The two sides offer a masterclass in the kind of classic songcraft that made Vanda and Young a backroom industry unto themselves after the Easybeats’ 1969 demise. “Old fashioned?” Vanda says with a laugh. “You can either like it or hate it,” he shrugs. He’s been making records for too long and seen too many suits and hairstyles come and go to care much for anybody’s opinion. Any mention of “record companies” comes with a roll of his eyes. Stevie Wright, John Paul Young, Rose Tattoo, the Angels, Cheetah, Ted Mulry and more owe early hits, if not their entire careers, to the Vanda-Young touch – none more so than Young’s little brothers, Malcolm and Angus, who took the Easybeats’ hard-won wisdom and studio expertise to the pinnacle of world conquest with AC/DC. Loading “They were fearless,” is Vanda’s takeaway from that story. “That’s the only way to describe it. They had such self-confidence, you know? And I suppose you could say it worked out all right. You’ve got to keep it simple, you know, so people can follow.”
That said, many a fine rock’n’roll band has discovered that Friday On My Mind is not a tune to be taken on lightly. “It is very complicated,” the guitarist concedes, “but it comes across simple.” He recalls with amusement the last time he performed it, for the 2001 APRA Awards at Sydney Town Hall with You Am I. “They stuffed it up,” he laughs, “but it doesn’t matter.” Of the song’s countless covers, he considers David Bowie’s a good effort but “the Easybeats … that was the best one”. Nor is there any question which of their hundreds of songs has served him best financially: “Love Is In the Air, without a doubt”. Apart from innumerable covers from Shirley Bassey, Cher, Tom Jones and Jive Bunny to Yo La Tengo, the film and commercial “syncs” have “sort of kept me alive,” he says. As recording artists, Vanda and Young enjoyed a second life as Flash and the Pan from 1976, charting with six albums at various points on the globe until 1992. It was so enjoyable, Vanda says “because we did not try to be commercial with any of it … and we had two bloody No.1s!”
[SRC] https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/easybeats-rock-legend-harry-vanda-makes-solo-debut-aged-79-20251003-p5mzuz.html
