Reviewed by Stephen Romone Lewis
Released: 1980 Danny Graham Danny Graham Genre: Psychedelic, I Guess Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Highlights: Put the Blame on Me Early Morning Heat Wave Sister Roulette Eyes In 1980 Australia had 23 guitarists and 22 of them had record contracts. Danny Graham was number 23. Feeling left out he got a TEAC 4-track, all his friends and what sounds like a $10 Radio Shack microphone and multi-tracked his way into the hearts of dozens. Even with this exquisite 16 track demo, Danny could not land a deal, so he had 1000 discs pressed and he legged it across the outback on a journey of self promotion. Several copies made it into the bins of independent record stores and he convinced one radio station to play a couple tunes, but in the end his effort came to naught. According to my extensive 3 minute Google search Danny then fell off the face of the earth. This review would not exist if Strange World Records hadn’t, for reasons they choose not to divulge, resurrected Danny’s demos on vinyl in 2018. How does it sound? Vocals just a sliver better than Daniel Johnston. Diction on par with Eddie Vedder. Impressive and creative guitar playing. Interesting but derivative songwriting. Supposedly he was obsessed with Bowie and influenced by Dylan, but if you look at his eyes on the album cover, you can see his biggest influence was microdot and weed. (Sidenote: He looks like a stoned, Breakfast-Club-era Anthony Micheal Hall.) I hear no Dylan but a lot of pre-Gilmour Floyd and a smattering of T-Rex. Danny’s biggest setback was that 1980 had no interest in psychedelic music and no year ever had an interest in low-fi, psychedelic music. Floyd moved on from Piper at the Gates and made gazillions of dollars, Danny should have followed their lead.
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