Australian country singer Chad Morgan, 91, died in Gin Gin (gawd I love Australian town names) on Jan. 1. He was best known for such novelty songs as “The Sheik of Scrubby Creek,” “You Can't Keep a Good Man Down,” “Double Decker Blowflies,” “Don't Drink the Water (In the Outback Mate),” “Been There, Done That (Gonna Do It Again),” and the old standard “I'm My Own Grandpa.” The toothy (he could eat corn on the cob through a picket fence) hillbilly-style Morgan was a very good singer and guitarist—look him up on YouTube. “I went into the air force in '52 and mates heard me singing and they dared me to go on Amateur Hour and it snowballed from there,” Morgan said, adding, “Never dare me to do anything.” He went on to play pubs and the Sydney Opera House, and was a regular on Reg Lindsay's Country and Western Hour. Fellow Aussie singer Tex Perkins said of Morgan, “Chad's never really been embraced by the country scene but it doesn't do him justice to call him a comedy act, even though most of his songs are comedy-based and he does play up his freakishness. He's a true outsider because at 79 he still puts his wife in station wagon with the caravan on the back and drives thousands of kilometers to do these shitty little gigs all over the country.”
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