Sixties Downunder, Vol. 3 CD

Volume 3 in the IXTIES DOWNUNDER series features 28 tracks including "She's So Fine", "That's What I Want", and "Wedding Ring", plus a 12-page booklet with evocative artwork and detailed liner notes.

The third volume of this series of highlights from Australian and New Zealand 1960s rock collects 28 above-average to fine tracks from 1964-1969. True, many of these previously appeared on LP reissue compilations (often on the Raven label), but here you get 76 minutes of music on one CD, with a higher level of consistency than many of those Raven anthologies sported. The Easybeats are the only artists here likely to already be familiar to the North American and European audience, though many of the others, like the Master's Apprentices, Normie Rowe, Ray Brown & the Whispers, the Twilights, the La De Das, and Larry's Rebels, had a lot of chart success in Australia and/or New Zealand. The strength of this comp is that there are a good number of fine songs here that most non-Australasian listeners won't have heard before, like the Easybeats' 1965 hits "She's So Fine" and "Wedding Ring" (which are the group at their most raucous), Throb's hair-raising garage rock cover of the folk song "Black," and the very good Merseybeat-ish numbers by Bobby & Laurie, the Cicadas, and M.P.D. Limited. Its weakness is that it's pretty derivative of better British and (less frequently) American groups of the time, and includes too many covers of well-known songs from overseas by the likes of the Hollies, the Creations, and Bruce Channel that aren't in anything like the lofty league of the originals. It's also weaker the later it goes into the 1960s, with the psychedelic pop and heavy rock numbers less enjoyable than the British Invasion imitations. Even in this corner there are some good cuts, though, like the mod-psych-pop of the Playboys' "Sad" with its swirling guitar and harmonies; Procession's "Listen," which sounds much like the late Small Faces; Dave Miller Set's "Mr. Guy Fawkes," a grandstanding cover of an apocalyptic psychedelic album track by the Irish band Eire Apparent; and Russell Morris' weird, six-minute "The Real Thing," which stretches an average pop-soul song out of shape into a psychedelic suite (and was a number one Australian single in 1969). ~ Richie Unterberger

28 essential pop and R&B hits from 1964-1969 by Australian acts of the period. Includes the Easybeats' 'She's So Fine', the Allusions' 'Gypsy Woman' and M.P.D. Limited's 'Little Boy Sad'. Over 76 minutes of music! 1999 release.