I Stand Accused - The Complete Merseybeats And Merseys Sixties Recordings

Viewed from a distance of several decades, one of the things thats 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, but thats just what happened, and if none of their fellow Liverpudlians achieved the same level of stardom and influence, an impressive amount of genuinely outstanding bands surrounded them, and sixty 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 includes 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 Cranes solid and incisive guitar work, are front and center on every track on disc one, and 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 Cant 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 shows 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 youre 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