Gerry Humphrys
 
His voice immediately let you know what was coming. It was a voice that grabbed you by the lapels and lifted you several inches off the ground. Gerry Humphrys sang like his life depended on it… and it did.

Humphrys ascension was brief, landing him on the cloud where lost gods of rock and roll assume lotus postures and tap into the Music Of The Spheres, spinning tiny prayer wheels on the tips of their amber-scented toes. Bards of the bardo. Eternal. Radiating vibrations like stars that still shine years after having gone dead.
 

 
Formed in 1965, Australia’s The Loved Ones had a monumental singer lead singer in Humphrys.  I’m not alone in my admiration. From Nick Cave to The Saints’ Ed Kuepper to Mick Harvey, Michael Hutchence and Julian Cope, Humphrys went beyond “major influence” to something more profound. For those bands who embraced his shamanistic roar, he was a burst of light in a rather mundane rock scene filled with teenyboppers emulating the Britpop explosion. Humphrys stood apart.  He sounded a bit like Eric Burdon and Van Morrison with the snarl of Sky Saxon and the demonic holler of Roky Erickson. He danced like Maria Montez in Cobra Woman and commanded the stage like Mick Jagger’s bigger and badder brother. He could easily handle R&B and garage punk, going from a Fats Domino cover to a Yardsbirdsian rave-up like “The Loved One.” He got heavy, further down under, in ways that Australian bands didn’t get until 10 years later. He was a howlin’ wolf among mop tops and Hush Puppies.

Humphrys died eleven years ago. Sixty two. Heart attack. His death, like his life, went mostly unnoticed.  A handful at the funeral. The acolytes. Humphrey’s life as a rocker was as brief as Charles Bukowski’s prom night. He grew older and he worked as a nurse in a hospital. At night he often sang tunes for a pint down at his local watering hole, sitting at the bar with all the other orphans of rock and roll.
 

 
Humphrys was the essence of cool - a very rare thing. His light still casts shadows.

The Loved Ones released only one album in 1967 called Magic Box which is available on CD. Good luck finding it on vinyl. I located a re-issue but it wasn’t cheap. A 46 page biography, More Than A Loved One – The Musical Career Of Gerry Humphrys was published in 1999. An unsatisfying documentary looking into the post fame life of the enigmatic singer, Gerry Humphrys: The Loved One was released in 2000. Humphrys isn’t alive to write a memoir but he deserves better than a slim volume and a poorly done documentary.

There’s not a lot of video of The Loved Ones in performance. And what there is, is lip-synced. Here’s three of the band’s best known tunes and they’re scorchers: “Sad Dark Eyes,” The “Loved One” and “Everlovin’ Man.”