Today I listen to Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist Russell Morris perform his 1969 psychedelic rock classic, The Real Thing.
Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:37 - The Real Thing
8:05 - My thoughts
8:50 - Who is Russell Morris?
Links
Original music video: • RUSSELL MORRIS The Rea...
Russell Norman Morris is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist who had five Australian Top 10 singles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) recognised Morris' status when he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Morris' debut solo single was a near seven-minute production extravaganza around a song called "The Real Thing", released in March 1969.
"The Real Thing" was written by Johnny Young, produced by Molly Meldrum and engineered by John L Sayers. It was recorded in early 1969 at Armstrong Studios, Melbourne and released in March 1969. The B-side was "It's Only a Matter of Time" written by Hans Poulsen.
In collaboration with studio engineer John Sayers, Meldrum radically transformed "The Real Thing" from Young's original vision of a simple acoustic ballad into a heavily-produced studio masterpiece, extending it to an unheard-of six minutes and forty seconds in length and overdubbing the basic track with many additional instruments, vocals and sound effects. According to Sayers, the song's innovative arrangement and production developed fortuitously during the recording of the backing track at Armstrong's Studios.
"The Real Thing" is one of the classic psychedelic singles of the 1960s. The release unsettled radio programmers, who had never been asked to play such a long Australian single before, and a shortened version which omitted the extended coda was often played. At around six minutes and thirty seconds, it was the longest pop single recorded in Australia at that time, although The Beatles' "Hey Jude" at nearly 7 minutes had appeared the year before and is an obvious influence on the song's extended structure. The single reached Australia's Number 1 spot in June 1969, and number one in Chicago, Houston and New York City, despite international distribution difficulties. It was the biggest selling Australian single of 1969.
In May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "The Real Thing" as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.
"The Real Thing" was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013.
In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "The Real Thing" was ranked number 34.
The Lyrics
Come and see the real thing
Come and see the real thing
Come and see
Come and see the real thing
Come and see the real thing
Come and see
There's a meaning there
But the meaning there doesn't really mean a thing
Come and see the real thing
Come and see the real thing
Come and see
I am the real thing
Trying hard to understand that, really not, you're seeing me
Trying hard to understand that, really not, you're seeing me
There's a meaning there
But the meaning there doesn't really mean a thing
Come and see the real thing
Come and see the real thing
Come and see
I am the real thing
I am not seeing you
I am not seeing you
Trying hard to understand that, really not, you're seeing me
Trying hard to understand that, really not, you're seeing me
There's a meaning there
But the meaning there doesn't really mean a thing
Come and see the real thing
Come and see the real thing
Come and see
I am the real thing
I am not seeing you
I am not seeing you
I am the real thing
I am the real thing