Various Artists - Of Hopes & Dreams & Tombstones; Beat 'n' R&B from Down Under (@320)

 

Various Artists - Of Hopes & Dreams & Tombstones; Beat 'n' R&B from Down Under

Of Hopes & Dreams & Tombstones: Beat 'n' R&B from Down Under Review by Richie Unterberger.

All 31 of the tracks on this anthology of mid-'60s Australian rock were licensed from Festival, the most active independent label in recording Australian rock of the era. Although its limitation to one source inevitably means it can't serve as a best-of (or one of the best-ofs) for the Australian scene as a whole, it's a good collection of material from a vibrant corner of '60s rock that's been fairly neglected by listeners not from down under. There's not a single name on here that might be known even to most reasonably knowledgeable '60s collectors, but hardcore internationalists will be familiar with some of these from Australian '60s compilations on Raven and Festival itself. Among them are some very fine artists, even if they usually didn't record much, like the Purple Hearts, Steve and the Board, the Sunsets, and Ray Brown & the Whispers. It's not easy to characterize the Australian sound of the period as a whole, but generally it would be fair to say that it blended some of the better aspects of American garage and British Invasion Mersey, mod, and R&B with some echoes of surf, novelty, Bo Diddley, and American soul thrown in. Some of this material's ordinary (if always energetic), but there are at least a dozen standouts, though some of this has already appeared on other Australian reissues. The Sunsets' "When I Found You" is certainly an irresistible blend of British Invasion and surf sounds, while Chris Hall & the Torquays' "Don't Ask Me Why," the Five's "There's Time," and Jimmy Crockett & the Shanes' "That Lovin' Touch" (with the typically un-PC garage lyric "you've got that sweet lovin' touch, but you keep talkin' too much") is certainly as good as much of the garage rock compiled on the Nuggets box sets. The production, melodies, and variety are frankly better than they are on the average American garage comp, though the energy is of an equal level. It also helps that some of this is more quality pop/rock than it is simple garage, like Ray Brown & the Whispers' melodramatic and brooding "Too Late to Come Home," the downbeat R&B of Tony Worsley & the Blue Jays' "If You See My Baby," and Mike Furber's downright sorrowful "You're Back Again," which sounds like a particularly gloomy spin on the Merseybeats.

Tracklist:

1. The Purple Hearts - Of Hopes And Dreams And Tombstones (Joy Byers) - 2:26

2. The Rajahs - Oh! (Leon Isackson) - 2:35

3. Tony Worsley And The Blue Jays - Ready Steady Let's Go (Geoff Brown) - 2:00

4. Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs - Blue Day (Tony Barber) - 2:45

5. Chris Hall And The Torquays - Don't Ask Me Why (Chris Hall) - 2:02

6. Normie Rowe And The Playboys - She Used To Be Mine (Nat Kipner, Steve Kipner) - 2:35

7. Jimmy Crockett And The Shanes - That Lovin' Touch (Nat Kipner) - 2:05

8. Mike Furber And The Bowery Boys - That's When Happiness Began (Dick Addrisi, Don Addrisi) 2:16

9. The Showmen - So Far Away (Baden Hutchins, Peter Ellison) - 2:24

10. The Sunsets - When I Found You (Lindsay Bjerre) - 2:16

11. Toni McCann - My Baby (Mal Clarke, Royce Nichols) - 2:01

12. Steve And The Board - So Why Pretend (Carl Keats) - 2:22

13. The Courtmen - I've Got To Let You Go (Barry Shepherd) - 2:26

14. Russ Kruger - Well, Ain't That Nice (Theo Penglis) - 2:22

15. Ray Brown And The Whispers - Too Late To Come Home 2:22

16. The Playboys - It's Awright (Rufus Thomas) - 2:37

17. The Morloch - Every Night (Noel Neates) - 2:26

18. The Pacifics - Slowly But Surely (Bobby Dean) - 2:57

19. Barrington Davis - Complicated Riddle (Nat Kipner, Ossie Byrne) - 1:31

20. Tony Worsley And The Blue Jays - If You See My Baby (Mal Clarke, Royce Nichols) - 2:33

21. The Five - There's Time (Ron Williams) - 2:17

22. Tony Barber - I Want Her Too (Tony Barber) - 2:29

23. Donnie Sutherland And The Titans - No Cheatin' (Donnie Sutherland, Robert Shean) - 2:09

24. The Others - Dancing Girl (Elias McDaniel) - 2:27

25. Graeme Chapman - Baby Let Your Hair Down (Bart Barberis, Bobby Hart) - 2:11

26. The Mystrys - Witch Girl (Bob Kinleside Crawford) - 2:03

27. The Pacifics - Lost My Baby (Jeffrey James Bean) - 2:16

28. The Pogs - I'll Never Love Again (Peter Best) - 2:38

29. The Librettos - She's A Go Go (Brian Peacock, Rod Stone) - 2:29

30. The Escorts - House On Soul Hill (Ray Eddlemon, Scott Turner) - 1:47

31. Mike Furber - You're Back Again (Lonnie Lee) - 2:18

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