After reading Best of the Best, Australia's 50 Greatest Albums in today's Age EG, I have only one comment to make: Help!
Are Usual Suspects all we have?
FROM Johnny O’Keefe to AC/DC, the Divinyls, Midnight Oil, Jet and the Drones, Australian music has come a long way since “the Wild One” first strutted his stuff 50 years ago.
While some claim that recent technology has rendered the album obsolete, we at EG believe the best bands are still judged by great albums.
Australian rock’n’roll turns 50 on July 5, the anniversary of the release of Johnny O’Keefe’s The Wild One, and to celebrate we assembled a panel of experts — ranging from EG critics and music journalists to musicians, broadcasters, record shop owners and band managers — who undertook the painstaking task of narrowing down an entire history of music to a micro list.
More than one comment, actually.
There are albums I've liked: Living In The 70s (2), Radios Appear (3), Stoneage Romeos (5), Born Sandy Devotional (9), Back In Black (10), Highway To Hell (15), Sunnyboys (16), 16 Lovers Lane (17), High Voltage (24), Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express (44).
A lot of it sh1ts me: Midnight Oil, You Am I, INXS - I would have picked Shabooh Shoobah, Crowded House, Nick Cave - although I liked Lyre of Orpheus, Died Pretty, Regurgitator, Silverchair, Jet, the overrated Saints, the fvcken Whitlams.
Then there's the stuff that cruised right by me without me taking much notice: Chisel, Richard Clapton, Stephen Cummings, Chris Wilson, Paul Kelly, The Black Sorrows, Flowers, Hunters & Collectors, the Reels, Aussie Crawl, the Mentals - one brilliant song, notwithstanding, the Divinyls. The Easybeats and Masters Apprentices were before my time; not that I ever thought they were that great.
Your best bet is to pan through the selections of the individual reviewers for nuggets like The Band's Alright but the Singer is Gulliver Smith, which was a Billy Pinnell selection, and Joel Silbersher's Tendrils. Pity The Sand Pebbles don't crack a mention. And just what is Registered Nurse - Strippers?
Ironically, while Chris Johnston features The Church's Of Skin & Heart in today's "The Crate" article, he hasn't included it in his top ten. I wouldn't include it, either; but if the whole album was as good as Unguarded Moment, it would just about be my No.1.
Crikey, whoever filled in Gudinski's second shot at ten (greedy bastard!) really shoulda had it proofed.
Surprised The Reels passed you by T, much of their early stuff yes, but that K-Tel covers album was wallpaper in 1980-whatever the hell year it was.
I'm pretty intrigued by this Perry Keyes who seems to get a little extra love. And I'm flummoxed by how many people listed that Triffids album. I worked in a rekkid sho for yonks, and we didn't sell as many copies a it's cited here. 'ow queer.
Finally, only one person picked The Morning of the Earth soundtrack. And he was a bloody youthful Avalanche. I reckon new migrants should get a free copy of that album, and a bus ticket around Australia's best beaches to get some local kulcha into 'em!
Posted by: via collins | 27 June 2008 at 15:14
MOTE: I remember when this image was everywhere.
Straya, you're surfing in it.
Posted by: Tony T | 27 June 2008 at 16:59
i'm devastated - dan warner was the only person to give WPA a guernsey.
Posted by: Ponder | 27 June 2008 at 22:35
Strange but predictable old list.
I think at least someone mentioned The Loved Ones but where the hell was The Wild Cherries - surely as "seminal" as Radio Birdman.
As much as I whinge about it now Chisel were worth a mention. Maybe The Reels don't stand up now but they were ground breakers. Me I'd give Dave Warner From The Suburbs a guernsey himself for a great album.
Posted by: Francis Xavier Holden | 28 June 2008 at 00:29
Possibly one of the reasons that The Wild Cherries didn't make the top albums list is that they never released an album. Bah. Anyway I say their EPs are as good if not better than most albums. So there.
Posted by: Francis Xavier Holden | 28 June 2008 at 00:47
As far as lists go (which if in an Aussie newspaper your immediate thought is - skip to sports pages), a great idea and worth a look, especially the reviewers top 10s. A few observations:
There are only 4 albums from the last 10 years (excluding the Easybeats comp) and 3 are well down the list. Conversely there are 21 from the 80s, (and Men At Work's - Business As Usual and Aussie Crawl's - The Boys Light Up didn't make the cut. Both astonishing omissions. No Church either, you could possibly pick any of their first 3 or 4). I think the list at least verifies that the 80s has to go down as the greatest era for Aussie music, while we are talking D-E-A-R-T-H at the moment.
