DARK SIDE OF THE MAN, NOT THE MOON OKAY
Ross `The Boss` Wilson has always been an underated musician in Australia if ever there was one. I don't want to give too much away here about his time with Mondo Rock and Daddy Cool, because there is so many blogs I can write further on down the track about some of the more obscure stuff he recorded with both of the bands.
What I will say is that Ross Wilson`s whole career has been somewhat pigeoned holed by the rip roaring success of one mighty good song - the Daddy Cool classic `Eagle Rock` from 1971.
Occasionally a hit single can be like that, a real two edged sword in terms of giving an artist a commercial break but at the same time big hits can railroad a musicians career because every single song they record after scoring a bit hit will inevitably be compared to it, even thirty or forty years later like Ross Wilson has found out.
Plenty to talk about at a later date, but the lost treasure i have in front of me tonight is Wilson`s first solo album from 1989, named `Dark Side of the Man`.
He had made a string of good art/pop rock albums from the late 70`s until the early 80`s with Mondo Rock, somewhat patchy and maybe a bit too laboured for some, but two or three songs an album always made up for the two or three that probably should not have been recorded.
`Cool World`and`Primitive Love Rites`were two Mondo tunes which proved that Wilson could still rock like he did back in the classic Daddy Cool days.
`Dark Side of the Man`is a mixture of souped up Mondo Rock styled tunes and some eclectic experimentation in jazzed up cabaret and funk.
The opening track `Dark Side of the Man` is the heaviest track on the record, it`s in the same vein of Mondo Rock but it just has a lot more meat to it than any other song that Wilson had recorded in the 80`s.
`Summer of `81` sounds pissweak in comparison, which is a Mondo Rock song
from the 80`s if you aren`t aware.
from the 80`s if you aren`t aware.
Song number 2 off Dark Side `Bed of Nails` is the only song off the album which faired at all well commercially.
It remains one of the best songs that Ross Wilson ever put pen to, it`s a very dark and angry ballad that is propelled by one of the best loopy guitar riffs and some great bass guitar which virtually conducts the interplay between lead guitar and the drummer. `Bed of Nails` is so damn gritty and intense.
At last somebody had recorded a ballad in the 80`s that wasn`t sugar coated and for sissies only.
The song `You Got a Mirror`made it onto Ross Wilson`s live set on his caberet tour around Australia in 2010, a great lively number that should have been dusted off a lot sooner by the man himself.
`Who Do You Take It To` is an almost country rock sounding song, catchy like most 80`s Mondo Rock songs but with a bit more of a laid back feel.
`Tough Guy` is the most experimental song on Dark Side, it`s where the trumpets and trombones come out and we are treated to some New Orleans-ey style jazzed up Aussie rock, if that makes any sense, maybe not.
The first song off the second side, `Go Bongo Go Wild` ended up being tacked on to a bits and pieces outtake album that Ross Wilson pieced together in 2001, and that album is called Go Bongo Go Wild.
It`s an insult to the song that it languished in no mans musical land for well over ten years on an album that no jackass at a record company ever thought to release on CD.
The song is a masterpiece of fast paced percussion and breakneck funk. The best slow number off the album is called `Slow Fade`, easily the best ballad that Ross Wilson ever sung.
For some unknown and crazy reason not even Wilson knows how good the song is, he never performs it live these days to my knowledge, obviously preferring to stick to Mondo songs like `Chemistry` and `State of the Heart`.
I like the latter song, but `Chemistry` always was a bit too tacky and laboured for my liking. But to me, `Slow Fade` is a better ballad than both, it has real soul, real passion and real spirituality about it.
Nearly as good as Foreigner`s classic `I Want To Know What Love Is`. Maybe it is as good, but you cannot compare them because they have different dynamics.
Anyhow, good luck in finding `Dark Side of the Man`, I was just lucky to find an LP at the Record Market in Brisbane City, and no, it never came out on compact disc.
Ross the Boss had better address that situation and get his first classic solo album in the music shops like it should have been twenty years ago. Ross is on my Facebook so I better send him a message hehe.
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