Audio CD review:
John Farnham - I Remember When I Was Young: Songs from The Great Australian Songbook [Import]

John Farnham - I Remember When I Was Young: Songs from The Great Australian Songbook [Import]

Band: John Farnham Title: I Remember When I Was Young: Songs from The Great Australian Songbook [Import] Rating: Release Date: 21 November, 2005 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Come Back Again 2: Heading in the Right Direction 3: One Perfect Day 4: I Remember When I Was Young 5: Downhearted 6: Even When I'm Sleeping 7: Green Limousine 8: Girls on the Avenue 9: Forever Now 10: Reckless 11: Come Said the Boy 12: No Aphrodisiac 13: Overkill

Customer Reviews A nice present for your mum, perhaps, or for die-hard fans It was selling quite cheap so it seemed a good buy. As another reviewer also stated, I too bought this album with positive expectation. Farnham is a terrific singer [vaguely in the Robert Plant mold] who transcended his 1000% sugar debut song from the 60's "Sadie, the cleaning lady". I bought Farnham's compilation "One Voice: Greatest Hits" and HIGHLY recommend it [some terrific Australian pop songs in that, mainly from the 80's, his comeback years]. ANYWAY, this cd had some very minor glitches and gave me a legitimate excuse to get an exchange-the only time I've done that for a cd, apart from Metallica's "Kill 'em all" cd, and gee, I wish I'd found my receipt for Metallica's "And justice for all" cd, so I could have done the same for that too! [Well spotted if you think liking Farnham and Metallica maked for odd taste in music. ] So, why is this album worth only one star [if that]? Mainly because of the treatment the songs get. The reason I think mums of a certain generation may enjoy this album is that Farnham can sing, and he chooses a range of songs from Australian artists that I rate from great to good to yuh. Unfortunately, the songs get the mellow, chill-out, jazzy treatment which just doesn't work for me. If you like that sort of stuff, then, obviously, this album will be more toward the five star end of the spectrum for you. For me, it's just bland, and no track is more welcome than the original versions. One song that SHOULD have made this album was "Touch of paradise" which Farnham previously covered [a Ross Wilson song from Mondo Rock, I think, or, maybe, his Daddy Cool days]. Having heard Farnham's version first, it struck me immediately as a great song and it still remains the definitive version of the song, despite having heard the Mondo Rock version. . . and Ross Wilson is one of the great pop/rock/soul vocalists in the world from his Mondo days. Farnham's version was terrifically sung with a superior musical arrangement to the Mondo version. NOTHING on this album approaches that. Sure, one or two songs are listenable and have repeat listen value, but they just don't match the original versions of the songs. Worse than that, Farnham actually DIMINISHES the memory of the originals. For instance, "I remember when I was young" was a TERRIFIC Australian rock song. Farnham absolutely sucks the life out of this song and makes you realise that without the original arrangement, the lyrics are quite mediocre. I heard a bit of a song from a tribute album to Australia's all time great band Midnight Oil ["Scream in blue", I think]. . . The Superjesus' version of "Short memory". In a way, that sort of sucked the life out of the original, but yet it was a good alternative arrangement of the original. Farnham's versions can't even do that. Something that I found interesting in the arrangment of one song was for "Reckless", I think. Farnham's version gives it a bit of a Procul Harem treatment-Whiter Shade Of Pale territory, with a Hammond organ, perhaps. In short, if you like middle of the road music and you don't know the original versions of these songs, I bet you could quite like this album. But I don't. . . which means that any further such compilations will be easily ignored by me [Farnham is threatening to release more of these compilations]. *** Other Australian cds I've reviewed at this site: Skyhooks: The collection INXS: "Kick" and "Listen like thieves" and "Anthology" Midnight Oil: "10,. . . ,1" and "Diesel and dust" and others The Saints: Know your product-the best of Johnny O'Keefe: Birth of Australian rock'n'roll Alex Lloyd: Amazing-The best of Rogue Traders: Here comes the drums . Great classic! The album wonderfully showcases his voice and the arangements are excellent. This is a great selection of music by John Farnham. Yes, the originals are also great songs but I really like John's laid-back style for this album. In fact, I think a couple of his versions are better than the originals, while others are different but equally good. All my friends here in America, who have heard this album are impressed with it. It's currently my favourite. Makes you appreciate how good the original versions are I guess he got the idea from the success of Rod Stewart's series of albums "The Great American Songbook". I was looking forward to hearing John Farnham's interpretation of some Classic Australian Songs. And it is an excellent idea, after all there are some really great tracks written and performed by Australian artists. Unfortunately, for me anyway, I found John's renditions slow, bland and similar. Which is a shame and I was really dissapointed. On the bright side it made me realise how good the original songs by the original artists are by comparison. I listened to the CD once and I doubt I would again so I guess I will sell it. That's why I like ebay so much :-) John Farnham is a great singer with a great voice and some of his work is outstanding. Maybe he needs to concentrate on material that better suits his unique talents. . You can see a complete list of all John Farnham discography, or go back to the John Farnham tabs