Over the years much has been written about the garage punk/psychedelic era that pretty much began in the wake of Beatlemania of 1963-64. The arrival of The Beatles touched every corner of the globe, Beatlemania was particularly explosive in Australia and many of the early Aussie beat groups were most affected by The Beatles, oddly enough much of the American garage groups were more influenced by The Rolling Stones & Animals (odd because The Beatles were so massive in America.)

Ray Brown & The Whispers were an Australian group with a strong Beatles influence, they left behind several first rate 45's and "Go To Him" was probably the best (although "Pride" was a close second.) I first heard "Go To Him" on a 90's Aussie garage compilation called "Diggin' Up Down Under" and I was just knocked sideways by it. "Go To Him" is a spectacular record that while heavily Beatles influenced also borrowed the sonic mayhem of many of Joe Meek's productions. I'm sure I will anger Beatles fans by saying this but "Got To Him" has much more guts that any Beatles recording of 1965, and while I like The Beatles as much as the next guy I also feel the musical accompaniment of much of their early recordings was rather weak, and records like "Go To Him" clearly show how safe they played it musically.

The flipside of this 45 "Fool Fool Fool" however is simply average Merseybeat. Collecting Aussie garage records can be extremely difficult, I have been searching for The Moods "Rum Drunk"45 for over 25 years with no luck, however I was overjoyed to win this Ray Brown & The Whispers record in a recent auction for $9, or as Ralph Kramden would say "a mere bag of shells", proving good bargains are still out there. There have been Ray Brown & The Whispers compilations out there, so if you don't feel like tracking down the original 45 that would be the best way to hear this great record (but of course nothing beats a 45 for sheer impact of sound.)

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