How can You Am I have 2 in the top 25?! (As does Midnight Flipping Oil. 10-9-8-7...a great album no doubt but no better than Boys Light Up. Both great early 80s party albums)
If you can include an Easybeats Anthology then the Masters Apprentices - Hands Of Time must be in there. That is one great Aussie LP best of and a perfect Aussie 60s document.
Good to see X-Aspirations on a few of the reviewers lists. Thought it was very much in the unsung category.
Indulgently I'd like to have seen an LP on the reviewers lists by Carson, The Lipstick Killers, Moodists, Eastern Dark but sometimes better left unsung.
Marty Rhone - stiff
Posted by: RT | 28 June 2008 at 01:05
No love for RedGum?
Posted by: Mark | 29 June 2008 at 05:41
Ponder: I never got WPA. Friends of mine tell me they were good live, but to me they are just the theme for Talking Footy.
FX: I was trying to think up a Warner album to mention, but I couldn't come up with anything. Harking back to live albums, I used to have a cassette type magnetic tape of Dave live which is well worth hunting down and which contained some great songs, not the least of which was a very bawdy version of Half Time At The Football. It might have been a booty.
Rich: Ray Burgess stiff, too.
Mark: No love for Redgum. One song is about all they had, and I never even much like that.
NB: What about Buffalo? "Explosive Australian stoner rock".
Posted by: Tony T | 29 June 2008 at 11:57
yes I'm thinking live and Half Time At The Footy - I think it was a legit release.
Posted by: Francis Xavier Holden | 29 June 2008 at 12:36
The first three Chisel LPs were great. Don't be put off by their large bogan following. They had something for everyone and with hindsight appear to be a unit that tempered the excesses (all-too-evident in their subsequent solo offerings)of its talented members. I'd also give Aussie Crawl's Sons of Beaches an honourable mention.
Posted by: Lad Litter | 30 June 2008 at 16:22
The three following comments are an email exchange between me an Leaping Larry L, printed with Leapster's permission.
I've removed the odd irrelevance, except the stuff about Richmond.
Posted by: Tony T | 03 July 2008 at 16:20
Eventually got around to having a look at the list, study the list of the contributors and read their comments.
I have to say that, with reservations, I was pleasantly surprised.
As you'd have possibly gathered from posts on the Leapster site, I normally dread these kinds of lists.
There were a number of drone-consensus, thought-free inclusions of "usual suspects" (which would constitute my aforementioned reservations). But there were also albums I never expected to see on one of these lists in a mainstream publication - ones that absolutely deserve to be there, to my way of thinking.
Among these were Radio Birdman "Radios Appear" (at #2 !),
"Less is More" by Even, Rose Tattoo's first album, Sunnyboys S/T, the Saints albums, the number of AC/DC albums included (quite rightly in this context in my opinion), the fact that the Easybeats were remembered (although including a compilation seems like a cheat, but I can see why they did it at this remove), I think it's good that You Am I are in there, even "Circus Animals" (anything but "East" from Cold Chisel is an improvement, Chisel deserve the recognition, and arguably their two best original songs were on that album), and the mix of eras is ok.
"Distemper" by the New Christs is a bad omission, but at least it was mentioned in the body of the article. "Living Eyes" by Radio Birdman is a stinker of an omission. Although finally seeing some admission on a list like this of "Radios Appear" being one of the great Australian rock albums - best ever from here for mine, and by a fairly long way too - goes a long way for goodwill purposes as far as I'm concerned.
I thought it was a lot less "usual suspects" than you did. Maybe my expectations were lower.
Some of the choices within individual bands' work are dingbat consensus choices that don't fairly reflect the strengths of those bands. Midnight Oil's first two albums are their best, and the third had some moments, although very ordinary production. The two chosen were riddled with sloganising and ordinary pop moves, and those are the two that always get automatically regurgitated in these lists.
Chisel's "East" is their most conventional and accessible album, but easily the weakest of the original studio albums. The songs on it are nursery rhyme standard compared to the much bolder and braver stuff on the other records, the sound is tame, contrived and sucking around for airplay on the timid weedy radio stations of the time, which it got and deserved, and I don't mean that as a compliment. It was their sell-out album.
