side three of the easybeats' absolute anthology

It is voting day and so of course one turns to trying to recall why it is good to be an Australian. One good thing about it is that very fact: that you are free to wonder that, in a broad sense (as opposed to being met by bullets, lol). I am such a fan of the Australian democratic/voting system that I make myself sick. It is real though.

I will never have patriotism, any more than I will have pride in having ten toes, but I did somehow put this record on this morning - side 3 (this picture is of my personal copy, btw, and apparently I paid $12.95 for it - value). When you think about things that you can be grateful for in Australian history (and prior Labor administrations in particular) you can think about the decision made by the Curtin/Chifley government to be the first federal government to actively allow/encourage/invite non-Anglo Saxon, non-English-speaking migrants. Thank fuck this happened. It would have been better, probably, if it had happened earlier but it was so wonderful (in two major senses of that word) that it happened at all. Out of that we got a million great things, and also, the million-and-first, The Easybeats. 

The Easybeats' back catalogue really varies, horrendously, almost disturbingly. Clearly they knew what they were doing, but part of what they were doing was to deliberately either not care or not understand what made an actual good song.* They'd had a big international hit with 'Friday on my Mind', as indeed they should have. Then they set about trying to replicate it, or rather, to replicate the success, but they seemed to be flying blind somewhat. They produced a lot of amazing records though after that time, to my mind their best, mainly singles (I've never really enjoyed a 'real' Easybeats album all the way through, though most of The Shame Just Drained, which is of course a compilation but of unreleased material, is pretty amazing). I am not a huge fan of 'The Music Goes Round My Head' - too sing-song - and 'Good Times' just really pisses me off, though listening to it today (the rest of side three had to be pretty flamin' incredible to get me to play it considering 'Good Times' is track three - well, once I took the needle off and put it on at the end) it's not as awful as it was in my memory, which I guess is tainted by the utterly worthless and vile INXS-Barnesy travesty. 

Anyway, I just wanted to celebrate 'Come In You'll Get Pneumonia', 'Falling off the Edge of the World' and OMG 'Hello, How Are You' which is just, you know, completely everything. 

It really pissed me off that Vanda and Young were so down on their ballads, and that once AC/DC (yuk man) and so on took off so comprehensively they began to consider this kind of thing their main talent (but just to confuse that idea, really great disco like 'Love is in the Air' has also had an amazingly long life). I mean by any objective measure 'Falling in Love Again' is the best song they ever wrote, and I will always be grateful to them for creating something so perfect. But 'Hello How Are You' is basically its slightly dumber twin. Can't be faulted, dumbness can be perfect. 

John Paul Young has a new single out, by the way, and it is a song by Sean Sennett and John Field which I have adored for decades - ever since it came out on Westside Records (presumably somehow a tie-in to E Street but I don't know how) as a single by The Honeymen. It never occurred to me how much 'Felt Like a Kiss' was in the classic Vanda/Young vein, though now I hear the JPY treatment it seems obvious. It's now got a different title for some reason. 

But it's a fine piece of work and everyone involved should be proud. 

*Obviously they knew what made a good song. But they also didn't know what made a bad song. They had no editing process, or they thought they'd let the world decide. I don't know!!! It's confusing. All I know is, they put out hundreds of things, and some are amazing, and some should never have been thought about, let alone released. There are plenty of artists like that. 

three yesterday's heroes

I was happy to come across this in aimless youtubing this morning. As it happens I don't remember the clip at all, and I have a good memory for unconvincing assemblages intended to suggest mass hysteria in visual media. Though I still love the song (and Peter Hogg's version from the same epoch, 'Yesterday's Breakfast') I was also interested to see the scenes from Melbourne in the mid-seventies, starting with Bourke Street before it became a mall. There is a continuity error in the 0:20s where JPY is walking south past the town hall then, suddenly, on the other side of the street northwards (where you see the town hall a second time, on the right). Then he's walking past the town hall (clock) again, going south once more. I don't know if the people responsible want to recall all copies and redo this. But perhaps it's supposed to represent his inner turmoil.

At 1:30ish, you see JPY hanging out at the very unconvincing public space above Princes Bridge Station, where Federation Square is now. It was a most unloved space, presumably because (if I recall rightly) it was not a thoroughfare to anything or anywhere, just a platform you had to ascend to and eat your sandwiches and watch those two women go past. Even seagulls weren't that into it (the one you see to the left at 1:37 is animatronic).

As mentioned previously, I am reading Les McKeown's not that exciting (but then, I was only ever a fan of 'Rock 'n' Roll Love Letter') autobiography, and I was reminded while checking out this JPY one that the Rollers did a 'Yesterday's Hero' too (though I haven't got to that bit in the book yet)* but on listening to it I discover it's a most unusual construction in which it's sung in the plural (except as far as the title is concerned). Odd song for the Rollers to be singing anyway, and the dance they do in the clip** is very peculiar too, considering the song's content. Quite a good version but basically a copy of the original. 

 *Later. I got to that bit. He says he liked singing the song but felt uncomfortable with the sentiment.  

**Update 29 June 2024: Fifteen years ago I posted a clip of BCR here but it's now been taken off youtube and I can't find it. But cheer up, there are LOADS of clips of BCR doing 'Yesterday's Hero' on youtube, you have just got to find the one you love the most.