Long Time Comin'

Back from a short break of about 18 months

Sometimes it's hard to keep up everything I start because I'm so omnivorous, but I DID get back to sonic explorer ... eventually.

Anyway we've got a treat of old Aussie psychedelia to start with, an excellent title by the Dave Miller Set.

Might not sound all that incredible to you but, let me tell you, these guys came on the Don Lane Show one night and really startled me. Some of the most innovative music to come out of an Australian lineup. (Well two of the guy were from Enz but we never let the truth get in the way of a good rave).

Mr Guy Fawkes



Try to remember that, although Led Zeppelin (one) was available in the shops in those days, and also graced my collection, as did Iron Butterfly In a Gadda Da Vida and Ball, and Surreakistic Pillow from Jefferson Airplane, Cheap Thrills er Janis, etc, you didn't hear this stuff on the radio or TV.

The fact that Dave Miller Set doing Mr Guy Fawkes was being played on commercial radio was a BIG PLUS for Australian listeners, I mean there was some real cr@p assaulting the listeners' ears, and you can't blame Molly Meldrum's promoting it for everything, the Aust. public were buying that stuff and encouraging them to play it. Molly wasn't all bad, he plugged a few good albums on Saturday morning TV, ya just gotta admire Molly, he put up with a lot of shit to get where he is today.

Having said that, there were a lot of people who liked Russel Morris, both Molly and me included. Of course, the dyed in the wool Brittish blues fanatics wouldn't hear a bar of him (pun intentional) but to this day I really like Russel. His vocal emotion in Sweet Sweet Love is beautiful

Sweet Sweet Love (Recent LIVE performance)




I was thinking also about Jim Keays, the front man from the Masters Apprentices, good old Aussie rock gold, but my fave album from Jim was the Boy From the Stars. I might even buy a new copy of this. This particular rendition suffers from a terrible production, rife in Aust recording studios of the era. Nowadays with the advanced production techniques one can get a pretty good sound even from a good brand ghetto blaster, even my diskman with as set of good headphones sounds incredible, but back then we didn't have that option, you either played it on a top quality hi fi or put up with not being able to hear it all.

It's not too bad, if you strain your ears, I would've liked to put the title track on here but couldn't find it on YouTube, nevertheless please have a listen to Jim Keays from the album Boy From the Stars singing:

The Right Way to Go




Joy to all beings
tkd
(that's short for tarunkrsnadas for those who don't know)