There are bands and albums there which will probably always be included in these kinds of lists, which emphatically do not deserve to be there, and other bands/albums whose omission is an insult, and still others which were probably oversights due to ignorance.
Melbourne band Hoss would probably have two albums in my all-time Australian top ten. The Powder Monkeys deserved at least one. (At least they were mentioned in the article.) I'd make a case for the second Hitmen album, just reissued, but probably everyone forgot them or never knew them. I think the Scientists were worth a thought. I'm surprised "Mars Needs Guitars" wasn't on there. The second Sunnyboys album has big claims. Actually, the second Skyhooks album does too. "Live at Sunbury" by Thorpie and the Aztecs is arguably the greatest live Australian rock album ever, and the other one worthy of consideration for that spot is "If You Want Blood" by AC/DC which also didn't make the list.
With exceptions, the numerical rankings are also largely a nonsense, but in general, taking a somewhat charitable view, I was surprised in a good way. There was a lot of stuff I never expected to see acknowledged in the mainstream, and for once, the main criterion didn't seem to be commercial success, which time has shown to be a wayward, fitful and by-and-large poor judge of artistic posterity.
Posted by: Leapster | 03 July 2008 at 16:20
As it happens, I included Radios Appear, the Sunnyboys, the Saints (who I never much liked), etc as Usual Suspects. It never occurred to me that 50 EG experts would come close to leaving them out. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was hoping there'd be maybe more than one or tow albums I didn't know.
Don't know Even.
Was surprised there wasn't much Chisel. They were never my favourite band, but Cold Chisel and Breakfast At Sweethearts are "iconic" enough to crack mentions, while East and most everything after is crap. Maybe they suffer from dag factor, in that it's almost impolite in polite society to now admit you liked them. Perhaps Working Class Man has worked against them. Did Gudinski produce WCM? That's the only reason I can see he (or anyone) would pick it.
I have NO idea why anyone would pick the hideous Kasey Chambers.
Warwick from Greville virtually assaulted me once, forcing a You Am I album on me. I played it once. Never got them. Maybe I was psychologically damaged.
Will concede a softening of Usual Suspectitis, though, in that I based that claim on the Top 50 without already having had a good look through the other individual Top 10s.
I knew you would pick Hoss, but at least Silbersher cracked a mention with Charlie Owen.
Must be fun barracking for the Tiges.
Posted by: Tony T | 03 July 2008 at 16:21
"Breakfast at Sweethearts" has great songs all over it, and mostly a tame production, but should definitely be in there. The songs are pretty great, and such a lot of them. The first album, which I saw someone actually mentioned for a change, has ballsier production, some really good songs and rock'n'roll action, and one or two dodgier ones. I'd probably put it in my list too. I like the last two studio albums from the original run a lot. For me "Twentieth Century" is probably a stronger album song for song than "Circus Animals" but the lows on the former are lower.
Chisel definitely cop a bad run due to the presumed 'dag factor'. Always have, and probably will for some time to come. "Working Class Man"? The title track, which was the hit and only thing people remember from that era Jimmy Barnes was written by the keyboard player out of Journey, which stymies it for autobiography, and is probably all anyone needs to know about it. Around that time Barnesy did a single B-side version of "Resurrection Shuffle" which was probably the one thing he cut solo that anyone needs to hear.
Disagree with you on Easybeats and Masters Apprentices, particularly the Easys.
I suggest you give the You Am I another crack, since some of their stuff was "grower" oriented rather than first-listen stuff. I thought they had some really good songs, particularly early on.
Richmond's Richmond, and it seems like that will always be the case. My suspicion is that they need a strong administration instead of some lunch-monkey boys club guys who don't really give a toss, not to mention Greg Miller out of there and Terry Wallace as well. I think the player list is getting there, and their results against some top teams this year tend to indicate that.
Re Radio Birdman, I was unaware that in lists such as this, they'd previously received acclaim vaguely commensurate with their achievements. Maybe I missed a few lists or something. The fact that "Radios Appear" was one of the greatest albums ever produced in this country (actually two - there were originally two separate versions, one recorded for overseas release which is the better version - and they've been collapsed into one for the CD reissue) was knowledge previously restricted to a rag-tag bunch of hard-line rock'n'roll fans who used to go and see the rock'n'roll retro "alternative" bands of the 80s. Maybe their placement in the ARIA Hall of Fame jogged a lot of memories or guilt, or something.
Posted by: Leapster | 03 July 2008 at 16:22