Viewed from a distance of several decades, one of the things that's most remarkable about
the Beatles is that a fairly ordinary working-class maritime community like Liverpool would not only produce four young men with their degree of talent, but that they would find one another and discover how well their abilities would mesh. At the dawn of the 1960s, Liverpool hardly seemed like a city that would give the world a pop group whose music would reshape the global culture, yet that's just what happened. If none of their fellow Liverpudlians achieved the same level of stardom and influence, an impressive amount of genuinely outstanding bands surrounded them, and 60 years on, the quality and quantity of the Merseyside scene remains impressive.
The Merseybeats never broke through in the United States, and their original run was relatively brief, but in the course of six years -- which included their transformation into
the Merseys midway through -- they produced plenty of fine records and gracefully evolved from a capable British beat combo into a genuinely ambitious psychedelic pop outfit. The full story of
the Merseybeats' journey through the U.K. pop scene of the '60s is contained in
I Stand Accused: The Complete Merseybeats & Merseys Sixties Recordings, a two-disc set that includes everything
the Merseybeats released in that decade, as well as the full catalog of
the Merseys and some rare tracks from associated artists. Guitarist and singer Tony Crane and bassist and singer
Billy Kinsley were the founders of
the Merseybeats, and their excellent harmonies, along with Crane's solid and incisive guitar work, are front and center on every track on disc one. They had the range to do moody and lovelorn ballads ("Lavender Blue") and then turn around and kick up some dust on swaggering rock & roll ("Shame, Shame, Shame") and rhythm & blues tunes ("You Can't Judge a Book by Looking at the Cover") and sound just as authoritative on each side. (
Elvis Costello, who was a fan as a kid, borrowed their tune "I Stand Accused" for his album
Get Happy!!) In 1966, Crane and
Kinsley transformed the combo into a two-man vocal group, and they had a hit right out of the box with the evocative "Sorrow" (later covered by
David Bowie), and "So Sad About Us" and "Penny in My Pocket" show they were happy to dabble in psychedelia, as well as making greater use of the possibilities of the recording studio. Everything from both eras of the group is well crafted and pleasing, making this a great listen even if you're not an obsessive collector of U.K. pop of the '60s, and David Wells' liner notes are packed with biographical details and stories of their various brushes with greatness. Collectors of vintage British Beat music will fall in love with
I Stand Accused: The Complete Merseybeats & Merseys Sixties Recordings, and even dabblers may find themselves beguiled by its high points. ~ Mark Deming