2 January 2013 - Australian Nuggets

“M” and I are on holidays this week.  We spent part of the day attending to various personal matters in the Melbourne Central Business District.  By the time we returned home there is only one album that I wanted to hear.

Various Artists – Down Under Nuggets. Original Australian Artyfacts 1965-1967

In the last few years the local industry has realised there perhaps might be a market for older aficionados to get hold of excavated Australian music in digital form.  By this I don’t mean the release of Collectors or Deluxe editions of albums that have sold well overseas by the likes of INXS,  Midnight  Oil, The Saints, or The Church.  (Even then it could be that this treatment was lavished on these acts by the non Australian Divisions of their respective record companies.)   Instead I refer to acts that might have sold well only locally or may have released only a handful of singles or whose albums have never been released on CD, let alone iTunes.

Previously there appeared to be little interest in excavating OzRock.  For a long time the only aural archaeologists were those at Raven Records including Glen A. Baker.  But from what I could see, most of their work concentrated primarily on compilations of Australian music rather than entire albums.  And this is fair enough; a cursory scan through the discographies of many 60s and 70s acts in Who’s Who Of Australian Rock reveals that many acts never got to release an album.  Raven does release albums by overseas acts suggesting this is necessary in order to ensure their survival by garnering overseas sales.  (Some of their releases, by the way, are truly amazing.  Try the Bill Withers Just As I Am/Still Bill twofer or the Garland Jeffreys two disc set combining the Ghost Writer, One-Eyed Jack and American Boy & Girl albums.) 

The recent trend has been towards releasing expanded editions of entire albums.  Off the top of my head, I can think of a number of acts whose entire catalogues have been given the deluxe release treatment.  These are Cold Chisel, Sydney power popsters The Hitmen, indie legends The Go-Betweens and  The Triffids, Melbourne’s ambient masters Not Drowning Waving,  70’s pub rock icons Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs, and Lobby Lloyde and 70’s hard rock pioneers Buffalo.  The last three catalogues have all been released on Melbourne’s Aztec Records label  which has also been releasing selected albums from the catalogues of a range of other acts including Spectrum, Died Pretty, Madder Lake as well as a range of one offs.  But it would appear that progress can be painful.  Apparently Aztec almost folded during 2012 perhaps suggesting that The Raven model might be the way to go. 

But perhaps there is another way.  If there is a criticism that can be made about the re-release programs above is that the labels have set their sights too fractionally too low and are only trying to entice the Australian market.  Could an attempt be made that packages Australian music in a way that positions it in the overall development of rock’s history that could appeal to overseas buyers?  If fans worldwide are prepared to shell out for box sets of African music originally released on 78’s (2012’s Opika Pende), Nigerian rock or dance (Nigeria Rock Special Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Jazz Funk In 1970s Nigeria and others),  Experimental German Musik of the 70s and beyond (the so called "Krautrock" acts) and Ethiopian jazz (the Ethopiques series), why not Australian rock?

This is why Down Under Nuggets, released last month, has the potential to be a significant release.  It appears to be the second historic compilation put out by a major Australian label, Festival Records, the first being the two disc Boogie! Australian Blues, R&B And Heavy Rock From the 70’s released earlier in 2012.  Even more importantly, it has been put out as part of a local push to mark the 40^th anniversary of the release of the original Nuggets one of the most significant compilations in rock history. 

The original Nuggets was put together by Lenny Kaye, later to embark on a musical voyage as Patti Smith’s guitarist that continues to this day.  For Nuggets Kaye brought together a collection of 27 60’s garage band tracks from across the States, some well-known/others not so and some national or regional hits/others local hits only.  Its impact has been said to be significant in helping inspire legions of other bands in the decades since.   

Down Under Nuggets follows the same template.  It consists of 29 tracks all recorded between 1965-1967.  Some of the acts or tracks are extremely well known including the original incarnation of The Masters Apprentices (Buried and Dead, a fitting opener), The Loved Ones (whose track here, The Loved One, was covered by INXS), The Atlantics (they of Bombora fame but represented here by Come On), The Easybeats (Sorry – kudos to the compilers for not including Friday On My Mind) and The Bee Gees.  Their track, Like Nobody Else, will come as a shock to those familiar with either their 60’s hits or 70’s disco monsters.  Legendary, almost mythical bands, The Purple Hearts and The Missing Links also get a look in (including the latter’s immortal Wild About You) as do The Sunsets prior to their name change to Aussie surf giants Taman Shud.  Production values on some tracks aside, ultimately the greatest compliment that can be paid to this compilation is that, with very few exceptions, none of the tracks here would have been out of place on the original Kaye album.
This is the most significant thing about this release.  Australian music did not develop in a vacuum.  It may have proceeded at a slower pace due to its isolation and the deeply conservative nature of 60’s Australia, but the best of it more than holds its head against what the rest of the world had to offer.  As such it is something that demands to be heard.