Ah yes - the 'land of plenty' as Men At Work famously referred to Australia - and it is a country that has certainly (groan) produced plenty of great musical artists over the decades.
Some of these 'Australian' bands have fluid roots within the country - Colin Hay, long time leader of Men At Work was born and raised in Scotland, while the heart and soul of Crowded House, Neil Finn, is of course a New Zealander (with strong Irish roots). Whether all of this external influence has any bearing on the music that has been created these past forty or fifty years, I am not quite sure.
Anyway - here is my ten track playlist for this great nation - reflecting 45 years of music and several genres. Hopefully something for everyone in here....
1. The Go-Betweens: Bye Bye Pride
The song writing partnership of Robert Forster and Grant McLellan blossomed in late 1970s Brisbane. The band de-camped to London for much of the 1980s and made many friends and admirers, but commercial success spectacularly evaded them. By their fifth album, Tallulah, in 1987, the writing and the band was tight - and the result was some of the best songs yet. I absolutely love Bye Bye Pride - it is perhaps McLellan's peak (yes, even with an oboe in it) - there is something majestic about the way the song swirls and soars - it's the lyrics, the laid back melody, the wonderfully layered vocals.
2. Crowded House: Kare Kare
After the end of Split Enz, Neil Finn had left New Zealand in favour of Australia. Drummer Paul Hester had followed him from the Enz, and joined by bass player Nick Seymour, Crowded House was born. Success at the start was achieved in the US with Don't Dream It's Over and was followed by acclaim in the UK with the third album, Woodface. Fourth album, Together Alone, was perhaps the most accomplished, even if sales didn't quite match. The atmosphere of the seaside recording studio at Kare Kare, on the North Island's west coast, seeped into the whole of the album, but nowhere more than on the sublime track named after the site itself.
You can look at this live version, which is great - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE3oDYF5u4A - or you can listen to the original, which has the added ambience - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44chfOSuRNk
3. INXS: Don't Change
By the time Michael Hutchence and co were global superstars, with the dynamic rock of Kick, INXS were already seasoned musical pros. Kick was their sixth album, but we are going back to 1982 and the third album, Shabooh Shoobah, which was the one that started to break their name in the US (it reached #46 on the Billboard album charts). From that LP comes a timeless pop classic in Don't Change. As the opening keyboard notes fade, the rest of the band come bursting in and it hooks you in from there.
4. Hunters & Collectors: Throw Your Arms Around Me
Fans of Crowded House may well be familiar with this tune, as it was often played live by them in the early days. But it actually comes from the band of Mark Seymour, older brother of Crowded House's Nick. Formed out of the University of Melbourne in the early 80s, Hunters and Collectors reached their peak with 1986s Human Frailty - which includes this campfire singalong classic (although it had originally been released as a single back in 1984).
5. The Triffids: Wide Open Road
This is another band that I have to say passed me by for a long time. But they hold a core place in the 1980s iconography of Australian music. Adam Sweeting said of the album, Born Sandy Devotional, that it is "10 songs of love and life in a hostile, sub-tropical landscape." Wide Open Road sounds exactly like what the name suggests - the sparseness of the arrangement seems to conjure up the barren landscapes of western Australia that surrounded the bands Perth home.
6. Men At Work: Who Can It Be
I thought I would swerve the obvious one here, much as I love that and it is an integral part of my musical youth. I am not always a big fan of too much saxophone in songs, but I'll let this one through. Colin Hay has one of rocks distinctive voices, and it permeates the verses with its slightly hoarse tones, questioning, before the interesting call and response chorus, except this time it is between the band and the sax.
7. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Dig Lazarus Dig!!!
From the fourteenth Bad Seeds album of the same name - this is a pretty simple, straight up dirty blues rock tune - and one deserving of three exclamation marks, no less! It has a healthy dollop of Doors-iness thrown in, with those bursts of psych keyboards. Cave pretty much speaks the words, but the song keeps a jaunty pace, belying the fact that it is about a dead man.
8. The Goon Sax: She Knows
Following on from my first pick, the Goon Sax include Louis Forster, son of the Go-Betweens Robert, who formed that band with school friend James Harrison and later Riley Jones. Plying a slightly quirky brand of indie pop, especially on their first two albums, the trio turn simple tunes into something more. Like here. She Knows works around a fuzzy little riff, with this kind of incessant thumping drum and bass line - it never really builds, or goes anywhere much - but yet is such a delightful tune.
9. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Talking Straight
While the name might be a bit of a mouthful, this Melbourne band are the real deal. There aren't that many pop bands with three guitarists these days and that's a shame, because RBCF really make it work. The third guitar almost acts like a second bass, running with the drumbeat, really propelling the song along. Talking Straight is just a great, straight up fizzing indie tune, with a hooky as heck chorus....
10. The Saints: I'm Stranded
We end with one of the forgotten punk classics. We all know by now, that great punk debate - that New Rose by The Damned, actually came out a month before Anarchy In The UK by the Pistols (October 1976, rather than November) and was therefore the first punk single. Well, we were all wrong. I'm Stranded came out in September, a full month before New Rose. And let me tell you - it's just as good as those other two - it really is a punk classic and deserving of its place in punk folklore!