are obviously fuckin painted on, or they just plain don't work. long live barnesy and anyone willing to embrace the heart in this song

[sammym07]

I can't believe how such a great song could sound so shit. Good work fuckwits!

[frenchletter]

Crap half-paced version which doesn't get out of first gear.

It is an insult to the original.

Abi Tucker was great in ABC Australia's Wildside.

[carlycarterLSAL]

I love it. Abi Tucker rocks! She has a beautiful voice and puts her heart and soul into her singing. Great video

[shimble23]

There have been a few treatments of this song and Sarah Blasko's is the best. Abi Tucker is most famous in Oz for her role in Secret Life of Us.

[timothy10112]

awesome!!!

[paulytlws]

they killed it

damn you whitlams. go away already

[yzemagic]

Nice job ruining a classic. This bloke is a talentless piece of shit. How the fuck did they ever get their music out there?

[kjen11]

oringal shits on it

[AndyWenman]

Still no idea who she is...

[cambria182]

Abi Tucker played in "Heartbreak High" as Jodie, she had blond hair then.

[shanterusan]

She also had one or two solo singles but they weren't really successful.

[cambria182]

maybe weren't successful but were beautiful

[Annie293]

Abi Tucker.

Now playing in Mcleods Daughters

And she is wonderfull

[AndyWenman]

Ah...

[AndyWenman]

Who is that woman?

[Lowee]

Abi Tucker, she used to be on 'The Secret Life of Us'.

[karahahn]

good work loweeeee :P

is it just me or could i barely hear the piano in that? i couldn't really differentiate between jak's guitaring and tim's pianoing..