Album Review: Richard Clapton - Best Years 1974 – 2014

Across these four discs and 40 years of the title, Richard Clapton’s own, sometimes cautionary, tale is quite a journey. The estranged son of a Chinese-Australian doctor bolted as backpacker-with-guitar to Europe before finishing school, stole surnames from two of his musical heroes to make his own (Keith for the first, Eric for the latter), and started writing songs that both observed his Northern hemisphere surroundings (Prussian Blue) and ones that became near-anthems for that generation of Aussies abroad looking home.

From behind those ever-present sunglasses – actually worn due to an eye condition – Clapton had a smarter, sometimes darker view of our beach and beer culture. While breakthrough ‘hit’ Girls On The Avenue was certainly a view from an inner-city window, his ‘70s classics like Deep Water  and Capricorn Dancer shimmer with a Northern Beaches light, but also fitted seamlessly with contemporary American west coast rock. He probably should have broken the US, but was hamstrung by distance and a local record company holding on tight. Made-for-America songs such as Hearts On The Nightline easily equal the likes of Jackson Browne’s contemporary output.

Instead he settled into an ‘elder statesman’ role, among other things being one of the first to recognise the potential of a Perth band who’d just renamed themselves INXS. He’s just always been around – and later tunes like the not really celebratory Down In The Lucky Country, and the kind-of-eponymous Best Years Of Our Lives are part of the landscape. Yeah, good work from the man called Ralph.