I haven't posted any 45s on here before. Mainly because they don't photograph very well when playing, and there's not usually any nice sleeve art to look at. Should that be the criteria? Probably not. I love 7" singles, especially in smart company paper bags. So here's one for a change. It's a record which has become part of the national cultural fabric in Australia, but means pretty much nothing to the rest of the world. Which is a shame. 'The Real Thing' by Russell Morris. It has an interesting and involved story, to say the least.
Released in 1969, it's the product of an ambitious singer (just out of an already popular band called Somebody's Image) looking to kick start his solo career, and an even more ambitious journalist turned record producer, looking to rival the Spectors, Wilsons and Martins of this world. A good combination, and one which resulted in months of recording, overdubbing, erasing, re-recording, more overdubbing, editing, more editing and... well, I'll get to the final stage soon. As a song, there's not really a lot to it. A few chords, two verses, lots of repeated phrases and a scant 'chorus', with some 'ooo-maw-ma-maw maw' bits filling in the gaps. Still, many careers have been built on much less. It's now seen as a 'psychedelic classic', despite the lack of particularly mind expanding lyrics, but it certainly didn't start out that way.
The composer (Johnny Young, no relation to the Youngs of Easybeats & AC/DC fame) initially envisaged it as a simple acoustic song, some sort of sideswipe at the Coca Cola Company, in fact. When Ian 'Molly' Meldrum got hold of it and presented it to Russell Morris, it became something else entirely. In late 1968 he assembled a band using the pick of the Melbourne music scene, entered Armstrong's Studios and started work. He was also in the handy position of still being a journalist for the main pop music paper in Australia, and was able to build up anticipation of the record in self-penned articles.
While recording the basic backing track, possibly because they weren't sure exactly how the thing was going to end, the band decided to keep jamming around the main chord changes, with double time drums and a real sense of freewheeling, until they got bored around the five minute mark and the take broke down. Suddenly the 3 minute song had became a six minute epic in two parts (the 45 has a 'band' to denote the break between them). All manner of overdubs were added, notably a super-compressed piano which really changes the record's dynamic. Sections were edited in (quite clumsily, to be honest) and more overdubs were added. Meldrum shouted out the guarantee wording from a recording tape box, Morris improvised vocals, the sound of a Hitler Youth choir was thrown in, with an atomic bomb explosion at the end for good measure. During mixing, tracks were dropped out, drowned in reverb and brought back, in an almost dub fashion. You can hear the multitrack tape almost wearing out, the oxide giving up the fight. Finally, two copies of the final mix were run side by side down to another machine, resulting in the most outlandish example of tape phasing/flanging thus heard on a record down under (or anywhere else, for that matter). It's no wonder the final product wasn't exactly hi-fi, but that didn't matter on a '60s teenager's record player.
EMI Australia had kittens. It had cost a relative fortune to record due to the months of studio time - more than most bands would be allowed for a full LP - and was 'too long for the radio' (and difficult to cut onto a 45, see also Hey Jude and MacArthur Park). But it finally got out there, and eventually hit the number one spot all over the country. It was released in the US, but split over two sides of a single. Decca issued it in the UK, but it did absolutely nothing, despite Meldrum and Morris making a trip to try and promote it when Decca failed to do so.
Back home, a 'third' part to the song, titled Within Paper Walls, was recorded and it became a big hit as well. After that everyone fell out. Morris got his career going again in the early 1970s, and despite many ups and down since is still performing. For years he wouldn't even talk about 'The Real Thing', let alone play it, but those demons have seemingly been laid to rest. Meldrum moved into TV presenting and being a general 'legend', although not always for the right reasons. Meanwhile, that 7" single from 1969 has never been forgotten in the land of it's birth. Even Kylie Minogue did a cover version... and a bloody good one, at that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD0kjdfRzGU
