Boy From The Stars
Pest Best Review - Herald Sun April 23, 2000
Boy From The Stars
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Eschewing the most tedious rock devices of the time, Jim Keays sat through a cold winter of 1974 constructing a song cycle around an idea he had: An alien youngster arrives, bops his little, pointy head and declares Earth to be in some strife. Was it what! Unlikely as it sounds now, at the top of the charts sat a lurid jumpsuit from which a horrid head-like excrescence emerged and sang. It called itself William Shakespeare. Undeterred, Keays pushed on with what was to become one of only a handful of genuine masterpieces of Australian recording. Mixing seamless ballads with a Pink Floyd feel(The Boy From The Stars, Space Brothers) and rock songs that might have made the final Masters album (Take it Easy, Kid's Blues). Keays turned out an almost flawless album that in 1974-5 towered dauntingly above it's contemporaries. It garnered a little airplay, but the grand and expensive live production was seen just three times. Nonetheless the album has a dedicated band of fans who have long held it to be a milestone in Australian music. I'm one. Keays dared to think big, which in Australia, can always be dangerous. But the legacy of that brave ambition is this never equalled record. |
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