Russell Morris: The Real Thing

This was a totally unexpected find when I was going through the second-hand vinyl records in the little shop yesterday. I can't remember what caught my attention more: the title of the album, the artiste's name or his picture. Thinking back, I think it was the name but the album practically jumped right out at me!


But who is Russell Morris? What songs were he known for? When was he famous? Three short questions to which I hope to give three short answers but not necessarily in the same order.

Russell Morris is a musician, singer, song-writer and guitarist. He's not terribly well-known outside Australia but he was a very big star in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That was about the same time that I got my musical awakening through the Radio RAAF Butterworth. Nowadays, he does the club scene.

His first hit that registered with me was the Johnny Young-penned song The Real Thing in 1969 which he followed up with Part Three Into Paper Walls (also written by Young). Both songs were magnificent attempts at Australian psychedelic pop music produced by Ian "Molly" Meldrum. But of course, Morris had other more typical hits like The Girl That I Love (by Young again, of course), Rachel and of course, Wings Of An Eagle.

By the way, both The Real Thing and Wings Of An Eagle were used in The Dish (which I've just dug out from my collection of DVDs), an Australian movie which has as its background the historic Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969.

Sorry if you were not into the Australian music scene at that time, but these were big hits there. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) recognised Russell Morris' iconic status by inducting him into the ARIA Hall Of Fame.

Considering that Morris would be practically unknown elsewhere in the world, it was therefore fortuitous to find this album in the shop. Somehow, someone unknown here liked his music too to the extent that he brought his greatest hits album back to Malaysia. It's now in my hands. The album's cover was still in relatively good condition and the record itself still retains its audio quality, save for the usual pops and crackles.

Here's something from YouTube: still photos of Morris but The Real Thing in full:



And check this out: a recent awesome, live acoustic version of the song by Morris some 38 years later: